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*Disclaimer - This email is to acknowledge citations of current AAEA members and/or their research in any public media channel. AAEA does not agree nor disagree with the views or attitudes of cited outside publications. Ricky Volpe, California Polytechnic State University “Don’t Fear the Digital Price Tag “ By: The Hill – October 5, 2026 “A half century ago, consumer groups fought the use of bar code scanners in grocery stores over concerns that they would make it easier to rip people off and charge higher prices. There was even a concern that the laser would burn people.“ (Continued...) Paul Mitchell, University of Wisconsin-Madison “Diesel Prices Are Hitting Record Highs at a Bad Time for Many U.S. Farmers” By: Agrinews – September 27, 2026 “Those prices hurt… And it’s not just the harvesting. It’s the hauling of everything, moving the grain or the silage from the field to the farm and then from the farm to wherever they’re selling it.” (Continued...) Amelia Finaret, Allegheny College “Changes to SNAP Benefits Are in Effect. Here's How Pennsylvanians Could Be Impacted” By: CBS News – October 1, 2026 "There are new rules about work requirements, and there are new rules about reporting on people's utility bills and their rental and housing costs. These new restrictions will make it more difficult to navigate the program and will likely cost countless families their benefits. Currently, more than 1.7 million Pennsylvanians take part in SNAP.” (Continued...) Kenneth Foster, Purdue University “Cattle to Feed: Why a Global Meat Crisis is Looming” By: Dominican Republic Post – Septembe 28, 2026 “Cattle production is constrained by biological supply cycles. It can take a couple of years for a producer who receives a signal from the market to expand production and actually see the resulting animals enter the beef supply. The quickest way to rebuild a herd is to keep female cattle that might otherwise have been sold and use them for breeding. That is what Brazil is now doing.” (Continued...) Gregory Ibendahl, Kansas State University “K‑State Agricultural Economist: Diesel Prices Could Remain Figh For Years” By: The Fence Post – September 28, 2026 “While part of the increase in diesel prices can be traced to higher crude oil prices, the larger driver is a global shortage of diesel fuel. The price of oil has gone from the low to mid-$70s to more than $100 a barrel, and that probably explains about 70 cents of the increase per gallon. But diesel is up more than that. The rest is really because there just isn’t enough diesel fuel in the world right now.” (Continued...) Sunghun Lim, Iowa State University
Michael Langemeier, Purdue University
Barry Ward, The Ohio State University “Business Management Expert Urges Farmers to Focus on Liquidity And Cost Control Heading into 2027” By: Brownfield – September 30, 2026 “We’ve got elevated cost structures that we’re not going to be able to avoid. Fertilizer, fuel prices, machinery and equipment, cash rents, they’re all elevated. It’s really going to create some challenges for farmers trying to find some profitability.” (Continued...) Claudia Schmidt, Pennsylvania State University “Corn Mazes, Apple Picking, and Hayrides: More Farms Are Leaning into "Agritourism"” By: Marketplace – September 30, 2026 “Agriculture prices are going down, there are issues with weather, and also input costs are rising. Diesel prices are in the news at the moment.” (Continued...) Eric Belasco, Montana State University “High Diesel Prices Squeeze Montana Farmers” By: Europe Says – October 2, 2026 “For Montana’s agricultural producers, the immediate impact is often a tighter profit margin. Farmers can’t simply stop running combines and other diesel-powered equipment when prices rise. And because they sell into competitive commodity markets. Individual producers have limited ability to raise prices to compensate for higher input costs.” (Continued...) Alexis Villacis, The Ohio State University "Falling Cocoa Prices Offer Little Relief for Halloween Candy Shoppers" By: Morning AgClips - October 7, 2026 “Record spending does not necessarily mean stronger consumer demand or a more generous Halloween. It can also reflect households paying more to preserve a tradition while adjusting what they purchase.” (Continued...) Ian Sheldon, The Ohio State University
Ani Katchova, The Ohio State University "Ohio Farmers Weigh Better Crop Outlook Against Cost Pressures" By: Morning AgClips - September 20, 2026 “High grain prices and favorable yields offer some relief, but costs rising." (Continued...) Gabriel Lade, The Ohio State University
Ken Foster, Purdue University "Cattle to feed: Why a global meat crisis is looming" By: Al Jazeera- September 28, 2026 "Cattle production is constrained by biological supply cycles, Kenneth Foster, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, told Al Jazeera. It can take a couple of years for a producer who receives a signal from the market to expand production and actually see the resulting animals enter the beef supply. The quickest way to rebuild a herd is to keep female cattle that might otherwise have been sold and use them for breeding. That is what Brazil is now doing." (Continued...) Berhard Dalheimer, Purdue University "U.S. Diesel Prices Just Surpassed a Record $6 Per Gallon. Here Are Three Ways That Affects You" By: Time - September 11, 2026 “The goods that need lots of refrigeration and are on long routes of transport that are perishable, so the vegetables, meat and dairy, those are more exposed to [diesel costs],” Bernhard Dalheimer, assistant professor in food economics at Purdue University, tells TIME. (Continued...)
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Monday, October 12, 2026
Members in the News: October 12, 2026
Member Blog: David Zilberman
Remembering Andy Schmitz
I was very saddened to learn about the death of Andy Schmitz on October 8, 2026. Andy was a mentor, a colleague, and a friend, and I owe him a lot, both as a scholar and as a person. He was extremely important to me when I was a graduate student and a young faculty member. In many ways, he taught me the ropes about where and how to publish.
I knew about Andy before I came to Berkeley. When I was in Israel preparing to leave, Professor Asher Razin asked me why I was going to Berkeley when I had other opportunities. But then he added, “There is one guy there who is publishing all the time in journals. His name is Schmitz.” When I asked my friend Gershon Feder about the people there, he told me that the leading figures were Kuznets, de Janvry, and Schmitz. Kuznets was a fantastic teacher. De Janvry was in Chile when I arrived, and Schmitz was king of the coffee room.
Room 325 in Giannini Hall was our coffee room. During the year I arrived in the department (1973), some of the graduate students would play cards with some faculty members every day between 10 and 10:30. Others would sit in the room, talking and discussing economics with Andy.
Andy was a character. He had a farm in Saskatchewan, and his mood often depended on the weather on his farm. He would talk with everybody on every topic, and he made you feel like an equal. He used diagrams for his economic analysis, and he had incredible economic intuition and an ability to develop an analysis that addressed a practical situation.
Andy the mentor
I had received my undergraduate degree and taken some master’s-level classes at Tel Aviv University. My impression of economics was that it used very complex mathematical tools to prove common-sense propositions and develop very useful formulas and procedures for policymaking. I did not really understand the moral, ethical, and political importance of economic analysis until I met Andy.
Andy was a big believer in welfare economics. He argued that an efficient outcome was not enough. Whenever there was a change, it was very important to him to understand who gained, who lost, by how much, and what happened to the losers. Was there a way to compensate them?
He applied this approach to many problems. One of his most important papers—and, in my view, one of the top five papers ever produced in the department—was his paper on the tomato harvester, published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.[1] It was part of a huge controversy. The paper argued that the tomato harvester improved the overall economic well-being of California, but the gains went mostly to farmers and consumers, while the big losers were farmworkers. This paper was very important in the fight to develop mechanisms to compensate farmworkers who lost their jobs because of new technology, and to create institutions that could help them. The impact of the debate surrounding this paper continues to this day.
Another thing I learned from Andy was the importance of market structure. Andy was a trade theorist, and he taught me that, when it comes to trade and markets, the competitive model is a nice metaphor and a great benchmark, but it does not always reflect reality. Markets have several levels, and we need to understand the relationships between them. Is there a monopoly? Is there a monopsony? In many cases, there is a middleman. A middleman is a company that may have monopoly power toward its customers and monopsony power toward its suppliers. Apple, for example, has unique products, and it makes a lot of money because it can exercise market power on both sides, in its dealings with suppliers and consumers.
When you worked with Andy and raised a problem, the discussion often led to a journal article. At the time, in the early 1970s, we lived in an era of price controls aimed at protecting consumers. Andy pointed out that much of the analysis behind these policies assumed that there were three main players in the economy—producers of food and other products, consumers, and the government—and ignored intermediaries. One paper resulting from this insight appeared in the American Economic Review[2]. We developed a formula to calculate the errors resulting from price-support policies that ignore middlemen and derived alternative policies that take their existence into account. Another “coffee room” paper appeared in Science magazine in 1979[3]. It was written in response to suggestions to slow technological change in order to preserve workers’ income, especially in agriculture. We suggested interventions that would capture the net benefits of technological progress without harming workers—such as worker retraining and severance compensation programs—rather than halting technological growth.
A scholar who helped build the department
As Alain de Janvry noted in his heartfelt tribute to Andy, Andy always emphasized that being agricultural economists does not prevent us from publishing in top economics journals. The opposite is true: we are exposed to real-world problems, and we can use them to develop sophisticated models that can enrich the mainstream economic literature. We should have a balanced portfolio: papers in mainstream journals like the American Economic Review and Econometrica, papers in agricultural economics journals, and papers in journals like Science. He practiced what he taught. In the 1980s, he published fifteen papers with students and other collaborators in top mainstream economics journals, in addition to numerous papers in agricultural economics journals. These papers offered theoretical insights and useful lessons, even though they might not have been the most complex. Andy also influenced the research methods of applied economists through his practical, classic book on applied welfare economics[4], coauthored with his students Richard Just and Darrell Hueth.
Andy’s leadership and academic achievements were very important in the early 1970s, when the department was on the brink of closure. Andy actively supported our chair, Jim Bowles, in getting new positions and recruiting Richard Just, whose arrival was a turning point for the department. I remember Andy’s excitement about the hiring of Michael Hanemann and Irma Adelman. He told us that, with these additions, we were climbing to the top of environmental and development economics. Andy was one of the few representatives of the department at the AAEA meetings in the 1970s, and in 1985 he became the department’s first AAEA Fellow since I had joined the faculty. Andy was also among the effort to bring a senior Ag Economist to Chair the department in the late 70s to push it to the top, an effort that led to the selection of Gordon Rausser as Chair and a lasting period of eminence of the department.
Andy was chairman of the department from 1989 to 1993. During that period, California voters considered Big Green, a proposition to phase out the use of pesticides on crops. Drawing on research we had done, mostly for the EPA, we organized a conference on the topic. We argued that pesticides needed to be regulated, but a blanket ban did not make sense: our research suggested that the social benefits of appropriately managed pesticide use could substantially exceed the costs. We faced considerable political pressure against this effort, and Andy stood firmly behind me. He was strong in defending me and my right to present the research. Later, a paper based on our work on pesticides appeared in Science magazine[5].
Long lasting career and friendships
Andy left the department as part of an early retirement program and moved to the University of Florida in 1994. In Florida, he continued to be an active researcher and mentored a lot of younger economists, in particular Chuck Moss, Krishna Kramer, and his son, Troy Schmitz, to produce several edited volumes and papers. He kept his knack for addressing emerging, controversial problems. He and his co-authors applied a public choice theory and political economy models to explain how lobby groups shape tariffs, subsidies, and farm policy to produce a book on agricultural policy, Agribusiness, and Rent-Seeking Behavior[6]. He continued to develop elegant models to explain and quantify how government compensate strong interest groups in order to modify federal program (elimination of the tobacco and peanut programs)[7]. About 15 years ago, he led the writing of a book on an emerging topic at the time, The Economics of Alternative Energy Sources and Globalization[8].
Andy and Carole were always a warm and friendly couple. Their home was a place where faculty and students mingled. You could spend time there relaxing with distinguished professors like Irma Adelman and with students who had just arrived. We would have a good dinner, the wine would flow, and we would talk and sing. Andy had a great voice, and Carol was a good pianist, and everyone had a good time. Andy was very perceptive, and during periods of stress in our lives, including during my divorce, he made sure to invite us to dinner or festivities in his home. Their house also hosted departmental parties and other events, and our children grew up with the department. For many of us, including me as a first-year student, it felt like a second home.
Over the years, we shared many experiences. I visited Andy’s home village in Saskatchewan, and we traveled together extensively around the world. Andy and I organized a conference in Costa Rica, where we had a great time exploring the tropical forest, traveling by boat through the jungle, enjoying the wildlife, and making friends.
I visited him several times after he moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville. Leorah and I stayed with Andy and Carole for a week and had a great trip together to St. Augustine and other places in Florida. Another visit coincided with the terrible day when Prime Minister Rabin was killed. Andy and Carol were extremely supportive during that very difficult moment for me. On another occasion, I gave a seminar and went on a fishing trip with Andy and his faculty colleagues. In 1999, we co-organized a conference in Gainesville on climate change. It was extremely well attended, and Florida officials expressed a great deal of concern about climate change because they worried that parts of the Everglades would be lost. I always loved meeting Andy at AEA conferences. Even two years ago, he showed me on a napkin a nice, clever theoretical result that he was able to draw geometrically, and we spoke about papers and collaboration. He was a real scholar to the end. He really loved economics. He loved people. He loved his family, and we will all miss him.
Andy’s friends and colleagues recognize his contributions and he has an appreciation club in the AAEA. His excellence was also recognized at the University of Florida by citation at the University of Florida.
Monday, October 5, 2026
Members in the News: October 5, 2026
Amitrajeet Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology
“How Do Employers Screen Recent Graduates in India?”
By: Basis Point Insight – September 24, 2026
“Understanding how employers screen recent graduates in India is important because the rapid expansion of tertiary education has created substantial variation in college quality and graduate skills. Identifying which signals employers use can reveal labour-market information frictions, and inform policies designed to improve hiring efficiency and employment outcomes.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Basis Point Insight
Shawn Arita, North Dakota State University
- “Report:
Food Aid, Trade Policies Need Better Alignment for Growth”
By: Progressive Farmer - September 23, 2026 - “Farm Journal
Foundation Drops Emerging Ag Markets Report”
By: Agri-Pulse - September 23, 2026
Zach Rutledge, Michigan State University
- “Michigan
Farms Caught in ‘Ping-Pong’ After Court Strikes Down Trump Admin Wage Cuts”
By: Mlive – September 25, 2026 - “Cattle
Associations Say ICE Enforcement Has ‘Chilling Effect’ on Ag Community,
Beef Prices”
By: Cattle Association – September 26, 2026 - “Advocacy
Group Warns That Farm Country Has No Margin Left For Workforce Disruptions”
By: KFGO - September 29, 2026
Sunghun Lim, Iowa State University
“What the U.S. ban on Select Canadian Imports Means For Iowa”
By: KTTC – September 29, 2026
“Canada is actually one of our very important trading partners in agriculture. in 2025, two-way agricultural trade totaled approximately $67.5 billion, with the U.S. exporting $28.2 billion and importing $39.3 billion.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: KTTC
Brittney Goodrich, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
“Beef Prices Rise as US Cattle Herd Remains Near Historic Low”
By: WTTW – September 17, 2026
“The economic incentives have really been favoring decreasing herd sizes. Not only have farmers not been able to sell cows for high prices, but persistent drought around the country has driven up the cost of feed. And the more recent spike in fuel prices also cuts into the bottom line for farmers. A small herd size then feeds into a chicken-and-egg — or cow-and-calf — problem for growing the herd. As the herd shrinks, the market for those cattle tightens. That can lead to rapid price swings in response to real or anticipated changes to supply and demand.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: WTTW
Michael Langemeier, Purdue
University
Nick Paulson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
“Record US Diesel Prices Squeeze Farmers; Food Prices May Rise”
By: Reuters – September 19, 2026
“Farm fuel costs are up $11 per acre from last year for corn and $7 per acre for soybeans.”
“Corn, soy and wheat futures all have rallied significantly since mid-August and hit multi-year highs in early September. Still, farmer margins remain thin compared to historical averages. High fuel prices could raise costs next year for seed and fertilizer.”
“Higher diesel prices raise costs in every step of the food supply chain, from harvesting on farms to freight delivery that carries food to grocery stores. The majority of our food moves on trucks and those trucks use diesel.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Reuters
Matthew Gammans, North
Dakota State University
Hongxi Zhao, North Dakota State University
“Conservation Bill Stirs Controversy”
By: Wyoming Livestock Roundup - October 2, 2026
“Depending on the easement type, these restrictions may limit development, subdivision, drainage, conversion or certain agricultural uses,” the authors write. “These agreements can shape landowners’ production options and affect land values in regions where farming and ranching are major economic activities.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Wyoming Livestock
Roundup
Frayne Olson, North Dakota State University
“US Railroads’ Fuel Surcharges Reach Record Highs”
By: Data Portuaria – September 20, 2026
"What's causing real fits and desperation is how quickly fuel prices are changing. When you think about an industry where your profit margin is just a couple of cents per bushel, that makes a big difference.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Data Portuaria
Gregory Ibendahl, Kansas State University
“K‑State Agricultural Economist: Diesel Prices Could Remain High for Years”
By: Ad Astra Radio – September 21, 2026
“The price of oil has gone from the low to mid-$70s to more than $100 a barrel, and that probably explains about 70 cents of the increase per gallon. “But diesel is up more than that. The rest is really because there just isn’t enough diesel fuel in the world right now.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Ad Astra Radio
Pei Zhou, Cornell University
“‘Healthy’ Food Labels May Not Mean What Shoppers Think, Study Finds”
By: Newsweek – September 28, 2026
“Consumers should avoid assuming that a single claim reflects the overall nutritional quality of a product. I would say: read the claim literally, not as a judgment of the whole product. 'Reduced sodium' tells you about sodium; 'high protein' tells you about protein. Neither necessarily means the product is healthier overall.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Newsweek
Pei Zhou, Cornell
University
Miguel Gomez, Cornell
University
“Front-of-Package Health Claims Don’t Guarantee Healthier Foods, Finds Cornell Study”
By: Nutrition Insight – September 28, 2026
“Our study does not suggest that a single attribute-based claim should be expected to reflect a product’s entire nutritional profile. These claims are designed to communicate specific product characteristics and may be accurate for those attributes.”
“We provide some direction for policymakers in our paper. The general idea is to transition from single claims to a broader nutrient profile style. In countries like Chile or Mexico, they use traffic stop signs to warn consumers about high salt, sugar, and fat, and this limits the positioning of products in the supermarket.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Nutrition Insight
Jada Thompson, University of Arkansas
“The Global Appeal of Nashville Hot Chicken”
By: Marketplace – September 23, 2026
“The value proposition is there. I also think it's a very versatile protein.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Marketplace
James Oehmke, Rutgers University
“Most Expensive Harvest Season on Record Hits American Farmers”
By: CBS – September 20, 2026
(Continued...)
Read more on: CBS
Nelson Villoria, Kansas
State University
Matin Qaim, University of Bonn
“How El Niño Will Drive up the Cost of Foods You Love — and Some Critical Staples”
By: Yahoo! News – September 26, 2026
“There can be a time lag between an El Niño and its effects on food prices. Tropical commodities such as palm oil, coconut oil, coffee and fishmeal, show the largest increases. With vegetable oils and coffee, prices can stay elevated for up to a year after an El Niño.”
El Niño-related weather extremes will likely hit agricultural production in South and Southeast Asia and Western Africa the most. I am really concerned especially about the poorest of the poor, who have to spend a large part of their income on food anyway and will be able to afford less with much higher prices."
(Continued...)
Read more on:Yahoo! News
Ellen Van Loo, Purdue University
“The Money-Saving Grocery Strategy Hiding in Your Pantry”
By: Money Talks News – September 25, 2026
“Grocery marketing can influence what you buy. For example, eggs may be labeled “hormone-free,” but U.S. law prohibits using hormones in egg production. Van Loo also recommends comparing package weights and serving sizes because large-looking packages can contain more air.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Money Talks News
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