Monday, January 6, 2020

Members in the News: Glauber, Katchova, Belasco, Smith, Dinterman, Litkowski, Irwin, Masters, Popkin, Mark, Mitchell, Thilmany, Hubbs, Goldsmith, Zulauf, Laborde, Michelson, Woods, Malone, Coble, Rister, Dorfman, Rabinowitz, Schmidt, Dobis, DeLay, Hewlett, Kuethe, Langemeier, Mintert, Parsons, and Thompson


Joseph Glauber, IFPRI

Ani Katchova, The Ohio State University
Eric Belasco, Montana State University
Vincent Smith, Montana State University
Robert Dinterman, The Ohio State University
Carrie Litkowski, Economic Research Service, USDA
Scott Irwin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
With Trump’s farm bailout came surprising profits, but little help for the neediest
By: The Washington Post & West Central Tribune - December 30, 2019
In 2019, the farm belt felt about as hospitable as the asteroid belt. Record rainfall turned fields to sludge and made it nigh on impossible to plant corn and soybeans until long after the typical window had passed. President Trump’s long-running trade war cut off farmers’ access to China’s enormous market. Across the farm sector, commodity prices remained in the doldrums.
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Read more on: The Washington Post & Central Tribune

William Masters, Tufts University
Barry Popkin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Malnutrition Hits The Obese As Well As The Underfed
By: NPR - December 23, 2019
To address obesity and poor nutrition, we can't rely on people to use willpower to make healthier choices, says Will Masters, professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy at Tufts University. Instead, he argues that government regulations and taxes can play a key role in shifting what we eat and drink.
"The poorest low- and middle-income countries are seeing a rapid transformation in the way people eat, drink and move at work, home, in transport and in leisure," says report author Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "The new nutrition reality is driven by changes to the food system, which have increased availability of ultra-processed foods that are linked to increased weight gain."
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Read more on: NPR

Tyler Mark, University of Kentucky
Paul Mitchell, University of Wisconsin
Dawn Thilmany McFadden, Colorado State University
Hemp's growing pains continue
By: Agri-View - December 26, 2019
Tyler Mark, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, said there were various reasons why the total acres harvested fell well short of the acres licensed. Growers may not have had contracts, their contracts failed before completion, or they were unable to secure seed or clones.
The threshold is an arbitrary level, said Paul Mitchell, an agricultural economist and director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Longer term there may be a way of breeding hemp varieties to reduce tetrahydrocannabinol levels.
Dawn Thilmany is a professor and Colorado State University-Extension economist in labor and agribusiness management. She also will be speaking at the Wisconsin Agricultural Outlook Forum. Because Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana it has more infrastructure in place. Colorado growers planted in 2018 about 90,000 acres of hemp.
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Read more on: Agri-View

Todd Hubbs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Trade, production uncertainty weighs on soybean market
By: AgriNews - December 27, 2019
“Thankfully, we had a 12 million harvested soybean acres drop because we didn’t need it,” Todd Hubbs, University of Illinois agricultural economist, said at the Dec. 18 Illinois Farm Economics Summit.
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Read more on: AgriNews

Joseph Glauber, IFPRI
Scott Irwin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sino-U.S. Trade Deal: Big Numbers, Few Details, Many Questions For Ag
By: Successful Farming & FERN - December 16, 2019
“[I]t will be very hard to get to the $40 bil (let alone $50 bil) promised,” said Glauber in a series of tweets. “Getting back to 2017 levels is not trivial after the past 2 years of poor exports. Hopefully there are improvements in GMO approvals and other non-tariff issues which will improve future trade prospects.”
Economist Scott Irwin of the University of Illinois said on social media that “wait and see is the proper response at this point. Until there is something in writing from the Chinese, I am not willing to assume much. But still, at least the trend lines on Chinese ag imports should begin to at least trend upward.”
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Read more on: Successful Farming & FERN

Peter Goldsmith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Agriculture’s role in the ‘African century’
By: World Grain - December 31, 2019
A paper by Peter Goldsmith, Ph.D. in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, notes soybean producers in sub-Saharan Africa yield about one-third of those in leading soybean producing countries in the world.
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Read more on: World Grain

Carl Zulauf, The Ohio State University
Farm Subsidies Favor South, Irking Other Regions
By: PEW & Reading Eagle - December 31, 2019
It’s unclear to what extent the programs interacted and whether the USDA considered the potential for overlapping payments, said Carl Zulauf, professor emeritus in the department of agricultural, environmental and development economics at the Ohio State University in Columbus.
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Read more on: PEW & Reading Eagle

David Laborde, IFPRI
Addressing the nexus of food security, trade tensions and developing economies, where are we now?
By: Enhanced Integrated Framework - December 17, 2019
In order to understand the dilemma around food security, we have to think on the one hand that it’s about people’s income and on the other hand it’s how international markets and food prices evolve. The trade tensions are going to have an impact on both aspects, including for people in developing economies.
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Read more on: Enhanced Integrated Framework

Hope Michelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
As the planet warms, unusual crops could become climate saviors — but only if we’re willing to eat them
By: Ensia - December 20, 2019
Surveys show the potential for drought tops people’s climate concerns worldwide, but when it comes to growing crops, says Hope Michelson, an assistant professor of agriculture and consumer economics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “it’s not just the amount of rain” that matters.
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Read more on: Ensia

Timothy Woods, University of Kentucky
Kentucky Agricultural Receipts Hold Steady, Equine Ranks Second
By: The Horse - December 28, 2019
"Kentucky is a unique state for marketing specialty crops, in that we have a larger portion of total sales coming from direct-to-consumer purchases rather than from the wholesale markets like larger producing states,” said Tim Woods, PhD, UK agricultural economist. “So when the national economy is relatively strong and people have more disposable income and consumer spending is higher, direct-to-consumer markets tend to do better.”
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Read more on: The Horse

Eric Belasco, Montana State University
Vincent Smith, Montana State University
Robert Dinterman, The Ohio State University
Scott Irwin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ani Katchova, The Ohio State University
Washington farmers, hurt by tariffs, are helped by federal bailout
By: The Seattle Times - December 30, 2019
Federal funding has helped lift the fortunes of many farmers in Washington state and across the nation who have been hit hard by President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade wars.
About 8,200 Washington state agricultural producers have received $114 million in aid so far this year under a special federal program, a 54 percent increase from the amount disbursed in all of last year, said Dwaine Schettler, a program specialist at the state’s U.S. Farm Service Agency in Spokane.
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Read more on: The Seattle Times

Trey Malone, Michigan State University
Michigan farmers hope 2020 will be a better year
By: Michigan Radio - December 26, 2019
Trey Malone is an assistant professor and extension economist at Michigan State University. He says 2020 should see progress on key trade deals for Michigan farmers. But Malone is still cautious.
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Read more on: Michigan Radio

Keith Coble, Mississippi State University
State's largest industry, agriculture, reaches $7.4B
By: Daily Journal - December 21, 2019
“Government payments such as Market Facilitation Program payments are meant to mitigate farmer income losses due to the trade war with China,” Coble said. “The 2019 program is based on national commodity price changes estimated to reflect market losses and the county aggregate crop mix in 2019. Cotton and soybeans had the largest relative losses for 2019.
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Read more on: Daily Journal

Edward Rister, Texas A&M University
Our Neighbors: Aggie program sets food donation record
By: The Eagle - December 29, 2019
For the past five years, Ed Rister, a professor and associate department head in the department of agricultural economics, has encouraged students in his classes to donate food, paper goods and toiletries. He challenges his students each year to exceed the prior year’s donations. This year, the donated goods weighed 2,137 pounds.
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Read more on: The Eagle

Jeffrey Dorfman, University of Georgia
Adam Rabinowitz, University of Georgia
Georgia ag forecast set for five locations
By: Albany Herald - December 31, 2019
Jeffrey Dorfman, the state fiscal economist for Georgia and a professor at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, will serve as the keynote speaker for four of the five locations during the 2020 Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series set for Jan. 21-31.
Adam Rabinowitz, an agricultural economist in the CAES Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, also will be a guest speaker. While predicting markets and providing an accurate account of the future is not an exact science, Rabinowitz said he and other economists will provide information that will position stakeholders statewide to make the best possible decisions.
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Read more on: Albany Herald

Claudia Schmidt, Pennsylvania State University
UT professor argues craft beer industry is re-surging local hop production
By: The Blade - December 26, 2019
Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of agricultural economics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, also authored the paper. She said in a news release that the paper was “the first to systematically show that the number of hop farms in a state is related to the number of craft breweries.”
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Read more on: The Blade

Claudia Schmidt, Pennsylvania State University
Elizabeth Dobis, Pennsylvania State University
More states grow hops as craft beer popularity booms
By: Futurity - January 2, 2020
Now, 29 states are involved with hop production, Schmidt says, citing a report from the Hop Growers of America. “Our study is the first to systematically show that the number of hop farms in a state is related to the number of craft breweries,” she says. “It suggests that in areas where hop production is possible and not cost-prohibitive, breweries are expanding markets for farmers and providing an opportunity to diversify farm income.”
“This growth has not only led to interesting changes in the locations of hop farms across the US, but it has positioned the US as the largest producer of hops globally, both in terms of acreage and production,” says lead author Elizabeth Dobis, a postdoctoral scholar at the Penn State-based Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.
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Read more on: Futurity

Paul D. Mitchell, University of Wisconsin
Extension State Specialist in Cropping Systems and Environmental Management
By: Waushara Argus - December 24, 2019
Many of you may have seen the notices that signup has begun for Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC). This time around, farmers and landowners need to make their ARC/PLC choice only for the 2019 and 2020 crop years.
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Read more on: Waushara Argus

Nathan DeLay, Purdue University
John Hewlett, University of Wyoming
Todd Kuethe, Purdue University
Michael Langemeier, Purdue University
James Mintert, Purdue University
Jay Parsons, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Nathanael Thompson, Purdue University
Top Farmer Conference addresses risk, farm planning
By: Kenosha News - December 21, 2019
The 2020 Purdue Top Farmer Conference will feature several of the nation's leading experts in the areas of marketing, risk management, climate and crop production. The speakers will make presentations to help farmers overcome obstacles, mitigate risk and plan for the future.
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Read more on: Kenosha News

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 Jessica Weister at jweister@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.

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