In May 2004, at the request of ERS, the Committee
on National Statistics of the National Research Council held
a workshop
designed to assess the status of the data infrastructure
underpinning USDA’s numerous food consumption-related responsibilities.
Experts from academia, USDA, and other Federal agencies discussed
food consumption data needs in order to evaluate the outcomes
of food and nutrition programs, assess food safety regulatory
proposals, and understand consumer demand for food and agricultural
commodities. USDA’s current data collection activities
are heavily weighted toward understanding agricultural production
rather than food consumption.
In May 2004, ERS co-sponsored a workshop
in Cancún, Mexico about the integration of North American
agriculture. The workshop was conducted by the North American
Agrifood Market Integration Consortium, which includes representatives
from government, academia, and the private sectors of Canada,
Mexico, and the United States. ERS economists Thomas Vollrath,
Steven Zahniser, and Chris Bolling collaborated with Darcie
Doan and Andrew Goldstein of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
on a background paper for the workshop. Other topics at the
workshop included lessons from the European Union, policy
issues concerning bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad
cow disease”), and the impact of integration on rural
Mexico. For more details, see the North
American Agrifood Market Integration Consortium website.
In
May 2004, ERS and the Farm Foundation co-sponsored
a workshop with financial support from USDA’s Risk
Management Agency (RMA) on “Agricultural Risks
in a Water-Short World: Producer Adaptation and Policy
Directions.” The workshop
focused on measuring the costs of, and exploring mitigation
options for, unanticipated water supply interruptions,
and
provided a forum for research supported by RMA, ERS, and
others. Presenters from academia, Federal and State
agencies, and
stakeholder organizations discussed the current Federal
role in mitigation of agricultural risk from water
shortages,
the
agricultural costs of restricted water supplies, the role
of institutions in allocating water and water-related
risk,
and the use of water markets as a risk-mitigation strategy
for irrigated agriculture. Abstracts of the presentations
are available at the ERS
irrigation and water use briefing room.
Research
Presentations on Ag Biotech Topics
In April 2004, at the University of Illinois, ERS researcher
Paul Heisey delivered a paper (prepared with John King) on
“Public Provision of Knowledge for Policy Research:
The Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property Database.”
The conference, entitled “Seeds of Change: Intellectual
Property Protection for Agricultural Biotechnology,”
convened experts from different disciplines and professional
backgrounds to address the key legal, economic, and public
policy issues regarding intellectual property rights in agricultural
biotechnology. Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo presented his research
on “The Adoption of Biotech Crops: Extent of Adoption
and Impacts” at a workshop to educate personnel in the
U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service
(NPS) on issues related to genetically engineered (GE) crops.
A goal of the workshop was to begin developing a consensus
on the major elements of a GE policy for NPS.
Annual
Meeting of Geographers
In March 2004, ERS researchers participated in the American
Association of Geographers (AAG) annual meeting in Philadelphia,
PA. AAG, founded in 1904, includes 8,400 regional economists,
geographers, and demographers. William Kandel presented a
paper documenting how Hispanic population growth and changing
demographic characteristics in rural areas are leading to
new demands for public services, such as schooling, health
care, and housing. John Cromartie and William Kandel reported
that over 1.2 million Hispanics live in census-defined rural
areas within metropolitan counties and discussed how changes
in this population have affected their spatial concentration,
social and economic well-being, employment, and integration
into the community. Dennis Brown presented research findings
on the economic and policy implications of rapid population
growth in nonmetro recreation counties defined by ERS. As
part of AAG’s centennial celebration, Calvin Beale discussed
the landmark contributions in the 1930s of O.E. Baker, a geographic
demographer with USDA’s Bureau of Agricultural Economics,
the predecessor of ERS.
