Project Description
Project Overview
The WFPC is collaborating with researchers from Ohio State University to analyze food waste. Brian Roe, the Fred N. VanBuren, Professor of Farm Management at Ohio State, led a research team that helped develop two large, nationwide surveys.
The first survey asked about behaviors related to food waste. It included demographic questions and general consumer behavior questions. The follow-up survey was more detailed. Specific categories of questions asked about food waste included events that changed behavior, general attitudes toward food waste and the environment, frequency of attendance at religious events and then food waste behaviors around specific products.
Survey responses were mostly predetermined multiple choices to capture behavior or Likert scale responses to ascertain whether respondents agreed with statements. There were no questions that asked for open-ended reflection. Data was collected in the first half of 2024. The researchers at Ohio State have aggregated into a single Excel file that includes roughly 625 responses to approximately 150 possible queries.
The WFPC is working with graduate students from Duke’s economics department to investigate the statistical relationship between the two surveys. Results should be ready for larger dissemination in the fall of 2024 or spring of 2025.