New course Autumn 2024: Economics of Food Systems with Chris Anderson

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How is our food system shaped by the choices of consumers, retailers, farmers, and fish harvesters?

If you’re interested in food and food policy, NUTR 490/FISH 497B Special Topics: Economics of Food Systems is a new undergraduate course offered in autumn 2024 by UW SAFS, in conjunction with the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health Program in the School of Public Health, which explores the economic forces that shape individual decisions and overall outcomes in our food system.

Economics of Food Systems, autumn 2024 course, UW, Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health

Register for:

  • NUTR 490A or FISH 497B Special Topics: Economics of Food Systems
  • 5 credits
  • MWF
  • View seat availability

This course builds on familiarity with microeconomics, introducing models that are important for the food system. ECON200, FISH/ECON230, ESRM235 or equivalent are highly recommended.

Instructor

This new 5-credit course is taught by SAFS Professor Chris Anderson. Chris is an economist who works in the U.S. and globally, studying how fishery policies affect the behavior of fishers, their relationships with processors, and consumer perceptions.

What you’ll learn:

Broadly, this course aims to develop your skills in using economic models to precisely explain how food system outcomes are an emergent property of individual decisions, and critically evaluate the tradeoffs associated with alternative policies for achieving improved economic, social, environmental or health objectives.

Course work will include:

  • Studying the factors that shape behavior for consumers, retailers, wholesalers and traders, producers (farmers and fish harvesters), and their suppliers.
  • Considering the incentives that govern the decisions they make, including social, market, and policy and regulatory forces.
  • Critically evaluating tradeoffs within the food system for the food people eat, whose livelihoods are supported in the food system, and effects on resources and the environment.
  • Using economic models to predict how policy options can alter individual decisions to shift social and economic outcomes.
  • Applying a political economy framework to identify incentives within the political and regulatory system and predict political feasibility.

Plus much more!

The course will travel through the food system studying the factors that shape behavior for actors at each stage, including consumers, retailers, wholesalers and traders, producers (farmers and fish harvesters), and their suppliers.

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About the Instructor

Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson is a professor in the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington.  His work focuses on understanding how the incentives presented by natural resource management affect outcomes for resource users.  As an economist, he draws on tools in game theory, econometrics and experimental economics to understand how management operates in different resource and market contexts.  In data rich fisheries, he models the choices of individual food system actors to understand how management alters individual behavior and aggregate outcomes.  Recent projects include understanding why consumers feel differently about farming fish than farming beef, chicken and pork; and an economically sophisticated management strategy evaluation showing processors do not create value from the larger sockeye runs that would be associated with increased escapement goals in Bristol Bay.  He also leverages insights from data rich studies and the Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) framework in low income countries, to co-create guidance for leveraging fishery resources into sustainable food and livelihoods for harvesters, processors and traders, and communities.  He is a frequent collaborator in numerous fisheries around the world which gives him a cross-sectional perspective that includes designing and facilitating workshops to develop theories of change for fishery improvement projects, supported by systematic data from around the world. He earned his PhD in Social Science from the California Institute of Technology, and an ScB in Applied Math and Economics from Brown University.

Markus Min announced as recipient of Award for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility

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Markus Min is Ph.D. student at SAFS, in the Applied Ecology Lab.

Congratulations to Markus Min, the recipient of the 2023-2024 Award for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA) given by the College of the Environment. Markus, a Ph.D. Candidate in SAFS, has been a trusted leader since joining the school in fall of 2020, and a strong advocate for equity and inclusion at both the unit level and across the College.

Markus’ award nominators describe him as “a student who identifies systemic problems and finds partners to craft creative solutions to solve them.” One of the embodiments of this quality is his “Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: Professional Development Modules for Undergraduates in the Marine Sciences” program, which aims to overcome the barriers of hidden curriculum issues for students from historically excluded groups. Receiving support from the Diversity Seed Grant from the UW Diversity Council, and in partnership with advisors and instructors from three units in the College of the Environment (Marine Biology, Oceanography, and SAFS), Markus has so far developed and delivered a series of six workshops for undergraduates, which have been well-attended and enthusiastically received. He plans to continue this program for future undergraduate cohorts.

In addition to developing workshops open to all undergraduates in the aquatic sciences, Markus has also engaged in equity-minded mentorship of undergraduates. Part of the first-ever cohort of mentors trained through the Identity, Belonging, and Inquiry in Science (IBIS) Program, Markus engaged in two quarters of research mentoring with Marine Biology undergrad, Sarah Hensley, and continues to work with her, now in their fifth quarter working together. Receiving skill-based training in evidence-based mentoring practices, Markus helped develop Sarah’s skills as a research scientist and reiterated his commitment to providing opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to pursue marine science. As further evidence of this commitment, Markus secured a grant from Conservation, Research and Education Opportunities International (CREOi) to provide a paid research experience for another undergraduate under his mentorship.

“SAFS has always benefited from the exceptional leadership of its graduate students. Markus has continued this rich tradition through his many contributions to the School. I’m thrilled that Markus is receiving this award that he so richly deserves,” said Tim Essington, Director of SAFS. 

Building on this commitment to engaging undergraduates and enhancing equity, inclusion, and diversity in aquatic and marine sciences, Markus has also led workshops to share tips and advice for applying to scholarships or fellowships such as the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship or the NSF GRFP, while helping students build important skills along the way.

We congratulate Markus again and look forward to supporting his efforts to make SAFS, the College of the Environment, and marine and aquatic science as a whole, more inclusive and equitable for our student population.

Mikelle Nuwer
Markus delivering one of the workshops from his “Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: Professional Development Modules for Undergraduates in the Marine Sciences” program.

Lionfish research in the Caribbean waters of Curaçao

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In a lot of ways, deep reefs are understudied. Too deep for divers to reach and only accessible by submarines, this zone of ocean habitat is often overlooked. Combining deep reef research with scuba diving around shallower reef areas, SAFS master’s student, Sarah Yerrace, is working in the waters of the Caribbean Island of Curaçao looking at one thing in particular: lionfish.

Sarah holds two lionfish caught while conducting research in Curacao.

Red Lionfish (Pterois volitans) were previously thought to only inhabit the top 100 meters of the ocean, which is their usual range in their native Indo-Pacific Ocean. However, when studying deeper depths and coral reefs found between 100m and 300m in the Caribbean, lionfish were present and active. UW coral reef research in Curaçao has been underway for more than a decade in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, conducted by the Fish Systemics and Biodiversity Lab of which Sarah is a member, led by SAFS Professor Luke Tornabene.

Why would the presence of lionfish on a deep reef be considered a problem? Named as a super predator, the species wreak havoc on marine biodiversity by preying on all fish inhabiting reefs and fringe areas, multiplying quickly in population. But when looking at understudied deep reefs, lionfish have also been found to be preying on marine species not even yet discovered, presenting a bigger problem.

Sarah Yerrace
Beautiful but deadly: two lionfish caught by the Curasub.

One of the big questions Sarah is tackling in her work is if lionfish are swimming one way, from shallow to deep waters, or back and forth? Lionfish are unidirectional as they age, migrating from the shallows to the depths as they grow older. Usually, younger lionfish are shallow-dwelling creatures with a high tolerance for freshwater and estuarine environments. But is this downwards movement to deeper depths an extension of their natural migration in their lifespan, or because they have pressures in their invasive range, such as spearfishing?

Sarah Yerrace
A view of a lionfish from the inside of the Curasub.

Spearfishing with a single pole is the only legal way of capturing and managing lionfish populations in Curaçao, with the fish used in a variety of ways, from eating in local cuisine, to using their fins to make jewelry.

“Different species live in different depth ranges. If I collect a lionfish at 100m, with another fish that is only known to live in the top 30m of the ocean in its stomach, that is evidence that the lionfish moved from 30m to 100m within the last few hours. How do I know this? Because that is within the timeframe it takes for a lionfish to digest their prey,” Sarah shared. “The vice versa scenario is the same: if I collect a shallow lionfish with a deep-water prey species in its gut, the lionfish has moved deeper and then back up.” A diet study using lionfish collected below 100m hasn’t been done before, so seeing what they are eating at all below this depth will be new information for researchers.

Sarah Yerrace
Revealing the contents of a lionfish stomach during dissection. This lionfish ate a French Butterflyfish that only lives on deep reefs.

Another facet of Sarah’s work is exploring the use of otoliths – the ear stones of fish – to see if lionfish are moving from shallow to deeper waters and back, but over longer time scales, i.e., longer than the time of digestion and therefore not detectable by looking at prey species. “Otoliths have rings like a tree, and as the fish grows, the otolith grows in rings. Each ring is made using minerals from the water the fish is living in and so we can sample the rings of the otolith for stable isotopes,” Sarah said. “Different stable isotopes tell us information about the water the fish was living in when that ring of the otolith was formed. From stable isotopes, we can tell how warm or cold the water was. So, as we sample from the center of the otolith, which is when the fish was young, to the edge of the otolith (most recently), we might see a steady progression of cooling temperatures, meaning the fish moved deeper over time, or a random, non-linear pattern if the fish is moving up and down,” she added. Sarah is working on this part of the project with UW Marine Biology undergraduate, Alyson Liu, who is doing a test run with a few pairs of otoliths in the lab, in the hope of providing some evidence for this theory.

First visiting Curaçao in 2019, Sarah is returning for the third time this summer in 2024 to collect more data. Carrying out her research both in a submarine and when scuba diving, Sarah conducts three dives a day with a partner while in Curaçao. “Lionfish are most active during dusk and dawn for hunting, so when we are trying to collect them while scuba diving, we dive at sunrise or sunset,” Sarah said. The submarine, called Curasub, spends 4-6 hours in the water during the middle of the day. During her dives, Sarah also works with another SAFS grad student, Juliette Jacquemont, conducting transects to characterize the bottom habitat, plus collecting fish data. “I’ll use some of the data Juliette is focusing on for her work to compare what is present on the reef versus what I find in the guts of fish,” Sarah shared. “During our last trip, in five days of diving, we counted more than 5,000 individuals of over 50 different species.”

Sarah Yerrace
A thousand feet below, a view from inside the Curasub.

When on the submarine, which reaches depths of 300m off the coast of Curaçao, the research process is a little different. “The submarine is equipped with hydraulic arms, and the submarine pilots attach a speargun to the front. Once the pilot has carefully maneuvered the 6-ton sub to line up the shot, using the arm, we can trigger the spear gun from inside the sub and then use an anesthetic to put the lionfish to sleep,” Sarah said. “Using a second arm, we remove the lionfish from the spear and scoop it into a holding basket below the sub. But it’s a delicate dance, as sometimes the fish wakes up and tries to escape in the process of putting it in the basket.” When back at the surface, the fish are placed on ice and immediately processed, with depth of capture, length, and weight recorded. “The next step is to dissect the fish and record if it’s a male or female, then remove the stomach. The stomach is put in 90% ethanol and kept frozen until I can do DNA extractions back at UW,” she added. “One of the benefits of conducting submarine research off Curaçao is because the ocean gets deep really quickly. We can essentially move down a wall versus needing to travel across a greater horizontal distance.”

Outside of her research, Sarah is an active diver – both recreationally and professionally. “There is so much to love about diving. The dive community is wonderful, and I’ve met lifelong friends through diving. I also think the physics, physiology, and science of diving is fascinating,” Sarah shared. “No matter what ocean I’m in, or the objectives of the dive, there’s always an incredible sense of adventure. Floating weightless and doing science underwater is the next closest thing to being an astronaut on another planet. It doesn’t get better than that.” Sarah is currently a TA for a scientific diving course offered at UW. Hoping to defend her master’s thesis by the end of 2024, Sarah’s currently writing her thesis and perfecting figures that will go into her paper.

Read more about UW research on lionfish in the Caribbean

Plus watch a video from inside the Curasub

Diving into aquatic science: Open House returns on May 18

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Bringing aquatic science to life for the people of Seattle for the sixth time, the UW Aquatic Sciences Open House returns for a free, family-friendly day of fun on Saturday 18 May. Open to everyone – from toddlers to teenagers to adults – we’re showcasing the amazing breadth of wet sciences at the University of Washington.

Kicking off at 10am, we’ve got fan favorites like exploring the live aquarium tanks which are home starfish, telling the difference between native versus invasive crabs, and peering through microscopes to see tiny marine organisms. The research vessel Rachel Carson, which conducts oceanography research along the PNW coast, begin their tours at 12pm. Brand new this year will be a special face painting booth. We’ve also got some new research on show, including viewing microscopic parasites and seeing how drones are used in science. Visit our Open House page for a full list of booths at this year’s event.

From toddlers and teenagers to adults, the UW Aquatic Sciences Open House has activities for all ages interested in marine and freshwater science.

In Seattle, we’re surrounded by water – from rivers and lakes to the Puget Sound. It’s important that this event, which brings together marine and freshwater scientists from across the University of Washington, is made open and accessible for the public to get involved with the science and research that surrounds us. We are happy to be able to offer in-person, on-the-day interpretation in both Spanish and ASL, made possible by the sponsorship of foundry10. 

“We are thrilled to support the UW Aquatic Sciences Open House, an exciting event that educates and inspires youth to dive in and discover the wonders of our local marine ecosystems alongside knowledgeable researchers and educators,” said foundry10 Co-Founder and CEO Lisa Castaneda.

Want to stay up to date with all the exciting things taking place this year? Join our Facebook event to stay tuned as we release more details in the lead-up to the Aquatic Sciences Open House! 

Open House visitors explore the R/V Rachel Carson.