AAEA Blog

Member Profile: Andrew Muhammad

2012-02-01T09:12:00.000-06:00

Andrew Muhammad
Senior Research Economist
USDA-Economic Research Service

AAEA Activities:

Quality of Communication Award Committee Chair, 2011
Quality of Communication Award Committee, 2009-2011
COSBAE Past Chair, 2010-2011
COSBAE Chair, 2009-2010
Selected Presentations Committee, International Trade Topic Leader, 2010
Selected Presentations Reviewer, 2003, 2007-2011
Undergraduate Paper Competition Judge, 2008

Andrew Muhammad is a Senior Research Economist in the International Demand and Trade Branch, Market and Trade Economics Division of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. He joined ERS in 2010. From 2000 to 2006, he was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the College of Business at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and from 2006-2009, he was an Assistant and Associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University.

Muhammad has written over 30 journal articles in demand analysis, international trade and policy, and applied time series analysis. His current work focuses on global demand for food and agriculture, impacts of trade on developing countries, and the effects of trade policy and liberalization on import demand and exporters. Muhammad currently leads the global demand project for ERS where the primary outputs are income and price elasticities of demand for broad consumption and food categories across 144 countries. Estimates have been widely used in economic models such as USDA’s Baseline model, the GTAP model, and the International Food Policy research Institute’s IMPACT model. For those interested in the final report, see "International Evidence on Food Consumption Patterns: An Update Using 2005 International Comparison Program Data" (ERS Technical Bulletin 1929, March 2011).

Muhammad is particularly interested in the factors that cause source-based biases in international trade. While past studies have appealed to Armington to explain this phenomenon in that the source diversification of imports is often attributed to product characteristics differing across exporting countries, source-based biases still occurs even when source differentiation is minimal or nonexistent. His most recent work examines how one such factor (foreign/import price risk) can lead to source-allocating behavior even when imports are homogeneous (forthcoming in the AJAE). Other more recent works include: the effects of the U.S. cotton program on competing exporters, how export taxes in Argentina affect soybean demand in China, and the effects of country of origin on U.S. salmon preferences.

Andrew received a PhD in Food and Resource Economics in 2000 from the University of Florida. His dissertation won the Food Distribution Research Society Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award and the Food and Resource Economics Department Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award. He also received an MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of Missouri in 1996, and a BS in Agribusiness from Southern University in 1993.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

AEPP Call: Special Issue on Lifestyles, Obesity, and Nutrition

2012-01-31T16:09:00.000-06:00

AEPP is publishing a special issue titled "The Economics of Lifestyles, Obesity and Nutrition" and is looking for paper submissions. The deadline to submit a paper for consideration is March 15, 2012.

An increasingly important share of health care expenditure and demand is determined by individual choices. Lifestyle choices associated with food, smoking and drinking can explain an increasing role of health systems activity. However, more needs to be known to inform policy making about the economics grounded policy regarding health related lifestyles more generally, and obesity and nutrition more specifically.

The special issue could include contributions in the following areas:

Economics of prevention
Health information and the demand for health
Health lifestyles choices
Social motivation and health
Social environment and health
The economics of exercise

You can learn more in the full Call for Papers.

This issue is part of a series of AEPP special issues. If you're interested in being involved in a future special issue, you can learn more in the Special Issue Guidelines.

Call for Applications: USDA-ERS Summer Internship Program

2012-01-25T09:54:00.000-06:00

USDA-Economic Research Service is now accepting applications for its 2012 summer internship program. Qualified undergraduate and graduate students can apply for paid positions as an Economist/Economics Assistant or IT Specialist. Applications are due on March 2, 2012.

You can find more details about the program on the ERS website. Here are the qualifications they list for applicants:

Applicants must be currently enrolled in an accredited college or university.
Applicants must be planning to continue their education in the fall semester.
Because an internship is an "excepted service appointment," candidates must be a citizen of the United States or meet the criteria in the current appropriations law. For information see: http://www.usajobs.gov/ResourceCenter/Index//Interactive/NonCitizensEmployment#icc

Member Profile: Anna D'Souza

2012-01-18T11:05:00.000-06:00

Anna D'Souza
Research Economist
USDA-Economic Research Service

Anna D’Souza is a research economist in the Food Security and Development Branch in the Market and Trade Economics Division of the Economic Research Service, USDA. Her research addresses the major elements of food security—availability, access, and utilization—and integrates this analysis into the wider development literature to address the broader relationship between development, poverty, and food security. She investigates patterns, trends, and policy-oriented questions linked to global food security using recent household survey data from developing countries such as Afghanistan and Tanzania. Topics include estimating the impact of food price increases on calorie intake, macronutrient and micronutrient intake, and dietary diversity; identifying vulnerable groups with respect to food price shocks; and examining the relationship between food security, food price increases, and conflict.

D’Souza joined ERS after receiving a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her areas of study were institutions and governance, and international trade. Her job market paper, subsequently published in the Journal of Development Economics, examined the international trade implications of a major global anticorruption initiative. At ERS, D’Souza has drawn on this area of expertise, examining the impact of political violence on international trade in Kenya.

D’Souza received a BS in Finance and Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University, summa cum laude. She then served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Dakar, Senegal, where she worked with entrepreneurs, NGOs, and government organizations to promote small enterprise development. D’Souza has also served as an adjunct professor of econometrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

Call for Papers: International Agricultural Risk, Finance, and Insurance Conference

2012-01-17T09:34:00.000-06:00

Paper submissions are now being accepted for the International Agricultural Risk, Finance, and Insurance Conference (IARFIC) to be held at the Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China, on June 20-21, 2012. The theme of the conference is "Agricultural Risk, Finance, Insurance and Actuarial Science." The deadline for a paper or extended abstract submission (in English) is March 1, 2012.

This conference is hosted by The China Institute for Actuarial Science. You can find more information, including the full call for papers on their website.

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Food Policy, "Zero Tolerance Rules in Food Safety and Quality"

2012-01-09T09:29:00.001-06:00

The journal Food Policy is now accepting submissions for a special issue titled "Zero Tolerance Rules in Food Safety and Quality". Papers should be on average 6,000 words long (including abstract, appendices, tables etc) and must be submitted by April 16, 2012.

Here's the description of the special issue from its editors:

The special issue of Food Policy will focus on zero tolerance as a characteristic of public policy, statues, and/or regulations of food. We also consider private rules including grades and standards. Of interest are the public and private rules that impose a "zero" standard for substances, e.g. residues, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pathogens, and other constituents such as gluten and transfats. This standard also applies to rules governing production practices, for example, added hormones, and product defects, such as, insect parts.

You can find more information about this issue in the full call for papers. More information about how to submit is available on the journal website.

AAEA Hosting a Number of Events at ASSA in Chicago This Weekend

2012-01-05T09:45:00.001-06:00

This Friday and Saturday, AAEA will be hosting six sessions, along with the T.W. Schultz Memorial Lecture and Reception, as part of the 2012 ASSA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

New this year, The T.W. Schultz Memorial Lecture is free to all attendees and will be featuring Roger Myerson from the University of Chicago. His presentation is titled "State-Building, Leadership, and Local Democracy" and will be held at 5:00 pm in the Grand Ballroom of the Swissotel on Friday, January 6. Following the lecture, AAEA will be hosting a reception that will include some light hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. This is a great place to interact with fellow AAEA members while at the meeting. These events are not exclusive to AAEA members, so feel free to bring your colleagues and acquaintances.

In addition to the Schultz lecture, AAEA is hosting four sessions on Friday and two on Saturday which will take place at Swissotel Chicago in Montreux 3. You can find the schedule for these sessions below, and more details on each on the AAEA website:

Friday, January 6

8:00 am: Assessment of Climate Change Impact Methods for Agriculture
10:15 am: Revisiting the Relationship between Biofuels Production and Food Prices
12:30 pm: Environmental Kuznets Curve: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives
2:30 pm: The New Normal? The Food and Agricultural Economy

Saturday, January 7

8:00 am: Theoretical and Empirical Innovations in Technology Adoption Modeling
10:15 am: Why Peers Matter: Social Networks in Status, Learning and Influence

Member Profile: Andrea Carlson

2012-01-03T09:27:00.000-06:00

Andrea Carlson
Economist
USDA-Economic Research Service

AAEA Activities: Food Safety and Nutrition Section Chair, 2005-2006

Andrea Carlson joined the USDA-Economic Research Service in December 2009, after nearly ten years at the USDA-Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP). While at CNPP she was the project lead for the USDA Food Plans, including the Thrifty Food Plan. The USDA Food Plans use mathematical optimization models to estimate four food budgets that both meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and are comprised of foods that are commonly consumed by Americans. The Thrifty Food Plan budget is used to estimate the annual cost of living adjustment to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. She also worked with CNPP nutritionists to revise the Healthy Eating Index, and with fellow economist, Mark Lino, to update USDA’s Cost of Raising a Child estimates, used by many states to set child support, and foster care payments.

Since coming to ERS, Andrea has expanded the scope of her research to examine the impact of the metric used to measure food prices, the overall impact of food expenditure on diet quality, changes in milk consumption patterns, organic foods, and the impact of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on agricultural land, employment and energy resources.

There are multiple ways to measure food prices. For example, economists typically use $/pound. Closely related, though more difficult to calculate, is $/edible pound where the weight is the weight actually consumed—without the peels, shells, skin, bones or seeds, and with any water or fat added during the cooking process. Nutritionists have used $/calorie, but make dietary recommendations in terms of cups or ounces—suggesting that $/cup or $/ounce might be a good metric. The answer to the question of whether healthy food is more expensive than less healthy food changes depending on the metric. Using $/calorie makes vegetables look very expensive since they are low in calories, but using $/pound, $/edible pound, or $/cup suggests that a wide variety of vegetables are affordable, even to those receiving SNAP benefits.

What if we now look at the estimated food budgets of average Americans on a day when they are not necessarily trying to eat a healthy diet? It turns out that the expenditure has only a very limited impact on the healthfulness of the diet. Much more important factors include lifestyle, education, health behaviors, and where individuals choose to purchase their food that day.

Andrea earned a BA in physics from St. Olaf College, in Northfield, MN, a MS in International Development and Appropriate Technology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was on the impact of WIC and Food Stamps on children’s health. She also spent a year as a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working on lead poisoning prevention.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

Call for Papers: NAREA 2012 Annual Meeting

2011-12-21T11:28:00.000-06:00

NAREA is currently accepting submissions for its 2012 Annual Meeting on June 10-12, 2012 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Submissions for both Selected Papers and Symposia are being accepted, with a submissions deadline of February 1, 2012.You can learn more in the full call for papers.

Call for Papers: American Association of Wine Economists Annual Meeting

2011-12-19T10:18:00.000-06:00

The American Association of Wine Economists will be holding it's sixth annual meeting on June 7-10, 2012 in Princeton, New Jersey. AAWE is now accepting submissions for the meeting, in the form of a 1,000 word abstract. All economics and statistics papers related to wine, beer are welcome and must be submitted by by March 1, 2012. You can find more information in the full call for papers.

Member Profile: Glynn T. Tonsor

2011-12-13T08:34:00.000-06:00

Glynn T. Tonsor
Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University

AAEA Activities:

Food and Agricultural Marketing Policy Section (FAMPS) 2011-2012 Chair-Elect
AAEA 2007 Distinguished Extension/Outreach Program Group Award

Glynn Tonsor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. He grew up on a farrow-to-finish swine farm in northeast Missouri. He was a faculty member at Michigan State University from May 2006 to March 2010, at which point, he joined the KSU faculty in his current position. Tonsor leads a thoroughly integrated research and outreach program covering a spectrum of critical economic issues facing the livestock and meat industry including animal identification and traceability, animal welfare, country of origin labeling, food safety, meat demand, and risk management.

To-date Tonsor's work on a host of livestock economic issues has resulted in 36 journal article publications, obtaining over $1.6 million in funded grant projects, and providing over 100 outreach presentations to both domestic and international livestock industry stakeholder groups. He makes numerous outreach contributions involving novel knowledge transfer mechanisms including YouTube videos, webinars, and publishing a quarterly series, Connecting Livestock Producers with Economic Research, in partnership with Feedstuffs magazine to increase dissemination from journal articles to livestock industry decision makers.

Those interested in more details can find Tonsor's full vitae, a short video summarizing his program, and a list of recently provided presentations on AgManager.info.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

Watch AEPP Editor Ian Sheldon Interview Speakers at the 2011 Annual Meeting

2011-11-30T10:33:00.000-06:00

Ian Sheldon speaking with John Quiggin in Pittsburgh.

At the 2011 AAEA Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, Ian Sheldon, the Featured Articles Editor of AEPP, conducted interviews with three of the most influential economists of our time, discussing critical issues facing applied economists and policy-makers in the 21st Century. You can watch these interviews now on the AEPP website.

Sheldon spoke with three plenary speakers from the 2011 Annual Meeting:

Robert E. Hall, Stanford University (Keynote Address) on the topic of "Why is the U.S. Recovery from the Financial Crisis So Sluggish?"
John Quiggin, University of Queensland (Fellows Address) on the topic of "Stabilizing the Global Climate: A Simple and Robust Benefit Cost Analysis"
Martin Ravallion, World Bank (Galbraith Forum) on the topic of "Growth and Poverty Revisited"

You can learn more about AEPP by visiting the AEPP website.

Extension/C-FARE Webinar 12/13: Regional Perspectives on Economic Forces Shaping Land Asset Values

2011-11-29T14:46:00.001-06:00

While much of U.S. commercial and home real estate values have been slow to recover from the recession, Farmland values have shown increased volatility depending on land asset use and regional location. The AAEA Extension Section and C-FARE are presenting a free webinar titled "Regional Perspectives on Economic Forces Shaping Land Asset Values" that will discuss economic forces affecting land values from different regional perspectives.

The webinar will take place on Tuesday, December 13 at 12:00 PM EST, using technology located at Montana State University and hosted through Ag In Uncertain Times.

You can learn more about the webinar in its official announcement.

Member Profile: Maria I. Marshall

2011-11-29T08:46:00.001-06:00

Maria I. Marshall
Associate Professor
Purdue University

AAEA Activities:

CWAE Board member-at-large 2005-2007
CWAE Vice-Chair 2007-2009, Chair 2009-2010
Topic Leader for Teaching, Communication, and Extension 2009-2010 and 2010-2011
Outreach Task Force 2010

Maria Marshall's work focuses on the multiple risks that family farms face, both internally and externally. In one project, she focuses on internal risks to success through the process of management succession. At any given time, 40 percent of U.S. businesses are facing the issue of ownership transfer. One reason that family farms find it difficult to successfully make the generational transition is that the people involved must have a good understanding of both the business and the family. Family businesses also must work through issues mixing both business decisions and personal family decisions. The overall objective of Marshall's succession planning research project funded NIFA-AFRI is to identify the plans and processes that have been used by farm and non-farm rural family businesses to successfully make the management transition to a new generation. This work examines not only the family and the business but also the interactions that simultaneously influence the success of rural family farm and non-farm rural family businesses. Primary data for this research is being collected through 30 minute interviews with small and medium sized farm and non-farm food businesses in IN, IL, MI, and OH.

Marshall also studies the external risks to the business through the process of disaster business recovery. The process of business recovery from disasters has yet to be studied comprehensively. Understanding this process is important not only to characterize and reduce attrition post-disaster but also to determine whether private and government disaster relief policy, business owner practices, and family and community factors are leading to recovery. Research to date has narrowly focused on business characteristics and not on the interactions and interdependencies among businesses, the business owner’s family, and the community. A systems theory approach advocates considering simultaneous stressors on the business, family, and community to understand what leads to business demise or recovery. Marshall's NSF (2009-2012) and NIFA-AFRI (2011-2014) funded research uses comprehensive data on business owners and their families to assess the extent to which family considerations and owner patterns of adjustment to change impact business recovery or non-recovery. She examines disaster aid practices and policy and the role of community in business owner decisions post-disaster. Her research uses a theoretical systems framework to examine the interaction and relative importance of factors such as business and owner characteristics, challenges faced by families and businesses, family resiliency and adjustment strategies, owner risk-taking, spatial characteristics of the disaster, and infrastructure changes created by a disaster on the post-event recovery or demise of small and medium sized businesses.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

Call for Grant Proposals: Applications of Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs

2011-11-18T09:22:00.001-06:00

The Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs (BEN Center) is now accepting grant proposals for 2012. This annual program seeks to support research involving the applications of behavioral economics in child nutrition programs, particularly those focusing on the National School Lunch Program. Grants will be awarded in the amount of  $5,000–$40,000.

Those who are interested in applying must submit a letter of intent by January 16, 2012. You can find more information about the program, including the full RFP, on the BEN Center website.

Webinar Today: Geographic Distribution of Income Inequality

2011-11-17T08:35:00.001-06:00

Michigan State is hosting a webinar today focusing on "some surprising results on the geographic distribution of income inequality." The speaker will be David Peters of Iowa State, and the idea for this webinar came from his recent AEPP article "Place-Based Income Inequality Clusters in the Rural North Central Region, 1979–2009." The webinar will take place today, Thursday, November 17, at 11:00 am EST. You can can access it by visiting http://breeze.msu.edu/ncrcrd/.

Member Profile: Fabio Chaddad

2011-11-10T09:24:00.000-06:00

Fabio R. Chaddad
Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Missouri

AAEA Activities:

Chair-elect of AEM (2011-Present)
Member at large (research) of AEM leadership team (09-11)

Fabio Chaddad's research program broadly fits in the field of agribusiness economics and management within the agricultural and applied economics profession, with emphasis on examining institutions and organizations in the global agriculture and food system. More specifically, his research focuses on the organization and boundaries of the agribusiness firm, with applications to finance, contracting, governance and inter-firm collaborative arrangements. He is currently engaged in research projects 1) estimating industry and strategic determinants of profit persistence in U.S. agribusiness firms with the hierarchical linear modeling approach; 2) analyzing networks of producers, farm input suppliers and service providers in South America’s agricultural production sector using a multiple case study approach; 3) examining organizational innovations in pasture-based dairy operations (such as equity partnerships and sharemilking arrangements) from organizational economics and property rights perspectives; 4) investigating entrepreneurial activity in emerging wine regions (Missouri, Michigan and New York state) focusing on factors leading to survival and growth of start-up wineries and the development of grape-wine-hospitality clusters; and 5) evaluating the determinants of the separation of ownership and control, and corporate governance practices in farmer-owned cooperatives based on econometric analysis of survey data.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

Canadian Agriculture Policy Conference: Growing Forward in a Volatile Environment

2011-11-09T16:19:00.000-06:00

The second annual Canadian agriculture policy conference will take place on January 11- 13, 2012 in Ottawa, Ontario. The theme for this year's conference is Growing Forward in a Volatile Environment, and according to the organizers it "will provide the premier national policy outlook for the agriculture sector. A blend of presentations from invited speakers, invited agriculture policy research network members and research posters will highlight the issues and potential policy solutions facing the agricultural sector in Canada today." The conference is being organized jointly by the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and the five "Enabling Research for a Competitive Agriculture" policy research networks.

You can learn more about the conference, including how to register by visiting the conference website. Here's the description of the conference provided by the organizers:

The second annual Canadian agriculture policy conference will build upon the first year's success in providing the premier national policy outlook for the agriculture sector.

The ability for Canadian agriculture to grow forward in such a volatile business environment depends on answers to policy questions, such as:

What processes can make regulation work better (for consumers and industry)?

Making regulation: Are there best practices?

Regulation: Can better processes reduce the drag on innovation?

Will the level and volatility of commodity prices remain high?

What are the best strategies to manage risk for individual farms and firms?

For years, government policy was set in a context of low prices. Is there a role for policy in the current context?

What will continuing changes in the climate mean for Canadian agriculture?

Adaptation in a volatile environment: what can Canada learn from policies adopted in other countries?

What strategies should we consider to address issues surrounding water in agriculture?

What do the continually changing consumer preferences and attitudes imply for Canadian agriculture?

How can experiences with changing consumer markets in other countries inform Canadian food policies?

How do risk perceptions change the way farmers, processors and retailers need to deal with the consuming public in Canada and in export markets?

These are just some of the questions being addressed at the Second Annual Canadian Agriculture Policy Conference entitled Growing Forward in a Volatile Environment.

This conference will provide the premier national policy outlook for the agriculture sector. A blend of presentations from invited speakers, invited agriculture policy research network members and research posters will highlight the issues and potential policy solutions facing the agricultural sector in Canada today. The research being undertaken throughout the country will be featured and the exchange of ideas between invited speakers, industry participants, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada policy analysts and researchers in the five ERCA Policy Research Networks will be facilitated.

This conference should be a high priority for Canadians interested in food and agriculture policy and its role in dealing with the volatile business environment we find ourselves operating in. This conference will provide policy analysis and information in order to improve the dialogue between industry stakeholders. Attendees will have access to the country’s cutting edge research in food and agricultural policy and an opportunity to interact with decision makers from across the country and across the globe. The speakers represent some of Canada’s and the world’s best experts in their respective fields.

The Growing Forward in a Volatile Environment Conference is being organized jointly by the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and the five ‘Enabling Research for a Competitive Agriculture’ policy research networks – Canadian Agriculture Trade Policy Research Network (CATPRN), Canadian Agricultural Innovation and Regulation Network (CAIRN), Linking Environment and Agriculture Research Network (LEARN), Consumer and Market Demand Policy Research Network (CMD), Structure and Performance of Agriculture and Agri-products Industries network (SPAA).

This policy conference will be held January 11- 13, 2012 in Ottawa, ON at the Chateau Laurier.

Call for Papers: IBES Student Paper Competition

2011-11-04T08:46:00.000-05:00

AAEA's Institutional and Behavioral Economics Section is sponsoring a new student paper competition. The competition is open to graduate and undergraduate students. Winners will receive a cash prize and will have an award presented to them at the 2012 AAEA Annual Meeting in Seattle, August 12-14. The deadline to submit is January 5, 2012.

The topic of the paper must assess or develop theoretical aspects of institutional and/ or behavioral economics. Papers may be empirical or qualitative. Literature reviews are also accepted.

You can find more information in the full call for papers. Winners will be announced in April 2012.

Call for Submissions: IFAMA World Symposium, "The Road to 2050: The China Factor"

2011-10-31T10:59:00.000-05:00

The International Food and Agribusiness Management Association is accepting submissions for its 22nd Annual World Forum and Symposium, "The Road to 2050: The China Factor." The Symposium will be followed immediately by the IFAMA Forum, with both taking place June 11-14, 2012 in Shanghai, China. The deadline for submission is November 14, 2011

More information about the Symposium and Forum can be found on the IFAMA website. They are accepting submissions in a number of different categories, including Selected Paper Presentations, Discussion Sessions, Poster Displays, and Harvard-Style Teaching Cases. Here's the information provided by IFAMA on the event:

The International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) invites the submission of proposals for participation in the 22nd Annual World Symposium to be held in Shanghai, China. In order to provide an intellectual foundation for discussion, the Symposium utilizes:

Selected Paper Presentations

Discussion Sessions

Poster Displays, and

Harvard-Style Teaching Cases

The Symposium is followed by the Forum, an interactive series of presentations and discussions by top executives and researchers focused on timely issues impacting the global food chain. Diverse program themes and interaction with key agribusiness leaders enhances the sharing of information and identification of research issues. The Forum is on June 13-14, 2012.

Authors of a proposal should select from one of the following focus areas for their submission:

Global Food Availability, Cost, Trade, Security and Safety

Technology and Innovation in Food and Agribusiness Value Chains

Environmental Tensions and Compatibilities in the Food Chain

Human Capital Development to Meet Agribusiness Needs

Management of Food and Agribusiness Firms

Customer Orientation and Marketing

Commodity Price Volatility: Causes, Issues and Solutions

Other Areas

IFAMA will begin accepting Symposium submissions on September 15, 2011. The deadline for proposal submissions is November 14, 2011.

Symposium Co-Chairs: Dennis Conley, University of Nebraska, Holly Wang, Purdue University and Victoria Salin, Texas A&M University

Call for Submissions: IAAE's 2012 Triennial Conference, "The Global Bio-Economy"

2011-10-26T12:24:00.002-05:00

IAAE is accepting submissions for its 28th International Conference on Agricultural Economics, which will take place August 18-24, 2012 in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The theme of the conference is "The Global Bio-Economy." The deadline for submissions of Submitted Papers, Organized Symposia, and Pre- and Post-conference workshops is November 1, 2011.

More information about the conference, including the calls for each submission type, is available on the conference website. Here's the description of the conference listed on its homepage:

Throughout history, agriculture and natural resources have been used for the production of food, feed, fiber, fuel, and environmental goods. Recent developments in demand (both in terms of quantity and quality), technology, and traditional energy and chemistry markets have reinforced the demand for non-food applications. These developments, in combination with increased consumer demands for various food characteristics, have led to a rapidly growing and globally integrated bioeconomy.

At the same time, many of the “old problems” remain, and some, such as the need for solutions to global hunger and poverty and for sustainable natural resource management, have been re-enforced. In addition, recent global food and financial crises have brought “old questions” back to life, such as on the role of the state in regulating domestic and international markets.

The 28th ICAE proposes to address these changes, their effects and the best ways to address the challenges. The conference will bring together leading experts in these areas and provide a forum for exchange of ideas and new insights. Brazil is an excellent location to host such a conference as it has long embraced the new bio-economy and is now a very important global player in many aspects of it, while facing the associated challenges.

Choices Webinar: Communicating the Cooperative Value Package

2011-10-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

A free webinar titled "Communicating the Cooperative Value Package" will be held tomorrow, October 26 at 4:00-5:00 pm ET. This webinar has been organized as a complement to the recent Choices theme Critical Issues for Agricultural Cooperatives. It is being hosted by the eXtension Cooperative Community of Practice and C-FARE.

You can access the webinar through the eXtension website, and registering as a guest. Here's the full description of the session provided by the organizers:

Cooperatives have a great story to tell but often fall short in communicating their value package. October is National Cooperative Month and launches the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives. This is a great time to sharpen your communication efforts. On Wednesday, October 26th from 3:00-4:00 pm CT, the eXtension Cooperative Community of Practice and the Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics (C-FARE) will host a free national webinar focusing on communicating the value of cooperatives.

The webinar is targeted to cooperative managers, employees, board members, members and other stakeholders involved with agricultural cooperatives. This webinar will report on the communication efforts currently used by cooperatives, and examine communication objectives and challenges. A communication specialist from a large mid-west cooperative will describe their successful strategies. Both speakers will take part in a discussion session responding to your questions as well as discussing timely topics including:

Farmer perception of cooperatives

Communicating value to large producers

Cooperative involvement in public policy

Positive influence of cooperatives on markets

Increasing member participation.

Webinar link: https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/cooperatives enter as guest.

Participants who pre-register by contacting phil.kenkel@okstate.edu will receive a copy of the presentation material and discussion summary.

Member Profile: David A. Fleming

2011-10-11T08:32:00.000-05:00

David A. Fleming
PhD Candidate
Penn State University

AAEA Activities: Annual Meeting Selected Paper and Poster Presenter (2010 and 2011)

David A. Fleming is a PhD candidate in the Agricultural Regional and Environmental Economics (AEREC) program at Penn State University, where he also earned his Master’s degree. He is a research assistant at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD), current Latin America and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) grant holder, and former Fulbright scholar. Before starting graduate school he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Pontificia Univesidad Catolica de Chile and worked in rural development programs for a NGO and for the Chilean government. He is currently in the job market looking for an academic or institutional position.

David's research interests cut across development and environmental economics, with a special focus on rural areas and developing countries. As part of his dissertation research, he spent the spring semester of 2011 in Chile doing field work to investigate socioeconomic and behavioral responses of rural householders to the 2010 Chilean Earthquake. In particular his research looked at the link between social capital and natural disasters in two different projects: the first one, based on surveys conducted across several rural communities affected by the earthquake, analyzes the importance of initial levels of social capital for the access and use of different coping strategies by rural households; and the second one, using artefactual field experiments (based on the well known “trust game”), investigates whether the aftermath of natural disasters can affect trustworthy behavior among villagers. His findings of the former project show that social capital does matter for the recovery of households from natural disasters, results that provide important empirical evidence to the economic literature about social capital and its role on development. On the other hand, his second project finds that a natural disaster can deteriorate trusting behavior within communities, an important consideration for policy makers aimed to plan recovery programs for regions affected by disasters.

Other research topics that David has also worked on include land based policies (such as the CRP in the United States), agricultural trade, and non-farm entrepreneurship. Part of this work has already been published in different peer reviewed journals.

Last September (2011), David attended the Belpasso International Summer School in Environmental and Resource Economics, and the XII LACEEP Workshop held in Panamá, where he presented some of the findings obtained from his field work in Chile. Some of these findings were also presented in July at the 2011 AAEA & NAREA Joint Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.

Webinar: What’s at Stake? An Insight and Look at the Next Farm Bill

2011-10-03T15:58:00.000-05:00

A free webinar providing an overview of the next Farm Bill will be held Wednesday, October 11th from 3:00-4:00 pm ET. This webinar will include presentations from Dr. Joe Outlaw, Texas A&M University, Dr. John Anderson, American Farm Bureau Federation, and Dr. Robert Dismukes, USDA-Economic Research Service and is sponsored by C-FARE and SAEA.

Registration is free but space is limited. Here's the description of the webinar provided by the organizers:

With federal budgets tightening and the needs to feed a growing population increasing, what are some of the issues at stake in the next Farm Bill discussion? This webinar will bring industry, government specialists and academic researchers together to outline the debate that will shape American Farm Policy in the coming years.

Member Profile: Jason Brown

2011-09-27T08:59:00.000-05:00

Jason Brown
Economist
USDA-Economic Research Service

AAEA Activities: Chair of Community Economics Network (CENET), 2011–2012

Jason Brown completed his PhD in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in December of 2009. His dissertation, which was awarded the department’s outstanding dissertation award, focused on the location factors influencing the spatial distribution of capital formation in U.S. manufacturing and the resulting implications for rural development. After completing his dissertation, Jason accepted a position as an economist with the USDA-Economic Research Service in the Resource and Rural Economics division. He is a third generation employee of the USDA, following in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle.

Jason’s research focuses on the linkages between the rural farm and non-farm economy in order to better understand how structural change in the U.S. economy impacts rural America. His current research projects include investigating how changes in local industrial composition impact off-farm labor decisions of farm households, measuring economic impacts of wind turbine development using quasi-experimental and spatial econometric methods, modeling rural manufacturing resiliency, and investigating firm-level outcomes of government supported loan guarantees. He has also had opportunities to work with other ERS economists to advise policy makers in USDA-Rural Development on possible metrics to better target program funds. He finds that these interactions help generate new research ideas.

Jason currently serves as the Chair of the Community Economics Network (CENET) of AAEA. CENET was the primary reason for his involvement with AAEA as a graduate student. The section afforded him the opportunities to network with other professionals and graduate students conducting research on regional and rural development issues. In 2010, he was elected vice-chair and enjoyed the experience of helping to develop track sessions for last year’s meetings in Pittsburgh. As chair of CENET in 2011-2012, he hopes to help strengthen the connections between seasoned researchers and newcomers to the discipline.

This post is part of an ongoing series of profiles of AAEA members. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send them to Info@aaea.org.