Annual/Termination Reports:

[06/05/2001] [11/05/2003] [11/07/2003]

Report Information

Participants

Arkansas

*William Bailey ;

California-Berkeley

*Jeffrey Perloff ;
California-Davis Rachael Goodhue;
CatherineMorrison Paul;
*Richard Sexton;

Connecticut (Storrs)

*Ronald Cotterill;
Kathleen Segerson ;

Florida

*Richard Kilmer ;

Georgia

*Stanley Fletcher ;

Illinois

Michael Mazzocco;
Steven Sonka;
Sarahelen Thompson;
*Laurian Unnevehr;
Michael Ward;
Randall Westgren ;

Indiana

*John Connor ;

Iowa

Frances Antonovitz;
David Hennessy;
*Helen Jensen ;

Kansas

*John Fox ;

Kentucky

*Steven Vickner ;

Louisiana

*Wesley Harrison ;

Maryland

Rimjhim Aggarwal;
*Erik Lichtenberg ;

Massachusetts
*Julie Caswell;
Nathalie Lavoie;
Richard Rogers;

Michigan

Kellie Raper;
*Eileen van Ravenswaay ;

Minnesota

Terry Roe;
*Rodney Smith ;

Montana

*John Antle ;

Nebraska

*Azzeddine Azzam;
Jeffrey Royer ;

New Hampshire

*Alberto Manalo ;

New Jersey

Adesoji Adelaja;
*Sanjib Bhuyan;

New York (Cornell)

Ralph Christy;
*Willian Lesser;
Edward McLaughlin;
William Tomek;

North Dakota

*Cheryl Sinn DeVuyst;
William Nganje ;

Ohio

Wen Chern;
*Ian Sheldon ;

Oregon

Deana Grobe ;

Rhode Island

James Anderson;
*Cathy Wessells ;

Texas

*H. Alan Love;
Rodolfo Nayga ;

Virginia

*Everett Peterson ;

Washington

*Jill McCluskey ;

Wisconsin

*Robin Douthitt;
Brian Gould;
Lydia Zepeda ;

USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES)

Melvin Mathias;
Edith Thomas;
Donald West ;

USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS)

Jean Buzby;
Stephen Crutchfield;
Mark Denbaly;
Paul Freznan;
Phillip Kaufman;
Fred Kuchler;
James MacDonald;
Michael Ollinger;
*Tanya Roberts ;

USDA, Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS)

Donald Frederick;
Thomas Gray;
Carolyn Betts Liebrand;
K. Charles Ling;
Thomas Stafford;
*Randall Torgerson;
James Wadsworth;
Roger Wissman ;

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

In 2000, the fourth year of the current NE-165 Project, the members were involved in presenting three major research conferences, did extensive work on conferences to be held in year 5 of the Project, and continued to be very productive in completing research. The publication list for the year includes 71 journal articles, 31 book chapters, 27 station and agency publications, and 7 theses and dissertations. A book from the June 1998 conference, titled The Economics of HACCP: Costs and Benefits, edited by Unnevehr (IL) was published in 2000 by Eagan Press. In addition, a book based on the June 1999 conference, titled Transitions in Agbiotech: Economics of Strategy and Policy, edited by William Lesser (NY) was published by NE-165 on the internet (http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/pubview.pl?pubid=24). Project members were very active in professional meetings and other fora across the United States and in Europe during the year, including at the summer meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association in Tampa, Florida<br /> <br><br /> <br>The Project&lsquo;s premier accomplishments during 2000 were three major conferences. The first was a conference on The American Consumer in the Changing Food System (http://www.umass.edu/ne165/conferences2000/american_consumer.html ), co-chaired by Denbaly (USDA/ERS) and MacDonald (USDA/ERS), with participation by Cotterill (CT), held in May in Washington, DC. The overall objective of the conference was to take stock and improve our understanding of causes and effects of increasing concentration and coordination, particularly stressing the role of final consumer demand in driving these changes in industry organization. Several papers from the conference were published in Agribusiness (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issuetoc?ID=76509433) edited by Cotterill (CT).<br /> <br><br /> <br>NE-165 also co-organized two additional conferences held in 2000. The first was Global Food Trade and Consumer Demand for Quality, co-organized with the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium -- IATRC, held June 26-27 in Montreal, Canada. The conference was co-chaired by Krissoff (USDA/ERS), Bohman (USDA/ERS), and Caswell (MA). This conference focused on the confluence of consumer and trade economics, both from a methodological and empirical standpoint. The objective was to exam-ine consumer demand for quality attributes (including food safety) in the context of a global economy and expanding international trade and the role of both private firm strategies and public policy in facilitating consumer choice and free trade. A book based on the conference will be published by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.<br /> <br><br /> <br>NE-165 also co-organized a conference on Valuing the Health Benefits of Food Safety held in September in Washington, DC. It was co-sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The conference committee was chaired by Nardinelli (FDA). The conference discussed economic issues related to valuing food safety risk reduction. It was a first step in developing a common approach to valuing risk reduction that will facilitate comparing programs across agencies. Because of the three conferences held in 2000, the Technical Committee did not meet separately during the year. Business meetings were held at the May and June conferences. The planning committees for the one conference and AAEA Annual Meeting activities to be held in 2001 (see below) met regularly during 2000 in person and through conference calls and email. During 2000, the Project continued to focus on improving communication among re-searchers and between researchers and decision makers. Our outputs are posted on the NE-165 web site and on AgEcon Search. This work is instantly available to researchers around the world. NE-165&lsquo;s core group at the Food Marketing Policy Center, University of Connecticut, and by subcontract at the University of Massachusetts, played a major role in supporting collaboration and communication. It helped organize the Project conferences, continued development of the NE-165 web site (http://www.umass.edu/ne165/), and maintained a listserv for the group. The Center continued to purchase and maintain 12 major data sets that are used on a regular basis by NE-165 members. The effectiveness of NE-165 research has been significantly enhanced by the availability of these detailed data sets. The core group also provides support for the NE-165 Working Paper and Reprint Series, which are distributed to over 200 economists, research libraries, and others worldwide. A CSREES Special Research Grant funds the Food Marketing Policy Center.<br /> <br><br /> <br>

Publications

<a href="http://www.umass.edu/ne165/annual_rpt00.html#VI.%20Publications%20Issued%20or%20Manu">Click here to see the publications</a><br /> <br><br /> <br>

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

Regional Research Project NE-165: Private Strategies, Public Policies, and Food System Performance (http://www.umass.edu/ne165/) ended in September 2002 after 16 years of operation. During its life, NE-165 became nationally and internationally recognized as the leading source of policy relevant economic research on the industrial organization of the food system; on the impacts of changes in strategies, technologies, consumer behavior, and policies on the economic performance of the food system; and on how private and public strategies influence improvement in food safety and other quality attributes. At its end, NE-165 had 114 members from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, and New Zealand. The hallmark of NE-165 was to provide an organizational and human infrastructure that allowed economists to make their work more policy relevant through interaction with policy makers and regulators, while the policy makers and regulators gained better direct access to economic research relevant to their work.<br /> <br /> <br /> This termination report covers the last 6 years of the Project (October 1996 to September 2002). During this period, Project members were very productive, reporting 7 regional publications, 314 journal articles, 3 books, 4 edited proceedings, 105 book chapters, 178 station and agency publications, and 45 theses and dissertations related to their work on the Project. The Project was sole organizer or co-organizer of 7 research conferences between 1997 and 2002, while 9 books or special journal editions were published during this period as a result of these and earlier NE-165 conferences. Table 1 details these conferences and publications, as well as their policy relevance and impact. These conferences and publications highlight NE-165s contribution to the understanding of developing trends in the food system, including industrialization and consolidation in the agricultural, processing, and retailing sectors; introduction of new quality assurance systems such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP); the rapid growth of agricultural biotechnology; changes in domestic and international food demand; and the use of economic analysis in the risk management decisions of governments. A Japanese translation of many of the chapters from the NE-165 food safety books was published in 2002. NE-165 was a pioneer is making its output easily accessible to researchers around the world through its internet site and by posting papers on AgEcon Search.<br /> <br /> <br /> NE-165 operated throughout with a core research group at the Food Marketing Policy Center at the University of Connecticut, and by subcontract at the University of Massachusetts. The Center played a major role in supporting collaboration and communication within the Project. It helped organize the Project conferences, developed the NE-165 web site, and maintained a listserv for the group. The Center purchased and maintained 12 major data sets that were used on a regular basis by NE-165 members. The core group also provided support for the NE-165 Working Paper and Reprint Series, which were distributed to over 200 economists, research libraries, and others worldwide. A CSREES Special Research Grant funds the Food Marketing Policy Center.

Publications

Impact Statements

1. <li>Provided analysis of the benefits and costs of changes in regulatory policy regarding food quality, particularly food safety<li>Created economic analysis of the impact of private and public strategies on improvement in food safety and other quality attributes<li>Promoted use of economic analysis for placing a value on the health benefits of improved food safety and for setting priorities for food safety improvements<li>Economic methodology was applied to analyze the operation of markets for
2. quality attributes such as nutrition, pesticide residues, use of inputs produced with biotechnology, and other process attributes such as environmental friendliness.

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Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

From 1996-2002, NE-165 research was used by policy makers and private parties through their direct discussions and interactions with Project members, access to publications and working papers, and Congressional testimony. The scope of this impact became increasingly international. Many of NE-165's impacts and research results are discussed on the Project's web site at (http://www.umass.edu/ne165/impacts.html). The timely posting of NE-165 research on the internet has contributed to policy discussion worldwide.<br /> <br /> Under the Project's first objective, strategy and policy analysis, Project researchers participated in major discussions on pricing, vertical coordination, supply chain relationships, and antitrust issues in the U.S. and the European Union. They also prepared analyses of, and in some cases participated in, major antitrust cases in the United States. Project members contributed a broad range of useful research on the operation of food markets in the United States and the world, focusing on pricing, competition, and policy issues. Conferences held from 1996-2002 focused on emerging food system trends, providing timely information for the policy debate on developments in the industry including consolidation, industrialization, and shifts in buyer and consumer demand. The conferences presented new data and analyses, engaging a broad range of researchers and policy makers in the discussion.<br /> <br /> During the 1996-2002 period, the Project carried out significant work, spanning its first and second objectives, focused on providing economic analysis of the impact of private and public strategies on improvement in food safety and other quality attributes. For example, the Project's conferences focused on the impacts of the introduction of biotechnology, changes in demand among American consumers, and changes in international demand on food system performance and food trade. Another focal point was the use of economic analysis for placing a value on the health benefits of improved food safety and for setting priorities for food safety improvements. Throughout its term, the Project brought together researchers from several federal agencies, universities, and consulting firms who were engaged in measuring the economics of food safety, allowing them to evaluate methodologies and develop best practices for this type of analysis.<br /> <br /> Throughout 1996-2002, Project members were at the forefront of analyzing the benefits and costs of changes in regulatory policy regarding food quality, particularly food safety. Areas of work included analysis of mandatory requirements by FDA and USDA/FSIS that companies use a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) approach to food safety assurance. Work also focused on analysis of other public and private quality assurance systems. Economic methodology was applied to analyze the operation of markets for quality attributes such as nutrition, pesticide residues, use of inputs produced with biotechnology, and other process attributes such as environmental friendliness. This research was directly used by private companies in their market analysis and by federal and state agencies in their rule making.

Publications

Impact Statements

1. <li>Provided sound economic analysis of private and public strategies in order to assess their impact on improvement in food safety and other quality attributes.<li>Created and sponsored conferences laid the groundwork for broad-ranging analyses of links between private strategies such as vertical integration or advertising and the operation of food markets.<li>Project members were national and international leaders in the development of all aspects of analysis of the economics of food safety.<l
2. i>Established itself as the international leader in development of research on the economics of markets for and regulation of food quality, especially food safety<li>Developed reliable methodologies for measuring the private and public benefits and costs of improving the quality of food products<li>Developed databases for use by Project researchers that created a strong basis for cooperative work.

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