Transportation Research Board Agricultural and Food Transportation Committee Call for Papers

Papers for the January 2019 Annual Meeting must be submitted electronically no later than August 1, 2018. Paper submission information is posted on the TRB website at: http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting/ResourcePages.aspx

The Standing Committee on Agriculture and Food Transportation (AT030) is inviting the submission of papers for presentation at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in January, 2019. The committee is directing activities toward the established theme for the meeting, Transportation for a Smart, Sustainable, and Equitable Future. The committee welcomes all papers that deal with the transportation of agricultural products and food. But of special interest to the committee is research with direct applicability and usefulness to private and public-sector freight stakeholders, including producers, processors, shippers, transportation service providers, and transportation planners. The committee is seeking not only original research, but papers that showcase research that has been implemented with real world impacts on the transportation of food and agriculture. The committee’s focus for the 2019 Annual TRB meeting will include the topics highlighted below.

Papers presenting original research or research implementation related to the following topics are highly desirable.

• Examining the impacts of changing economic and trade alliances on agriculture and food transportation

Global economic conditions drive demand for food and agricultural products, providing the foundation for U.S. agricultural trade. We are currently in the midst of what some have described as a “tidal wave of change” brought on by digital communications, robotics and 3D technologies. How is technology and its implications on countries of the world shifting the composition and pattern of U.S. agricultural exports and imports?

•  Access, Security and Resiliency in Agriculture and Food Transport

Global food supply is a key component in geopolitical conditions around the world. That food supply depends on effective production and transportation of agricultural materials and finished food products, much of which comes from the U.S. U.S. domestic agricultural and food supply is equally dependent on effective transportation including within borders as well as importation.

Food security is a growing concern. The agricultural supply chain must be designed to reduce security risks in terms of contamination, tampering, and timeliness. The supply chain needs to be able to respond to disruptions of all types to provide continuing service, whether this is milk delivered to your local grocer or rice donated to an endangered community overseas. Applicable research is needed to help sustain food supply both domestically and globally.

• Effects of Transportation Technology and Policy on Agriculture and Food Transport
  
  Electronic logging devices (ELDs) and their effects on the agricultural community is a topic of growing industry concern. Issues related to ELDs and other emerging technologies and policy issues related to agricultural transportation are areas where research is desirable.

• Open Topics

AT 030 submissions are not limited to the topics above. Papers dealing with any novel research concerns related to Agriculture and Food Transportation are also welcomed.

Please indicate “AT030” on the TRB Submission Review website to highlight that your paper is being submitted in response to the AT 030 call for papers. If your papers are relevant to agricultural and food transportation issues but do not specifically address the listed special topics, you should still indicate “AT030” upon submission through the TRB website.