Member Blog: David Zilberman

My Annual Review 2022

David Zilberman, professor, agriculture and resource economics | December 20, 2022

In 2022, I returned to some normality. First, I traveled more. I had a wonderful trip, including Lithuania, Italy, and Israel. We had a great conference in Bologna; I enjoyed Cinque Terre and seeing my sister and relatives warmed my heart. Later in the year, I had a great trip to Argentina, combining research, tourism, and soccer. Watching Argentina win the World Cup today was especially exciting as I became a Messi fan after visiting his homeland only a week before! Attendance at professional meetings and classes has returned almost to pre-COVID levels. With the pandemic subsiding, we could be with our kids more often. All of them came to our house and enjoyed our remodeled home. The circular steps were a big hit with the grandchildren, and after this ambitious project, we enjoy living in our home resort and harvesting our tomatoes, apples, and figs. Thankfully, this was a good year. Our grandchildren are growing and developing – I feel my age. The days when I could compete with my grandchildren at basketball are fading.

I expect Zoom to be a permanent part of our lives, and I no longer expect to be on campus every day. I enjoy working at home part of the week, walking the dogs with Leorah, and coming to campus when I need to be there. Actually, this adjustment has made me much more productive. Even before the pandemic, most of the time, the offices in Giannini were empty, and scouring big libraries for multiple reprints became passé as we became more digitized. This may offer opportunities to redesign and increase the efficient use of space on campuses, exchanging inanimate archival space for social space, especially important for students.

This year was a transition for the Master of Development Practice (MDP). We moved administratively from the Rausser College of Natural Resources (RCNR) to the Goldman Public Policy School, a better fit programmatically. The education of professional Masters students is a mission for Goldman, and I realize how important their experience and skills can be to our students and alums. The school has emphasized domestic issues, and now we can offer a global reach. Having said this, we remain a campus-wide graduate group in spirit and intellectual reach. We will benefit from the expertise and capacity of RCNR and other units on campus that share our interest in Sustainable Development. One of the secrets of Berkeley’s success is that we collaborate within the campus, benefitting both our students and our own research with the incomparable resources at Berkeley. In addition to institutional transition, we have had personnel changes. Our long-serving MDP director George Scharffenberger has retired. The direction of the program and much of our success have been due to his initiatives and dedication. He inspired me to understand international development activities’ practical and moral importance, and I learned what a development practitioner should be. Fortunately, he helped our transition, and I’m quite happy that Michelle Reddy, our new Program Director, and Kristal Zimmerman, our Career Services Officer, have rich development experience. Their ideas and enthusiasm will make the program even better.

I’m more excited than ever about research! Still learning as I go, I realize there are two directions of research that I will pursue, and that may make a difference. The first is focusing on innovation and supply chains as major elements that drive the economy. Traditionally, economics emphasizes the role of markets, immensely important, but in a modern relies on innovation as well as allocation, and innovations are implemented through supply chains. Whoever designs a supply chain might establish institutions like markets, contracts, and other arrangements for trading. So, if you want to address problems like climate change, which will require drastic technological changes, you need to stimulate innovation that will be upscaled and propagated by supply chains. I’m still learning the literature on supply chains and am fortunate to collaborate with scholars who laid the foundation for much of it, including Tom Reardon, Jo Swinnen, and Chris Barrett. Functionally, an economy is comprised of symbiotic supply chains that evolve over time. Some supply chains generate new innovations, while others implement and diffuse them. In the future, I want to understand better the evolution and workings of different supply chains and how policies (government support for research, intellectual property rights, regulations, and antitrust policies) can facilitate innovations that advance more sustainable and inclusive prosperity.

Another area that I’m interested in is the bioeconomy. The bioeconomy consists of sectors of the economy that rely on natural resources and take advantage of new capabilities in life sciences. The discovery of the DNA and modern biology provide opportunities to improve food productivity, fight climate change (biofuels), improve public health (new medicines), and much more. However, the promise of the bioeconomy is far from being fulfilled,  in part because of regulation, policy, attitudes, etc. The bioeconomy has always been with us (think brewing, cheese, and fermented foods), but its scientific era is just beginning, with continuous support from research, sound regulation, and appropriate incentives; I know that the bioeconomy can play a major role in carbon sequestration, adaptation to climate change, improving food security, and other critical challenges to humanity, and I hope to produce research that will help this happen. Of course, development in the bioeconomy will require the clever design of supply chains, so these two lines of research are linked. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to work on issues of water, agricultural policies, food and health, and others, so I expect to be an active researcher as long as can contribute. While I may consider retiring from teaching in the next year or two, allowing for more travel and collaboration. I not only want to see more of my dispersed family, but very much enjoy being a Hagler Fellow at Texas A&M, and my research efforts and contribution to MDP will continue and actually may intensify.

Personally, I’m hopeful for 2023 despite many clouds and uncertainties on the horizon. I’m looking forward to a great holiday and hope to meet and enjoy time with many of our friends in the coming year. Happy 2023.

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Members in The News: Kalambokidis, Villacis, Ortega, Rutledge, Brewer, Outlaw, et al.

*Disclaimer - This email is to acknowledge citations of current AAEA members and/or their research in any public media channel. AAEA does not agree nor disagree with the views or attitudes of cited outside publications. Laura Kalambokidis, University of Minnesota "Minnesota Budget Surplus Tops $17 Billion, December 6, 2022" By: MPR News - December 6, 2022 “Minnesota remains susceptible to headwinds beyond its borders. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s moves to raise interest rates have weakened the state’s real GDP outlook, while job growth is expected to slow amid an expected mild recession” (Continued...) Read more on: MPR News, CBS Minnesota, MinnPost Alexis Villacis, Arizona State University "‘C’ You Later: Cannabis Sales Soar, But Don’t Threaten Arizona’s 5 C’s Yet" By: AZPM - December 11, 2022 "Arizona’s climate makes it difficult to grow cannabis, and while greenhouses can help address that issue, Arizona has a lot of catching up to do with other states. For example, we have 35,000 square feet of indoors cannabis and hemp. In California, there are over 4 million square feet, Colorado has over 2 million and Kentucky has around 200,000. So, Arizona is pretty small compared to other states,” (Continued...) Read more on: AZPM, Phoenix Business Journal David Ortega, Michigan State University “Food Prices Aren't Showing Signs of Slowing. Here's How Communities Are Stepping In” By: CNET - December 12, 2022 Here's Why Food Prices Remain Stubbornly High Even as Inflation Cools" By: The Pulse - December 13, 2022 Zachariah Rutledge, Michigan State University "In Rural California, Farmworkers Fend for Themselves for Health Care: ‘We Have a Right to Survive” By: Visalia Times Delta - December 8, 2022 "While Kissam said it shows about 350,000 agricultural workers in California, Zachariah Rutledge of Michigan State University reported an annual average of 882,000 California farmworkers between 2018 and 2021. About 550,000 are field workers or processing and packing-shed workers, according to Kissam’s estimate.” (Continued...) Read more on: Visalia Times Delta, GPN Brady Brewer, Purdue University "Top Farmer Conference Focuses on Positioning Strategies In 2023” By: Potbsmap - Decemebr 9, 2022 “Agriculture is a dynamic and changing industry. We developed the Top Farmer Conference with that in mind. We want producers and agribusiness professionals alike to understand the current economic climate and identify strategies that will position their operations for future growth and success.” (Continued...) Read more on: Potbsmap Joe Outlaw, Texas A&M University "2023 Farm Bill Discussions Relate to Money” By: North Texas E-News - December 11, 2022 "Proponents of minimizing government spending need to know that “if you cut all of the agriculture spending, you wouldn’t make much of an impact on overall government spending. But without more money dedicated to agriculture, we can’t make programs better for the farmers.” (Continued...) Read more on: North Texas E-News Jordan Shockley, University of Kentucky “The Economic Value of Applying Broiler Litter” By: Brownfield - December 12, 2022 “Farmers need to run the numbers to see if it is a right fit for their operations. We actually had a tool on our Ag Econ website that will determine the maximum distance, one way, to make it basically break even with commercial fertilizer prices. For some farmers in Kentucky, it makes enough sense economically to travel to as far as Georgia for broiler litter to fertilize their crops.” (Continued...) Read more on: Brownfield Dawn Thilmany, Colorado State University "Eggs Are Now in Shorter Supply as Farmers Work to Replenish Their Supply of Laying Hens" By: RFD TV - December 13, 2022 “Colorado State University Ag Economics Professor, Dawn Thilmany spoke with RFD-TV’s own Suzanne Alexander about the impact of increased energy and transport costs on the food sector, how egg prices are being impacted, and how this compares to normal egg prices.” (Continued...) Read more on: RFD TV Luis Peña-Lévano, University of Wisconsin-River Falls “Dairy Hub Successes Get Spotlight” By: Midwest Farm Report - December 13, 2022 “The Hub, which is supported by a $7.8 million investment from the state, launched in 2019 to harness research and learning at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls to keep Wisconsin’s dairy community at the global forefront in producing dairy products in an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable manner.” (Continued...) Read More On: Midwest Farm Report Steven Deller, University of Wisconsin - Madison “Bizarro Inflation Is Making Random Stuff Cheap and Necessities Unaffordable" By: Freight Waves - December 15, 2022 “Historic inflation' is a great excuse to bump up the prices of whatever you’re selling, even if you don’t really need to. You look at some of these industries and you think, ‘There’s no reason for these prices to be this high, there’s no underlying factor behind it.  A lot of times it’s companies that are able to take advantage of the situation that’s going on.” (Continued...) Read More On: Freight Waves Amitrajeet Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology “Technology Can Help Transition Away From Fossil Fuels: The Case of Wind Energy” By: Rochester Business Journal - December 16, 2022 "There is now incontrovertible evidence that global warming is real and that humans have played a non-trivial role in giving rise to this phenomenon. As such, it is no surprise to learn that public policy is increasingly focused on getting Americans to transition out of fossil fuels — that cause global warming by combustion — and into clean forms of energy." (Continued...) Read More On: Rochester Business Journal Jayson Lusk, Purdue University “National Food Insecurity Remains Unchanged Heading Into the Holidays” By: National Hog Farmer - December 16, 2022 "The regional differences are not surprising. The West and Northeast are generally higher-cost and higher-income areas, so we would expect them to spend more on food. There is a similar story for spending on restaurants, but this area still appears fairly robust." (Continued...) Read More On: National Hog Farmer Seungki Lee, The Ohio State University Brent Sohngen, The Ohio State University “Biofuels a Growing Part of Ohio Agriculture” By: The Columbus Dispatch - December 16, 2022 “The demand is pretty sensitive to volume obligations set by the government, which changes year by year,” “The movement to biodiesel is beginning to pick up steam,” (Continued...) Read More on: The Columbus Dispatch

Know another AAEA Member who has made statewide, national, or international news? Send a link of the article to Austin Sparbel at asparbel@aaea.org. What research and topics are you working on? Want to be an expert source for journalists working on a story? Contact Allison Ware at aware@aaea.org.

 

Member Blog: David Zilberman

Learning about Sustainability, Bioeconomy, and Circularity while Enjoying Argentina

David Zilberman, professor, agriculture and resource economics | December 10, 2022

I have been fascinated by Argentina since I was young. I learned that it was one of the most advanced countries in the world at the beginning of the 20^th century; Buenos Aires is beautiful and has a large boulevard like Paris; they dance the tango; are crazy about soccer (what they call football). So, when I was invited to a conference organized by the University of Tennessee with NSF support, I happily accepted the invitation. Indeed, I was there last week at the end of November, which is summer there. The timing couldn’t be better; I exchanged the rain in Berkeley with the sun of Argentina. I found that the avenues of Buenos Aires are at least as big as those of Paris. The pink house (Argentinian version of the white house) is quite impressive, and I was told the pink color comes from the blood of steers mixed with white paint.

However, Argentina reminds me more of Italy than France. The people I met seem to enjoy their life, the food is great, and there is incredible creativity all over, but the economy tends to be in trouble. Argentina has excellent agriculture and is a big producer of beef and soybean–the diets tend to be beef intensive. In restaurants, the standard beef plate is 400 grams (0.75 pounds). But when I suggested that it was too much, I got a funny glare. The country produces wonderful leather coats and extremely affordable bags, given the strength of the US dollar relative to the peso.

We were in Buenos Aires during the soccer World Cup and watching Argentina against Poland was part of the conference program. But we had a problem choosing the venue and ended up going to a bar near our hotel. It was incredible. The Golden State Warriors are supposed to have the noisiest fans in NBA basketball, but they cannot match the Argentinians in our bar. Messi is a god, second to Maradona, and everyone expects him to win the cup for Argentina.

Otherwise, he will be demoted from his godly status. The prominence of soccer was apparent to me when I visited La Boca, which was a migrant neighborhood where the walls of many of the houses were made from corrugated iron or steel but were painted beautifully. However, the football team of this neighborhood, Boca Juniors, is the leading Argentine soccer club, and its old stadium is its shrine. Buenos Aires has many other nice neighborhoods, including a cemetery where several presidents and Evita are buried in elegant surroundings.

The conference was about the “Circular Bioeconomy System for Urban, Rural Co-Prosperity,” which seems confusing. I learned that it was about building a network of networks on issues at the intersection of land, water, and food. This makes sense to me. I am among the founders of the ICABR, the International Consortium of Applied Bioeconomy Research. I also collaborate with an EU-sponsored network on measuring the bioeconomy in Europe called Biomonitor, as well as the bioeconomy effort of the mostly Latin American organization.
Additionally, I’ve been associated with networks of scientists collaborating on water issues; many groups are working on issues relating to the bioeconomy and the environment. I am only one scientist, so there are many networks, and sharing information and joint research can be enriching. The second objective is to build stronger collaboration between Latin America, especially Argentina, and the U.S. The third aimed to share knowledge on research and clarify how different people interpret notions such as the bioeconomy, circularity, etc.

All the speakers suggested solutions to climate change, food insecurity, and rural poverty. Bruno Basso from Michigan State suggested that it is worthwhile to consider paying farmers to keep their land green through double and triple-cropping, which can sequester carbon and significantly reduce soil erosion. Joaquin Mario Ortiz from Argentina showed a new industrial process that uses residue from sugarcane to produce either bioethanol, fuel from boilers, or biogas; in any case, renewable fuels that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There were several other presentations on the value of how animal and food waste can become biogas with technologies that improve over time, and the income goes to farmers rather than large oil companies. The conference’s organizer, Jie Zhuang, is a biosystem engineer interested in designing machinery that can recycle and reuse agricultural inputs and products to reduce greenhouse gases and residues.

The conference emphasized the importance of integrating social and natural sciences. Most economists like to use data to assess the past, but frequently, scientists have new technical solutions, and the basic question is when and where to apply them. Madhu Khanna showed us new methods to identify where to adopt modern biofuels and where to adopt robots to control weeds. Her work is multidisciplinary and combines scientific knowledge with basic economic principles. The data she gets from an econometric estimation of past behavior is crucial for guiding land allocation and policy design predictions. Chein-Fei Chen is an environmental sociologist who studies energy justice and finds that the poor are paying more per unit of energy than the rich in many parts of the world, which requires some change. Karen Seto from Yale University expanded our horizons by emphasizing that urbanization is a growing source of greenhouse gas emissions and is likely to be a major contributor to climate change, which most of us ignore. People in developing countries move to the cities and aspire to the “modern” life they see in the movies. If nothing changes, 2% of agricultural land will be urbanized, and imitations of New York and Shanghai, and even worse, the sprawling land suburbia, will appear in the savannah. But the reality is that urban spread is not a panacea. Developers’ desire for a quick buck and restrictive zoning may result in a world of asphalt. Rethinking cities, realizing the gain from proximity among people that may lead to more interaction and happiness while finding ways to preserve privacy, can allow for absorbing the new immigrant to the cities without expanding their land footprint. Hers was an inspiring talk, and I thought about our Berkeley campus, where we have worked for many years in mostly empty buildings while the campus continues to expand its space. We may need new labs, but we can also find a way to analyze space use and get more from what we have.

We all agree that the world is challenged by climate change, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, polarization, and a desire to grow and develop, especially by the less developed countries. So the concept of sustainable development, where we aim to grow without endangering the well-being of future generations, is paramount. So how do we do it? One way is conservation: get more output from units of input. The other is recycling. A third is the transition to renewable resources and away from non-renewables, especially fossil fuels. Renewable resources are divided into sun, wind, water, and living organisms. The bioeconomy utilizes living organisms, modern knowledge, and biology to produce traditional bioproducts like food and new renewable products like biochemicals, biofuels, and bio-machinery.

For the bioeconomy to be effective and utilize resources efficiently, it must be circular. Namely, residue products can be used as input for other processes rather than sources of pollution and negative side effects. Here, where environmental economic thinking is important, we need to make people pay the price for these byproducts. It can be a pollution tax, a sound constraint, or some subsidy to treat waste products, but we cannot ignore the undesirable side effects of our activities.

The conference was mostly about technologies that will be the building blocks of the bioeconomy and the dimensions of the bioeconomy. We learned that we are working in many directions, and there are many solutions. Still, the challenge is to identify the ones that will scale up, be economically viable, and be managed for the common good. We also learned that the bioeconomy would flourish if we constrained organization and could develop middle-sized cities in rural areas and spread people over space rather than concentrate them in large, sprawling mega-cities. This was one of the conferences that were enjoyable by itself, opened new doors, and will hopefully lead to new collaborations. By the way, the ICABR will have its annual conference in Buenos Aires in July of 2023, and I look forward to enjoying the city again.

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Members in the News: Sumner, Irwin, Janzen, Schnitkey, Paulson, Ferraro, Shukla, DeLong, Boyer, et al.

*Disclaimer - This email is to acknowledge citations of current AAEA members and/or their research in any public media channel. AAEA does not agree nor disagree with the views or attitudes of cited outside publications.

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Daniel Sumner, University of California, Davis

California’s Drought Disaster is Turning Into an Economic Disaster: ‘It’s Unprecedented’

By: Fox Business - December 6, 2022

"Everything from the milk industry around to almonds has been effected. That has effects on the rest of the economy as well, it’s not just the farmers or the farm workers. It’s the grocery stores, all the way to the economy,"

(Continued...)
Read more on: Fox Business

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Scott Irwin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Joe Janzen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Tempered Expectations for 2022/23 Supply and Demand for Corn and Soybeans"

By: Farms.com - December 1, 2022

"Following the 2022 US harvest, corn and soybean prices remain at historically high levels. Nearby futures prices at the close of trade on November 28 are $6.69/bushel for corn and $14.57/bushel for soybeans. Futures prices for the 2023 crop are slightly lower at $6.11/bushel for corn and $13.94/bushel for soybeans, but these too are elevated levels in historical terms. Crop marketing, planting, and other production decisions depend crucially on these price levels."

(Continued...)
Read more on: Farms.com

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Gary Schnitkey,University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Nick Paulson,University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

"Fertilizer Forecasts Go Higher"

By: KMCH - November 14, 2022

“Current corn and natural gas price projections suggest anhydrous ammonia prices above $1,100 per ton in the spring of 2023. In addition, global economic conditions and supply issues could increase nitrogen fertilizer prices. However, lower prices also are possible. Given high and volatile prices, we give four risk management strategies.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: KMCH

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Paul Ferraro, John Hopkins University
Pallavi Shukla, Deakin University

"Is a Credibility Crisis on the Horizon for Agricultural Economics?"

By: Benzinga - December 1, 2022

"The agricultural economics community needs to change its publication incentive structure, which prioritizes the 'publishability' of research results over the credibility of research designs."

"As a field, we can change the publication incentive structure through a range of actions. For example, journal editors and peer reviewers ought to stress research designs over novelty or magnitude of results."

(Continued...)
Read more on: Benzinga

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Karen DeLong, University of Tennessee
Chris Boyer, University of Tennessee

"Research to Improve Hay Market Price Discovery, Market Transparency"

By: Wild Sage - December 2, 2022

“We expect this project will result in buyers and sellers using information such as bale weight and nutritive assessment to determine the value of hay rather than relying solely on visual attributes. Hay buyers will benefit by knowing the exact quantity and nutritive value of hay they are purchasing, which in turn should assist with managing livestock feed cost and nutrition. Sellers will also benefit by knowing the attributes hay buyers value, so they can package and market their hay appropriately.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Wild Sage

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Jeffrey Perloff, University of California, Berkeley

"The Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Seasonal Agricultural Workers"

By: Manhattan Week - December 1, 2022

"The probability a seasonal agricultural worker has health insurance rises by 11% if the worker is Medicaid-eligible and by 3% if subsidy-eligible. The Affordable Care Act included Medicaid expansion, a health insurance premium subsidy, and a tax penalty for not having insurance coverage."

(Continued...)
Read more on: Manhattan Week, Nebraska News Chanel, Fox 40

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James Mintert, Purdue University

"High Input Costs and Rising Interest Rates Top Farmer Concerns"

By: Morning Ag. Clips - Decemeber 6, 2022

"Even though sentiment remained relatively unchanged in November, producers are continuing to look at their bottom line. Rising interest rates combined with high input and energy costs are creating a lot of uncertainty at the farm level.” 

(Continued...)
Read more on: Morning Ag. Clips

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Spiro Stefanou, USDA Economic Research Service

"This year saw big jumps in sales receipts for most crops and livestock"

By: RFD TV - December 6, 2022

“Fairly dramatic changes here. Corn is seeing a change in terms of cash receipts up 20.1 percent, soybeans are up nearly 22 percent, cotton is up nearly 4 percent, and wheat is going to be increasing over 16 percent in cash receipts. We’re going to see dairy increasing dramatically on nearly 30 percent, cow-calf operations are up 12.1 percent, broilers are up 46 percent, and eggs are up over 100 percent,”

(Continued...)
Ream more on: RFD TV

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Simon Somogyi, University of Guelph

• "Grocery Costs To Rise By Up to 7% In 2023 As Pandemic, Russia’s War Fuel Increase, Report Says"
   By: The Globe and Mail - December 5, 2022

• "Latest Canada Food Price Report Predicting Higher Costs at the Grocery Store"
  By: Global News - December 5, 2022

• "Canadian Families to Spend $1000 More on Food Next Year"
  By: CHCH - December 5, 2022

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Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University

"Cost to Raise a Cow Could Top $1K, According to Kansas Economics Professor"

By: AgUpdate - December 8, 2022

“So with supply side dynamics, there are smaller calf crops and less beef, lending to higher prices if demand holds up. Be aware of broader forces, but at the end of the day – focus what you have most local interest on,”

(Continued...)
Read more on: AgUpdate

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 Know another AAEA Member who has made statewide, national, or international news? Send a link of the article to Austin Sparbel at asparbel@aaea.org.

What research and topics are you working on? Want to be an expert source for journalists working on a story? Contact Allison Ware at aware@aaea.org.

 

Members in the News: Hagerman, Just, Byrne, Anderson, Reimer, Wang, Sumner, Thilmany, and Ortega

*Disclaimer - This email is to acknowledge citations of current AAEA members and/or their research in any public media channel. AAEA does not agree nor disagree with the views or attitudes of cited outside publications. Amy Hagerman, Oklahoma State University "The Bird Flu Outbreak is the Deadliest in US History: Here is What We Know" By: NPR - November 2, 2022 “In total, these complexes are easily over a million birds. In order to increase the value of eggs and egg products, there is a need to reduce HPAI-affected egg operations, especially since most US production goes to the domestic market" (Continued...) Read more on: NPR David Just, Cornell University Anne Byrne, USDA - Economic Research Service "Food Banks Save Needy Families Up to $1000 per Year" By: US News - November 23, 2022 “The most recent Household Food Security in the United States report … estimates that 5.6% of U.S. households use food pantries, which are the main distribution vehicle for food banks,” "In this broader context, our results suggest that food bank services collectively represent a sizeable share of the food landscape.” (Continued...) Read more on: US News David Anderson, Texas A&M University "Higher Calf Prices Projected for 2023 in Texas" By: The Eagle - November 28, 2022 “Drought affects all aspects of the cattle business. The reason we have culled so many cows this year is because of drought and the cost of corn. High corn prices will lead to a high feed cost environment into next year. Production costs have also increased faster than calf prices.” (Continued...) Read more on: The Eagle Jeff Reimer, Oregon State University "Challenges Facing Food and Beverage Companies Seeking to Export" By: News Continue - November 29, 2022 “I think the theme here is small and medium firms are important for our local economies. They are making high-quality products that are sought after overseas, but what can our policymakers and business leaders do to help them export those products?" (Continued...) Read more on: News Continue Holly Wang, Purdue University "We Can Not Give in to Gm Corn From the US" By: Courthouse News Service - December 1, 2022 “Mexico is one of our large exporting markets [for corn] and, of course, if it does not accept the GM corn, that will mean our demand is reduced and it may negatively impact the market price,” (Continued...) Read more on: Courthouse News Service Daniel Sumner, University of California, Davis "Bird Flu Outbreaks in 2022 Break Record, 46 States Impacted" By: abc15 - November 31, 2022 “This avian influenza has been a real problem because it has lasted such a long time relative to other outbreaks of this particular disease, it has been particularly hard hitting for eggs and turkeys. Egg prices have doubled or more than doubled. And broiler (chicken) prices, even when this was hitting the broilers really bad, which is not so much right now, they’ve gone up,” (Continued...) Read more on: abc15 Dawn Thilmany, Colorado State University "Inflated Food Prices Could Affect Holiday Season" By: Western Farmer-Stockman, November 31, 2022 “Price increases are noticeable to those of us who are middle income and above, but, for the U.S. households who are food insecure, that extra cost for staples like eggs and milk will have a much, much more profound impact.” (Continued...) Read more on: Western Farmer-Stockman David Ortega, Michigan State University "Customer Impacts of Kroger, Albertsons Merger Could Depend on Market, Expert Says" By: The National Desk - November 28, 2022 "Mississippi Barge Delays Could Further Affect Consumer Prices" By: Twin Cities Pioneer Press - November 28, 2022 "Don't Believe What you Hear About Turkey Inflation" By: Slate - November 22, 2022

Know another AAEA Member who has made statewide, national, or international news? Send a link of the article to Austin Sparbel at asparbel@aaea.org. What research and topics are you working on? Want to be an expert source for journalists working on a story? Contact Allison Ware at aware@aaea.org.