Members in the News: Tyner, Fan, Boehm, Bellemare, Wilson, Woodard, Sherrick, Nkonya, Chepeliev, Van Der Mensbrugghe, Mintert, and Smith

Wallace Tyner, Purdue University American farmers grapple with falling prices and sinking incomes By: The Economist - November 8, 2018 A CALM USUALLY descends on America’s farm belt in November. Combines have mostly finished churning across fields; trucks have hauled crops to grain elevators; and farmers retreat to their living rooms to rest. This year, at least by one measure, they should feel particularly content. Randy Sims, a hog-and-grain farmer in western Illinois, produced 75 bushels of soyabeans per acre, a third more than in the past. Indeed American soyabean production in 2018 is expected to reach 4.69bn bushels, a record. But it is unclear who will buy them. (Continued...) Read more on: The Economist Shenggen Fan, International Food Policy Research Institute Africa needs a green revolution By: The Economist - November 3, 2018 GETAHUN SHUMULO is what the Ethiopian government calls a “model farmer”. In the past he would toss seeds at random over his fields near Butajira, in the arable south. These days, using a plastic bottle in which he has cut a small hole, he plants them in pencil-straight lines. To keep the soil healthy he rotates his crops each year. Thanks to hardier seeds from the local agricultural office he now grows mostly maize, Ethiopia’s cheapest staple. “If you do everything the government tells you, you can grow more of it every year,” he says. After feeding his family of nine, he sells more than half his produce. (Continued...) Read more on: The Economist and Actualidad Ganadera New airports By: Hindustan Times - November 2, 2018 Another landmark study by Shenggen Fan, along with Gulati and Prof Sukhadeo Thorat, shows that agricultural investments in India, however meagre, have been at least 10 times as effective as subsidies in reducing poverty. Fan is director general of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, while Thorat is professor emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development at Jawaharlal Nehru University. (Continued...) Read more on: Hindustan Times Rebecca Boehm, University of Connecticut How to Cook, Snack, and Shop in the Age of Seriously Scary Climate Change By: Munchies - October 10, 2018 Here, we’ve compiled a guide to cooking, snacking, and shopping in the age of climate change, in an effort to make less of an impact on the Earth we inhabit. For guidance, we spoke with Dr. Rebecca Boehm of the University of Connecticut’s Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy, an author of the report “A Comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from US Household Food Choices,” published in the journal Food Policy in June. Get ready to embrace your inner vegetarian: her number-one recommendation is to eat less meat. (Continued...) Read more on: Munchies U.S. household food purchasing a major source of greenhouse gas emissions Written by Rebecca Boehm: Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation - November 5, 2018 The United States emitted a little more than 5 billion metric tons of climate warming gases in 2013, ranking in the top five globally for per capita emissions and second to China in total emissions. Three big sources of emissions in the U.S. include activities integral to our daily lives: transportation, electricity, and industrial activity. We drive in cars, fly in airplanes, use electricity for heating, cooling, lighting, and electronics in our homes. All of these consumption activities generate greenhouse gases. Another integral part of our lives is food. Foods don’t cause emissions the same way a car or airplane does. There is no tailpipe on the hamburger you purchase at a restaurant. So it’s not surprising that people don’t think of food when they think of climate warming gases. (Continued...) Read more on: Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation Marc Bellemare, University of Minnesota Did Quinoa Get Too Popular for Its Own Good? By: How Stuff Works - November 5, 2018 "In most cases, we find that rising quinoa prices have modestly increased the welfare of both quinoa producers and quinoa consumers in Peru," emails researcher Marc F. Bellemare, associate professor of applied economics and director of the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. "At worst, we find a small decline in welfare in some regions, but that decline is almost nil at less than 1 percent of total welfare." (Continued...) Read more on: How Stuff Works William Wilson, North Dakota State University Grim Outlook for Soybean Market By: The Spectrum - November 5, 2018 William Wilson, a distinguished professor in agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State who speaks around the world on the issue, said the price reductions impact North Dakota perhaps more than any other state. He estimated 70 percent or more of North Dakota soybeans are exported to China. “Soybeans is — was — probably the most profitable crop in the state,” Wilson said. (Continued...) Read more on: The Spectrum Joshua Woodard, Cornell University Bruce Sherrick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The power of agricultural data Written by Joshua D. Woodard, Bruce J. Sherrick, Deborah M. Atwood, Robert Blair, Greg Fogel, Nicholas Goeser, Barry Gold, Josette Lewis, Carl Mattson, Jim Moseley, Collin O’Mara, John Piotti, Bill Salas, Lynn Scarlett, Kristin Weeks Duncanson, Fred Yoder: Science Magazine - October 26, 2018 Federal agricultural data collection and management in the United States is decentralized and fragmented, hampering the ability of policy-makers to empower growers and researchers in data analytics. A bill introduced by Senators John Thune (R–SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D–MN) and included in the Senate farm bill could help. (Continued...) Read more on: Science Magazine and Letter to the Editor Ephraim Nkonya, International Food Policy Research Institute FADAMA: FG urged adopt community-driven development approach By: Nigeria's Von - November 1, 2018 A researcher, Mr Ephraim Nkonya, has urged the Federal Government to adopt the Community Driven Development (CDD) approach of the FADAMA programme in executing its community development projects. Nkonya, Senior Research Fellow, Environmental and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC, made the call in Abuja. He said that government should adopt the CDD approach because it was very successful and effective when used for the implementation of the FADAMA II project. (Continued...) Read more on: Nigeria's Von Maksym Chepeliev, Purdue University Wallace Tyner, Purdue University Dominique Van Der Mensbrugghe, Purdue University 'It Could Be Worse': Purdue Researchers Publish Report On USMCA, Tariffs Impact By: WFYI Indianapolis - November 5, 2018 While the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) could help some farmers, an ongoing tariff squabble could negate any small financial gains, hurting the American agriculture industry that is already struggling. Purdue University researchers say in a new report, "It could be worse." Purdue agricultural economics professor Dominique van der Mensbrugghe says the new deal maintains market access and has some benefit for the dairy and poultry markets. (Continued...) Read more on: WFYI Indianapolis James Mintert, Purdue University Farmers seeing some reason for hope By: Farm and Dairy - November 7, 2018 “We continue to see large month-to-month variations in the barometer readings as a result of swings in major commodity prices and emerging news about trade negotiations with key ag trade partners,” said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. (Continued...) Read more on: Farm and Dairy Vincent Smith, Montana State University Split Congress could be good news for farm economy By: Axios - November 8, 2018 House Republicans may believe they'll "get a worse farm bill if [they] have to go back and rewrite a House bill under a Democratic chair of the House Agricultural committee," says Vincent Smith, an agricultural economics professor at Montana State University and a visiting scholar at conservative think tank AEI. (Continued...) Read more on: Axios

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*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.