Bennett's law
In agricultural economics and development economics, Bennett's law observes that as incomes rise, people eat relatively fewer calorie-dense starchy staple foods and relatively more nutrient-dense meats, oils, sweeteners, fruits, and vegetables. Bennett's law is related to Engel's law, which considers the relationship between rising household incomes and total food spending.
History
The concept of the declining "starchy-staple ratio" originated in Merrill K. Bennett's 1941 paper, "International Contrasts in Food Consumption."[1][2] The first published attribution of the concept to Bennett and naming as Bennett's law appears in the proceedings of a 1959 conference [3] held by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Contemporary use and implications
Bennett's law is now a "well-established stylized fact"
References
- JSTOR 210172.
- .
- ^ Hagan, Robert Mower; American Society of Civil Engineers. (1959). Proceedings. Conference theme: Can man develop a permanent irrigation agriculture. Denver: U.S. National Committee of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
- .
- PMID 22123955.
- PMID 22106295.