Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

This years NC-1034 research symposium, The World Food Crisis: The Future Role of Agricultural R & D Programs, Biotechnology, and Crop-Related Energy Policy was held at USDAs Economic Research Service in Washington, DC, March 19-20, 2009. Along with presentations by project participants, the NC-1034 symposium featured guest presentations and discussion by: " Joseph Glauber, USDA, Chief Economist " Prabhu Pingali, Head of Agricultural Policy and Statistics, Agriculture Development Division. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation " Mark Rosengrant, Director of the Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute " Katherine Smith, USDA  ERS Administrator and USDA Acting Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics " Neil Conklin, President of the Farm Foundation " Thomas A. Bewick, USDA  CSREES, National Program Leader  Horticulture " Professor Justus Wesseler of Wageningen University, The Netherlands Topics addressed included the recent sharp increase in world food prices and its implications for agricultural research systems, relationships between energy and agricultural markets, agricultural R&D funding and productivity trends and their implications for world food production, private agricultural R&D and patenting, and mechanisms for enhancing the policy relevance of economic research. Please see full conference program in the Publications link of the NC-1034 home page. The full symposium agenda follows. NC-1034 Impact Analysis and Decision Strategies for Agricultural Research Annual Business Meeting and Research Conference on The World Food Crisis: The Future Role of Agricultural R & D Programs, Biotechnology, and Crop-Related Energy Policy Waugh Auditorium, USDA Economic Research Service 1800 M Street NW, Washington, DC March 19  20, 2009 AGENDA Thursday March 19, 2009 8:00  8:30 Registration 8:30  8:45 Welcome Mary Bohman, USDA  Economic Research Service George Frisvold, University of Arizona 8:45  9:15 The World Food Crisis: an Overview Mark Rosegrant, International Food Policy Research Institute 9:15  9:45 Agricultural Research, Productivity, and Food Commodity Prices Phil Pardey, University of Minnesota 9:45  10:15 The World Food Crisis and Agricultural R & D: The Role of Non- Government Institutions Prabhu Pingali, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 10:15  10:45 Break 10:45  11:15 Industry Structure and R&D Spending: New Evidence from Agricultural Input Industries Keith Fuglie, USDA  Economic Research Service 11: 15  11:45 Technology and Innovation in World Agriculture: 2010 to 2019 Wallace Huffman, Iowa State University 11:45  12:15 Biotechnology and Nutritional Quality of Foods Laurian Unnevehr, USDA  Economic Research Service 12:15  1:30 Lunch Thursday March 19, 2009 1:30 - 2:00 A Method for Evaluating the Strength of Patents Brian Wright and Zhen Lei, University of California, Berkeley 2:00  2:30 Political Economy of Biotechnology Acceptance and Rejection Gregory Graff, Colorado State University 2:30  3:00 Policy Relevant Science for Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Kitty Smith, USDA Acting Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics 3:00  3:30 Break 3:30  4:00 The Efficiency of Increased US Biofuels Mandates Antonio Bento, Cornell University 4:00  4:30 Energy and Agricultural Markets Joe Glauber, Chief Economist, USDA 4:30  5:30 Panel  Comparative Developments in Agricultural R&D Carl Pray, Rutgers University Justus Wesseler, Wageningen University Friday March 20, 2009 8:30 - 9:00 Internationally Linked Patents in Agricultural Biotechnology John King, USDA  Economic Research Service 9:00 - 9:30 On Pricing and Vertical Organization of Differentiated Products: The Case of Soybean Seed Industry Guanming Shi and Jean-Paul Chavas, University of Wisconsin 9:30 - 10:00 The Relationship of Agricultural Productivity and Agricultural Output and Trade David Lambert, North Dakota State University 10:00- 10:30 Break 10:30 - 11:00 Biofortification and Improved Staple Crops  Two Important Avenues Generating Irreversible Benefits from Transgenic Crops for Africa Justus Wesseler, Wageningen University 11:00 - 11:30 Scientists Values, University-Industry Research Relations, and University Research Policies Leland Glenna, Pennsylvania State University 11:30 - 12:00 The Role of Stakeholders in Developing Research and Extension Funding Sources Thomas A. Bewick, USDA  CSREES 12:00 - 1:30 Lunch / NC 1034 Business Meeting 1:30 Adjourn The NC-1034 Business Meeting was held on March 20. Administrative Advisor Marshall Martin (Purdue) noted NC1034 is scheduled to terminate in September 2011. Hence, this is the year to write a new/revised 5-year multi-state project. Some information is due in NIMSS in September and everything must be completed by no later than December 1, 2010. Martin discussed the difference between NC projects and NCCC projects. NC projects involve integrated, often interdisciplinary, and multi-state activities; have expected outcomes, including original research results; convey knowledge; and are peer reviewed. A key element here is that research is actually carried out collaboratively by participants across states and that the purpose of meeting is more than information sharing. Marshall noted that if the groups major activities were primarily information exchange then NCCCs (NC Coordinating Committees) would be the more appropriate form of organization. He emphasized that, for project renewal it was crucial to show more evidence of research impact and collaboration, including collaborative grants and publications. George Frisvold (Arizona) noted that a main purpose of the annual symposium was information exchange. However, many NC-1034 are collaborating on ongoing research projects. Because of the large number of states, participating in NC-1034 (24) there is not single project that involve all participants. However, numerous projects involve sub-groups of NC-1034 participants. He also asked members to report on impacts of research and not just publications. Examples might include technology transfer, invited testimony before decision-makers, evidence of increase knowledge or awareness, or greater interactions with USDA agencies. Some suggestions for post-meeting activities included posting presentations on AgEcon Search or Farm Foundation websites. Carl Pray (Rutgers) suggested it would be a good idea to report some results back to the Gates Foundation. Discussion then turned to possible themes, locations, and dates for the 2010 meetings. It was agreed to have the meetings at ERS in Washington, DC again. March, around times of university Spring Breaks was suggested as a good time to hold the meetings. Possible themes mentioned included: " Sustainability " Biotechnology " Institutional structures & R&D " Environmental / food safety impacts " Implications for global food production " Economics of productivity research & benefits of productivity research " Productivity measurement " Measuring benefit and policy implications of public and private research It was also recommended that it would be worthwhile to invite industry speakers. It was also suggested that given that the meetings would be in Washington, DC, it would again be a good opportunity to invite policy makers to hear and make presentations. Vincent Smith (Montana State) and David Schimmelpfennig offered to lead the planning committee for the 2010 meeting. They were formally nominated and unanimously approved. Finally, motions were introduced and passed to elect George Frisvold (Arizona) president.

This year the project produced more than 50 publications (see attached publications list). Project participants helped organize and participated in the 14th International Consortium for Agricultural Biotechnology Research (ICABR) on The Future of Agricultural Biotechnology: Creative Destruction, Adoption, or Irrelevance? in Honor of Vittorio Santaniello. Selected papers from this conference will be published in a special issue of AgBioForum 2009. Researchers from Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and USDAs Economic Research Service extended collaborative research on pest resistance management for trangenic crops (which began as part of the 2005 NC-1034 research symposium) to a new project on herbicide resistance management. Research findings will also be published in a special issue of AgBioForum in 2009. Collaborative research among participants from California, Minnesota, and Wyoming continued with a major effort to update state-level and national agricultural input, output and productivity measures for the United States. This data will be used in future research examining the productivity effects of agricultural R&D.

Publications 1. Alpuerto, V. 2008. Economic Impact Analysis of Marker-Assisted Breeding in Rice, M.S. thesis, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. 2. Alston, J.M. and P.G. Pardey 2008. Public Funding for Research into Specialty Crops. HortScience 43,14611470.. 3. Alston, J. M., P.G. Pardey, and V.W. Ruttan. 2008. "Research Lags Revisited: Concepts and Evidence from U.S. Agriculture." University of Minnesota. Department of Applied Economics Staff Paper 50091. 4. Bishop, C., C.R. Shumway, P. Wandschneider (2008). Agent Heterogeneity in Adoption of Anaerobic Digestion Technology: Integrating Economic, Diffusion and Behavioral Innovation Theory School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-8. 5. Florkowski, W.J., D.-K.Shu. 2008. Consumer and Farmers Benefits from Agricultural and Food Technology Research. Annals of The Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists 10, 32-37. 6. Florkowski, W.J. 2008. Opportunities for Innovation Through Interdisciplinary Research. In: Bulletin of the Szent István University, Special Issue Part II, 597-603. 7. Florkowski, W.J. 2008. The Role of Professional Agricultural Economics Associations in Shaping National Agricultural Policy: The Case of SERiA. In: Agricultural economics and transition: What was expected, what we observed, the lessons learned, Volume II, C. Csáki and C. Forgács, eds., pp. 445-452, IAMO, Hungary. 8. Foltz, J.D and B. Barham, Bradford. 2008. The Productivity Effects of Extension Appointments in Land Grant Colleges. University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics, Staff Paper Series. 9. Frisvold, G. and K. Day-Rubenstein. 2008. Bioprospecting and Biodiversity Conservation: What Happens When Discoveries are Made? Arizona Law Review 50, 545-76. 10. Frisvold, G. and J.M. Reeves. 2008. "The Costs and Benefits of Refuge Requirements: The Case of Bt Cotton." Ecological Economics 65, no. 1: 87-97. 11. Golan, E. and L. Unnevehr. 2008. Food Product Composition, Consumer Health, and Public Policy: Introduction and Overview of Special Section. Food Policy 33, 465-69. 12. Gregory, P. R. Potter, Frank Shotkoski, D. Hautea, K. Raman, V. Vijayaraghavan, W. Lesser, G. Norton, and W. Coffman. 2008. Bioengineered Crops as Tools for International Development: Opportunities and Strategic Considerations. Experimental Agriculture 44, 277-299. 13. Hochman, Gal, Steven E. Sexton, and David D. Zilberman. 2008. "The Economics of Biofuel Policy and Biotechnology." Journal of Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization 6, no. 2. 14. Huang, Jikun, Ruifa Hu, Scott Rozelle, and Carl Pray. 2008. "Genetically Modified Rice, Yields, and Pesticides: Assessing Farm-Level Productivity Effects in China." Economic Development and Cultural Change 56, 241-263. 15. Huffman, W. 2008. Rising Food and Energy Prices: Projections for Labor Markets 2008-18 and Beyond. Iowa State University, Department of Economics, Working Paper # 08030. 16. James, J., P. Pardey, J. Alston. 2008. Agricultural R&D Policy: A Tragedy of the International Commons. University of Minnesota. Department of Applied Economics Staff Paper 43094. 17. Koontz, S., D. Hoag, J. Brethour, J. Walker. 2008. Production Inefficiency in Fed Cattle Marketing and the Value of Sorting Pens into Alternative Marketing Groups Using Ultrasound Technology. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 40, 895-912. 18. Lalitha, N., C. Pray, and B. Ramaswami. 2008. The Limits of Intellectual Property Rights: Lessons from the Spread of Illegal Transgenic Seeds in India. Discussion Papers in Economics. Discussion Paper 08-06. Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. 19. Liu, Y., C.R. Shumway. 2008. Induced Innovation in U.S. Agriculture: Time-series, Direct Econometric, and Nonparametric Tests. 2008. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-3. 20. Liu, Y. C.R Shumway. 2008. Induced Innovation and Marginal Cost of New Technology. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-6. 21. Liu, Y. C.R. Shumway, R. Rosenman, V.E. Ball. 2008. Productivity Growth and Convergence in U.S. Agriculture: New Cointegration Panel Data Results. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-4. 22. Masters, W.A. 2008. Beyond the Food Crisis: Trade, Aid and Innovation in African Agriculture. African Technology Development Forum 5, 3-13. 23. Masters, W.A. and B. Delbecq. 2008. Accelerating innovation with prize rewards IFPRI Discussion Paper 835 (December), 44 pages. 24. Masters, W.A. and G. Shively. 2008. Introduction to the Special Issue on the World Food Crisis. Agricultural Economics 39, 373-74. 25. McCarl, B.A. 2008. Bioenergy in a Greenhouse Mitigating World. Choices 23, 31-33. 26. McCarl, B.A., 2008. Food, Biofuel, Global Agriculture, and Environment: Discussion. Review of Agricultural Economics 30, 530-32. 27. Melhim, A., E. O'Donoghue, C.R. Shumway. 2008. What Does Initial Farm Size Imply About Growth and Diversification? School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-5. 28. Melhim, A., E. O'Donoghue, C.R. Shumway. 2008. Do the Largest Firms Grow and Diversify the Fastest? The Case of U.S. Dairies. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-7. 29. Miranowski. J.A., D. Swenson, D., L. Eathington, A. Rosburg. 2008. Biofuel. the Rural Economy. and Farm Structure. In B. English, R. Menard, K. Jensen (eds.) Risk, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution Conference Proceedints. Farm Foundation. 30. Moschini, G. 2008. Biotechnology and the Development of Food Markets: Retrospect and Prospects. European Review of Agricultural Economics 35, 331-55. 31. Moschini, G. L. Menapace, D. Pick. 2008. Geographical Indications and the Competitive Provision of Quality in Agricultural Markets. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 90, 794-812. 32. Moschini, G., O, Yerokhin. 2008. Economics Incentive to Innovate in Plants: Patents and Plant Breeders' Rights. Iowa State University, Department of Economics, Staff General Research Papers. 33. Moschini, G., O. Yerokhin. 2008. Patents, Research Exemption, and the Incentive for Sequential Innovation. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy 17, 379-412. 34. Moss, C., T. Schmitz, and A. Schmitz. 2008. Segregating Genetically Modified and Nongenetically Modified Corn in a Marketing Channel. Applied Economics 40, 2765-74. 35. Nalley, L, A. Barkley, and F. Chumley. 2008. The Impact of the Kansas Wheat Breeding Program on Wheat Yields. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 40, 913-25. 36. Onofri, A., L. Fulginiti. 2008. Public Inputs and Dynamic Producer Behavior: Endogenous Growth in U.S. Agriculture. Journal of Productivity Analysis 30, 13-28. 37. Pardey, Philip G., Julian M. Alston, and Jennifer S. James. 2008. "Agricultural R&D Policy: A Tragedy of the International Commons." 38. Perrin, R.K., L, Fulginiti. 2008. Pricing and Welfare Impacts of New Crop Traits: The Role of IPRs and Coase's Conjecture Revisited. AgBioForum 11, 134-44. 39. Qaim, M., C.E. Pray, and D. Zilberman. 2008. Economic and Social Considerations in the Adoption of Bt Crops. In J. Romeis, A.M. Shelton, G.G. Kennedy (eds.), Integration of Insect-Resistant Genetically Modified Crops within IPM Programs. Dordrecht: Springer Science. 40. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, George W. Norton, Jeffrey Alwang, Monayem Miah, and Gershon Feder. 2008. "Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Integrated Pest Management Extension Methods: An Example from Bangladesh." Review of Agricultural Economics 30, no. 2: 252-269. 41. Rose, S.K., B.A. McCarl. 2008. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Stabilization and the Inevitability of Adaptation: Challenges for U.S. Agriculture. Choices 23, 15-18. 42. Rudi, N. 2008. An ex ante economic impact analysis of developing low cost technologies for pyramiding useful genes from wild relatives into elite progenitors of cassava, M.S. thesis, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. 43. Schmit, T., J. Jianchuan, L.W. Tauer. 2008. Ethanol Plant Investment using Net Present Value and Real Options Analyses. Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management, Working Papers: 51145. 44. Serra, Teresa, David Zilberman, and Jose M. Gil. 2008. "Farms' Technical Inefficiencies in the Presence of Government Programs." Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 52, no. 1: 57-76. 45. Shi, G., J.-P. Chavas, K. Stiegert. 2008. An Analysis of Bundle Pricing: The Case of the Corn Seed Market. University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics, Staff Paper Series. 46. Skolrud, T., E. O'Donoghue, C.R. Shumway, A. Melhim. 2008. Washington Farm Growth and Diversification. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-25. 47. Smith, P., D. Martino, Z. Cai, D. Gwary, H.H. Janzen, P. Kumar, B.A. McCarl, F. O'Mara, C. Rice, R. Scholes, O. Sirotenko, M. Howden, T. McAllister, S.M. Ogle, G. Pan, V. Romanenkov, U.A. Schneider, S. Towprayoon, M. Wattenbach, and J.E. Smith. 2008. "Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, 363, 789-813. 48. Tauer, L.W. 2008. Estimation of Treatment Effects of recombinant Bovine Somatotropin using Matching Samples. Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management, Working Papers: 51118. 49. Templeton, Scott R., David Zilberman, Seung Jick Yoo, and Andrew L. Dabalen. 2008. "Household Use of Agricultural Chemicals for Soil-Pest Management and Own Labor for Yard Work." Environmental and Resource Economics 40, no. 1: 91-108. 50. Thirtle, C., J. Piesse, D. Schimmelpfennig. 2008. Modeling the Length and Shape of the R&D Lag: An Application to UK Agricultural Productivity. Agricultural Economics 39, 73-85. 51. Welsh, R. L.Glenna, W. Lacy, and D. Biscotti. 2008. Close Enough but Not Too Far: Assessing the Effects of University-Industry Research Relationships and the Rise of Academic Capitalism. Research Policy 37, 18541864. 52. Yerokhin, O., G. Moschini. 2008. Intellectual Property Rights and Crop-Improving R&D under Adaptive Destruction. Environmental and Resource Economics 40, 53-72. 53. Zheng, Q. C.R. Shumway. 2008. Washington Biofuel Feedstock Crop Supply Analysis 2008. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Working Papers: 2008-24.