Food and Agricultural Policy

Biography
Sheryl Cates leads research studies to design and evaluate food safety education programs, evaluate nutrition education programs, and assess consumer response to alternative product labeling features. She has expertise in instrument development; cognitive interviewing; survey design and administration for mail, telephone, Internet, and field surveys; qualitative research methods including in-depth interviews and focus groups; survey data analysis; and program evaluation. She has conducted research to design and evaluate government campaigns to improve food safety practices, evaluate nutrition education programs offered through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, evaluate a new nutrition education program that promotes eating nutrient-dense foods, assess consumers' handling practices for refrigerated ready-to-eat foods, evaluate materials for a social marketing campaign to promote food thermometer use, assess consumer use and understanding of labeling features for meat and poultry products, and evaluate the effectiveness of a fish consumption advisory. Ms. Cates has presented her research findings at numerous professional conferences and she has published in numerous journals. Read More…

Biography
Mary Muth, PhD, is director of RTI’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Program and manages projects to provide support for and analyze the economic impacts of policies and regulations affecting the food and agricultural industries. She specializes in applications of industrial organization, applied welfare analysis, and econometrics in evaluating policy and providing information for policy development. These applications have included meat and poultry slaughtering and processing, food processing, vegetable oils and meals, oysters, dietary supplements, bioengineered foods, food labeling, and food safety. She also specializes in developing electronic models and databases to support economic impact analyses of regulations, developing industry survey instruments, and analyzing industry survey data. She has presented her work at the annual meetings of the Allied Social Science Associations, the American Agricultural Economics Association, and other conferences. Dr. Muth is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. Read More…