Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

University of Tennessee

The team members have received an AFRI grant, titled “Strengthening U.S. Beef Export Markets: Analysis of Consumer Willingness to Pay and Import Demand” to examine consumer preferences for U.S. beef and to estimate beef import demand in several major beef importing countries within Asia, Europe and Latin America. We are in year two of working on this grant and are about to launch surveys in Mexico, Japan, Germany and the UK to investigate those consumers’ preferences for US versus domestic beef. The research team has already launched a survey in China examining their preferences for US versus domestic beef. Results are currently being analyzed and written into a manuscript that will be submitted for publication.

Team members have also received another USDA AFRI grant titled, “Food Loss and Waste (FL&W) Reduction at the Consumer-Grocery Retailer Interface,” to examine consumer food waste. Team members have just conducted an experimental auction (n=200) that evaluates consumer perceptions of lunch meat and salad with varying best if used by dates while controlling for sensory evaluation of these products. This data is being analyzed and will be used to create a manuscript that will be submitted for publication.

Our research aims to help national and state policy makers, local and regional agricultural producers, agribusiness and rural communities. We also expect to contribute to the literature in related research areas.

University of Michigan

1. Creating value for Michigan’s beef traceability system
2. Demand for plant based and cultured meat and dairy alternatives in China
3. Marketability of US (Hawaii and Puerto Rico) coffee in the world market

University of Ohio

1. Focus on incentives for firms to maintain existing standards as private standards when public standards are reduced, e.g., food safety standards negotiated in possible US-UK FTA.

2. Looking at legal and economic issues relating to China’s use of industrial subsidies and targeting of SOEs.

University of Virginia

Listed below are the accomplishments of S-1072 Virginia team members Mary Marchant and Jason Grant, both of whom are members of the Center for Agricultural Trade at Virginia Tech's (VT's) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences along with Charlotte Emlinger and David Orden.

1. "Non-Tariff Measures and Agricultural Trade: Developing a Framework for Analysis" Funded by: Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), USDA; Performance Period: Sep. 30, 2021 - Sep. 30, 2022; PI: Jason Grant; Co-PIs: Charlotte Emlinger, Mary Marchant, and John Beghin. $200,000

Description

Non-tariff measures continue to impact the competitiveness of U.S. agricultural exports. Virginia Tech's Center for Agricultural Trade was awarded a new project with USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service to quantify the impact of certain non-tariff measures and developing a framework for analyzing the different channels by which these measures impact trade quantities an prices.

2. "Competitive FTA Scenarios, "Natural" Trading Levels, and the Role of Trade in Climate Change and Environmental Shocks" Funded by: Office of the Chief Economist (OCE), USDA, Performance Period: Sep 30, 2021-Sep 30, 2022; PI: J.H. Grant, Co-PIs: Alla Golub, Charlotte Emlinger, Mary Marchant, and Ford Ramsey, 2021-2022

Description

Several large regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have recently been concluded, or are in the process of being ratified by member countries including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the region-to-region EU Mercosur agreement, and China's application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Transpacific Partnership (CPTPP; Korea and Taiwan have also indicated they intend to apply for membership). These large mega-regional trade agreements have the potential to affect the competitive position of United States agricultural exports. This project seeks to enhance our understanding of the impacts of competing FTAs on US agricultural exports using the VT-OCE Linked Livestock- Crop simulation model projected to 2030. Concurrently, the expanding trade chapter of the U.S.-China Phase One Trade Deal will expire on December 31, 2021. The second objective of this project is to evaluate existing distortions and natural trading levels between the US and China. Finally, this project will attempt to provide some preliminary empirical evidence of the sensitivity of trade to severe climate and weather shocks impacting production agriculture.

All projects supported graduate students and their opportunities for training and professional development through faculty/student mentoring, and support for students and faculty to present project findings at professional meetings and to government agency officials. Graduate students supported by these projects were able to interact with USDA senior economists and trade policy negotiators in helping shape national and international agricultural policy. Training includes weekly meetings with faculty, culminating in the development of abstracts, grant proposals, and journal article manuscript preparation as well as scientific presentations.

University of Connecticut

New grants:

National Institute of Food and Agriculture, AFRI Program: \DSFAS-CIN: Harnessing Mobility Big Data and Artifical Intelligence Through a Transdisciplinary Research Network in Food Production, Processing, and Consumption Systems," with Cristina Connolly, Suining He, Dongjin Song, Debarchana Ghosh and Tao Lu, Co-Principal Investigator (USD 1,000,000)

National Institute of Food and Agriculture, AFRI Program: Evaluating the Impact of Preferential Trade Agreements on Agricultural and Food Trade: New Insights from Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning," with Caiwen Ding and Dongjin Song, Principal Investigator (USD 650,000)

University of Tennessee 

1. Jensen, K.L., J.N. Yenerall, X. Chen and T.E. Yu. 2021. “United States Consumers’ Online Shopping Behaviors and Intentions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 53(3):416-434.
2. Chen, C.R., T.E. Yu, and R.J.C. Fu. 2021. “Strategic Management for Community-Based Markets: from Consumers’ Perspectives and Experiences.” Sustainability, 13(10), 5469.
3. Jensen, K.L., D. Hughes, K.L. DeLong, C.O. Trejo-Pech, M.B. Gill. 2021. “Factors Influencing Tennessee Adults’ Craft Hard Apple Cidery Visit Expenditures and Travel Distance.” Journal of Food Distribution Research, 52(2): 1-23.
4. Jensen, K.L., K.L. DeLong, M. Gill, and D. Hughes. 2021. “Consumer Willingness to Pay for Locally Produced Hard Cider in the USA.” International Journal of Wine Business Research, 33(3): 411-431. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWBR-06-2020-0029
5. C.N. Boyer, A.P. Griffith, K.L. DeLong. 2021. “Evaluating Optimal Purchasing and Selling Decisions of Beef Cattle Replacement Females.” Agricultural Finance Review, 81(3): 430-443. https://doi.org/10.1108/AFR-08-2020-0118
6. Velandia, M., K. Jensen, K.L. DeLong, A. Wszelaki, and A. Rihn. 2020. “Tennessee Fruit and Vegetable Farmer Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Plastic Biodegradable Mulch.” Journal of Food Distribution Research, 51(3): 63-87. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/309030?ln=en
7. Muhammad, A, SA Smith, & JH Grant (2021) “Can China Meet its Purchase Obligations Under the Phase One Trade Agreement?” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13180
8. Muhammad, A, SA Smith, & TE Yu (2021) “COVID-19 and Cotton Import Demand in China” Agribusiness: An International Journal 37(1): 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21682freference.
9. Greear, EK, & A Muhammad (2021) “Tariff Elimination and the Competitiveness of Wine-Exporting Countries in Japan” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. 50: 76-98. doi:10.1017/age.2020.25.
10. Muhammad, A, & K Jones (2021) “The End of the Trade War? Effects of Tariff Exclusions on U.S. Forest Products in China” Forest Policy and Economics 122: 102350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102350.

University of Ohio

1. Eum, I. M. Sheldon and S. Thompson, “Product Quality in Food and Agricultural Trade: Firm Heterogeneity and the Impact of Trade Costs,” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 46(1), 2021.

2. M. Sheldon, “Reflections on a Career as an Industrial Organization and International Economist,” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43(2), 2021. 

3. C.K. Chow and I.M. Sheldon, “Understanding the Economic and Political Effects of Trump’s China Tariffs,” William and Mary Business Law Review, 12(3), 2021.

4. M. Sheldon, “The US’s Power-Based Bargaining and the WTO: Has Anything Really Been Gained?”, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, forthcoming.

5. Heerman and I.M. Sheldon, “Sustainable Agricultural Production, Income and Eco-Labelling: What Can Be Learned from a Modern Ricardian Approach,” presented at EAAE sustainability seminar, and currently in review.

6. M. Sheldon, “If the US Steps Back from ‘Power-Based’ Bargaining: What are the Implications for Agricultural Trade?” Andersons Policy Bulletin, 15(1), August 2021.

University of Michigan

1. Vroegindewey, R., R. Richardson, D.L. Ortega, V. Therieault, 2021. “Consumer and Retailer Preferences for Local Ingredients in Processed Foods: Evidence from a Stacked Choice Experiment in an African Urban Dairy Market”. Food Policy, 103

2. Signorini, G., DL Ortega, R.B. Ross, H.C. Peterson, 2021. “Heterogeneity in farmers’ willingness to produce bioenergy crops in the Midwest USA”. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 50: 367-393.

3. D. Ufer, Ortega, D.L., W. Lin, 2021. “What’s the Farmer Worth?”, Choices, 35(4) 

Virginia Tech

Sabine Duvaleix, Charlotte Emlinger, Carl Gaigné, Karine Latouche, Geographical indications and trade: Firm-level evidence from the French cheese industry, Food Policy, Volume 102, 2021.

Charlotte Emlinger, Houssein Guimbard, Shipping the good agricultural products out: the differentiated impact of per-unit duties on developing countries, European Review of Agricultural Economics, Volume 48, Issue 3, July 2021, Pages 598–623

Balagtas, J.V., J. Cooper, and M.A. Marchant, editors, 2021. “Agricultural Market Response to COVID-19," Choices, Quarter 3. Available online: https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/agricultural-marketresponse- to-covid-19

Grant, J.H., K.A. Boys, and C. Xie. 2021. “A New President in the White House: Implications for Canadian Agricultural Trade,” Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 69(1): 45-58

Ning, X., J.H. Grant and E.B. Peterson. 2021. “Estimating Structural Change in the Japanese Beef Import Market in the Wake of BSE: A Smooth Transition Approach," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, doi: 10.22004/ag.econ.307461

Grant, J.H., S. Arita, C. Emlinger, R. Johansson and C. Xie. 2021. “Agricultural Exports and Retaliatory Trade Actions: An Empirical Assessment of the 2018/19 Trade Conflict,” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43(2): 619-640

Wieck, C. and J.H. Grant. 2020. “Codex in Motion: Food Safety Standard Setting and Impacts on Developing Countries’ Agricultural Exports,” Euro Choices, 20(1): 37-47

Sharma, A*, J.H. Grant, and K.A. Boys. 2021. ”Truly Preferential Treatment? Reconsidering the Generalised System of (Trade) Preferences with Competing Suppliers," Journal of Agricultural Economics, 72(2): 500-524

NCATSU

1. Yeboah, O., Saleem S., Victoria T. 2021. Assessing US Agricultural Export Under North American Free Trade Agreement: A Shift Share Analysis. Journal of Applied Business & Economics Vol. 23(6) 2021.
2. Yeboah, O., Saleem S., Michael W. 2021. AGOA: Economic and Political Effects on FDI flows into Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Applied Business & Economics Vol. 23(5) 2021.
3. Yeboah, O., Saleem S., Jamal M. 2021.Impact of AGOA on Agricultural Export Growth of Member Countries: A Dynamic Shift-Share Analysis. Journal of Applied Business & Economics Vol. 23(4) 2021.
4. Yeboah, O., Saleem S., Jamal M. 2021. Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic and Poverty on Food Insecurity: Yearly Spatial Analysis. Scientific Research Vol.12, No.4
5. Yeboah, O; Saleem S. 2020.The Influence of Climate Change on the Demand for Ethanol. Renewable Energy. 164 (2021); 1559-1565.

Kansas State

Yu, Jisang, and Gyuhyeong Goh, “Estimating Temperature Impacts on Perennial Crop Losses in California: Insights from Insurance Data.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, forthcoming

Yu, Jisang, Daniel A. Sumner, and Hyunok Lee. "Premium rates and selection in specialty crop insurance markets: Evidence from the catastrophic coverage participation." Food Policy 101 (2021): 102079.

University of Connecticut