Members in the News: Rozelle, Weersink, Bovay, Katchova, Dinterman, Hurt, Lopez, Boehm, Janzen, Adjemian, and Misra

Scott Rozelle, Stanford University China's childhood experiment By: Science Magazine- September 22, 2017 Classes askew and gray hair tousled, Scott Rozelle jumps into a corral filled with rubber balls and starts mixing it up with several toddlers. The kids pelt the 62-year-old economist with balls and,  squealing, jump onto his lap. As the battle rages, Rozelle chatters in Mandarin with mothers and grandmothers watching the action. Elsewhere in this early childhood education center in central China, youngsters are riding rocking horses, clambering on a jungle gym, thumbing through picture books, or taking part in group reading. Once a week, caregivers get one-on-one coaching on how to read to toddlers and play educational games. The center is part of an ambitious experiment Rozelle is leading that aims to find solutions to what he sees as a crisis of gargantuan proportions in China: the intellectual stunting of roughly one-third of the population. “This is the biggest problem China is facing that nobody’s ever heard about,” says Rozelle, a professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. (Continued...) Read the entire article on Science Magazine Alfons Weersink, University of Guelph Canada's supply management a flashpoint in NAFTA talks: Here's why By: Financial Post- October 17, 2017 To help determine the price, provincial boards canvas producers to figure out the costs of production and then add a margin of profit to determine how much they’re guaranteed to be paid, explained Alfons Weersink, a professor of food and agriculture economics at the University of Guelph. “The system provides a stable return, and a decent return. And that’s the hallmarks of the system,” said Weersink. “It’s not subject to volatility of other agricultural sectors, which are inherently variable; ups and downs in prices constantly.” (Continued...) Read the entire article on Financial Post John Bovay, University of Connecticut Why Are Avocados So Expensive Right Now? Here Are 3 Reasons By: People Magazine- September 22, 2017 1. The basic law of supply and demand. “The simple reason is that demand is high and supply hasn’t been able to respond,” John Bovay, an agricultural economist at the University of Connecticut, told PEOPLE. “Avocados are extremely popular — people use them to make guacamole and avocado toast is really trendy right now — they’re just all over the place.” (Continued...) Read the entire article on People Magazine Ani Katchova, and Bob Dinterman, The Ohio State University Chris Hurt, Purdue University Bumper profits aren’t in the picture for Ohio farmers, experts say By: The Columbus Dispatch - September 21, 2017 “Is 2018 going to be better? No,” said Barry Ward, an Ohio State University Extension assistant professor in production management, during a talk on Wednesday at the annual Farm Science Review in London. “I feel like a broken record up here the last few years. Five-dollar corn is not in the picture, and it’s another year of tight, low or negative (profit) margins for everyone.” (Continued...) Read the entire article on The Columbus Dispatch Rigoberto Lopez, and Rebecca Boehm, University of Connecticut UConn: State agriculture nets $4B annually By: Hartford Business- October 2, 2017 In a presentation Friday at Futtner's Family Farm on Silver Lane, Rigoberto A. Lopez, chairman of UConn's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, said figures from 2015, the most recent available, show that agriculture infused as much as $4.05 billion into the state's economy that year, up from about $3.51 billion in 2010. (Continued...) Read the entire article on Hartford Business Joseph P. Janzen, Montana State University Michael K. Adjemian, USDA-ERS Chicago wheat contract remains global leader By: World-Grain - October 17, 2017 A comparison of Chicago and Paris wheat contracts was the subject of a study, “Estimating the Location of World Wheat Price Discovery,” published in the October issue of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Researchers were Joseph P. Janzen, an assistant professor at Montana State University, and Michael K. Adjemian, a research agricultural economist at the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Continued...) Read the entire article on World-Grain Sukant Misra, Texas Tech Lubbock area, global agricultural efforts celebrated at Harvest Luncheon By: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal - October 18, 2017 Some of those issues go beyond West Texas, which was a main focus of featured speaker Sukant Misra’s presentation. Misra is the associate vice provost for international programs at Texas Tech, whose background is in agricultural economics. Misra shared the global efforts Tech has made throughout the university. He highlighted the number of international students at Tech and the plans for the Costa Rica campus, which is expected to open in the fall of 2018. Misra also shared studies about global food security conducted by Tech researchers, which were of particular interest for the food and commodity producers. (Continued...) Read the entire article on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

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