Posts by: Will Masters

How do we fix the food system? Black Lives and Gen C point the way

By On June 28, 2020 · In Academic life, Econ-o'food

A Friedman alum recently sent me a draft plan for how to fix the broken U.S. food system, wondering what I thought of it. That prompted a long response which I’ll share with you here.

If you’re in a hurry — tl, dr: The real culprit behind our food woes is systemic political and […]

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Active learning in Zoom lectures: polls, texting and breakout rooms

By On June 24, 2020 · In Academic life

Today I did a CELT workshop on what I’ve learned about online teaching at Friedman so far, in a series for faculty to share experiences and lessons learned for the coming year. We had 49 participants from all parts of the university. By coincidence, that’s […]

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Friedman seminar on COVID-19 impacts in agriculture, food and nutrition

By On April 23, 2020 · In Econ-o'food

This semester’s all-school speaker series ended with two panels on COVID-19, first on disease forecasting from Elena Naumova & Ryan Simpson, and then on impacts in ag., food & nutrition from me, Sean Cash and Norbert Wilson.
You can stream the archive […]

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Updated slides on Covid-19 impacts on food systems

By On April 10, 2020 · In Econ-o'food

The slide deck can be downloaded here. Feel free to adapt & use! Slide #3 is a gif showing spread across countries.

For the full thread on twitter, click below:

For our @TuftsNutrition PhD seminar, a longer updated slide deck on #COVID impacts on agriculture, food & nutrition, starting with […]

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Four slides on COVID-19 in the food system (+jobs links)

By On April 4, 2020 · In Econ-o'food

Public outreach generally works better on twitter, but here is a blog version of some posts there about COVID-19 in the food system. This virus is tearing a huge hole in the fabric of every society on earth, with a sudden, synchronized loss of life and well-being that makes almost everything harder. With fewer […]

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Links on COVID-19 impacts & responses in agriculture, food and nutrition

By On March 31, 2020 · In Academic life, Advice, Econ-o'food

Many organizations have stepped up with amazing resources on COVID-19 impacts and responses around the world. Here’s a set of links I’ve found helpful that might be of use for students, faculty and staff around the Friedman School of Nutrition or in related groups. Categories shown are in rough order of urgency and relevance for […]

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Econo’food potluck 20/20 — seeing clearly what we want

By On February 22, 2020 · In Econ-o'food, Econofood Potlucks

Economic explanations can be like trying to explain why a joke is funny: it takes a long time, and by the end it’s not funny any more. Our explanations can also be like dissecting a frog: it’s weird, and anyway the frog is dead. You get the picture — we can be a Continue Reading →

Old and sappy

By On November 9, 2019 · In Academic life, Econ-o'food, Fun experiments

Aging as gracefully as I can… looking back about ten years, here’s a repost of food economics in doggerel:
http://freakonomics.com/2009/06/04/why-are-kiwis-so-cheap
and also a link to my farewell to Purdue grad students when I moved to Tufts:
http://freakonomics.com/2010/06/10/toward-an-ethical-economics-of-food-policy

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For the new school year: What I’ve learned, in 59 minutes

By On September 7, 2019 · In Academic life, Econ-o'food

This year, my back-to-school week included a lecture for the University of California’s Network on Child Health, Poverty and Public Policy, which had a 3-day multidisciplinary talkfest for UC researchers to share insights about the […]

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Premixed infant cereals: photo albums tell the story

By On April 21, 2019 · In Econ-o'food

Premixed, fortified infant cereals are eaten in small quantities but play a big role in the world food system. They were first developed in the 1930s at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (as “Pablum“) then spread quickly to near universal use in nutrition assistance programs, […]

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