NCCC-134 Committee on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management

Call for Paper Proposals

The NCCC-134 Committee on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management will host its 2020 Conference on April 20-21, 2020 at the Holiday Inn St. Louis Downtown Conv Ctr, St. Louis, Missouri.

General Topics
Proposed papers should emphasize applied research. We encourage papers on commodity price forecasting, farm and agribusiness risk management, futures and options markets, as well as price analysis problems or issues. Please submit work that will be completed by April 2020 on these and the following topics in commodity markets:

• Supply, demand, and price behavior 
• Improved forecasting methods
• Improved risk management procedures
• Futures and options markets

Proposal Format
Submit a two-page (double spaced) prospectus which contains the following.

1. Statement of the problem
2. Research objectives
3. Data and empirical procedures
4. Likely results and practical implications

Proposals SHOULD NOT IDENTIFY AUTHORS to protect their anonymity in the review process. Proposals should be Adobe Acrobat files (pdf) and the file names should not contain author names. An example proposal is posted at our website (http://www.farmdoc.illinois.edu/nccc134/submissions.html).

Submission Procedure
Authors should submit their proposals through online submission system by following the link https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/NCCC2020. Submissions must be made by October 31, 2019.

1. If you have not submitted through this system in the past, you will need to create a user account by clicking the “Registration” tab in the online system.
2. After you log in to the system, click “+ Create new submission” in the Author Console.
3. Enter the title of your proposal.
4. The section “AUTHORS” should list your e-mail address, Name, Organization, and Country.
5. To add more authors, please enter the e-mail address of your co-author and click “+ Add.” Fill in the fields to provide the name, organization, and country of your co-author and click “+ Add.” Repeat this process to add more co-authors.
6. To upload your proposal click “Upload from Computer” and select the file.
7. Click “Submit.”

Submission Decisions
Screening committee will notify all submitting authors of their decision in December 2019. Successful authors must complete and submit their research presentation by April 10, 2020. Completed manuscripts are due on June 1, 2020 for digital publication.

See the NCCC-134 website at http://www.farmdoc.illinois.edu/nccc134/ for more information on registration, conference venue, and hotel accommodations.

2019 FDRS Student Food Marketing Challenge

Call for Participation:

The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Food Distribution Research Society will be held at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront - Seattle, Washington, from October 18 – October 22, 2019. The theme of the conference this year is “From Local to Global: Innovative Strategies for Changing Food Distribution Networks.”

The Student Food Marketing Challenge Competition will be held on Saturday, October 19, 2019. The competition provides students with the opportunity to play the role of consultants for an industry client, as they apply their knowledge of food distribution, marketing, management, economics, and merchandising to a real world problem. Details about the client and case challenge will be disclosed to teams two weeks in advance of the competition. Representatives from the company will give an overview of the challenge and conduct team interviews on the day of the competition. The first round of presentations will occur on Saturday afternoon (October 19), in which teams will compete to give a bid presentation to the company’s executive team during the final round on Saturday evening.

Teams can consist of 3 to 5 undergraduate and masters-level students, however the majority of the team members must be undergraduate students. Registration fees are $350 and teams should register for the competition by September 16, 2019 (link). Registration includes attendance to all FDRS case events for the students in the team.

For more information, please contact the VP of Student Programs Elizabeth Canales, at elizabeth.canales@msstate.edu or visit https://www.fdrsinc.org.

Members in the News: Ortega, Lusk, Mullally, Barkley, Coffey, and Salassi

David Ortega, Michigan State University A miserable Year of the Pig for China’s hogs is godsend for American farmers By: South China Morning Post - August 17, 2019 David Ortega, an agricultural economist with Michigan State University, said that the US, as the world’s top pork exporter, could nevertheless help satisfy Chinese demand. “The rise in domestic Chinese pork prices can offset some of the tariff’s impact, but there is a lot of uncertainty as the trade negotiation is fairly fluid … other pork exporters like the EU and Brazil are positioning themselves to meet Chinese demand,” Ortega said. (Continued...) Read more on: South China Morning Post Jayson Lusk, Purdue University Conner Mullally, University of Florida Happy Hens By: Oregon Business - August 22, 2019 It is true that this law will probably raise the price of eggs somewhat. When similar legislation took effect in California in 2015, a study from Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics, published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics found the price of eggs increased by approximately 9% as a result of the cage-free law. Consumers spent between $6.08 and $7.50 more on eggs each year than they had previously. The study also found the law caused a spike in the price of eggs at the beginning of the law’s implementation, up to 33%, but prices eventually declined as time went on. (Continued...) Read more on: Oregon Business Andrew Barkley, Kansas State University Brian Coffey, Kansas State University K-State study on determining teaching effectiveness wins national award By: KMA Land Radio - August 20, 2019 A study conducted by two Kansas State University agricultural economics faculty members found that student evaluations are still likely the most common way to determine the effectiveness of education in ag economics classes. Brian Coffey, assistant professor and Andrew Barkley, a professor in K-State’s Department of Agricultural Economics teach undergraduate and graduate-level classes. To help them and their colleagues across the country understand how teaching is evaluated in general, plus criteria on how faculty members are evaluated for promotion, tenure and salary, they reached out to heads of ag economics departments at other universities. (Continued...) Read more on: KMA Land Radio Michael Salassi, Louisiana State University Salassi to head LSU AgCenter animal, plant programs By: ArkLatex - August 19, 2019 Michael Salassi has been named as LSU AgCenter associate vice president and program leader of animal and plant sciences. For the past four years, Salassi has served as head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness where he is the A. Wilbert’s Sons Endowed Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resources. Prior to that time, he was on the faculty for 21 years with a teaching, research and extension appointment. (Continued...) Read more on: ArkLatex

See other Member in the News items Know another AAEA Member who has made statewide, national, or international news? Send a link of the article to Sinais Alvarado at 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 2019 AAEA Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

USDA Webinar: Farm Income and Financial Forecasts, August 2019 Update

USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) releases farm income statement and balance sheet estimates and forecasts three times a year, in February, August and November. These core statistical indicators provide guidance to policy makers, lenders, commodity organizations, farmers, and others interested in the financial status of the farm economy. ERS' farm income statistics also inform the computation of agriculture's contribution to the gross domestic product of the U.S. economy.

During this webinar, economist Carrie Litkowski provides the August forecast for 2019 as well as first estimates for 2018. See the latest Farm Income Forecast.


August 30, 2019
1:00 pm EDT
Carrie Litkowski
https://cc.readytalk.com/r/q7df3yxjt6i1&eom