Members in the News: Glauber, Johansson, Fan, Lusk, Liu, and Headey

Joseph Glauber, International Food Policy Research Institute Robert Johansson, USDA-Office of the Chief Economist As billions flow to farmers, Trump administration faces internal concerns over unprecedented bailout By: The Washington Post - September 9, 2019 The Commodity Credit Corporation was occasionally used to fund smaller programs to help farmers, including by the Obama administration, but it has never been used in the fashion the White House has operated it, said Joe Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think tank, and former chief economist of USDA under presidents George W. Bush and Obama. Robert Johansson, the chief economist at the USDA, also defended the program, noting it could be explicitly curbed by Congress. “There’s always the ability of Congress to decide this use of the discretion is not what they intended, and they can change the law accordingly,” Johansson said in an interview. “Another check on the system is OMB, which always has to weigh the costs and the benefits of the program.” (Continued...) Read more on: The Wall Street Journal, MSN.com, and Star Tribune Shenggen Fan, International Food Policy Research Institute If you can’t beat them, join them by being better at something else By: MSN South Africa - September 12, 2019 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor 2019 is the result of a collaborative initiative between the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation, also released in September. “At a time when the global trade system is facing new threats, we hope this report will provide policy actors with the tools they need to position Africa effectively to better engage in and benefit from agricultural trade,” IFPRI director general Shenggen Fan said. (Continued...) Read more on: MSN South Africa and South Africa’s Daily Maverick To tackle climate change we need to rethink our food system Written by Kathleen Rogers and Shenggen Fan: Financial Nigeria - September 9, 2019 The way we produce, consume and discard food is no longer sustainable. That much is clear from the newly-released UN climate change report,  which warns that we must rethink how we produce our food – and quickly – to avoid the most devastating impacts of global food production, including massive deforestation, staggering biodiversity loss and accelerating  climate change. (Continued...) Read more on: Financial Nigeria Jayson Lusk, Purdue University COOL affected cattle prices By: Tri-State Livestock News - September 19, 2019 Jayson Lusk, Distinguished Professor and Head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University, has written about his interpretation of the data. He does not believe mandatory country of origin labeling impacted U.S. cattle prices in a positive way. “Looking at cattle prices, one can see how the claim that the repeal of MCOOL caused a drop in cattle prices came about, as the repeal came right after the peak of fed steer prices, after which prices began to fall rather dramatically,” he said in a 2016 blog post. (Continued...) Read more on: Tri-State Livestock News Yangxuan Liu, University of Georgia Tariffs Weigh Heavily On Cotton Outlook Written by Yangxuan Liu: Cotton Farming - September 19, 2019 In 2019, Georgia’s farmers planted 1.4 million acres of cotton, which is the third-highest planted acreage for the past decade, down 30,000 acres from 2018. The average cotton yield is forecast at 932 pounds per acre. Production is forecast at 2.7 million bales, which would be the second-highest on record. (Continued...) Read more on: Cotton Farming Derek Headey, International Food Policy Research Institute Why both rich and poor seize on the wrong diet By: Belgium’s Knack Weekend - September 11, 2019 Why are sugar and fatty meat so cheap? Why does poor consumer have too little access to nutritious products? Researchers Derek Headey and Harold Alderman unravel the economic mechanisms behind our eating habits and point the way to a healthier diet for everyone. (Continued...) Read more on: Belgium’s Knack Weekend

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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 2019 AAEA Annual Meeting in Atlanta.