Candidate for
Research Scientist/Post Doctoral Position
Agricultural/Environmental Economist

In the Canada Excellence Research Chair Program

Dr. Jun Yang

presents

“The Impacts of Animal and Foodborne Diseases on Canadian Household Meat and Seafood Demand”

This study is aimed at evaluating the impacts of information about animal and foodborne diseases (AFDs) on Canadian household meat purchasing behavior. Public concerns about food safety issues have been rising worldwide in recent years, possibly because of increases in food contamination and associated deaths. Major foodborne diseases related to meat are Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella and Listeria. Other perceived food safety incidents related to meat such as animal diseases, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and swine flu, have also been seen in recent years.

Households make their consumption decisions based on utility maximization, given their budget constraints, prices and other factors such as food safety concerns and media information which could affect underlying utility functions. The relationship among household consumption decisions, food safety risk perceptions and media coverage about food safety issues can be established, by incorporating a sociological theory named “Social Amplification of Risk Framework” (SARF) and a risk theory named “Prospective Reference Theory” into economic modelling. An empirical two-stage demand model, in which households first allocate their expenditure to broad groups of goods including meat and non-meat products and then allocate their expenditure on meat to different types of meats, is constructed. The demand model is applied to the analysis of BSE impacts on Canadian households’ meat purchases. The results show that the SARF is supported by time series data on behaviour of Canadian households, suggesting that their risk perceptions related to food safety issues such as BSE have been amplified or attenuated by both the quantity and quality of BSE media information.

The two-stage demand model is also applied to different clusters of Canadian households, classified by their various risk perceptions/attitudes associated with beef consumption. The results suggest heterogeneity in meat and seafood consumption preferences of Canadian households. Households with lower willingness to accept the risks associated with eating beef substitute much more seafood for beef consumption, as compared to other clusters. Furthermore, they decrease their consumption of beef and turkey more than other clusters when receiving information about BSE and E. coli. Households that are relatively neutral about the risks of eating beef have higher concerns about Listeria and decrease their meat consumption more than other clusters when receiving information about Listeria. Households with higher willingness to accept the risks of eating beef have concerns about E. coli and decrease their meat consumption more than a relatively neutral cluster when receiving information about E. coli. In addition to media information about animal and foodborne diseases, Canadian household meat purchasing behaviour is also affected by prices, demographic variables, a time trend, seasonality, habit formation and the impacts of these factors are also different across different household groups.

These approaches use time series disappearance data and household revealed preference data on meat purchases with surveys of those same households. The study is unique in the ability to compare reactions to a major animal disease incident across different types of data and structural models.
 

Date:             Thursday, May 3rd

Time:             2:30 pm

Location:       AVC Lecture Theatre C

All Welcome.