Members in the News: April 27, 2026

 Zach Rutledge, Michigan State University

“Immigration Crackdowns Spur Fears of Labor Shortages for Farmers”

By: SAN – April 19, 2026

“Immigrants play a very large role in U.S. agriculture. Around 70% of agricultural workers in the U.S. are from different countries. Farmers in Washington state have reported seeing an increase in their workers being detained in recent weeks, according to Save Family Farming.”

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Read more on: SAN

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Amitrajeet Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology

“New Research Shows Rising Class, Falling Race Gaps in Economic Mobility”

By: Rochester Beacon – April 21, 2026  

“Although these efforts are laudable, it is instructive to comprehend the striking changes one sees in intergenerational economic mobility in the United States by both race and class over a relatively short period.”

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Read more on: Rochester Beacon

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Richard Volpe, California Polytechnical State University

“Tariffs, War, And Now a Historic Drought Have Converged into a ‘Perfect Storm’ for U.S. Farmers and Food Prices”

By: Fortune – April 21, 2026

“What I think we’re going to see is a one-two punch of higher energy prices and higher fertilizer costs. We’re feeling energy now, then as we get into late summer and into the fall, that’s where we’re really going to start seeing the impact of the higher fertilizer costs.”

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Read more on: Fortune

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David Ortega, Michigan State University

“No Matter How You Slice it, a Tomato is Getting Way More Expensive”

By: Fortune – April 21, 2026

“It’s really this perfect storm of factors that are impacting tomato prices. Last summer the U.S. put a 17% tax on Mexican tomatoes. The timing of that tax coincided with a terrible growing season in the U.S. A cold snap in Florida, where most domestic fresh tomatoes are farmed, caused $160 million in damage.”

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Read more on: Fortune

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Ian Sheldon, The Ohio State University

• “What Does Iran Conflict Mean Beyond Higher Oil Prices”
  By: Morning AgClips -  March10, 2026
• “U.S.-China Trade Uncertainty”
  By: Brownfield Ag News - March 23, 2026
• “Iran Tensions Drive Up Fertilizer Prices”
  By: Spectrum News, April 6, 2026
• “Rising Energy Prices Are Impacting Ohio Farmers, OSU Economists Say”
  By: WTOL 11 - April 8, 2026
• “Global Conflict And Trade Shifts Pressuring U.S. Ag Exports”
  By: Brownfield - April 17, 2026

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Margaret Jodlowski, The Ohio State University

“Survey Measures Job Satisfaction For H-2A Farm Workers in Ohio”

By: Lancaster Farming - April 20, 2026

“Agricultural workers in the H-2A visa program who also farm in their home countries tend to have positive feelings about their work in the United States."

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Read more on: Lancaster Farming

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Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University

“BBQ Lovers Beware: Middle East Conflict Might Disrupt Your Summer Plans This Year”

By: FOX News – April 18, 2026

“The impact of ongoing challenges in the Middle East on energy prices impacts nearly every facet of the U.S. economy and beef-cattle are not immune.”

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Read more on: FOX News

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Scott Irwin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“Farm Economy 2026 Outlook: Crop Losses Near $35 Billion and Beef Remains the Lone Bright Spot Heading into the New Year”

By: Agro Informicon – April 18, 2026

“The deeper concern is structural: whether the 2025 trade war has produced the same type of permanent market share shift to South America — principally Brazil — that followed the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2017-2018. Brazil is now the world’s dominant soybean producer, and Chinese buyers have demonstrated their ability and willingness to source from South America during periods of political tension with the United States.”

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Read more on: Agro Informicon

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Dawn Thilmany, Colorado State University

“This Tamale Act Could Throw Open the Door For More Home Kitchen Entrepreneurs in Colorado”

By: CPR News –April 15, 2026

“For some subset of these businesses, they do become employers. They do grow and become economically viable businesses… No matter what someone's trying to do out of their home, it is very hard for people to accelerate at the level they want to until they're in one of these more sophisticated facilities where you can really have a workflow.”

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Read more on: CPR News

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Sean Cash, Tufts University

“Study Shows FDA ‘Healthy’ Label Boosts Demand for Healthier Snacks”

By: Newsweek – April 22, 2026

“Our findings demonstrate that labels act as signals for consumers, and policy can shape how well those signals work. When labels are viewed as credible, such as when they have the endorsement of a government agency, they are more likely to influence eating patterns and purchasing habits.”

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Read more on: Newsweek

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Karen DeLong, University of Tennessee

“Tennessee Researchers Find Buyers Pay More for Local Wine Labels”

By: Vinetur – April 21, 2026

“Overall, preliminary findings show that quality certification, AVAs and alcohol content definitely influence consumers’ valuation of wines. Our research shows that the new QAP logo and sourcing grapes from a Tennessee AVA will help increase consumer willingness to pay for Tennessee wines.”

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Read more on: Vinetur

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Sandro Steinbach, North Dakota State University

“As Iran Crisis Drags on, Fears of Global Food Catastrophe Grow”

By: Aljazeera – April 21, 2026

“Recent price moves should be interpreted with caution, describing them as a “mixed signal, not a clear reason for reassurance. Input shocks often transmit with a lag. Inventories, pre-purchased fertiliser, delayed pass-through, and uncertainty about duration can all temporarily mute the effect.”

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Read more on: Aljazeera

Member Blog: David Zilberman

Bruce McCarl: An Unsung Hero of Climate Change Economics

By David ZILBERMAN / April 26, 2026

Around 1985, a large, imposing, energetic man walked into my office and began telling me about his research on technology adoption and farm-system choices. He introduced himself as Bruce McCarl from Oregon State. I had just finished a paper on adoption, and I was embarrassed that I had ignored his work. So I read some of his papers, and they were impressive, coming from a different intellectual tradition. I had been trained in mainstream microeconomics: elegant models, propositions, and empirically estimable questions. McCarl came from a different world. He earned a Ph.D. in operations research from Penn State, and his work had a much more action-oriented approach.

He emphasized solving problems: identifying the key elements, recognizing the major practical constraints, and developing techniques that could guide decisions. His models recognized markets and other factors central to standard economics, but they were part of a broader system rather than the sole focus. McCarl’s work showed me a different and very effective way to understand and solve agricultural problems. He also developed important computer programs that could address some of the biggest practical problems we were facing.

Bruce’s research covered many topics. He became a leading scholar of water economics in Texas, including the management of the Edwards Aquifer. He studied the value of economic models for El Niño and climate change, and he built models of agricultural-sector and forestry activities. In each of these models, the operational quality was amazing and the economic logic flawless. Yet this was not the kind of work that appeared every day in mainstream economics journals. I was glad that agricultural economics journals provided a home for this literature. To me, it helped make agricultural economics unique.

In the 1990s, when Clinton was president, I was involved in the administration’s work on climate change. I worked with a White House group and an EPA group that sought to develop a U.S. climate policy and persuade Congress to support the Kyoto Protocol. We also began organizing conferences on climate change. I realized that one person was providing a unique and important quantitative assessment of the impacts of climate change on agriculture: Bruce McCarl. He was able to estimate how technologies such as low-till and no-till farming, nutrient management, and land-use changes would affect carbon sequestration. He analyzed how agriculture might adapt to mitigation policies and to climate change itself; how climate change would affect crop mix, planting locations, livestock management, and forestry; and how different mitigation strategies might work under alternative climate scenarios.

This work was detailed, practical, and directly relevant to policymaking. Policymakers needed answers to questions about land use, agricultural production, natural resources, and the economic consequences of alternative climate policies. Very few people could provide those answers with the level of detail and credibility that McCarl could. It was remarkable to me that one scholar could put all these pieces together.

In 2020, Rudy Naiga, the department chair at Texas A&M, offered me a Hagler Scholar appointment in the department. That meant I would come to Texas A&M for roughly 30 to 40 days each year to work with faculty, engage with students, and contribute to research. I was excited by the opportunity — not only because it came with good remuneration, but because I was genuinely intrigued by McCarl and his distinctive style of work.

I discovered that Bruce had built an extraordinary research group. He treats his students like family, while training them to tackle difficult practical problems with rigor, creativity, and a deep sense of purpose. His lab included talented people from all over the world who were skilled in methods that were rare in the profession. Together, they created a comprehensive approach to predicting the impacts of climate change and other natural-resource policies.  No wonder that Bruce is one of the Climate change Nobel Lauraete. He treated his students like family, while training them to tackle difficult practical problems with rigor, creativity, and a deep sense of purpose.

I found Bruce and his wife Lynn to be extremely warm and friendly. We went to multiple dinners together with other faculty members and to basketball games. He showed me the different facets of College Station and was very generous with his time and attention. He made me feel at home there.

With Bruce and Rudy’s guidance, I got to understand the difference between Berkeley and Texas A&M. Berkeley is able to recruit many more American graduate students, and emphasizes publishing in top journals and recognizition by mainstream economics. In A&M, most of the Ph.D.s are international, from diverse countries like Nepal, Iran, Nigeria, etc., and the emphasis is to solve pratical agricultural economic problems. Some of them are very bright and capable, but on average, lack the polish that Berkeley students have. Many of the students will go back to their countries and work at local universities. McCarl was amazing in his ability to continue wokring with his international students and help them to address their own challenges. Their papers were published in diverse agricultural and scientific journals (varying from Nature to Agronomy and Water, field journals). The papers were numerical and future-oriented. They relied on econmetrics but tried to develop trends and projections without overemphasis on rigorous causality tests. But they were very useful and relevant, very good in utilizing multiple data sources and addressing diverse problems in a practical way. Bruce is proud in being a problem solver in the agricultural resource and economics field, not an economist that happens to work on agriculture. In this regard, I find him as a kindred spirit.

I missed Bruce’s retirement party last week, but I felt that I was there in spirit, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with him and to seeing him and Lynn when I am in College Station. Knowing Bruce helped me appreciate his genius, and the fact that outstanding scholars may appear in different shapes and with different emphases. By their diversity, they make our research much more relevant and useful. I salute Bruce and Lynn, and I look forward to seeing them as they enter this next stage of their lives.

Members in the News: April 20, 2026

 Amitrajeet Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology

“How Extreme Heat Deepens Rural Undernutrition”

By: Basis Point Insight – April 12, 2026

“Extreme heat during the agricultural growing season in rural India can have several deleterious effects. It can reduce crop yields. When temperatures rise significantly, agricultural productivity declines, lowering the quantity of food that farm households can consume from their own production.”

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Read more on: Basis Point Insight

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Richard Volpe, California Polytechnical State University
David Ortega, Michigan State University

“Grocery Inflation Slowed in March, But That Doesn't Mean Your Cart is Getting Cheaper”

By: Marketplace – April 13, 2026

“There’s little question that tomatoes is sort of a case study in the ongoing impact of the current administration's tariffs,”

“The canary in the coal mine here are really the perishable food products. They are the least processed, require the most travel, and are time sensitive.”

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Read more on: Marketplace

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Richard Volpe, California Polytechnical State University

“Why BLTs and Salad Just Got More Expensive — Tariffs, War Send Tomato Prices Soaring”

By: CNBC – April 15, 2026

“I do expect there’s more pain on the horizon for tomato prices. While the White House has exempted many agricultural products from tariffs, tomatoes are among the few major specialty crops imported from Mexico that haven’t received an exemption.”

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Read more on: CNBC

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David Ortega, Michigan State University

• “Beef, that all-American food, is getting harder for Americans to afford”
  By: CBS News – April 13, 2026  
• “The Strait of Hormuz Blockade is Causing a Slow-Moving Food Crisis”
  By: The Verge – April 13, 2026
• “Your Grocery Bill Could Get Even More Expensive As Fuel Prices Climb”
  By: Harvest Public Media – April 13, 2026

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Christopher Wolf, Cornell University

“Butterfat Production and Protein Demand Fuel US Cheese”

By: Lancaster Farming – April 11, 2026

“Global sales have made space for more production to come online and new U.S. cheeses to be developed while whey has its own markets and demand, a big step up from its former secondary role.”

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Read more on: Lancaster Farming

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Seth Meyer, University of Missouri

“Farmers Grow Wary of USDA as Survey Response Rates Plummet - Columbia Today”

By: National Today – April 10, 2026

“Recent USDA surveys have seen response rates plummet to historic lows. This trend has emerged as farmers grapple with a prolonged downturn in the agricultural economy, potentially fueling distrust in the government agency tasked with supporting their interests.”

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Read more on: National Today

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Kenneth Foster, Purdue University

“Rising Oil Prices Expose How Vulnerable US Households Remain to Inflation”

By: CNN – April 12, 2026

“For lower-income households, the delayed effects may be the hardest part. We have households in our country where the percentage of income spent on food is closer to 50%,… And when you add on fuel for heating your home or for transportation for you getting to work, you’re now talking about a sizable percentage of people’s income that’s really not adjustable.”

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Read more on: CNN

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Amelia Finaret, Allegheny College

“New USDA Food Pyramid Could Add $1,000 to Your Grocery Bill”

By: USA Today -  April 10, 2026

"While animal-sourced foods can provide complete proteins, those sources of nutrition can also be found in cheaper options such as plant-based foods. So instead of buying beef, which is one of the most expensive forms of protein that you can get right now, combining rice and beans or combining any kind of grain with any kind of lentil is another way to get a complete protein."

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Read more on: USA Today

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Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee

“Why BLTs and Salad Just Got More Expensive — Tariffs, War Send Tomato Prices Soaring”

By: CNBC – April 15, 2026

“Tariffs levied on imports of Mexican tomatoes appear to be the primary factor underpinning the recent runup in price.”

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Read more on: CNBC

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Chad Fiechter, Purdue University

“The Precision Ag Paradox: Why More Tech Doesn’t Always Mean More Profit”

By: Hoosier Ag Today – April 13, 2026

“On average, most precision ag bundles are not associated with improved efficiency. Of the 17 different combinations we examined, only two showed statistically meaningful gains: automated guidance on its own, and the combination of yield monitors with grid soil sampling.”

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Read more on: Hoosier Ag Today

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Paul Mitchell, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Already Under Financial Pressure, Farmers Squeezed Further By Tariffs and Iran War”

By: PBS – April, 2026

"They're very concerned about negative margins driven by low prices and high cost. There's just a liquidity cash crunch for a lot of them and they're just trying to figure out how to deal with everything."

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Read more on: PBS

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Allen Featherstone, Kansas State University

“Number of Farm Lenders Shrinks as Loan Volume Increases”

By: Capital Press – April 13, 2026

“A declining number of banks that lend bigger amounts of money points to consolidation, rather than institutions getting out of the agricultural industry altogether.”

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Read more on: Capital Press

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Wendong Zhang, Cornell University

“Trump's Tariffs Dealt an Economic Blow to All 50 States, Study Finds”

By: Fortune – April 15, 2026

“The United States doesn’t have one agricultural trade exposure—it has 50 different ones… When processors face higher input costs, they pass it along. Eventually, the consumer in a New York grocery store is paying more for something that traces back to a trade dispute in Washington—even if New York itself exports very little.”

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Read more on: Fortune

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Dawn Thilmany, Colorado State University

“Colorado’s small rural districts face big financial strains, but anchor communities and have outsized outcomes”

By: CPR News – April 15, 2026

“Schools and health care are the two most critical factors in a small town’s ability to sustain itself. They’re also a primary economic anchor, providing middle-income jobs.”

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Read more on: CPR News

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Shawn Arita, North Dakota State University

• "Strait Delays Could Keep Global Fertilizer Flows in Limbo for Months"
  By: Red River Farm Network - April 17, 2026
• "Fertilizer Prices to Stay Elevated Through 2027 Even If Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Says Analyst"
  By: Brownfield - April 10, 2026 
• "Iran Crisis Adds Cost Pressure, Not a Food Shock"
  By: Miller Magazine - April 13, 2026 
• Will the Iran crisis lead to another round of food price spikes?
  By: CGIAR - April 7, 2026

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