Is it hot in here or is it your food choices? Examining the carbon footprint of U.S. household food spending and opportunities for emission mitigation strategies through changes in food expenditures Rebecca L. Boehm, Doctoral Candidate, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA,
[email protected] Parke E. Wilde, Associate Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA,
[email protected] Michele Ver Ploeg, Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, Washington, DC,
[email protected] Christine Costello, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Bioengineering, Division of Food Systems and Bioengineering, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO,
[email protected]. Sean B. Cash, Associate Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA,
[email protected] Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the 2016 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, July 31 – August 2 Copyright 2016 by Rebecca L. Boehm, Parke E. Wilde, Michele Ver Ploeg, Christine Costello, and Sean B. Cash. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. 1 The views here are the authors and are not the views of the Economic Research Service or the U.S. Department of Agriculture 1 1. BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION Food production is necessary to sustain human life. However, the outputs of the global food system are not limited to food products. The processes in the food supply chain including agricultural production, food manufacturing, transportation, and retailing produce outputs that are harmful to the environment, specifically greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.