Will Masters

@willmasters.bsky.social

3296 Followers 1043 Following

Prof. at the Friedman School of Nutrition & Dept. of Economics at Tufts University @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social. Open-access book on Food Economics: Agriculture, Nutrition and Health. http://sites.tufts.edu/willmasters

Screenshot of podcast contents
Chart of Google trends data on the rise and fall of online searches for "vegan" in contrast to "organic" and "vegetarian"
Screenshot of AJCN article
Screenshot of the World Bank's Preston Auditorium for the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, July 25th 2025
Chart of average temperature and associated emotions expressed in paintings, as measured by "State of the Art: Economic Development Through the Lens of Paintings" by Clément Gorin, Stephan Heblich, and Yanos Zylberberg
Screenshot of data from Google Ngrams showing word frequency for use of "least-cost diet", "cost of a healthy diet" and related phrases
Screenshot of PBS video on tobacco companies buying processed food companies in the 1990s
Infographic explanation of the Healthy Diet Basket targets used to measure food security around the world
Closing paragraph of So Very Small, a book by Tom Levenson
Cover of So Very Small, a book by Tom Levenson
Chart showing the degree to which nutritional requirements have and could be met by industrial fortification of commonly consumed foods worldwide
Screenshot of abstract for article on Food Economics
Screenshot of abstract for paper on Measuring Food Access as Affordability of Least-Cost Healthy Diets Worldwide
Class slide showing White House announcements of "reciprocal" tariffs
Protest sign saying "Hands off food for kids, protect SNAP and WIC"
Video of anti-Trump protest signs at the #HandsOff rally in Boston
Screenshot of text from AEI blog about Trump tariff rates
Survey data showing that around 70% of Americans believe the government has a responsibility to regulate ultra-processed foods
Chart of data showing U.S. average prices of raw potatoes, frozen potatoes, and all frozen vegetables and fruits, to illustrate the potential for a price-fixing cartel to have kept retail prices high as farmgate prices fell.
Screenshot of Senator Andy Kim describing cuts to USAID as helping only Vladimir Putin and other rivals to US influence
Photo of the new all-electric Caltrain service along the San Francisco-to-San Jose corridor
description of ASSA 2025 conference session on teaching and research using the new economics of food, including the Food Economics book here: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53840-7
Infographic showing the US FDA's updated rule on use of the word "healthy" on food labels, from https://www.fda.gov/healthy
Funded PhD opportunity for research in Agriculture, Nutrition and Heath in Africa or Asia -- apply as soon as possible and before January 15th 2024 at the latest. Enquiries to william.masters@tufts.edu.
Screenshot of answers from All Day TA, accurately summarizing material from the Food Economics textbook
Screenshot of All Day TA answer to a question about family farms, mistakenly repeating the false premise of my prompt before accurately summarizing and quoting material from my Food Economics textbook.
Video clip on purpose of the ANH Science-Policy Fellowships
Chart showing how U.S. wholesale prices for frozen potatoes rose and stayed high in 2023-24, even as other frozen F&V prices were flat and raw potato prices dropped.
Line graph of global food and nonfood trade from 1980 to 2022, from the book Food Economics: Agriculture, Nutrition and Health
Scatterplot of farm size in terms of number of workers (family members and employees) by average area in hectares, from FAO compilation of national agricultural census data.
Whiteboard in a student office space at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition, showing study notes with supply-demand diagrams, biochemistry and a cartoon rabbit
Chart of trade surpluses and deficits showing China’s trade surplus mirroring the US trade deficit, with small imbalances from other countries
Chart of transfer income from government programs, 1970-2022, showing big Covid aid in 2020-2021 and drop thereafter
Chart of data from Zachary Mazlish showing median change in real household income for Americans, after taxes and transfer payments, during each Presidential term from Clinton through Biden. Data show a large and unprecedented drop during Biden's term due in large part to the end of Covid stimulus payments.
Chart showing sharp turn in U.S. public opinion of the grocery industry since 2020
Panel discussion at the Friedman School of Nutrition, Tufts University
Screenshot showing over 100k online accesses of the Food Economics book, since its publication in May 2024 (as of October 5th)
Screenshot of U.S. obesity rate data from the CDC, reported by Axios
Photo of economist Hope Michelson answering questions at the ICAE2024 meeting in New Delhi
Infographic from Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the launch of their new price index for the lowest-cost items in a healthy diet each month