Research/Areas of Interest:
Dr. Cash is an economist who conducts research both internationally and domestically on food, nutrition, agriculture and the environment. He is interested in the environmental impacts in food and beverage production, including projects on cropquality and climate change, consumer interest in production attributes of tea and coffee, and invasive species management. He also focuses on how food, nutrition, andenvironmental policies affect food consumption and choice, with specific interest in children's nutrition andconsumer interest in environmental and nutritional attributes of food. He teaches courses in statistics, agricultural and environmental economics, and consumer behavior around food. His research has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Newman's Own Foundation, among other agencies. He is currently Editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economicsand on the editorial board of Agribusiness, and has served as the Chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
Education
- B.A. in International Studies, Johns Hopkins Univeristy, Baltimore, United States, 1992
- M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States, 1998
- M.S., University of California, Berkeley, United States, 2000
- Ph.D. Agricultural and Resource Economicst, University of California, Berkeley, United States, 2003
Biography
Sean B. Cash is an economist with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. His research focuses on how food, nutrition, and environmental interventions and policies affect both producers and consumers. Ongoing and recent projects in this area include the efficacy of food label and price interventions as public health and environmental tools, including linkages to disease incidence; children's food choices in commercial and school environments; consumer interest in food labeling of ethical attributes of food production; economics aspects of obesity; economic barriers to adherence to diabetes treatments; the role of agricultural policies on nutrition; and how point-of-sale health messaging impacts consumers' demand for food. He also conducts research in the areas of environmental regulation and resource conservation, including projects on climate change and tea production; household valuation of water system improvements in Mexico; and invasive species management.
Dr. Cash has been the Principal or Co-Investigator on over $5 million of research funding. His work has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Newman's Own Foundation, among other sources.
Dr. Cash currently serves as Editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics and on the editorial board of Agribusiness. He is also co-Chair of the C-FARE Blue Ribbon Panel on Consumer Concerns about Food, Health and Safety, and has previously served the Chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He has been involved extensively in policy and public-facing work, including testimony to the Canadian Parliament and service on a National Academy of Sciences panel on invasive species impacts of food trade. He was previously on faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the University of Alberta, and has worked at Resources for the Future and Arnold & Porter.