Summer School on Experimental Auctions

Pardon the public service announcement, but I wanted to let readers know that applications are now being accepted for a summer school I've co-taught on Experimental Auctions for the past 2 years in Italy.  Experimental auctions are a technique used to measure consumer willingness-to-pay for new food products, which in turn is used to project demand, market share, and benefits/costs of public policies.  We've had a fantastic time the past two years and I'm looking forward to the third, which was just approved for credit hours by the University of Bologna.  The content is mainly targeted toward graduate students or early career professionals (or marketing researchers interested in learning about a new technique).  You can find out more here and register here.

For a little enticement, here are some pictures of the previous years' classes.

Howard Stern and me

Below is an article in which it is the first (and likely last) time some of my research was  associated with Howard Stern.  The article appeared in MeatingPlace and discusses some research I conducted on Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) with Glynn Tonsor, Ted Schroeder, and Mykel Taylor at K-State (thus the mention of the Kansas State University Study).  

Stern's comments are interesting.  So objectifying women and running a show celebrating transvestite hookers - ok.  Eating bacon  - not ok?

Where do my co-authors and I go from here? Maybe an interview on MCOOL with Jerry Springer?  

Assorted Linds

• Why science fails to persuade (the answer is similar to the one I earlier suggested).

• Top 10 food trends for 2013

• When hog and egg producers don't get along

• Is a change in the formatting of mandatory nutritional labels in the future?

• Someone thinks Whole Foods is too capitalistic

• The Louisiana government thinks milk prices are too low

The Cost of Environmentalism

What is the impact of a ban on plastic bags used by grocery stores?  Unexpectedly, it is higher chances of foodborne illness.  Apparently carting around that same old bag back-and-forth to the grocery story also means carting around bacteria to-and-from the grocery store.  

Is Fast Food Making Us Fat?

Eating fast food might have been one of the myriad factors affecting people's weight over the past 40 years.  But, according to this new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the calorie content of fast food hasn't appreciably changed in 12 to 13 years.  From the abstract:

Spanning 1997–1998 and 2009–2010, the number of lunch/dinner menu items offered by the restaurants in the study increased by 53%. Across all menu items, the median energy content remained relatively stable over the study period. Examining specific food categories, the median energy content of desserts and condiments increased, the energy content of side items decreased, and energy content of entrées and drinks remained level.

Conclusions

Although large increases in the number of menu items were observed, there have been few changes in the energy content of menu offerings at the leading fast-food chain restaurants examined in this study.