DATA AND RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE U.S. FOOD AVAILABILITY DATA SYSTEM AND ESTIMATES OF FOOD LOSS A WORKSHOP
April 8 and 9, 2014
The National Academy of Sciences
500 5th Street NW
Conference Room 201
Objectives:
- Evaluate the data sources and underlying calculations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service core Food Availability (FA) data series, Loss-Adjusted Food Availability (LAFA) data series, and the food loss estimates produced in the series.
- Explore and evaluate the potential use of other data sources for the FA data, LAFA data, and food loss conversion factors.
- Develop an understanding of the range of uses of the data for reporting of statistics and trends, economic modeling, and other uses.
- Contrast the content of the data series and calculation methods to international approaches.
- Identify potential alternative approaches and possible improvements to the series based on alternative data sources and calculation methods.
This workshop is sponsored by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
DAY 1: TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 8:30 AM-5:00 PM, CONFERENCE ROOM 201
| 8:00-8:30 AM | Registration (conference room 201) |
| 8:30-8:45 | Welcome and Introductions |
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- Constance F. Citro (Director, Committee on National Statistics) |
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- Mary Muth (Committee Chair; RTI International) |
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| 8:45-9:00 | Background for the Workshop |
| Motivation and Objectives for the Workshop | |
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- Mary Bohman (Administrator, U.S. Department of Agriculture—Economic Research Service [USDA-ERS]) |
SESSION 1: Current Methods, Data, and Uses for the Food Availability System and Food Loss Estimates
MODERATOR: Cheryl Christensen (Chief of Food Security and Development, USDA-ERS)
| 9:00 AM | Food Availability Data—Structure and Uses |
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- Mark Jekanowski (Chief, Crops Branch, USDA-ERS) |
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| 9:30 | Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Data—Structure and Uses and Food Loss Estimates |
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- Jean Buzby (Chief, Diet, Safety, and Health Economics Branch, USDA-ERS) |
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| 10:00 | Q&A with Speakers |
| 10:30 | BREAK |
SESSION 2: Historical and Current Uses of the Data for Economic Modeling and Reporting of Statistical Trends
MODERATOR: Sarah Nusser (Department of Statistics, Iowa State University)
| 11:00 AM | The Food Availability Data System: Importance for Research |
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- Laurian Unnevehr (Professor Emerita, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) |
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| 11:20 | Economic Modeling of Food Consumption, Production, and Policy |
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- Helen Jensen (Professor, Iowa State University) |
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| 11:40 | Q&A with Speakers |
| 12:00 PM | LUNCH |
| 1:00 | Using the Food Availability Data to Examine Issues of Nutrition and Diet Quality |
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- Susan Krebs-Smith (Chief, Risk Factor Monitoring and Methods Branch, National Cancer Institute) |
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| 1:20 | An Overview of Canadian Food Availability Estimates |
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- Tabitha Rich (Economist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) |
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| 1:40 | Q&A with Speakers |
| 2:00 | BREAK |
SESSION 3: Alternative Approaches for Estimating Food Availability—International and Domestic
MODERATOR: Jay Variyam (Director, Food Economics Division, USDA-ERS)
| 2:30 | Overview of FAO Methods |
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- Josef Schmidhuber (Deputy Director, Statistics Division, FAO) |
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| 2:50 | Comparing and Reconciling Food Consumption from Household Surveys and Food Balance Sheets |
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- Klaus Grünberger (Consultant, Statistics Division, FAO) |
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| 3:10 | Potential Uses of Scanner Data and Other Data Resources |
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- Aylin Kumcu (Agricultural Economist, Food Markets Branch, USDA-ERS) |
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| 3:30 | Disaggregation of Food Mixtures in Nutrition Data |
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- Alanna Moshfegh (Research Leader, Food Surveys Research Group, USDA-ARS) |
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| 3:50 | Facilitated Discussion with Panelists and Audience Discussant: Mary Muth (Committee Chair; RTI International) |
Questions for Discussion:
- Where are the most important knowledge gaps?
- Do data exist to support research to fill any remaining substantial knowledge gaps?
- If not, could such data be generated?
- Are there lessons to be learned from other countries and international organizations?
- Are commodities and commodity groups treated the same within the FA and the LAFA data series?
- What are the most promising opportunities in terms of new data for the FA data series, the LAFA data series, or the associated food loss estimates?
| 4:30 PM | PLANNED ADJOURNMENT |
DAY 2: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 8:30 AM-11:30 PM, CONFERENCE ROOM 201
| 8:30 AM | Welcome Back and Brief Recap from Day 1 |
|
- Mary Muth (Committee Chair; RTI International) |
SESSION 4: Alternative Approaches for Estimating Food Loss—International and Domestic
MODERATOR: Josef Schmidhuber (Deputy Director, Statistics Division, FAO)
| 8:40 | Food Loss and Waste Protocol |
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- Kai Robertson (Lead Advisor, World Resources Institute) |
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| 9:00 | A Model for Imputing Food Losses in Food Balance Sheets |
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- Klaus Grünberger (Consultant, Statistics Division, FAO) |
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| 9:20 | Stocktaking of Food Waste in OECD Countries: How Policy Objectives Have Shaped Data Production |
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- Morvarid Bagherzadeh (Policy Analyst, OECD) |
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| 9:40 | EPA Methods: Sample-Based and Food Availability-Based Methods |
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- Shelly Schneider (Principal Environmental Scientist, Franklin Associates) |
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| 10:00 | Facilitated Discussion with Panelists and Audience Discussant: Jean Schwab (Senior Policy Advisor and Program Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) |
Questions for Discussion:
- Where are the most important knowledge gaps?
- Do data exist to support research to fill any remaining substantial knowledge gaps?
- If not, could such data be generated?
- Are there lessons to be learned from other countries and international organizations?
- Are commodities and commodity groups treated the same within the FA and the LAFA data series?
- What are the most promising opportunities in terms of new data for the FA data series, the LAFA data series, or the associated food loss estimates?
Workshop Wrap-Up
| 10:40 | Economic Framework for Evaluating the Implications of Food Loss and Waste |
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- Harry de Gorter (Professor, Cornell University) |
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| 11:00 | Q&A |
| 11:10 | Final Thoughts |
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- Mary Muth (Committee Chair; RTI International) |
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- Jean Buzby (Chief, Diet, Safety, and Health Economics Branch, USDA-ERS) |
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| 11:30 AM | PLANNED ADJOURNMENT |
