Socioeconomics of Food: Understanding Strategies and Choices on Our Plates

This textbook provides an introduction to the socioeconomics of food. Aimed mostly at students of economics and related social sciences, it explains how food markets function and what social and cultural factors influence the processes of food production and consumption. It also discusses the role of food producers, intermediaries, and consumers and examines the dynamics of prices, trade, and externalities.

The book also highlights cultural and demographic processes and moral behaviors that shape production and consumption practices. Furthermore, it discusses issues of food quality, ethics, and politics. Readers are also introduced to food databases and methods of data processing.

Daria Loginova finished her Ph.D. in Economics in 2022 and is a Postdoc at the University of St. Gallen and at the Socioeconomics research group at Agroscope, the Swiss Confederation’s center of excellence for agricultural research. Daria Loginova is focusing at land and food socioeconomic research harmonized with strong applied statistics and econometrics and also at social care, acting as Paramedic in Firebrigade team and as member of the Green Party Switzerland.

Stefan Mann pursued one Ph.D. in agriculture in 1997 and one in economics in 2004. After collecting professional experience in Germany’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rostock University, he today works for the Agricultural University Bucharest and Agroscope, the Swiss Confederation’s center of excellence for agricultural research. After he did a degree in Peace and Conflict Management in 2019, Stefan Mann is increasingly focusing on our attitudes toward non-human-animal lives. Stefan has been President of the Swiss Society of Agricultural Economics and Sociology and is Acting Clerk of German Quakers.