Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

MINUTES: NC-1016 July 26, 2006 Hyatt Regency Hotel Long Beach, California NAME (Attendance) INSTITUTION E-mail Address Allen, Albert Mississippi State University (662) 325  2883 ALLEN@AGECON.MSSTAEDU Alexander, Corinne Purdue University (765) 494-4249 cealexan@purdue.edu Bahn, Henry JH (A) USDA CSREES. (202) 720-8143 hbahn@csrees.usda.gov Conley, Dennis M. University of Nebraska dconley@unl.edu Crooks, Anthony Tony (A) USDA. Rural Development. Anthony.crooks@usda.gov Fruin, Jerry University of Minnesota Fruin001@umn.edu Gallagher, Paul Iowa State University paulg@iastate.edu Gauthier, Wayne M. (S) Louisiana State University (225) 578-2765 wgauthier@agcenter.lsu.edu Houston, Jack University of Georgia (706) 542-0753 jhouston@agecon.uga.edu Kenkel, Phil (A) Oklahoma State University KENKEL@OKSTATE.EDU Thompson, Sally (AA) Purdue University sallyt@purdue.edu Turvey, Calum G. Cal Cornell University Cgt6@cornell.edu Wailes, Eric (C) University of Arkansas ewailes@comp.uark.edu Wilson, William Bill (A) North Dakota State University bwilson@ndsuext.nodak.edu Yeboah, Osei North Carolina A&T State U. (336) 334- 7056 oyeboah@ncat.edu A = Absent AA = Administrative Adviser C= Chairman S= Secretary Chairman Wailes called the meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 26, 2006. The minutes of the October 16, 2005 meeting were approved by voice vote on a motion by Gallagher that was seconded by Houston. The following observations and announcements were made relative to logistics and committee membership: (1) This meeting is being held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA). Joint meetings are a necessity for the work of this committee as a number of committee members only receive support for one professional trip per year. There is a growing concern that the states experiment stations are not funding the work of their regional committees to the extent that they have in the past. (2) Donald Larson, the representative from Ohio, retired June 30, 2006. There is a need to determine if Ohio will provide another representative. (3) The vice-chairman, Joe Parcell from Missouri, is primarily responsible for working with livestock and will no longer be available for working with this grain and oilseed marketing committee. To date, no one from Missouri has been named or is expected to be named to replace Parcell as a member of NC-1016. (4) The next meeting of the committee is scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the Food & Agricultural Marketing Policy Section (FAMPS), March 2007. At that meeting, a mid-term election of NC-1016 officers will be held. Conley identified the potential of expanding his linear programming model for assessing the impacts of natural or man-made disasters upon corn markets to include geographic based analysis of ethanol plants. In response to a question, Conley said that he used a rate-based function for reflecting transportation costs. Conley also indicated that he had updated his model to include 2004 data and that it would be published electronically as a bulletin. Fruin observed that the problems associated with the production of soy-diesel from soybeans were not the same as the problems associated with the production of ethanol from corn. Fruin identified problems with Brazil. Fruin also observed that rail rates were under pressure to increase. Fruin also noted that no funding support had yet been received from the Minnesota Soybean Association and that the initial work addressed the effects of international shock events upon the demand and supply of Minnesota soybeans and not ethanol or soy-diesel production. Plans for developing products out of the models developed by Conley and Fruin included presentations at the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA) meetings. Conley observed that the majority of audiences only wanted to hear (1) problem statement, (2) scenarios, and (3) results under given scenarios. There was little interest in model algorithms. Wailes asked how the models might contribute to the 2007 Farm Bill debates. Fruin noted that the emphasis was going to be on ethanol and that emphasis needed to be placed on the shift that was going to occur in regional corn and soybean production. This emphasis, however, was not currently a part of either the corn or soybean model. Wailes noted that NC-1016 had an agreement with FAMPS to sponsor a national conference (Conference) in Washington, D.C. in March of 2007. Suggested dates were either the weeks of March 12-16 or March 19-23. The Farm Foundation has tentatively agreed to co-sponsor the Conference. The Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) and the AAEA office will be asked to assist in making logistical arrangements for hotel rooms and meeting spaces and conference registration. Thompson suggested that an effort be made to get the Waugh room at ERS for reasons of economy and efficiency. There is a need to contact James McDonald at ERS with respect to reserving this room, if FAMPS are in agreement. Wailes indicated that there was a need to identify a set of invited speakers from the private sector and government sector. FAMPS wants at least one session addressing policy issues exclusively and a half-day for their business meeting either prior to or after the Conference. NC-1016 wants at least one session to address bio-terrorism and natural disaster responses. This will be a mutual effort. The following topics were identified in response to the question of what types of sessions needed to be included in NC-1016s portion of the conference: 1. Grain and oilseed transportation responses to natural disasters, bioterrorism and invasive species. 2. Futures prices and basis responses to disaster events. 3. Trade and welfare impacts of disaster events  alternative modeling approaches. 4. Behavioral/psychological responses to disasters 5. Disaster response and traceability. In response to the question of what NC-1016 needs to accomplish from participation in this joint conference, Thompson observed that it needs to address the grain and oilseeds sector of the economy. The need to highlight the concentration on grain and oilseeds makes Kendall Keith a logical candidate for the Committees choice of a private sector luncheon speaker. Houston observed that we want as much exposure as possible. Thompsons suggested that conference participants should be solicited for contributions of research posters. It was recognized that papers from the research project committee would be expected. There was discussion to make the conference papers and posters available in a Proceedings as a product of NC-1016. FAMPS gives a copy of its Proceedings as a take-away from their conferences as part of the registration fee. A NC-1016 Proceedings needs to be linked to the National Information, Management and Support Systems (NIMSS) and be included in AgEcon Search. Wailes suggested that an electronics Proceedings first be done followed potentially by an edited set of Proceedings in a book. The deadline date for publishing a call for papers in the September/October AAEA Exchange Newsletter is August 10, 2006. Before that date, the following section leaders are to send descriptions of each of their sections to Wailes. Responses from authors will be due by October 30, 2006 with copies of the final papers to the section leader by February 1, 2006. Fruin. Grain and Oilseed Transportation Responses to Man-Made and Natural Disasters. Alexander. Pricing, Basis and Market Behavior Associated with Disaster Events Turvey: Spatial Responses to Disasters (CGI and GTAP models) Turvey: Behavioral and Psychological Responses to Bio-Terrorism Houston: Disaster Response and Traceability. Thompson advised of a need for coordination across the chairs of the above sections. Thompson also advised of the need to lock-in a facility by mid-September so that there will be adequate space. Turvey requested that people keep an open mind about concurrent sessions. Thompson observed that FAMPS has had a number of funding organizations. She suggested that the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) be contacted. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is also a likely agency to have an interest in this conference. Thompson advised that NC-1016 will be evaluated by December 2006 and that there is a need to have minutes posted. It would also be well if the program for this March 2007 Conference with FAMS were to be posted. Thompson has a concern about the people who are identified as members of NC-1016, but who fail to show up for its meetings. Thompson and Alexander referred to Steven Eckhoff, an agricultural engineer at the University of Illinois, who has worked on traceability and with Dick Myers at Purdue as someone whom members of NC-1016 need to interact. Allen indicated that the survey instrument should be ready for pre-testing by the end of August, 2006. He requested that all members review the proposed questionnaire and provide comments prior to August 31. Wailes announced that elections for a new set of NC-1016 officers would be held at the March 2007 meeting in Washington. Houston raised questions about the absence of incentives for people to participate on committees such as NC-1016. It was recognized that it was the committee structure that enabled university researchers to be involved with industry and government for purposes of information sharing and interchange. However, it was noted that there is little or no incentive for anyone to get involved in writing the proposals to maintain an on-going regional committee structure. By voice vote, the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m. on July 26, 2006. Respectfully Submitted, Wayne M. Gauthier, Secretary