2020 and beyond: A New Year's message from Spiro Stefanou, board chair

Happy New Year!

At the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE), we look ahead to a new year and the dawn of a new decade with hope and enthusiasm. 

C-FARE works toward building a stronger national presence for the profession through educational programming that informally engages national-level policymakers, congressional staff, stakeholders and leadership in the administration.  

This year, C-FARE offered webinars presenting new research and survey data on these topics:

• Falling farm income through much of the decade, from $124 billion in 2013 to roughly $70 billion (forecasted) in 2019;

• Food labeling, new food technology (bioengineered foods) and consumer choice;

• The World Trade Organization and the effect of shifts in long-established trade policies;

• The growing population of Hispanic farm enterprises in the Midwest; and,

• Local foods procurement and small-farm economics. 

We are currently seeking proposal ideas for 2020. We welcome your interest and encourage you to join our activities.

C-FARE connects expertise in agricultural and applied economics, and agricultural and food industry interest groups, with the national policymaking community; a connection that is renewed continually by our volunteer experts at universities, federal agencies and private industry.

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SPIRO STEFANOU speaks to the National Association of Agricultural Economics Administrators at its biennial meeting in Washington Oct. 28.

Along with webinars, C-FARE members accomplished the following goals:

• Welcomed new board members and committee members onto the council and thanked those immediate past members;

• Hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on livestock trends, including supply-chain disruptions, trade policy, and the advent of meat alternatives; 

• Held the annual Jon Brandt Public Policy Forum, a panel discussion that this year considered rural prosperity, moderated by Tim Marema of the Daily Yonder and presented by Joy Moten-Thomas, Corianne Scally, Alison Davis and Roberto Gallardo;

• Paid visits to senators and representatives on Capitol Hill and offered up trending topics and concerns within the profession;

• Collaborated closely with the National Association of Agricultural Economics Administrators and helped facilitate its biennial meeting, attended by national program leaders from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, along with Agricultural & Applied Economics Association President Keith Coble; Sally Rockey, executive director for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR); and Jerry Hagstrom of the National Journal and Hagstrom Report; 

• Added social media content and grew the council’s YouTube channel; and, 

• Coordinated with AAEA on government relations critical to the profession.

Together, our efforts have made our community stronger and more robust. We seek out opportunities and offset challenges. 

So to all of our expert volunteers and community members, thank you for making 2019 a wonderful year, and let’s continue to advance food, agricultural and resource economics in 2020.

With warm wishes,

• Spiro Stefanou, University of Florida, board chair

• Roger Coupal, University of Wyoming, immediate past chair

• Gal Hochman, Rutgers University

• John Newton, American Farm Bureau Federation

• Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee

• Luis A. Ribera, Texas A&M University

• Sean B. Cash, Tufts University

• Duncan M. Chembezi, Alabama A&M University

• Jane Kolodinsky, University of Vermont

• Barry J. Barnett, University of Kentucky