Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

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. 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. 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. 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.