Three essays in environmental and food economics

Peng, Yifan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130040 Copy

Description

Title

Three essays in environmental and food economics

Author(s)

Peng, Yifan

Issue Date

2025-07-15

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Ando, Amy
• Gundersen, Craig

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

• Ando, Amy
• Gundersen, Craig

Committee Member(s)

• Hultgren, Andrew
• Manning, Dale

Department of Study

Agr & Consumer Economics

Discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• food bank
• charitable food system
• disaster relief
• voluntary carbon market

Abstract

My dissertation comprises three chapters. It begins by evaluating the effect of regional produce cooperatives on increasing fresh produce for food banks, then examines how the food bank systems respond to major disasters, and finally explores farmer participation in voluntary carbon markets, especially among underserved farmers. Collectively, these chapters address some of the most pressing issues in the U.S. today in the context of food economics and environmental economics. The first chapter evaluates the impact of Regional Produce Cooperatives (RPCs) launched by Feeding America between 2016 and 2018 to help food banks address challenges in sourcing fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV). The RPCs function as regional mixing centers that enable food banks to access a wider variety of produce at lower costs and with greater consistency through centralized sourcing and distribution. Using proprietary administrative data from 194 food banks covering the period 2012 to 2019, we examine the effect of joining RPCs on FFV outcomes. We apply staggered difference-in-differences estimators along with multiple aggregation strategies to recover the effects of joining RPCs. The results show that RPC participation increased the amount of FFV received by food banks by up to 1.28 million pounds per year, corresponding to a 19.4% increase. This estimate may represent a lower bound if crowding out exists. The findings suggest that RPCs offer an effective sourcing channel for improving FFV supply across the food bank network. Food banks in the U.S. are dedicated not only to addressing hunger among over 40 million food-insecure individuals but also to contributing to disaster relief efforts. As natural disasters become more severe and frequent due to climate change, this second chapter focuses on understanding how the U.S. food bank system responds to major disasters. Despite their importance, research has yet to quantify the large-scale food bank system's response to such disaster events. We use a proprietary quarterly dataset from Feeding America to detail food distribution and data from FEMA and NOAA to create severity proxies for major disasters. Using fixed effects models, we find that food banks’ food supply increases with the severity of disasters across three severity proxies. These impacts were confined to the affected food banks and did not spill over to neighboring food banks. Moreover, we find that food supply increases with a higher proportion of disadvantaged populations in disaster-affected areas, and we also find evidence of increased food supply when the proportion of disadvantaged populations is higher in the overall service areas. This chapter fills a critical gap by providing the first nationwide study of how charitable food systems respond to disasters and how that response varies with the racial composition and poverty levels of both disaster-affected areas and broader service areas. Additionally, it fills an urgent gap in literature by shifting the focus from public disaster relief to the role of nonprofit organizations in food assistance during disasters. In recent years, the U.S. government has incorporated agriculture into its strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the third chapter, I shift the focus to farmers, particularly underserved farmers, and examine their participation in voluntary carbon markets (VCMs). Drawing on a survey of 414 farmers across seven Midwestern states and applying survey weights, we analyze past participation, perceived access, and barriers to VCMs, as well as heterogeneous preferences for contract attributes using a discrete choice experiment estimated by a mixed logit model in willingness-to-accept space. We estimate individual-level willingness to accept (WTA) for different contract features and simulate supply curves to assess how contract design affects enrollment among underserved and non-underserved farmers. Our findings show that only 3% of Midwestern farmers have participated in VCMs, with particularly lower rates among minority-owned farms. Regarding perceptions, we find fewer than 30% of farmers believe they could join the VCMs. The most frequently mentioned barriers to participation include uncertainty about payment and concerns over losing flexibility in management. The results from mixed logit models reveal the strong preference for not enrolling in the carbon contract. We find that preferences for carbon contract features vary across farmer characteristics, with female farmers showing a stronger preference for contracts that offer technical assistance and business planning. While higher payments can increase participation, contract adjustments alone may not be sufficient to enhance underserved farmers’ representation in VCMs, as this is subject to structural constraints, especially limited farm size. These results highlight the challenges underserved farmers face in participating in emerging carbon offset markets.

Graduation Semester

2025-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130040

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Yifan Peng

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