Fred Kuchler

Senior Economist
fred.kuchler@usda.gov

Briefly

Fred Kuchler is an economist in the Diet, Safety, and Health Economics Branch in the Food Economics Division of USDA’s Economic Research Service. His current work examines the economics of food safety and the economics of information, including food labeling. Previous work has focused on dietary exposure to agricultural pesticides, also on agricultural asset values, and the impacts of biotechnology.

Education

Fred holds a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech.

Selected Publications

Stewart, H., Kuchler, F., & Hahn, W. (2021). Is competition among soft drinks, juices, and other major beverage categories responsible for reducing Americans’ milk consumption? Agribusiness: An International Journal, 37(4): 731–748.

Rhodes, M., & Kuchler, F. (2021). Determinants of weekly raw milk use by at-home meal preparers in the USA: Evidence from the 2014–16 American Time Use Survey—Eating and Health Module. Public Health Nutrition, 24 (Issue 3): 487–498.

Rhodes, M., & Kuchler, F. (2020). The influence of time use, risk factors, and occupation on meal preparers’ usage of food thermometers. Food Protection Trends, 40(1): 16–28.

Stewart, H., Kuchler, F., Cessna, J., & Hahn, W. (2020). Are plant-based analogues replacing cow’s milk in the American diet? Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 51(2): 1–18.

Kuchler, F., Bowman, M., Sweitzer, M., & Greene, C. (2020). Evidence from retail food markets that consumers are confused by natural and organic food labels. Journal of Consumer Policy 43(2):379–395.

The Prevalence of the “Natural” Claim on Food Product Packaging Examining the Decline in U.S. Per Capita Consumption of Fluid Cow’s Milk, 2003–18 Economic Drivers of Food Loss at the Farm and Pre-Retail Sectors: A Look at the Produce Supply Chain in the United States Consumer Food Safety Practices: Raw Milk Consumption and Food Thermometer Use Beyond Nutrition and Organic Labels—30 Years of Experience With Intervening in Food Labels

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Prevalence of the “Natural” Label Varies by Food Category Fluid Milk Consumption Continues Downward Trend, Proving Difficult to Reverse Not All Consumers Are Following Food Safety Advice From Health Officials Federal Nutrition and Organic Labels Paved the Way for Single-Trait Label Claims Increased Consumer Sensitivity to Food Safety Raised Financial Costs of Ground Beef Recalls

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