Members in the News: Martin, Laborde, Fan, Motallebi, Alhassan, Hayes, and Sohngen

William Martin, International Food Policy Research Institute David Laborde, International Food Policy Research Institute Opinion: Open trade is crucial for food security and development Written by William Martin and David Laborde: Devex - May 15, 2018 What began as heated rhetoric over trade between the United States and China has evolved into a potential trade war, with both countries proposing tit-for-tat trade barriers. Our analysis shows that such policies will not only harm the two feuding nations but also have fallout among other countries in the global marketplace. The conflict captures the central issue outlined in chapter three of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Food Policy Report: Growing anti-globalization sentiments and moves toward protectionism threaten to undermine the substantial benefits of global trade — particularly for food systems and nutrition — while doing nothing to address the problems associated with it. (Continued...) Read more on: Devex Shenggen Fan, International Food Policy Research Institute Rebooting food: Finding new ways to feed the future By: Reuters - May 24, 2018 “Our agri food system is at a critical stage. It must be re-shaped,” Shenggen Fan, director general of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Food monopolizes a huge share of scarce resources, Fan said, and numbers bear this out. (Continued...) Read more on: Reuters “Think big” to make global food trade work for nutrition By: Sri Lanka’s Daily FT - May 15, 2018 Trade has an essential role to play in pursuing the global goals of eradicating hunger, said IFPRI’s Fan. International trade increases food availability and can help increase food diversity, as when tropical fruits are sent to temperate-zone countries during the winter and cereals are sent the other direction, he noted. Over the last 40 years, the worldwide share of food calories crossing international borders rose from about 12% to more than 19%, according to the report. (Continued...) Read more on: Sri Lanka’s Daily FT Marzieh Motallebi, Clemson University Mustapha Alhassan, U.S. Geological Survey, Science & Decisions Center, Energy & Minerals Clemson Workshop Helps Foresters Understand Carbon Credits By: Anderson Observer - April 11, 2018 “We are going to talk about the benefits of joining the carbon market for landowners,” Motallebi said. “We want to show forest landowners how they potentially can be sellers of carbon credits from their forest areas.” A fact sheet, Carbon Offsets for South Carolina Family Forest Landowners, written by Motallebi and Clemson postdoctoral researchers Mustapha Alhassan and Hamed Majidzadeh, explains carbon offsets and why they are important. (Continued...) Read more on: Anderson Observer Dermot Hayes, Iowa State University Farmers Nervously Await Outcome of Trade Talks By: The Pew Charitable Trusts - May 23, 2018 Iowa State’s Hayes said the drop in lean hog futures prices — reflecting a lost market for pig trotters, intestines and other pig parts unpopular in the United States but considered delicacies in China — cost farmers $9 a pig in March. Hog farmers were facing a difficult year before the tariff was imposed, Hayes said, because expanding production was set to depress prices. Farmers hoped to export surplus pork to other markets, including China, he said. (Continued...) Read more on: The Pew Charitable Trusts Brent Sohngen, The Ohio State University Tax or subsidy? Taking a look at strategies for reducing Lake Erie phosphorus sources By: Ohio's Country Journal - May 25, 2018 At a projected price tag of up to $20 million annually, a phosphorus subsidy to Ohio farmers or a phosphorus tax would be far cheaper than many of the proposed measures being recommended to reduce phosphorus in Lake Erie, Sohngen said. These proposals are estimated to cost anywhere from $40 million per year to $290 million per year, in addition to the $32 million spent on current conservation practices. (Continued...) Read more on: Ohio's Country Journal

See other Member in the News items If you would like to improve your scientific communications and media skills, attend the Post-conference Workshop on Science Communications and Media Engagement. It is Wednesday, August 8 morning, and costs just $25. Make this important event a part of your meeting schedule this year. Know another AAEA Member who has made statewide, national, or international news? Send a link of the article to salvarado@aaea.org What research and topics are you working on? Want to be an expert source for journalists working on a story? Contact Allison Scheetz at ascheetz@aaea.org.

*Articles in response to the AAEA Communicating Out Strategy Press Releases highlighting: Government Relations, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy, Choices Magazine, General Media, and/or 2018 AAEA Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.