084: The Freakonomics of Food – Jayson Lusk

“Food and agriculture innovation doesn’t come only from Monsanto, Cargill, and McDonald’s. It comes from students, nonprofit scientists, university professors, and struggling entrepreneurs. Fostering an environment that is hostile to innovation and growth in food and agriculture not only thwarts the plans of Big Food but also makes it harder for scientists to get their innovations to market.” – Jayson Lusk

Jayson Lusk is a food and agricultural economist who studies what we eat and why we eat it. He is a Distinguished Professor and Head of the Agricultural Economics program at Purdue University and the author of: Unnaturally Delicious: How Science and Technology are Serving Up Super Foods to Save the World (2016) and The Food Police: A Well-Fed Manifesto about the Politics of Your Plate (2013). A researcher, writer and speaker, Lusk has published more than 190 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals on topics ranging from the economics of animal welfare to consumer preferences for GMOs to the impacts of new technologies and policies. He has been listed as one of the most prolific and cited food and agricultural economists of the past two decades, won numerous research awards, given hundreds of lectures for businesses, nonprofits, trade industry organizations, and universities in the US and abroad, and has been interviewed or published or appeared in national media outlets such as the New York Times and Fox News.

Tune in to the show to find out:

• Do people really want to know more about farming?
• Why transparency isn’t always appreciated
• Why cage-free isn’t what most people think
• What Jayson learned from a group of pessimistic students
• What Jayson says about the microwave, broccoli and kale
• Why people keep romanticizing agriculture
• What the “vote-buy” paradox is
• Some of the unintended consequences of clean labels
• How the concept of “trade-offs” can help us think differently

For the full show notes and resources visit www.SoundBitesRD.com