Members in the News: Mintert, Williams, and Reardon

James Mintert, Purdue University Agricultural producer sentiment falls from January peak By: Yahoo Finance - March 7, 2017 "The concern producers expressed about current economic conditions is consistent with other measures of conditions in the farm economy," said James Mintert, barometer principal investigator and director of Purdue's Center for Commercial Agriculture. "For example, during the recent annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, USDA projected net farm income in 2017 will fall to $62 billion, a 9 percent decrease from 2016 and a 50 percent drop from the peak net farm income set in 2013." (Continued...) Read the entire article on Yahoo Finance Gary Williams, Texas A&M University Value of USDA Export Market Development Programmes Examined By: The Cattle Site - March 7, 2017 Mr Seng was also asked about the most prominent competitors in the global red meat marketplace. He noted that the European Union is an aggressive and well-funded competitor in the pork arena, especially since losing access to Russia – formerly the EU’s largest export market – in 2014. Seng explained that Australia promotes beef aggressively in key Asian markets, and has tariff rate advantages in some destinations – including Japan. In addition to Mr Seng’s testimony, Dr Gary Williams, professor of agricultural economics and co-director of the Food, Agribusiness and Consumer Economics Research Center at Texas A&M University, presented the results of a study showing that USDA market development programs have been highly effective in boosting US agricultural exports and export revenues. From 1977-2014, the programmes added an annual average of 15.3 per cent ($8.15 billion) to the value and 8 per cent (11.5 million metric tons) to the volume of US agricultural exports, generating a net return of $28.30 in additional export revenue for every dollar invested. (Continued...) Read the entire article on The Cattle Site Thomas Reardon, Michigan State University Of rice and men: A circular tale of changing food preferences By: The Economist - March 9, 2017 Rice has long been popular in some west African countries, such as Senegal. It is becoming a staple in much of the region. Thomas Reardon, who studies food at Michigan State University, says that urbanisation is driving demand. Urban workers developed a taste for rice in cafés and now cook it at home. Besides, rice is less fiddly to cook than millet or sorghum, adds Mr Roy-Macauley—a convenience food for Africa’s tired city workers. (Continued...) Read the entire article on The Economist

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