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According to the latest ERS (Economic Research Service) report, American consumers spent $1,616.3 billion (yep, that's a billion) on food in 2017 (https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/90155/tb1948_summary.pdf?v=5086.2). Our food away from home (FAFH) expenditures in 2017 were an estimated $869.3 billion, while the food at home (FAH) expenditures totaled $747.0 billion.
Various studies have shown that most American consumers are too tired or unwilling to spend time or effort on preparing meal every day or in the evenings. Not surprisingly, our spending on FAH has been increasing over the years and reached 54% of the total expenditure on food in 2017. ERS’s Food Expenditure Series points to Americans’ growing appetite for the offerings from limited-service restaurants or QSR (Quick Service Restaurants), where food is ordered and paid for at a counter or drive-thru window, compared to full-service restaurants (FSR).
American consumers are also looking to save time on household chores like shopping, cooking, and cleaning (Harris and Spitsova, 2007). The rise of home delivery services of customized meal ingredients, such as Blue Apron (https://www.blueapron.com/), or precooked meal delivery services like Freshly (https://www.freshly.com/) or Factor 75 (https://www.factor75.com/how-it-works) is an indication of where and how far food consumption (and marketing) have evolved in the United States.
Food purchasing decisions by American consumers impact the U.S. economy in general, and the entire U.S. food marketing system, from farmers to the neighborhood retailers. Additionally, food consumption also impacts our health, public policies related to health and nutrition as well as those targeting nutrition assistance programs (e.g., SNAP, WIC programs) also rely on information about food purchasing decisions by American consumers. Therefore, understanding issues or questions that relate to our food consumption behavior are essential from both an economics and a public policy perspective.
So, it is important that we ask questions, such as, (1) what do Americans eat at home? (2) what do they eat when they eat out and where do they eat out? (3) do they have easier access to healthy and fresh food? (4) does their food meet the Federal food nutrition standards? (5) Is there a difference between different groups of Americans, such as between Whites and African-Americans, or between Whites and Asians, when it comes to what do they eat and where do they eat? Or their level of food nutrition intake? and (6) what factors influence consumers' food consumption decisions, including food outlet choices? These and many similar questions, including those related to consumers' food choices that impact their health and nutrition, and their use of the food assistance programs (such as SNAP which is typically used to define poverty in America), are in the minds of agri-food economists like myself around the country.
To examine these questions, we will be relying on the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) data which collected information on foods purchased by American households, and the prices and nutrient characteristics of those foods. The FoodAPS data contains data on factors expected to affect food acquisition decisions, such as household size and composition, demographic characteristics, income, participation in Federal food assistance programs, and dietary restrictions, were also collected (ERS, 2017).
Students will learn how to use SPSS, a statistical software package, to analyze the FoodAPS data, which is a very large data set containing data on households as well as individual consumers from across the nation.
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