ASU agribusiness professor elected to AAEA board of directors

Arizona State University Associate Professor of food industry management Carola Grebitus has been elected to the 2021 leadership of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA).

Grebitus, who is a senior sustainability scholar for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and the director of the Food and Agribusiness Lab (FAB Lab), will begin her new role for AAEA starting July 28 and will hold the position for a three-year term. The AAEA is the leading professional association for agricultural and applied economists, with 2,500 members in more than 60 countries.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to serve on the board, and I am looking forward to working on strategies to increase numbers of AAEA industry members by staying relevant and communicating all AAEA has to offer,” she said.

Grebitus received her doctorate in food economics and food marketing (magna cum laude) in 2007 from Kiel University in Germany and received the Goldener Zuckerhut annual award for junior professionals showing outstanding success in Germany's food economy awarded by the foundation Goldener Zuckerhut in 2006.

Her research is focused on modeling consumers’ food choices in general and consumers’ decision strategies in particular.

She has worked extensively on the determinants of consumer behavior, purchase decision-making and food quality from the consumers’ perspective. 

Her current research includes consumer preferences for local food, urban agriculture, and sustainable (food) products, willingness to pay for new technologies and the influence of food labeling on purchase decisions.

Furthermore, she investigates the role of social networks on healthy food choices and the adoption of genomics. Also, she has conducted research using retail surveys regarding consumers’ use of quality certification and country-of-origin information.

In her research, Grebitus applies a variety of methods ranging from auctions and choice experiments to eye tracking and taste tests. At ASU, she teaches courses in food product innovation and development, and food promotion and advertising, with a heavy emphasis on food retail.

Grebitus joined ASU in August 2012. Previously, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Food Market Research at the Institute for Food and Resource Economics at Bonn University in Germany. She was also a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta in Canada and at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University.

About AAEA

Members of the AAEA work in academic or government institutions as well as in industry and not-for-profit organizations and engage in a variety of research, teaching and outreach activities in the areas of agriculture, the environment, food, health and international development. The AAEA publishes two journals, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, as well as the online magazine Choices and the online open-access publication series Applied Economics Teaching Resources.