Members in the News: Zhang, McFadden, Lusk, and Williams

Wendong Zhang, Iowa State University China imports a farm from Iowa By: The Economist- November 16, 2017 The transplanting of the Kimberley farm to Hebei is a sign of friendship, says Wendong Zhang of Iowa State university. It will be a museum rather than a model for China’s 260m farmers, who farm two acres on average. The Kimberley way of farming 4,000 acres with some sophisticated machinery and only a couple of hired farm hands is cost-efficient, but would risk creating mass unemployment in rural China. It could possibly be transplanted into the north-east of the country, close to North Korea and Russia, says Mr Zhang. The area is sparsely populated and already operates some large-scale farms. (Continued...) Read the entire article on The Economist Brandon McFadden, University of Florida Jayson Lusk, Purdue University What Are Consumers Willing To Pay For? A Preliminary Study On Chocolate Offers Surprising Insights By: Forbes- November 13, 2017 Two studies released in the last month show confusion abounds when it comes to food. The first—"Effects of the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard: Willingness To Pay for Labels that Communicate the Presence or Absence of Genetic Modification"—from Brandon McFadden, as assistant professor in the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Florida, and Jayson Lusk, head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, looked at pricing around two very different protocols: organic and genetically engineered foods. (Continued...) Read the entire article on Forbes Brian Williams, Mississippi State University On-farm water storage can help ease drought risk By: Delta FarmPress- November 7, 2017 Are on-farm water storage reservoirs for crop irrigation economically feasible? The answer, says Dr. Brian Williams, Extension assistant professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University: “It depends.” (Continued...) Read the entire article on Delta FarmPress

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