Department of Agriculture awards ASU over $3 million in grants for agribusiness research

Morrison School of Agribusiness faculty received five grants to advance agriculture and food supply chain research.

The United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) awarded faculty from the Morrison School of Agribusiness within the W. P. Carey School of Business over $3 million in grants.

"Congratulations to Carola Grebitus, Ashok Mishra, Timothy Richards, Mark Manfredo, and Renee Hughner," says Troy Schmitz, Morrison School of Agribusiness director and senior global futures scholar. "The USDA provides this funding as part of its Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to improve rural economies, increase food production, stimulate the bioeconomy, ensure food safety and security, and enhance human nutrition."

The USDA is the national leader in public policy, scientific development, and management related to agriculture, food, national resources, nutrition, and rural development. As one of the USDA's four Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission areas, NIFA is committed to advancing the research and education of global food demand, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, developing sustainable food production systems, and addressing food insecurity in vulnerable populations through competitive, formula, and non-competitive grants.

"These grants demonstrate the Morrison School of Agribusiness faculty's ability to enhance local impact and increase our social embeddedness in the community," says Schmitz. "Most of this externally funded research is interdisciplinary, which helps expand ASU's role as a leading global center for interdisciplinary research, discovery, and development."

Food supply chain disruptions: Market-based resilience strategies

Tim Richards, Marvin and June Morrison Endowed Chair, professor, and senior global futures scientist, and Elliot Rabinovich, AVNET professor of supply chain management and the co-director of the Internet Edge Supply Chain Lab, were awarded a three-year, $650,000 grant from the USDA NIFA for their research program, "Food supply chain disruptions: Market-based resilience strategies." The program examines the effectiveness of managerial responses to food supply-chain disruptions to make the supply chain more resilient over time.

"We believe this research is important as recent events — most notably COVID-19 — revealed the fragility of the U.S. food supply system," says Richards. "When grocery shelves are bare, people start to wonder if our food system is as efficient and robust as we came to believe it was. It wasn't."

Effect of meditation on healthy food consumption

Carola Grebitus, associate professor at the Morrison School of Agribusiness, Dean's Council Distinguished Scholar, and senior global futures scientist; Renee Hughner, associate professor at the Morrison School of Agribusiness and senior global futures scientist; and Vel Murugan, associate director of research and associate research professor at the ASU Biodesign Institute, were awarded a three-year, $650,000 new grant from the USDA NIFA's Economics, Markets, and Trade program for their study, "Effect of Meditation on Healthy Food Consumption." This research examines meditation techniques presumed to positively impact consumers' healthy food consumption.

The study will analyze how meditation-induced changes in perceived stress and stress hormones affect food choice, develop an easy-to-use meditation tool kit to lower stress levels and change unhealthy eating behaviors, and provide a targeted approach to health promotion and food policy recommendations.

"The negative outcomes of unhealthy food choices on society and individuals have been well-documented," says Grebitus. "Our study adds one piece to solve the healthy food choice puzzle."

Opportunities for imperfect food: Analyzing preferences along the agri-food value chain

Grebitus, in partnership with faculty at Pennsylvania State University, was awarded a three-year, $650,000 new grant from the USDA NIFA's Economics, Markets, and Trade program to investigate "Opportunities for imperfect food: Analyzing preferences along the agri-food value chain." Imperfect foods, which account for approximately 20% of discarded food waste, are items thrown out for cosmetic reasons, including being misshapen, mid-sized, or blemished.

The project will investigate opportunities for imperfect foods to reduce food waste by documenting how to make imperfect foods more accepted, identifying factors that impact retailers' decisions to offer imperfect produce, and evaluating customers' willingness to purchase fresh and processed imperfect produce.

"Reducing food waste has been identified as one of the most effective ways to improve food security and reduce the food system's carbon footprint. Our research contributes to understanding how imperfect produce can enter the market to reduce food waste," says Grebitus. "I am passionate about sustainability. This collaborative project showcases how funded research allows us to tackle meaningful topics."

Applying geospatial soil quality and weather data to asses racial bias in farm credit lending practices: An empirical investigation into U.S. agricultural sector

Ashok Mishra, professor and Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation Chair in Food Management and senior global futures scientist, in partnership with faculty at Tennessee State University, was awarded a three-year, $650,000 new grant from the USDA NIFA's Small and Medium-Sized Farms grant program for research into "Applying geospatial soil quality and weather data to asses racial bias in farm credit lending practices: An empirical investigation into U.S. agricultural sector." The project investigates how climate change and soil quality affect the debt repayment potential of small and medium-sized producers (including minority farmers) and its effect on discrimination in flexible spending account farm loans.

Climate change may affect farms' productivity, causing farmers to adapt to weather changes by adopting new crops, technologies, and management practices. The cost of this adaptation still needs to be determined.

"The rationale of this project is to improve the profitability of small and medium-sized farms and examine factors that may result in a more resilient agricultural sector," says Mishra. "This research is a way to solve critical problems that lie ahead and seek solutions that people in the food business could use."

Using machine learning and geospatial data to generate near real-time crop yield and production forecasts

Mishra and Mark Manfredo, professor at the Morrison School of Agribusiness, Dean's Council Distinguished Scholar, and senior global futures scientist, were awarded a three-year, $430,000 new grant from the USDA NIFA's Economics, Markets, and Trade program for research into "Using machine learning and geospatial data to generate near real-time crop yield and production forecasts." The project aims to reduce the information gap between large traders and small and medium-sized farms through real-time crop yield and production forecasts.

Many large agribusinesses pay large sums for private production forecasts, which are often too expensive for smaller and medium-sized farms and agribusinesses. This results in an information gap or disadvantage for smaller businesses.

"A low-cost, widely distributed, informationally efficient forecast using machine learning algorithms may benefit producers and market participants along the grain supply chain," says Mishra.

Impact on community

As the largest export industry in the U.S. economy, agribusiness employs a quarter of Americans, accounts for 50% of the world economy, and continues to expand into areas including social marketing, bio- and nano-technologies, and alternative-fuel creation. Through these grants, Morrison School of Agribusiness faculty can advance efforts in sustainability and access to better serve the community.

"This grant means I get to dig into the issues I have been thinking about for a long time," says Richards. "I can focus on the problems I think are important."

Learn more about the Morrison School of Agribusiness.