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Problem Set 1

ARE 2260 Spring 2024

The assignment is due Wednesday, January 31 by 11:59pm EST.

Max score: 70 (this will be converted into 7 points contributing towards your final grade).

If you plan to take a waiver and submit your assignment within a week of the deadline, please notify the TA about your late submission. One waiver per semester is allowed.

1. Policy Analysis (40 points)

Please use legiscan.com to search for a legislative proposal or an enacted law related to any food or agricultural issue of your choice. Using the Policy Analysis section of the CDC Policy Process (reading assignment for Lecture 2), please provide a high-level analysis of the policy/legislation you have selected. As in our class exercise (1/23), please consider the following factors for your policy: policy aims, populations/groups affected, expected effects, unintended consequences, implications for disparities, expected costs, feasibility, and acceptability (see slide 5 in Lecture 3).

Guidance:

· For full credit, students should demonstrate that they have consulted the CDC policy analysis reference and answered completely all points in the assignment. An essay or bullet-point writing style is acceptable.

· Students are not allowed to repeat the policy discussed in class as an example.

· The policy (legislation) needs to be clearly stated, including the name of the legislation proposed or enacted, its status (e.g., discussed in committees, passed) and level (federal or state). Provide a brief justification (2-3 sentences) for the importance of the issue you have selected.

· The aim(s) of the legislation/policy must be listed directly. Short-term and long-term aims should be discussed separately, if relevant to the policy.

· Population reach should be discussed, including populations/businesses affected directly and indirectly; also distinguish between beneficiaries (who will gain from this policy) and those who might be at disadvantage because of the policy implementation. Are there possible disparities in the likely policy effects across population groups?

· Expected effects: students should discuss possible positive and negative impacts following the policy implementation and provide justification for why such effects are expected (e.g., based on prior evidence in other countries or states or expert projections/research). Students are expected to do some background research to inform this answer.

· Potential unintended consequences: These should be discussed or at least acknowledged that they might happen with an example for another policy.

· Costs of implementation should be discussed, including short- and long-term costs (if possible) and how they will be funded. Students are encouraged to consider costs relative to expected benefits (but we are not doing formal cost-benefit analysis).

· Feasibility: Students are expected to identify populations groups or businesses that will favor or oppose this policy/legislation. A brief response on either the political, legal or technical feasibility of the legislation is expected.

· Acceptability: Students should discuss what’s known about public and business acceptability of the proposed or enacted legislation, as appropriate.

2. The Farm Bill (20 points)

1. What is the Farm Bill? What is its purpose and key programs? How is it funded? Who are the key stakeholders in developing and implementing this legislation?

2. This part is based on the readings for Class 4. You can choose either a public health/anti-hunger perspective (Mozaffarian) or climate change and conservation (Patel and Rudolph). Please summarize the main criticisms of the current Farm Bill provisions and programs from the point of view of the authors in the article of your choice.

3. Excel Practice: The Evolving Food Marketing Dollar (10 points)

The figure below presents the American food marketing dollar in 2010. Please find an updated version of the source data for this analysis here (select the Food dollar nominal data file). Using this data, create a table in Excel like the one below, which shows how many cents of the American food dollar were spent in these categories in 1997, 2007, 2017 and 2022. This analysis should describe the cents per dollar in the Food dollar, not the food-at-home dollar, etc. and focus on Total, not the input structure such as Salary and Benefits, Imports, etc. Use filters to find the data you need more easily. Ignore USDA categories 14-16.

Please add 1-2 sentences to describe trends in the marketing share over 1997-2022.

An Excel table can be copied into Word; no Excel file is required for submission.

*Note: “Other” includes a sum of “Wholesale Trade”, “Advertising” and “Legal and Accounting”.