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Sean B Cash

Sean B. Cash

Associate Professor
Bergstrom Foundation Professor in Global Nutrition
Chair, Division of Agriculture, Food and Environment
Specialty Chief Editor, Frontiers in Nutrition - Food Policy and Economics
Faculty Affiliate, Tufts Food is Medicine Institute

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 cellular agriculture; food labeling of ethical attributes of food production; online food retailing; and how point-of-sale health messaging impacts consumers’ demand for food.  He also conducts research in the areas of environmental impacts in food production, including projects on climate change and coffee tea production and invasive species management.

Dr. Cash has been the Principal or Co-Investigator on over $22 million of research funding. His work has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Newman’s Own Foundation, among other sources. At the Friedman School, he teaches courses in statistics, environmental and food economics, and corporate social responsibility.

Dr. Cash was a recent Editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics and serves on the editorial board of Agribusiness. He is on the Board of Directors of the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE), 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.

Education

  • Ph.D., 2003, Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley
  • M.S., 2000, Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley
  • M.A., 1998, Applied Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (additional coursework completed toward degree in Resource Policy and Behavior)
  • B.A., 1992, International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

Specializations

Agriculture, Food, and Environment; Climate, Sustainability, and Food; Food Policy and Economics

Research Activities

The Tea & Climate Change Collaborative, an NSF-funded interdisciplinary team studying climate effects on tea quality and socio-economic responses.

The CHOMPS ("Coupons for Healthier Options for Minors Purchasing Snacks") Project, a USDA-funded project for which Dr. Cash is the Principal Investigator.

Qualitative Dollar Store Study | Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (tufts.edu)

Welcome to Food-PRICE: Food Policy Review and Intervention Cost-Effectiveness | Food-PRICE

Courses


NUTC 263

Sustainability and the Food Consumer


NUTR 278

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Food Industry


NUTR 341

Environmental Economics of Food and Agriculture


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