Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Back in June 2007, my family and I did some tourism across Ethiopia. Visiting Bahir Dar market, I took this photo of a vendor selling the traditional bars and also loose grains of non-iodized salt. I had no idea that we would later be able to measure its harmful effects. 1211
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 13/05/2026...and to see inside, here is Spotify's automated summary of topics: 030
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 01/05/2026In Accra, celebrating the successful launch of the ANH Africa Regional Collaborative from @anhacademy.bsky.social, I was fortunate to catch the great Gyedu-Blay Ambolley at +233 Jazz. Here is his magnificent take on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP1k.... Wow. 120
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 31/08/2025The rise and fall of progressive idealism, as tracked by online search for vegan (vs. organic or vegetarian). These data are global, you can click to see differences in timing and relative magnitudes here: trends.google.com/trends/explo... I'll call this the "Henry Vance Index" of idealism. 2/2 220
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 23/08/2025Big new paper shows limits to the common belief that healthy & sustainable foods are more expensive than other options. Details: linkedin.com/posts/wamast... Article: doi.org/10.1016/j.aj... Preprint: sites.tufts.edu/foodpricesfo... From @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social, for #foodsky #econsky #foodecon 051
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 26/07/2025Big thanks to #ABCDE2025 for an amazing 4 days blending new research with big-picture debate on global development in this era of political change. Here's their video of my 15-min summary of #FoodPricesForNutrition, on whether & how agriculture can meet health needs: www.youtube.com/live/AEV4YE1... 000
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 07/07/2025New paper links emotions in artwork to socioeconomic conditions over >500 years. One finding: in W. Europe, paintings got cheerier in the decades after more favorable climatic conditions. Great big-picture stuff from @heblich.bsky.social, w/ C. Gorin & Y. Zylberberg: www.nber.org/papers/w33976 040
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 04/07/2025Brief review article out today in Food Policy traces the rapid adoption of least-cost diets for monitoring food access. Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lND015oGp... Project: sites.tufts.edu/foodpricesfo... Something new, from @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social + many others as shown by google ngram data: 010
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 29/06/2025The role of tobacco company execs in the 1990s rise of harmful processed food is wild -- thx for all your work on that! ...and weirdly the cigarette companies' role might not even be causal. Maybe it's just that game knows game, and they wanted in on a racket that would have happened anyway? 010
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 27/06/2025Another way they're raising food prices: on Friday June 13th, EPA required use of even more soybeans in diesel fuel. Bulk edible oil prices jumped 9% on the news. Burning crops as fuel is bad for all except growers & processors, who cheered. h/t Aaron Smith agdatanews.substack.com/p/a-big-win-... 1157
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 17/06/2025A new World Bank blog post explains how the #HealthyDietBasket allows us to track #FoodPricesForNutrition around the world: blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/... We'll have more on this at the #ABCDE conference on July 25th, in the @cgdev.org session on ag & food: www.worldbank.org/en/events/20... 030
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 07/06/2025The book is a suspenseful how-did-they-do-it mystery, from the first microscopes to transforming the entire living world as it mutates around and within us. Along the way we get a timely re-envisioning of science and its discontents. Lessons for now: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/672378... 031
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 07/06/2025A fulfilling escape: just finished reading So Very Small, on the slow then sudden rise of germ theory, antibiotics & vaccination. The deadly dance between people and bugs is riveting when told by @tomlevenson.bsky.social, and touches us all: My dad was saved by early sulfa drugs in Boston c. 1938 131
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/06/2025Want a cheap & sustainable healthy diet? New preprint confirms that less expensive options generally emit less GHGs. Main exception is animal source foods. The least emitting healthy diets cost ~$7/day and emit 0.7 kg CO2e, while actual choices cost ~$10 and emit 2.4 kg. arxiv.org/abs/2505.24457 021
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 28/05/2025A new paper painstakingly details how national food supplies align with nutritional needs around the world, focusing on which nutrients in what foods have and can be industrially fortified. Fortification works only in some settings, but does so at an astonishingly low cost. ssrn.com/abstract=526... 030
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 25/04/2025New article with @afinaret.bsky.social explains our #FoodEconomics book, using analytical diagrams and data visualizations to offer accessible insights for general readers, #TeachEcon instructors & students. In AEPP (gated): doi.org/10.1002/aepp... Preprint & resources: sites.tufts.edu/foodeconomics 092
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 24/04/2025New paper on "Measuring Food Access as Affordability of Least-Cost Healthy Diets" tells how this new diagnostic indicator of food security was launched in 2020, now used by FAO & World Bank + others. Deep dive into the data's context, use and limitations: doi.org/10.1111/agec... #TeachEcon #EconSky 051
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 07/04/2025It's macro week in my #FoodEconomics class. We'll start with the new tariffs, then economywide balances, inflation and unemployment. Plenty of motivation to #TeachEcon at @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social now! For #EconSky, the current account balance chart is via FRED: fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=D3IM 1173
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/04/2025...and before the rain smudged everything, in front of city hall 072
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/04/2025Signs of the times -- here's the mix around us at #HandsOff in Boston earlier today 181
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/04/2025On Trump's tariffs, it's errors all the way down. AEI's Kevin Corinth & Stan Veuger show how mistaken use of retail vs. trade elasticities raised "retaliatory" rates 4x: www.aei.org/economics/pr... Trump could fire folks, announce the fix, and limit the damage. Would be less wrong... #TeachEcon 313939
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 04/04/2025Yesterday afternoon's #FoodEconomics class started with real-time reaction to the new tariffs, showing websites of media outlets like the Wall Street Journal. A student asked to see Fox News. Here's the two, live from the classroom camera around 4:30pm. One owner, two audiences. #TeachEcon #EconSky 181
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 09/03/2025Most Americans want regulation of ultra-processed foods, and think the government should be more involved in our health. Great data from Dan Frommer @fromedome.bsky.social: newconsumer.com/trends/consu... Lots to discuss in #FoodPolicy #FoodEconomics & #FoodSky @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social 1146
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 02/03/2025PS potatoes are a hot topic for inflation dynamics (paging @dlortega.bsky.social), and a useful contrast to the periodic spike in egg prices due to inelastic demand, lack of storage or trade, & response to bird flu by culling not vax. Egg prices: fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1E6wO #EconSky #FoodSky 021
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 02/03/2025A striking fact about frozen potato prices is not just their smooth rise during the rapid inflation of 2022-23, but how they did not fall with raw potato prices after that. Courts will decide if this was illegal price-fixing, but you can see the pattern here: fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BYEB 2/2 142
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Just spotted this license plate in Boston -- its tag line pretty well conveys the current stage of Elon Musk's careening career: "Probably on Autopilot" 010
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 09/02/2025A new study ties the mandate for USAID to Christian faith, spread across Congressional districts in the 19th century via the YMCA etc. U.S. commitment to foreign aid comes from the heart, and from the heartland. Maps from @younbaek.bsky.social's new #jmp #EconSky, here: younbaek.github.io/research 151
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/02/2025Senator Andy Kim explains how the Trump-Musk power grab weakens America, enabling corruption at home and abroad -- for example how gutting USAID is a gift to Russia and other rivals to U.S. influence. From convo w/ @jenrubin.bsky.social @contrariannews.org: contrarian.substack.com/p/jen-rubin-... 030
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 04/01/2025For #TrainSky folks, here's the impressive all-electric service along the corridor between San Francisco and San Jose. Smooth and quiet. Nothing quite like this on the East Coast, sigh... 150
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 04/01/2025Big thanks to everyone who joined our packed room at #ASSA2025 yesterday for the #FoodEconomics session. Wonderful discussion of reaching new audiences through teaching & research. PS book is free to download for phones etc. as ePub or PDF at link.springer.com/book/10.1007... #EconSky #TeachEcon 241
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 27/12/2024At #ASSA2025 in San Francisco, check out our session on the new #FoodEconomics, linking agriculture to health in research & #TeachEcon, featuring Amelia Finaret, Lindsey Novak & Amy Damon @amydamon.bsky.social, Scott Rozelle and Kathy Baylis. Join us Friday at 12:30pm: www.aeaweb.org/conference/2... 1133
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 20/12/2024Great piece -- and a further concern is that those @fda.gov infographics, with fresh salmon, trail mix and olive oil, just play into the healthy=expensive illusion. Here's a version with cheaper items, also healthy but more affordable and less associated with fancy brands & food culture: 041
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 20/12/2024Making American food healthy again, one step at a time: the @fda.gov published its updated rule on which products can have the word "healthy" on their label, at www.fda.gov/healthy. Regulating labels is good -- next step, regulating contents? #FoodSky #FoodEconomics @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social 274
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 16/12/2024New funded PhD opportunity to work with me @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social, as part of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Science-Policy Platform from @anhacademy.bsky.social. Research can span all aspects of #FoodEconomics and other methods to inform policy decisions in Africa or Asia. Join us! 0105
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 15/12/2024Finally, asking #AllDayTA about the number of family farms gets the right answer--although abbreviated and incomplete. For me, the whole point of using generative AI in higher ed is that it feeds students stuff that's plausible but wrong or insufficient, so they learn to do what AI cannot. 3/3 220
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 15/12/2024The lack of logic checks makes AI summaries stumble. Here I asked #AllDayTA why family farms are disappearing. (They're not--this is an optical illusion caused by the companies between us and farmers.) In response it repeated the false premise, then correctly summarized info about farm size. 2/3 110
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 15/12/2024Just tried #AllDayTA from @alldayta.bsky.social & @afinetheorem.bsky.social. To test cleanly, I gave it just my new textbook on #FoodEconomics. Q: What caused the obesity epidemic? A: Spot on, with great quotes. But generative AI has no logic checker so it repeats things using synonyms. 1/3 171
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 09/12/2024Do you study policies & programs in Africa or South Asia relating to agriculture, nutrition & health? Our ANH Science-Policy Fellowships could fund a year of work linking your research to action. Webinar with Q&A+details is here: www.anh-academy.org/science-poli... +follow @anhacademy.bsky.social! 054
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 06/12/2024Lawsuits allege that frozen potato makers began cheating in 2021, when their prices were flat while raw potatoes and other frozen F&V prices rose; that cartel might have raised prices then prevented price drop in 2023-24. Data's at fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BYEB, for #TeachEcon & #EconSky 2/2 173
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 02/12/2024Another optical illusion about world agriculture is the growing importance of international trade--which turns out to have not grown at all since around 2010. We think trade's grown because of global brands on supermarket shelves, but the wave of food-market globalization ended long ago. 3/4 141
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 02/12/2024One optical illusion about farming is what we see are companies, but almost all crops are still grown on family farms with zero full-time employees. Workers/farm is driven by family size, and area/farm is big where there's lots of land and few people. Charts: link.springer.com/content/pdf/... 2/4 100
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 21/11/2024Is there any grad school other than @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social where student-lounge whiteboards look like this, with nutritional biochemistry sketched out next to #FoodEconomics diagrams, and rabbits in the garden? 080
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 18/11/2024Amazing 📈📉 chart by Brad Setser via @noahpinion.blogsky.venki.dev, showing China’s trade surplus mirroring the US trade deficit. Almost all other countries are near balanced trade right now. The flip side of trade is capital flows, as Chinese people send savings abroad ultimately landing in the US. 050
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 14/11/2024Another way to see the huge transfers in 2020 and 2021, making for relatively lower incomes in the Biden years. Source is eig.org/great-transf..., flagged by Adam Tooze substack.com/@adamtooze (+ earlier @mattsclancy.bsky.social & @zmazlish.bsky.social) 010
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 13/11/2024Wow of the day, from @zmazlish.bsky.social's substack jzmazlish.substack.com/p/yes-inflat... (h/t @mattsclancy.bsky.social): Median change in US households' real after-tax income over 4 years whiplashed from +3.0% in Trump's first term to -1.7% in Biden's, due partly to timing of Covid stimulus. 110
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 22/10/2024U.S. opinion has turned sharply against grocery providers and the restaurant industry--blaming them for food inflation, and also for unhealthy food? Amazing data from Gallup, reposted here from the other site via Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social for the growing #FoodEconomics 📉📈crowd here. 3369
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 16/10/2024In today's panel discussion at Tufts about SNAP and WIC, Ben Chrisinger @bchrisinger.bsky.social and Di Fang (U of Florida) shared big insights with Yui Chang at the Friedman School of Nutrition @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social. Thank you! 041
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/10/2024The power of #OpenAccess: in just five months there's been over 100k free online uses of the #FoodEconomics book. If each user browsed 5 chapters, that's >20k unique users. You can join them here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007... and check out our teaching blog: sites.tufts.edu/foodeconomics 📉📈 193
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 05/10/2024Good news on obesity rates in the U.S. -- so far covered only by the FT's John Burn-Murdoch and Axios' Caitlin Owens? Details from @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social here: on.ft.com/3zJVVuQ Axios image is via Mike Allen's newsletter: www.axios.com/newsletters/... Lots of 📉📈 #FoodEconomics to study! 010
Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 07/08/2024In New Delhi for the ICAE2024 global gathering of ag economists, two EconSky stars on one panel: @hopecm.bsky.social and @davidwuepper.bsky.social. So much 📈📉!! 021