The Food Industry Center



College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

The Food Industry Center Research Affiliates

In addition to collaborative research with our industry partners, The Food Industry Center is a group of scholars focused on studying the many aspects of the food industry. Originally an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Center, TFIC researchers continue to share ideas and research about a variety of the industry's issues.

The Food Industry Center Research Affiliates are research collaborators who have contributed to the Center's repository of food industry research. They continue to collaborate with our Center to advance knowledge on the food industry. Many continue to benefit from the conferences, discussion and scholarship of the newly formed Industry Studies Association.

Below is a list of TFIC Research Affiliates that contribute advice, scholarship, or both to The Food Industry Center. In alphabetical order, they are:




Buhr

Dr. Brian Buhr
231 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
Phone: 612-625-0231
Email: bbuhr@umn.edu
http://www.apec.umn.edu/Brian_Buhr.html

Brian Buhr is Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University and works in the areas of commodity marketing with an emphasis in livestock markets.  He has worked extensively with commodity marketing groups on risk management, value added marketing and the economic impacts of policy and technology. His current research includes analysis of the economic value of traceability in agribusiness and the incentive mechanisms that can improve product quality and conduct of market participants.  Professor Buhr is also conducting policy research on issues of animal welfare, the impacts of biofuels on the livestock and meat industry, and the economic impacts of animal diseases in livestock.


TFIC Publications:

E-Commerce: A New Business Model for the Food Supply/Demand Chain

 


Davis

Dr. Liz Davis
317 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
Phone: 612-625-3772
Email: edavis@umn.edu
http://www.apec.umn.edu/Elizabeth_Davis.html

Liz Davis is Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and focuses her research on labor economics, public policy, poverty and welfare reform, and rural economics. Her current research projects have analyzed the impacts of welfare reform, the employment stability and earnings of welfare recipients, the duration of child care subsidy use, and the impact of local labor market conditons in rural areas on the employment and earnings of low-income families. She has also conducted research on labor market practices in the supermarket industry.

TFIC Publications:
Product Market Competition and Human Resource Practices: An Analysis of the Retail Food Sector

 


Ghosh

Dr. Koel Ghosh
317 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
Phone: 612-625-6232
Email: ghosh023@umn.edu
http://foodindustrycenter.umn.edu/Ghosh.html

Koel Ghosh is a Research Associate for The Food Industry Center and provides economic research support and statistical analysis for the Center's projects. She received her Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in the area of environmental economics. Her current research projects include a compilation of Minnesota Food Companies, Computing an Appropriate School Lunch Price Index for Federal Reimbursements for the National School Lunch Program, and A Probabilistic and Cost-Based Index of Food Threats. She has been a project team member on the Agricultural Conversion Factors study, Predicting Energy Balance in Mid-Life Women study, and has conducted research on RFID use in the food industry.

TFIC Publications:
Defending the Food Supply Chain: Retail Food, Foodservice and their Wholesale Suppliers

A Segmentation of U.S. Consumers on Attitudes Relating to Terrorism and their Communication Preferences: Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S Residents about Terrorism

How Should America’s Anti-Terrorism Budget Be Allocated? Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S. Residents about Terrorism

 


King

Dr. Robert P. King
248 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
Phone: (612)625-50231
Email: rking@umn.edu
http://www.apec.umn.edu/Robert_King.html

Robert King is a Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He held the E. Fred Koller Chair in Agricultural Management Information Systems from 1983 to 2004 and was Head of the Department from July 2004 through June 2008. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and focuses his research on the areas of agribusiness management, cooperatives, managerial economics, market structure and industrial organizations, and organic and local foods. His current research includes the economics of information systems, organizational design, supermarket operations, cooperative management, and organic and local foods.

TFIC Publications:
The 2001 Supermarket Panel Energy Management Study

Convenience Store Practices and Progress with Efficient Consumer Response: The Minnesota Case

Adoption of ECR Practices in Minnesota Grocery Stores

Changes in Retail Food Delivery: Signals for Producers, Processors and Distributors


Kinsey

Dr. Jean Kinsey
317 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
Phone: 612-625-2744
Email: jkinsey@umn.edu
http://foodindustrycenter.umn.edu/JeanKinsey.html

Jean Kinsey is a Professor of Applied Economics and Director of The Food Industry Center. Her research and teaching has been on topics of obesity issues with food consumption, consumer buying behavior, consumer attitudes about food terrorism, food industry preparations for food protection and defense against potential terrorism, and urban access to healthy food in urban neighborhoods. She has published widely in academic journals and is co-author of a 1991 book titled Food Trends and the Changing Consumer. She has been the Co-Director and Director of The Food Industry Center since its inception in 1995. She is a board member for the International Food Policy Research Institute, is a Former Board Member and Former Board Chair of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, former President of AAEA and ACCI, and sat on the Institute of Medicine’s review committee for WIC Food packages.

TFIC Publications:
Food Accessibility in the Inner City: What Have We Learned
A Literature Review 1963-2006

Defending the Food Supply Chain: Retail Food, Foodservice and their Wholesale Suppliers

Do Eating Patterns Follow a Cohort or Change Over a Lifetime? Answers Emergy from the Literature

A Segmentation of U.S. Consumers on Attitudes Relating to Terrorism and their Communication Preferences: Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S Residents about Terrorism

How Should America’s Anti-Terrorism Budget Be Allocated? Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S. Residents about Terrorism

Emerging Research and Public Policy Issues for a Sustainable Global Food Network

Diet Quality and Calories Consumed: The Impact of Being Hungrier, Busier and Eating Out

E-Commerce: A New Business Model for the Food Supply/Demand Chain

A Model of Information and I.T. Adoption in Food Supply Chains

The Supply Chain of Pork: US. And China

The Food Service Industry: Trends and Changing Structure in the New Millennium

Data Mining: A Segmentation Analysis of U.S. Grocery Shoppers

From Paper to Plastic by 2002: Retailers' Perspective on Electronic Benefit Transfer Systems for Food Stamps

Who Eats What, Where, When?

Concentration of Ownership In Food Retailing: A Review of the Evidence About Consumer Impact

Changes in Retail Food Delivery: Signals for Producers, Processors and Distributors

Food Marketing in an Electronic Age: Implications For Agricultural Producers


Labuza

Dr. Theodore Labuza
136A ABLMS
1354 Eckles Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
Phone (612) 624-9701

e-mail: tplabuza@umn.edu
http://fscn.cfans.umn.edu/people/faculty/theodorelabuza/index.htm

Dr. Theodore P. Labuza is the Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Food and Engineering. He received a B.S. and Ph.D. in Food Engineering at MIT. He taught there until 1971, then joined the University of Minnesota. He is author of 250 scientific refereed research papers, 17 textbooks, 75 book chapters, 7 patents and 100 other semi-technical articles. Dr. Labuza has supervised 75 MS and 28 Ph.D. students and 37 visiting scientists/post-docs. He has given more than 510 invited technical lectures since 1971 as well over 350 more general lectures on food science and technology. Dr. Labuza teaches courses in food physical chemistry, reaction kinetics, and food law. In 1995, he received the Dairy and Food Industries Engineer’s Award. In 1988, he received the H.T. Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award and was elected into the University of Minnesota “Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Dr. Labuza received IFT ‘s highest award, the Nicholas Appert Award, in 1989 and the Marcel Loncin Research Prize (1998). He was selected as one of the most highly cited scientists in the area of Food Science based on citations to refereed research publications in the last 20 years, one of which was cited over 250 times, something only 0.5% of the 36 million papers published since 1950 has achieved.

Dr. Lauza is a member of The Food Industry Center's Academic Leadership Board and has spoken at multiple TFIC events.

TFIC Publications:
Perishable Refrigerated Products and Home Practices Survey

Current Practices and Regulations Regarding Open Dating of Food Products

 


nefstad

Dr. Ward Neftstead
249 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
Phone: (612) 625-7228
e-mail: nefst002@umn.edu
http://www.apec.umn.edu/Ward_Nefstead.html

Ward Nefstead teaches courses in Retail Management, Food and Ag. Sales, Accounting as well as  marketing and entrepreneurship practicum courses(AIM 4011 and ApEc 3991-2) in the Department of Applied Economics. He has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota since 1974. Prior to his teaching and research assignments, he worked in agribusiness sales and planning. His research interests are in applied marketing research, sales and value-edded marketing. His class in Food and Agricultural sales now enrolls over 75 students.  His course in Value-Added Entrepreneurship in now in its fifth year and offers a rich public engagement experience for students. Dr. Nefstad is also the faculty advisor for the Master Marketers student program.


Senauer

Dr. Benjamin Senauer
332 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
Phone: (612)625-5724
Email: bsenauer@umn.edu
http://foodindustrycenter.umn.edu/BenSenauer.html

Ben Senauer is a Professor of Applied Economics and the former Co-Director of The Food Industry Center. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford Univeristy and focuses his reseach on consumer behavior and consumption, food marketing, household economics, food and nutrition policy, agricultural development, and world hunger issues. His most recent research has focused on the effects of climate and energy issues on the food supply. He is coauthor of the books, Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: Food Security and Globalization and Food Trends and the Changing Consumer.

TFIC Publications:
Why Is the Obesity Rate So Low in Japan and High in the U.S.? Some Possible Economic Explanations

The Globalization of Food Systems: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Patterns

The Obesity Crisis: Challenge to the Food Industry

The Growing Middle Class in Developing Countries and the Market for High-Value Food Products

A Segmentation Analysis of U.S. Grocery Store Shoppers

The Food Consumer in the 21st Century: New Research Perspectives

Data Mining: A Segmentation Analysis of U.S. Grocery Shoppers

The Changing Polish Food Consumer

Changes in Retail Food Delivery: Signals for Producers, Processors and Distributors

Food Marketing in an Electronic Age: Implications For Agricultural Producers

Estimation of Household Brand-Size Choice Models for Spaghetti Products with Scanner Data


Yue

Dr. Chengyan Yue
316 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
St. Paul MN 55108
Phone: (612) 625-7233
Email: yuechy@umn.edu
http://www.apec.umn.edu/Chengyan_Yue.html

Chengyan Yue is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Applied Economics and Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota where she holds the Todd and Barbara Bachman Endowed Chair in Horticultural Marketing. She received her Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 2006 and specializes in the areas of experimental economics, consumer behavior and international trade. She currently works on consumer response to horticultural product attributes, horticultural market structure and marketing channels, global horticultural trade, local food, sustainable agricultural systems and food safety. She works interactively with various horticultural industry groups on cutting-edge horticultural marketing research topics.