My research focuses on food safety and non-market valuation. Much of my work involves the design and implementation of surveys, market experiments, and retail trials to assess consumer preferences and to estimate values for food safety, new food products, technologies, and information. It includes studies on food irradiation, cloning, country-of-origin labeling, genetic modification, guaranteed tenderness in steaks, and milk from animals treated with bST. Using non-hypothetical valuation experiments in which participants actually purchase and consume food products has been a feature in much of my work, and results have demonstrated significant differences in valuation between hypothetical (survey) and non-hypothetical (auction) contexts. Risk is invariably an important element in assessing valuations of new, sometimes controversial, food technologies. Many of my projects have involved assessing both preferences for and perceptions of various risks, and how those preferences/perceptions respond to new information from various sources (Government, industry, and etc).
