Until recently, I did not really know or care what the so-called Millennial Generation did or did not do. I figured they’d figure it all out on their own — eventually. After all, we are talking about a generation that was born before the year 2000, and now they are inching up in age. Every…
USDA: Salmonella Tops List of 15 Most Costly Pathogens
Salmonella causes an estimated $3.7 billion each year in medical costs for Americans, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. That figure places Salmonella at the top of the rankings for the 15 most costly foodborne illnesses. USDA says it regularly updates its cost estimates for foodborne…
UK Review Makes Staggering Antibiotic Resistance Predictions
Projections of the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) paint a grim picture for what could happen to the world’s economy if the problem is left unchecked. Research commissioned by the U.K.’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance show that a continued rise in resistance would, by 2050, lead to 10 million deaths every year and a reduction…
New York Aims to Strengthen Its Farm Economy
New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced two state Senate confirmations, Darrel J. Aubertine as commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Markets, and Kenneth Adams as president and CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and commissioner of the Department of Economic Development.
Announcing the two events simultaneously was not coincidence, but part …
MSU Launches Initiative to Combat Food Fraud
Michigan State University recently launched a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program to address an all too common and often ignored food policy issue: food fraud.
According to the university, “the Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program (A-CAPPP) is the first and preeminent academic body focusing upon the complex global issues of anti-counterfeiting and product protection of all products, …
Foodborne Illness By The Numbers
Robert L. Scharff, with the help of funding from the Produce Safety Project at Georgetown University, recently published a study analyzing the financial impact of foodborne illness in the United States. Employing the same methods used by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) economists, Scharff estimates that the total cost of foodborne illness in the United …
Econ, Public Policy & Antibiotics
The first symposium of the Annual Conference on Microbial Resistance focused on the economic and public policy aspects of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic development.
Moderator Susan Foster, PhD, of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (Boston, MA) presented first, then facilitated a Q&A session with other presenters Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, of Resources for …