Browsing by Author "Short, Gianna"

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    Can aquaponics pay for itself?
    (2016) Oesterle, Justine; Nowak, Joseph; Short, Gianna
    The economic feasibility and profitability of aquaponics is a debated topic. The aquaponics industry in the Twin Cities is rapidly growing, as is consumers’ interest in local and sustainable foods. The time has come for a critical look at the inputs and outputs of aquaponic systems across varying production methods and scales. The MnDRIVE project considers aquaponic systems in greenhouse and warehouse spaces. The University of Minnesota has constructed four different systems for comparison (floating raft, tiered nutrient film technique, A-frame, and a Nelson Pade F5 system), along with two additional systems built by industry partners. These include Spark-Y (tiered media based system) and Tangletown (floating raft system). Cost data on set-up, utilities, materials, and labor is being collected as well as the production potential of the systems. As production continues, further data will be collected on yields and maintenance costs. When the MnDRIVE economic feasibility project is completed, analysis of the data will provide insight on many of the unknown questions surrounding the cost effectiveness of aquaponics in Minnesota.
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    Consumer Food Choices and the Value of Time
    (2018-12) Short, Gianna
    The foods we eat are a special class of commodities that we must physically consume and metabolize in order to live. Intuitively, people understand that time--or lack thereof--plays a role in their food choices. Yet, time is often left out of consumer food choices modeled in economics. This dissertation seeks to gain improved insight about food consumption decisions by exploring their temporal nature. Part I approaches food and time from a behavioral economics perspective through an experiment designed to estimate the temporal discount rate for food consumption. Parts II and III are an in-depth exploration of how to incorporate the opportunity cost of time into food demand systems. The first approach (Part II) incorporates leisure time as a good into a complete demand system to eliminate the opportunity cost bias and estimate the elasticity of substitution between food and leisure. The second approach (Part III) develops and tests two methods to correct for the opportunity cost of preparation time using food purchase data alone.