Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Members met for a one day research conference in Anaheim CA in conjunction with the 2022 AAEA annual meetings. Twelve research papers were presented and discussed. Key presentations included a talk by Prof David Zilberman on credit considerations in innovation systems and a symposium panel organized by Sun Ling Wang of the USDA Economic Research Service on agricultural productivity and innovation. A brief annual business meeting was moderated by the projects administrative advisor Prof Ann Dorrance. Main topics of business included updates on a petition to form a new AAEA section on innovation in agricultural value chains and the bioeconomy and dates for a 2023 meeting to return to the traditional pattern followed by predecessor projects of the NC1034 of meeting in the Spring. The role of chair was confirmed with Prof Gregory Graff of Colorado State University agreeing to serve another year. 

Accomplishments as reported by a number of key members of NC1034:

Julian Alston, University of California Davis

• collaboration with Uddin et al. from the VitisGen project on R&D for grape genetic improvement
• collaboration with Phil Pardey and others (internal among NC1034 participants) on the links between R&D and productivity and how those are modeled
• collaboration with Wei Zhang (Virginia Tech) on modeling and measuring biological capital and the implications for measures of agricultural inputs and productivity
• collaboration with Richard Gray and Devin Serfas on modeling and measuring the carbon sequestration implications of alternative crop rotations in Saskatchewan

Chris Barrett, Cornell University

• Led scoping study for the proposed FAO Agrifood Systems Technologies and Innovations Outlook (ATIO), a new FAO biennial flagship publication to be publicly announced in October 2022, with a first edition out in 2024.
• Various informal policy advisory meetings on NC1034-related topics with the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, the USAID Administrator, the Director General and Chief Scientist of FAO, the President of the African Development Bank, etc.
• Media briefings (published at http://barrett.dyson.cornell.edu/outreach/media.html).

George Frisvold, University of Arizona

• New project: Southern Arizona’s Circular Bioeconomy: Economic Contributions, Applications, and Outlook.  Study commissioned by the Economic and Business Research Center, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona. 
• Reviewed and provided comments for the Schmidt Futures Foundation report Hodgson, A., Alper, J., Maxon, M.E. 2022. The U.S. Bioeconomy: Charting a Course for a Resilient and Competitive Future. New York: Schmidt Futures. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.55879/D2HRS7ZWC
• Presentation “Advances in Measuring the Bioeconomy” at Contribution of the Bioeconomy to the SDGs: Challenges for Monitoring, Measurement and Modelling an AAEA pre-conference workshop.  July 30, Anaheim, CA

Gregory Graff, Colorado State University

• Collaboration with Office of Chief Economist of the US Patent and Trademark Office to investigate relationship between intellectual property and venture capital investment in agriculture
• Launched new masters degree program in Agribusiness and Food Innovation Management based at new university facilities in Denver
• New collaboration with David Zilberman and Thomas Reardon (internal among NC1034 participants)

Gal Hochman, Rutgers University

• collaborating with David Zilberman (internal among NC1034 participants)
• USDA NIFA $600,000 grant
• two grants from NJDEP (one PI and another co-PI) on finish and macro algae in NJ and innovative food systems in NJ
• presented work on carbon sequestration and moderated webinars on the topic.
• moderated and organized sessions on agriculture and GHG pollution

Bruce McCarl, Texas A&M University

• Investigated the literature on climate change and livestock yields then followed up with econometric studies on livestock productivity effects.  Found that climate change induces inverted U shaped effects on most livestock productivity.  Factored this into a sectoral analysis finding omitting livestock causes a 20% difference welfare in effects of climate change estimates
• Investigate effects of population growth and climate change on regional water and electricity demand in Texas.  Found climate change increases need for investment in water supply and electricity generating facilities.
• Found use of lignin based material can be used to cheaply treat environmental spills.
• Found climate change increases global energy demands by increasing cooling needs
• Found climate change effects on ozone is reducing crop yields for many crops
• Found climate change is stimulating land use moving out of cropland to grasslands in hotter areas of US

Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Cornell University

• Trying to start a new collaboration with Phil Pardey and Yuan Cai (internal among NC1034 participants)
• Recent grant from USDA/AFRI "Agricultural R&D in a changing climate" (3 years) to study the R&D needs to compensate potential TFP slowdown from climate change
• Appointed to USDA's National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics (NAREEE) Advisory Board (https://nareeeab.ree.usda.gov/board-members)

Carl Pray, Rutgers University

• Carl Pray and Regina Birner. “Innovation systems for growing a sustainable Bioeconomy” presentation at the plenary session of ICABR Annual meeting, Bologna, Italy. July 6, 2022
• Organized a conference for USAID policy-makers on Feed the Future Food Policy Research http://ru-ftf.rutgers.edu/index.html  November 2-3, including presentations on research policy such as Pray, C, J. Anderson, S. Ledermann, and L. Nagarajan (2021) “The Agricultural Innovation System in the Context of the 2020 Pandemic”

David Zilberman, University of California Berkeley

• Served on the organizing committee of the ICABR (International Consortium of Applied Bioeconomy Research) conference in Bologna July 6^th – 8th, which addresses issues of biotechnology, supply chain, and innovation. It includes several presentations from NC1034 addressing issues of the bioeconomy, design of supply chain and innovation:
• Zilberman was co-author of the paper on the Economics of Aquatic Plants in the Case of Algae and Duckweed.
• Co-author of another paper on Willingness to buy and pay for meat substitutes.
• Co-author of the paper Scaling up the Black Soldier Fly industry
• Participated in a forum of the Future of Food Systems Research and Policy Interfaces
• In a forum on Innovation, Climate Change, and the Bioeconomy
• Participated in the 27th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists in Rimini Italy
• organized session, “The Bioeconomy, Agriculture, and the Environment”
• gave talk titled “Alternative Vision of Agriculture”
• Gave keynote address titled “Innovation for Agriculture and Rural Transformation” at the IFAD/FAO conference “Jobs, Innovation and Rural Value Chain in the context of Climate Transition: Bridging the Gap between Research and Policy” Rome June 24^th 2022.

Our reporting period is shifting due to changes in the timing of annual meetings this publications list represents as best as possible the reporting period 2021-2022, as disclosed by a portion of the members:

Alston, J.M., and D. Gaeta. “Reflections on the Political Economy of European Wine Appellations.” Italian Economic Journal 7 (May 2021): 219–258. doi:0.1007/s40797-021-00145-4

Alston, J.M., P.G. Pardey, and X. Rao. “Payoffs to a Half Century of CGIAR Research.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 104 (2)(2022): 502–529.  First published online 22 August 2021  https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12255

Alston, J.M., P.G. Pardey, and X. Rao. “Rekindling the Slow Magic of Agricultural R&D.” Issues in Science and Technology (May 3, 2021): published online https://issuorg/rekindling-magic-agricultural-research-development-alston-pardey-rao/

Amin, M.D., S. Badruddoza, and J.J. McCluskey, 2021. “Does Conventional Energy Pricing Induce Innovation in Renewable Energy? New Evidence from A Non-Linear Approach,” Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy 43(2): 659–679.

Anderson, Jock R., Regina Birner, Latha Nagarajan, Anwar Naseem and Carl E. Pray, “Private Agricultural R&D: Do the Poor Benefit?” Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization 18(2), 1-12. 2021.

Cheng, M., B.A. McCarl, and C.J. Fei, "Climate Change and Livestock Production: A Review", Atmosphere, 13, 140.https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13010140, 2022.

Cheng, M., C.J. Fei, and B.A. McCarl, "Climate Change Effects on the U.S. Hog Production", Presentation at the 2021 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, August 1 - August 3, 2022.

Cheng, M., C.J. Fei, and B.A. McCarl, "Impact of Climate Change on the U.S. Livestock Sector", selected Paper, AAEA meetings, Aneheim, 2022.

Cho, S.J., and B.A. McCarl, "Major United States land use as Influenced by an altering climate: a spatial econometric approach", Land, 10, 546.https://doi.org/10.3390/land10050546, 2021.

Barrett Christopher B. and David R. Just, editors, Handbook of Agricultural Economics, volume 5 (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 2021).

Barrett Christopher B. and David R. Just, editors, Handbook of Agricultural Economics, volume 6 (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 2022).

Barrett Christopher B., “The Global Food Crisis Shouldn’t Have Come As a Surprise: How to Finally Fix the Broken System for Alleviating Hunger,” Foreign Affairs, July 2022.

Barrett Christopher B., Ariel Ortiz-Bobea and Trinh Pham, "Structural Transformation, Agriculture, Climate, and the Environment," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, forthcoming

Barrett Christopher B., Asad Islam, Abdul Malek, Debayan Pakrashi, Ummul Ruthbah, " Experimental Evidence on Adoption and Impact of the System of Rice Intensification,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 104, issue 1 (January 2022): 4-32 (lead article). (presented at NC1034 previously)

Barrett Christopher B., Tim Benton, Jessica Fanzo, Mario Herrero, Rebecca J. Nelson, Elizabeth Bageant, Edward Buckler, Karen Cooper, Isabella Culotta, Shenggen Fan, Rikin Gandhi, Steven James, Mark Kahn, Laté Lawson-Lartego, Jiali Liu, Quinn Marshall, Daniel Mason-D’Croz, Alexander Mathys, Cynthia Mathys, Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou, Alesha (Black) Miller, Kamakhya Misra, Andrew G. Mude, Jianbo Shen, Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Claire Song, Roy Steiner, Philip Thornton, and Stephen Wood. Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation (Palgrave Macmillan 2022).

Da, Y., B.A. McCarl, and Y. Xu, "Effects of ozone and climate on historical (1980-2015) crop yields in the United States: implication on mid-21st century projection", Environmental and Resource Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-021-00629-y, 2021.

Deng, Haiyan, Yanhong Jin, Carl Pray, Ruifa Hu, Enjun Xia and Hong Meng “Impact of public research and development and extension on agricultural productivity in China from 1990 to 2013.” China Economic Review, Vol. 70, 1-15, Dec. 2021

Ding, J.X., and B.A. McCarl, "Decadal Climate Variability, Water Availability and Cropping: The Value of Forecast Information in South-Central Texas", Climate Research, 83: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01629, 1-14, 2021.

Dubock, Adrian C., Justus Wesseler, Robert M. Russell, Chen Chen, and David Zilberman. "Golden rice, VAD, Covid and public health: Saving lives and money." In Integrative Advances in Rice Research. IntechOpen, 2021.

Fei, C.J., B.A. McCarl, Y.Q. Yang, Y. Lei, L. Li, R. Srinivasan, B. Sheng, E.K. Ayana, and X.X. Fan, "Impacts of climate change on water management", Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Volume 44, Issue 3 p. 1448-1464, 2022.

Fei, C.J., K.M. Williamson, R.T. Woodward, B.A. McCarl, and J. Rangel, "Honey Bees, Almonds, And Colony Mortality: An Economic Analysis of the U.S. Pollination Market", Land Economics, 97 (3), 688-703, 2021.

Geismar, H.N., B.A. McCarl, and S.W. Searcy, "Optimal design and operation of a second-generation biofuels supply chain", Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Transactions, https://doi.org/10.1080/24725854.2021.1956022, 2021.

Graff, Gregory, Benjamin Nordbrock, and Andrew Seidl, 2022, "An introduction to the economics of climate change and animal health," Cp 10 in Craig Stephen and Colleen Duncan Eds., Climate Change and Animal Health, CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, Florida, USA and Abingdon, Oxon, UK.

Grant, K.R., R.K Gallardo, and J.J. McCluskey, 2021. “Consumer Preferences for Foods with Clean Labels and New Processing Technologies,” Agribusiness 37(4):764–781.

Hochman, Gal & Ruslana Rachel Palatnik. (2022). “The Economics of Aquatic Plants: The Case of Algae and Duckweed.” Annual Review of Resource Economics. 25:24.1-24.22.

Hochman, Gal, Hainan Zhang, Lili Xia, Alan Robock, Aleti Saketh, Dominique Y. van der Mensbrugghe, & Jonas Jagermeyr. (2022) “Economic incentives modify agricultural impacts of nuclear war.” Environ. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac61c7

Hu, Ruifa, Changxin Yu, Yanhong Jin, Carl Pray, and Haiyan Deng. 2022. "Impact of Government Policies on Research and Development (R&D) Investment, Innovation, and Productivity: Evidence from Pesticide Firms in China" Agriculture 12, no. 5: 709. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12050709

Hunt, C.L., L. Yu, M. Cochran, J.C. Liu, B.A. McCarl, C. Johnson, M. Brun, and M. Berquist, "A Case Study Approach to Analyze High-Containment Laboratory Workflows Promoting Sustainability, Networking, and Innovation", Animal Health Scientific and Technical Review Journal, 39 (3), 2021.

Kung, C.C., C.J. Fei, B.A. McCarl, and X.X. Fan, "A review of biopower and mitigation potential of competing pyrolysis methods", Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112443, 2022.

Lee, S., and G. Moschini, “On the value of innovation and extension information: SCN‐resistant soybean varieties,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 104(4)(2022):1177-1202. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12283

Lee, S., Y. Ji, and G. Moschini, “Agricultural Innovation and Adaptation to Climate Change: Insights from U.S. Maize,” Journal of Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1002/jaa2.20 .

Li, J., X. Li, Y. Da, J. Yu, B. Long, C. Bakker, B.A. McCarl, J.S. Yuan, and S.Y. Dai, "Sustainable Environmental Remediation using Biomimetic Multifunctional Lignocellulosic Material", Nature Communications, 13, 4368 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31881-5, 2022.

McCarl, B.A., E.C.H. Yu, and W. Attavanich, "Climate Change Impacts and Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation in Agriculture", Atmosphere, 12 (5), 545, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12050545, 2021.

McCluskey, J.J., 2022. “Control of the Research Agenda in University-Industry Partnerships,”  in Modern Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy: Essays in Honor of Gordon C. Rausser, DeGorter, H., J.J. McCluskey, J.F.M. Swinnen, D. Zilberman, eds.  Springer, New York: Springer Publishing.

Pardey, P.G., and J.M. Alston. “Unpacking the Agricultural Black Box: The Rise and Fall of American Farm Productivity Growth” Journal of Economic History 81(1)(March 2021): 114–155 doi:10.1017/S0022050720000649  

Perry, E.D., D. Hennessy, and G. Moschini. “Uncertainty and learning in a technologically dynamic industry: Seed density in US maize,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 104(4)(2022):1388-1410. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12276

Purnhagen, Kai P., Stephan Clemens, Dennis Eriksson, Louise O. Fresco, Jale Tosun, Matin Qaim, Richard GF Visser, Andreas PM Weber, Justus HH Wesseler, and David Zilberman. "Europe’s farm to fork strategy and its commitment to biotechnology and organic farming: Conflicting or complementary goals?." Trends in plant Science 26, no. 6 (2021): 600-606.

Ramaswami, Bharat, Milind Murugkar, N. Lalitha. Carl E. Pray (2022) “The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology: Farmers, Media and Opinion in India.” Economic & Political Weekly  LVII (12) 29-36.  March 19, 2022

Reardon, Thomas, Amir Heiman, Liang Lu, Chandra SR Nuthalapati, Rob Vos, and David Zilberman. "“Pivoting” by food industry firms to cope with COVID‐19 in developing regions: E‐commerce and “copivoting” delivery intermediaries." Agricultural Economics 52, no. 3 (2021): 459-475.

Smith, Vincent, Justus HH Wesseler, and David Zilberman. "New plant breeding technologies: An assessment of the political economy of the regulatory environment and implications for sustainability." Sustainability 13, no. 7 (2021): 3687.

Trigo, Eduardo, Hugo Chavarría, Carl Pray, Stuart J. Smyth, Agustin Torroba, Justus Wesseler, David Zilberman, Juan F. Martinez  “The Bioeconomy and Food Systems Transformation.” in Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation and Summit Actions Joachim von Braun, Kaosar Afsana, Louise O . Fresco, Mohamed Hassan (editors) 2021. UN Food Systems Summit 2021 https://sc-fss2021.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ScGroup_Reader_UNFSS2021.pdf

Uddin, A., R.K. Gallardo, B.J. Rickard, J.M. Alston, and O. Sambucci. “Consumer Acceptance of New Plant-Breeding Technologies: An Application to the Use of Gene Editing in Fresh Table Grapes.” PLOS ONE in press (June 2022).

Uddin, A., R.K. Gallardo, B.J. Rickard, J.M. Alston, and O. Sambucci. “Consumers’ Willingness to Accept Gene Edited Fruit – An Application to Quality Traits for Fresh Table Grapes.” AgBioForum in review (June 2022).

Van Eenennaam, Alison L., Felipe De Figueiredo Silva, Josephine F. Trott, and David Zilberman. "Genetic engineering of livestock: the opportunity cost of regulatory delay." Annual Review of Animal Biosciences 9 (2021): 453-478.

Wade, C., J.P.H. Jones, K. Austin, Y.X. Cai, A. Bean, G. Latta, B.A. McCarl, S. Ohrel, S. Ragnauth, J. Creason, and J.S. Baker, "Mitigation potential of the US forest and agriculture sectors across alternative socioeconomic futures", Journal of Forest Economics, 37: 127-161, 2022.

Wang, M.L., and B.A. McCarl, "Impacts of Climate Change on Livestock Location in the US: A Statistical Analysis", Land, https://doi.org/10.3390/land10111260, 2021.

Wang, M.L., B.A. McCarl, H. Wei, and L. Shiva, "Unintended Consequences of Agricultural Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets", Complexity, ID 9518135, 17 pages, vol.202, vol.2021, 2021.

Wang, M.L., Y.K. Huang, M. Cheng, B. Sheng, and B.A. McCarl, "El Niño effects and crop yields", CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 16, No.043, 2021.

Wesseler, J. H. H., and David Zilberman. "Biotechnology, bioeconomy, and sustainable life on land." In Transitioning to sustainable life on land, vol. 15, pp. 415-435. MDPI, 2021.

Wesseler, Justus, and David Zilberman. "Biotechnology, bioeconomy, and sustainable life on land." SUSTAINABLE LIFE ON LAND (2021): 407.

Wu, Felicia, Justus Wesseler, David Zilberman, Robert M. Russell, Chen Chen, and Adrian C. Dubock. "Allow Golden Rice to save lives." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 51 (2021): e2120901118.

Yi, F., T. Zhou, L. Yu, B.A. McCarl, Y. Wang, and F. Jiang, "Heat stress and cognition: Effects on those over 40 in China", Weather and Climate Extremes, 32 (2021): 100308, 2021.

Yu, E.C.H., B.A. McCarl, and J.D. Zhu, "Market Response to Typhoons: The Role of Information and Expectations", Southern Economic Journal, forthcoming, 2022.

Zhang, H., J.E. Mu, B.A. McCarl, and J. Yu, "The impact of climate change on global energy use", Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 27, Article number: 9 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-021-09986-x, 2022.

Zhang, Y.W., B.A. McCarl, Y. Li, Q. Li, and Z. Cao, "Adoption of rice auto seeding machinery benefits Asian urban food security in multiple ways", Presented at Chinese National Academy of Schences Regional Meeting, October, 2021.

Zilberman, David, Thomas Reardon, Jed Silver, Liang Lu, and Amir Heiman. "From the laboratory to the consumer: Innovation, supply chain, and adoption with applications to natural resources." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, no. 23 (2022): e2115880119.