Brian J. Schilling

Understanding the Challenges Facing the Food Manufacturing Industry

Abstract The Northeasts share of US food processing activity has decreased significantly over the last three decades as many food processing firms have exited the region and located elsewhere, particularly in the South and the West. This decline has been most severe in New Jersey, the state that is frequently cited as having the most stringent business and regulatory climate in the nation. To investigate why food processors have found the New Jersey environment to be so unfriendly, this study organized focus groups of food processing industry executives, trade organizations and researchers. The findings suggest that the area of environmental and other regulation is the most problematic for food processors. Other areas of concern include, in order of importance, taxation and fiscal problems, economic barriers to development and expansion, high cost of doing business, education, training and labor concerns, communication and public relations, and transportation. Policy makers in New Jersey, and in other northeastern states facing similar food processing declines, interested in the retention and economic development of food processing firms need to be cognizant of the impediments currently constraining the industry. Industry-based public policy recommendations for enhancing the business climate for food processors are presented.

Risk Perceptions, Consumer Response and the First U.S. Mad Cow Case

The December 2003 discovery of a BSE infected cow in the USA revealed a vulnerability in the safety of the U.S. Food Supply. This study reports on a nationwide risk perception survey conducted in early January 2004. Survey results showed that U.S. consumers for the most part took the discovery in stride. The survey predicted that by the end of 2004 beef consumption would for the most part return to normal, which indeed it did, but uniquely this study applies multivariate regression to its analyses of the Kraus-Slovic axioms which are often applied to problems in the psychology of risk.

A note on challenges facing food retail stores: the case of New Jersey

Using New Jersey as a case study, this article investigates the challenges faced by food retail stores. Policy recommendations proposed by industry representatives for improving the business climate are also presented. Although New Jersey‐specific, many of the issues discussed in the paper may be relevant elsewhere. Consequently, the findings can be helpful in identifying broad categories of factors affecting the vitality of the industry and in designing investigative research into problems facing the food retail industry.

Measuring the effects of preservation on farm profits in a continuous treatment setting

ABSTRACT Despite billions of dollars of public appropriations to state purchase of development rights (PDR) programmes, there has been limited evaluation of the effects of these investments on the economic performance of preserved farms. This article estimates dose-response functions to evaluate the effects of enrolment in New Jersey’s PDR programme on farm profitability. The generalized propensity score method in a continuous treatment setting is used to address selection bias arising from voluntary programme participation. Treatment effects are measured across treatment levels to determine whether farm profitability is affected differently across levels of programme participation. Our findings reveal that, relative to unpreserved farms, profit per acre tends to increase along lower treatment levels. The profit per acre of preserved farms in the 1–40% treatment range is, on average,

Impact of Political Economy and Logistical Constraints on Assessments of Biomass Energy Potential: New Jersey as a Case Study

407 higher than that of unpreserved farms in the full sample. Positive profit differentials averaging between

Product attributes, consumer benefits and public approval of genetically modified foods

317 and

Public Perceptions of Genetically Modified Foods: Americans Know Not What They Eat

472 per acre are also observed in the 1–20%, 1–40% and 1–60% treatment quintiles in the farming occupation sample. We do not observe statistically significant profitability differentials when treatment effects are averaged across all positive treatment values.

Consumer acceptance of food biotechnology: Willingness to buy genetically modified food products

Much of the analysis on the viability of biomass to energy focuses on the implications of utilizing biomass feedstocks on energy and food pathways, land use and the environment. However, to more accurately assess biomass energy potential, analysis also needs to include political economy and logistical constraints, such as institutional barriers, existing policies, and collection and delivery infrastructure. To demonstrate the importance of introducing such constraints into an assessment model, a biomass analysis conducted for New Jersey in 2007 is used as a case study. In this assessment, biomass potential for the state was calculated with and without political economy and logistical constraints. The case study shows that introducing political economy and logistical constraints have a significant impact on the estimated quantities of Class 1 biomass feedstocks available for energy production. In the New Jersey case, 35 % of total estimated biomass resources were unavailable for bioenergy generation when considering political economy and logistical constraints in the assessment model.