Call for papers: Food for Thought: Economic Analysis in Anticipation of the Next Farm Bill

 AAEA Post-Conference Workshop, August 4, 2021

The AAEA Extension Section and Senior Section, along with the USDA Office of the Chief Economist and Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center are sponsoring a post-conference workshop following the AAEA 2021 meetings to encourage and highlight economic analysis in anticipation of the next Farm Bill. 

The 2018 Farm Bill will expire in 2023, and typically ideas for a new farm bill begin to percolate a couple of years in advance.  This post-conference workshop is intended to focus our profession on relevant topics so that our work will be useful to the debate that is likely to get underway later this year.

The workshop aims to engage AAEA members with policy professionals in a format organized around key program areas covered by the Farm Bill and will join analytical paper presentations by AAEA members with discussants experienced in policy analysis and farm programs.  Our goal is to bring together knowledge and experience of the policy process with new approaches and ideas, across a wide spectrum of experience with policymaking. 

We are looking for papers that are forward-looking and that engage in innovative ways with long-term  and emerging policy issues that have surfaced over the last few years.  While papers should be based on rigorous analysis, they should be accessible to a lay audience and should consider the practicalities of implementation as much as possible.

All papers will be made available on a shared access website, and a selection committee will choose up to three papers per session for presentation during the workshop.  Selected papers will be posted on the Extension Section website for broad access and distribution. Papers presented at the post-conference will be eligible for publication in Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy (AEPP), subject to review. Authors will need to submit their manuscripts for consideration after the conclusion of the meetings. 

All policy areas generally included in the Farm Bill may be considered as presentation topics—the final workshop session organization will be determined based on available papers. Example topic areas may include: commodity programs/crop insurance, conservation programs, other farm and production related topics, nutrition and food systems, research and extension, and rural development.

Proposals should include title, one-page proposal, and affiliation and contact details of authors.

Proposals are due March 15 and should be sent to Anne Effland (anne.effland@usda.gov) and Josh Maples (josh.maples@msstate.edu).

Deadline for final papers will be June 15.