Members in the News: April 21, 2025

 David Ortega, Michigan State University
Chris Barrett, Cornell University

“Egg Prices Continued to Rise in March”

By: The New York Times – April 10, 2025

“It could take several weeks for the decrease in wholesale prices to pass through to retail prices. All indications are that there’s some relief coming for consumers. Even then, there are a lot of other factors that determine the price of eggs.”

“They don’t have to lower it all the way to reflect how much the price really fell in the wholesale market.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The New York Times

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David Ortega, Michigan State University

• “Egg Prices Continued To Rise in March. Here’s Why They Are So Expensive Right Now”
  By: Time Magazine – April 11, 2025
• “Tariff Uncertainty Poses Risks For Grocers, Experts Say”
  By: Grocery Drive - April 10, 2025

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Jada Thompson, University of Arkansas

• “U.S. Egg Prices Soar To Record High, Despite Donald Trump's Prediction”
  By: Huffington Post – April 11, 2025
• “US egg prices increase to record high, dashing hopes of cheap eggs by Easter”
  By: AP News – April 10, 2025

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David Ortega, Michigan State University
Chris Barret, Cornell University

“Egg Prices Continued to Rise in March”

By: NYT – April 10, 2025

“It could take several weeks for the decrease in wholesale prices to pass through to retail prices. All indications are that there’s some relief coming for consumers. Even then, there are a lot of other factors that determine the price of eggs.”

“They don’t have to lower it all the way to reflect how much the price really fell in the wholesale market.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: NYT

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Wendong Zhang, Cornell University

• “US-China Tariff Battle Fuels Questions About Trump’s Endgame”
  By: The Hill – April 11, 2025
• “Confusion Reigns After Trump Exempts Electronics From New Tariff Regime. Here’s What We Know”
  By: AP News – April 14, 2025

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David Ortega, Michigan State University
Chris Barret, Cornell University

“Egg Prices Continued to Rise in March”

By: NYT – April 10, 2025

“It could take several weeks for the decrease in wholesale prices to pass through to retail prices. All indications are that there’s some relief coming for consumers. Even then, there are a lot of other factors that determine the price of eggs.”

“They don’t have to lower it all the way to reflect how much the price really fell in the wholesale market.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: NYT

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Alexis Villacis, The Ohio State University

“Easter Chocolate is Expensive This Season. Here’s Why”

By: KCUR – April 14, 2025

“Bigger chocolate companies, like Hershey or Mondelez International, can buy large amounts of cocoa to protect themselves from price fluctuations. But smaller chocolate processors do not have those types of resources. So those are the ones that we have seen, at least anecdotally, are closing down their operations because they cannot keep with these price increases. And at the end of the day, it's up to the consumers to decide if they want to pay two or three times more for a chocolate product from these small chocolate producers.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: KCUR or NPR

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William Ridley, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• “Local Shoppers Prepare for Tariffs to Impact Their Budget”
  By: WAND News - April 7, 2025
• “Guess What Kind of Cooking Oil Is Tariff-Proof?”
  By: The Atlantic – April 11, 2025

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Joe Janzen, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Joana Colussi, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“Tariff is Trump’s Favorite Word — But For Soybean Farmers, it Spells Trouble”

By: Investigate Midwest – April 9, 2025

“It makes more sense to grow soybeans in the U.S. Midwest than it does to grow them in other parts of the world. Switching costs are pretty significant.”

“It’s a record crop season in South America… The harvest was really good due to two main factors: an expansion in Brazil’s soybean planting area and a favorable rainy season in the central-west region, driven by La Niña conditions.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Investigate Midwest 

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Zachariah Rutledge, Michigan State University

“Michigan Fruit and Vegetable Sector at Risk as Crop Decline Continues”

By: Freshpalza – April 16, 2025

Michigan's fruit and vegetable industries—integral components of the state's specialty crop sector—are under increasing pressure due to rising costs, labor shortages, and structural vulnerabilities.

(Continued...)
Read more on: Freshpalza

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Colin Carter, University of California, Davis

• “California’s $59bn Agriculture Industry Reels Under Trump’s Wavering Tariffs”
  By: The Guardian – April 9, 2025
• “Forget Tariffs — Beijing is Already Choking off US Exports on the Sly”
  By: Yahoo! News – April 12, 2025

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Steven Deller, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Trade Policies Strongly Affect Wisconsin”

By: AgUpdate - April 17, 2205

“The current administration’s trade policies, including tariffs on key partners, have sparked renewed focus on the role of foreign exports in Wisconsin’s economy. Wisconsin’s exports since 2010 have grown by 39 percent or $7.7 billion, reaching a total of $27.5 billion in 2024 and accounting for 8.1 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. In comparison, the U.S. share of gross domestic product attributed to exports was 10.9 percent in 2024.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: AgUpdate

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David Ortega, Michigan State University

“How Trump’s Tariffs Are Set to Raise Michigan Grocery Prices”

By: Planet Detroit – April 17, 2025

“Low-income households are likely to bear an outsize portion of the impact from price hikes which could be compounded by economic headwinds in Michigan and cuts to government assistance. This really impacts low-income households the most. On the food side that’s especially true, because lower-income households spend a significantly higher share of their disposable income on food.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Planet Detroit

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William Maples, Mississippi State University

“Mississippi Soybean Farmers Worried Over Tariffs”

By: WTVA – April; 15, 2025

“As a state like Mississippi where soybeans is one of our top three commodities each year. It's the biggest row crop commodity in the state that has a direct impact to our producers.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: WTVA

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Martin Smith, Duke University

“The Hidden Health Penalty of Seafood Tariffs”

By: Think Global Health – April 18, 2025

“The average American eats 20 pounds of seafood each year—about three-fourths of which is imported. New tariffs will increase prices for and reduce consumption of shrimp, salmon, canned tuna, and tilapia—the four most popular seafood products in the United States. That could pit Americans' heart health against their.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Think Global Health

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David Anderson, Texas A&M University

“Egg Prices Falling Ahead of Easter Demand”

By: Marshall News Messenger – April 16, 20025

“Eggs typically reach a seasonal price peak around Easter, historically followed by price drops at grocery stores. However, egg prices have already been on a downward trend in recent months. Wholesale prices fell from $8.51 to $3.84, or 55%, between March 1 and March 29.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Marshall News Messenger

Members in the News: April 14, 2025

Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Cornell University
David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley
Thomas Hertel, Purdue University

“Scientists Shielding Farming From Climate Change Need More Public Funding. But They’re Getting Less”

By: AP News – March 31, 2025 

“This is terrible news for the U.S. agricultural sector… Think of it like riding a bike into a headwind. To maintain the same speed, you have to pedal harder; in this case, R&D can be that extra push.”

“I really worry that if we don’t really look at the global food situation, we will have a disaster."

“More people on the Earth, you need more productivity to prevent food prices going crazy. Even if nothing changes right away, he thinks “10 years from now, 20 years from now, our yield growth will surely be stunted” by cuts to research on agricultural productivity.

(Continued...)
Read more on: AP News

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David Ortega, Michigan State University
Ian Sheldon, The Ohio State University

“Farmers Brace for Significant Losses in a New Trade War”

By: NYT – April 4, 2025

“If these tariffs go into effect for a significant period, we’re likely looking at a disruption that is likely to be severe, and likely worse than the 2018 trade war.”

“We will lose more market share in China, and the potential to divert that elsewhere in the world will be stymied by the fact that the tariffs implemented yesterday were so broad and across so many potential export markets.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: NYT

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Amit Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology

• “A Tale of Economic Advantage Driven By Obesity”
  By: Rochester Business Journal – April 4, 2025
• “Trump Promises Tariffs Are Here to Stay”
  By: PBS – April 7, 2025

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Wendong Zhang, Cornell University

• “A Headwind For Investment and Employment Around the World": Experts' Views On the Impact of U.S. Tariffs on Industry”
  By: Nikkei – April 4, 2025 (English PDF)
• “Our Post-Tariff Takeaways”
  By: Marketplace – April 3, 2025
• “What to Know About the Latest China Tariffs and What They Mean for Prices”
  By: NYT – April 10, 2025
• “Trump is Already Slowing Global Trade as Companies Pause Orders”
  By: Bloomberg – April 10, 2025  

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Joseph Balagtas, Purdue University

“10 Grocery Articles Likely to See Higher Prices Due to Prices”

By: NPR – April 4, 2025

“Food prices will also be affected by other factories related to prices, such as higher costs for Canada fertilizers and a lower US dollar. A main point to remember here is that the prices specific to the country and specific to food will not tell the whole story. This is a great change in policy that there will be wider implications.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: NPR

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Jada Thompson, University of Arkansas
David Anderson, Texas A&M University

“’Egg prices came down 50%’”

By: Politifact - April

“There is a lag between the retail and the wholesale price. Retailers ultimately set the final price we see as consumers. I’d expect a few weeks to fully transition the price. It takes some time to move products off the shelf that were purchased at a higher price, but as they do the prices will start coming down."

“The Trump administration’s steps are good moves, but they are more beneficial long term. Neither Trump nor former President Joe Biden should get credit or blame. The whole problem here is the occurrence of bird flu. If that would not have happened we would not have seen this kind of increase in egg prices." 

(Continued...)
Read more on: Politifact

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Christopher Barrett, Cornell University

“'Anxious': US Farmers See Tariffs Threaten Earnings”

By: Yahoo! Finance – April 5, 2025

"The loss of this market is a very big deal, because it's expensive to find other buyers. During Trump's escalating tariff war in his first presidency, China was the only target, and therefore the only country retaliating."

(Continued...)
Read more on: Yahoo! Finance

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Jada Thompson, University of Arkansas

“Egg Prices Inch Downward”

By: Talk Business – April 9, 2025

”Consumers may have to wait before seeing lower prices at the grocery store. In the same way that just because the barrel price of oil goes down does not mean that gas prices immediately go down, there’s a delay here.”

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

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Steven Deller, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tessa Conroy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Eau Claire County Scores High on State 'Prosperity Index'”

By: Volume One – April 3, 2025

“Historically speaking, Wisconsin is a relatively prosperous place, they wrote: “We find Wisconsin is at the center of the largest concentration of community-level prosperity in the United States, routinely faring better than the national average on all four dimensions we use to measure place prosperity.” 

(Continued...)
Read more on: Volume One

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Craig Carpenter, Michigan State University

“Communities Combat Lansing Area’s Lingering Impact of Redlining, Environmental Racism”

By: The State News – April 8, 2025

“We find that redline mapping reduced future incomes of Black children born into redline map cities by 7 percent, and on the other hand, it increased white people's incomes by about 3 percent and increased white people's housing values by 35 percent.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The State News

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Lotanna Emediegwu, Manchester Metropolitan University

“How Windfalls From Commodity Price Booms Come Back to Bite Exporters”

By: The Conversation – April 9, 2025

“When the wholesale prices of essential goods like food or oil suddenly rise, it can cause deep shifts in the economy that upend trade balances and hike inflation rates. This is known as a commodity price boom.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The Conversation

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Colin Carter, University of California, Davis

“Tariffs To Have Widespread Impact On California Businesses”

By: KQED - April 4, 2025

“During the last trade war with China, California growers suffered. A perfectly good example is tree nuts. They had a very large share in the China market prior to the 2018-2019 trade war launched by President Trump. The US market share in China for tree nuts at that time was over 90%. The trade war caused China to retaliate and raise its own tariffs against the U.S. and against California. And that market share of tree nuts going to China fell from 94% to 53%. And what happened was that China increased its own production to a certain extent, but they also pivoted to other countries. And that market share has not come back.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: KQED

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Ryan Cardwell, University of Manitoba

“Tariffs on Canadian Goods Having a 'Devastating Effect,' U.S. Farmers Say”

By: CBC – April 6, 2025

“ A time machine" might be the only way to fix it. The degree of uncertainty that has been created by the last few months of policy change in the United States, I think has done permanent damage. It's all very troubling and creates a lot of uncertainty and barriers to trade that have not existed for a very long time between Canada and the U.S."

(Continued...)
Read more on: CBC

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David Anderson, Texas A&M University

“Egg Prices Falling Ahead Of Easter Demand”

By: Austin County News – April 8, 2025

“eggs typically reach a seasonal price peak around Easter, historically followed by price drops at grocery stores. However, egg prices have already been on a downward trend in recent months. Wholesale prices fell from $8.51 to $3.84, or 55%, between March 1 and March 29.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Austin County News

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Brian Whitacre, Oklahoma State University

“The Fiber Advantage for Homeowners: Faster and Futureproof but Unequal”

By: CNET – April 10, 2025

"With fiber, once it's in the ground, you're not going to have to dig it back up 50 or even 100 years from now. It's kind of future-proof from that standpoint. Meaning if you invest in a property with fiber, you're investing in a technology that will stand the test of time.

(Continued...)
Read more on: CNET

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Zach Rutledge, Michigan State University
Timothy Richards, Arizona State University
John Lowrey, Northeastern University

“Providing Farmworkers With Health Insurance is Worth it For Their Employers − New Research”

By: The Conversation – April 8, 2025

“Agricultural employers who provide farmworkers with health insurance earn higher profits, even after accounting for the cost of that coverage. In addition, farmworkers who get health insurance through their employers are more productive and earn more money than those who do not.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The Conversation

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David Ortega, Michigan State University
Dawn Thilmany, Colorado State University

“Eating Healthy Will Likely Get More Expensive Thanks to Tariffs”

By: Everyday Health – April 9, 2025

“Grocery prices have already gone up more than 20 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic. The new round of tariffs being imposed now threatens to push food prices even higher. Since the U.S. relies on other countries for many seasonal food products, these costs will ultimately get passed on to American consumers.”

“All those countries are subject to the 10 percent baseline tariff, and that means the price of coffee beans and a cup of coffee at our favorite café will likely rise. For many foods or beverages, when the price of an item goes up, we can often find a suitable less expensive substitute. Not so with coffee — and that makes a rise in cost difficult, especially for people whose food budget is already stretched think.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Everyday Health

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David Ortega, Michigan State University
Lauren Chenarides, Colorado State University
Ted Jaenicke, Pennsylvania State University

“How Groceries are Priced”

By: WBUR on Point – April 8, 2025

“The food industry is grappling with some Trump administration policies such as higher tariffs. U.S. companies are scrambling to make sense of what this announcement means and where they might be sourcing products.”

“So what does it cost to produce those items? We have to think about the actual transportation costs. When we go to the grocery store, there were a lot of steps along the way that got those products to the store. And then we have to think about all the operating expenses that retailers have to cover, which includes anything from keeping their lights on, employing people, and covering for things that maybe people don't understand as intimately, like spoilage.”

“Labor costs, especially for particular items in the supermarket, that is a real driving factor. And then supply chain fragilities. How sensitive of the supply chain is to disruption.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: WBUR on Point

Members in the News: April 4, 2025

 Steven Deller, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Canadian Government Takes Anti-Tariff Message to Wisconsin's Highways”

By: WPR – March 28, 2025

“I can’t think of a single time that another government has taken a very proactive kind of marketing campaign like this,” Deller said. I think it’s extreme nervousness about how these tariffs will disrupt trade.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: WPR

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Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University

“Cattle on Feed Report Shows 2% Decline”

By: High Plains Journal – March 29, 2025

“The magnitude of decline was larger than most would have expected. Time will tell if this is more of a timing issue (with changes in Mexican feeder cattle imports) or a more aggregate reduction in placements here early in 2025.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: High Plains Journal

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Chad Hart, Iowa State University

“Beef Producers, Crop Farmers Eye Policy Changes, Market Prices”

By: Morning Ag Clips – March 29, 2025

“Those planting soybeans this year are doing so to maintain their agronomic rotation and are hoping that if enough acres shift to corn, soybean prices could improve in the fall. For livestock, and especially cattle, producers, the boost in corn area should translate into a continuation of lower feed costs. So, the challenge for crop producers is to the benefit of livestock producers.”

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

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Aaron Smith, University of California, Davis

“Could Egg Supply and Demand Be Helping Avian Flu Spread?”

By: Public News Service – April 2, 2025

"If you're lucky enough to not have been hit by bird flu, then your costs haven't changed very much, and the price of eggs is double," Aaron Smith, Gordon Rausser Distinguished Chair and Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, tells Sentient. "So you're making some pretty big profits right there."

(Continued...)
Read more on: Public News Service   

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Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee

“Trump’s Tariffs on Canada and Mexico Could Spell Trouble For Distilled Spirits”

By: The Conversation – March 26, 2025 

“In early March 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump levied import tariffs of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico, following through on a promise he made back in November 2024. While he later partially reversed course, suspending tariffs on some goods, tensions remain high. Mexico is largely holding off on retaliation, but Canada quickly fired back with counter-tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. products.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The Conversation

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Dawn Thilmany, Colorado State University

“‘A Huge Blow’: USDA Cuts Threaten to Throw Wisconsin’s Local Food Supply Into Disarray”

By: CNN – March 30, 2025 

“The cuts will be particularly hard on midsize producers, who are too large to rely solely on farmers markets but too small to compete in large-scale commodity markets. Without programs like LFPA many farmers may be forced to sell into lower-paying national markets — or risk their crops going unsold altogether.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: CNN

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Colin Andre Carter, University of California, Davis
Sandro Steinbach, North Dakota State University

“California Farmers Fear Tariff Trade War Losses in Billions, Uneven Bailouts”

By: The Fresno Bee – April 1, 2025

“I can’t see Elon Musk giving thumbs up to a huge bailout to farmers. It also brings into question all these other farm programs. When are they going to realize, gee whiz, maybe we shouldn’t be spending money on all these other things, like crop insurance, subsidies and so on.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The Fresno Bee

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Wendong Zhang, Cornell University

• “Experts & business owners react to ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs”
  By: WBNG – April 3, 2025
• “How Trump’s New Reciprocal Tariffs Will Hurt The Art Industry”
  By: ART News  - April 4, 2025

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David Ortega, Michigan State University

“3 States Issue Warnings About Unsolicited Packages of Seeds”

By: The New York Times – March 31, 2025

“It’s hard to know the real intent behind the seed packets, but in the past these have been tied to scams. People who receive the packages should be cautious but not alarmed, he said. “The biggest thing is don’t plant them — and contact your local or state-level agriculture office and let them be aware.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: The New York Times

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James Mintert, Purdue University

“Federal Policy Uncertainty lowers Farmer Sentiment”

By: Capital Press – April 2, 2025

“That was still 25 points higher than it was back in October. Falloffs in key crop prices since mid-February also were an important factor in farmers’ sentiment change… Producers’ outlook for ag exports, which predominantly have been a real source of growth in the U.S. ag sector for decades, really shifted.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Capital Press

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David Anderson, Texas A&M University

“Did Trump Really Bring Down the Price of Eggs By Half?”

By: Yahoo! Finance – April 3, 2025

“Since the first week of March, the wholesale cost of white eggs has come down by about 56% to $3 a dozen, according to the Department of Agriculture’s weekly data. However, the drop likely has less to do with the administration’s work than with a decrease in demand from consumers who’ve been stung by the steep price of an omelette. I think the administration’s efforts on the egg front are good moves, but I think they are more long-term boosts in nature.”

(Continued...)
Read more on: Yahoo! Finance

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