Abstract
The obesity epidemic is a global phenomenon, but it is worse in the United States than in most places. Obesity imposes significant individual and social costs and has become a focus of policy discussions. Many policy proposals relate to food and farms. What part have farm and food policies played as contributors to the problem? What part should they play in the government’s strategy to reduce obesity and its social costs? This book explores these questions, taking an economics perspective and using the tools of economics to analyze and evaluate the alternatives. The book is written for a broad general audience, including policymakers and the general public, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students across a range of disciplines.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brownell, K.D., R. Kersh, D.S. Ludwig, R. Post, R.M. Puhl, M.B. Schwartz, and W.C. Willett. 2010. “Personal Responsibility and Obesity: A Constructive Approach to a Controversial Issue.” Health Affairs 29(3): 379–387.
Cawley, J., and C. Meyerhefer. 2012. “The Medical Care Costs of Obesity: An Instrumental Variables Approach.” Journal of Health Economics 31(1): 219–230.
Finkelstein, E.A., J.G. Trogden, J.W. Cohen, and W. Dietz. 2009. “Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer- and Service-specific Estimates.” Health Affairs 28(5): 822–831.
Fryar, C.D., M.D. Caroll, and C.L. Ogden. 2014. “Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Extreme Obesity Among Adults: United States, 1960–1962 Through 2011–212.” NCHS Health E-Stat. Center for Disease Control and Prevention: National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_11_12/obesity_adult_11_12.pdf.
Harcombe, Z., J.S. Baker, S.M. Cooper, B. Davies, N. Sculthorpe, J.J. DiNicolantoini, and F. Grace. 2015. “Evidence from Randomised Controlled Trials Did Not Support the Introduction of Dietary Fat Guidelines in 1977 and 1983: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Open Heart 2: e000196. doi:10.1136/openhrt-2014-000196.
Lakdawalla, D., T. Philipson, and J. Bhattacharya. 2005. “Welfare-Enhancing Technological Change and the Growth of Obesity.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 92(2): 253–257.
Levi, J., S. Vinter, R.S. Laurent, and L.M. Segal. 2010. “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future.” Issue Report, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Trust for America’s Health, Princeton, NJ, June. Available at: http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2010/Obesity2010Report.pdf.
MacEwan, J.P., J.M. Alston, and A.M. Okrent. 2014. “The Consequences of Obesity for the External Costs of Public Health Insurance in the United States.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 36(4): 696–716.
Masters, R.K., E.N. Reither, D.A. Powers, Y.C. Yang, A.E. Burger, and B.G. Link. 2013. “The Impact of Obesity on US Mortality Levels: The Importance of Age and Cohort Factors in Population Estimates.” Journal of Public Health 103(10): 1895–1902.
Ogden, C.L., M.S. Carroll, B.K. Kit, and K.M. Flegal. 2014. “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011–2012.” Journal of the American Medical Association 311(8): 806–814. Available at: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1832542#Methods.
Pollan, M. 2003. “The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions of Obesity.” The New York Times, October 12. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/12/magazine/12WWLN.html?pagewanted=all.
Ruhm, C.J. 2007. “Current and Future Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity in the United States.” Forum for Health Economics and Policy 10(2). Available at: http://www.bepress.com/fhep/10/2/6/.
White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President. 2010. Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation. Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President of the United States. Available at: http://www.letsmove.gov/white-house-task-force-childhood-obesity-report-president.
WHO. 2014. “Protecting Children from the Harmful Effects of Food and Drink Marketing”. Available at http://www.who.int/features/2014/uk-food-drink-marketing/en/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alston, J.M., Okrent, A.M. (2017). Introduction. In: The Effects of Farm and Food Policy on Obesity in the United States. Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47831-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47831-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-48647-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47831-3
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)