The Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) hosted a free webinar on October 16th, 2020 to consider the challenges and opportunities facing increased broadband access in rural America. This event was moderated by C-FARE’s past president Roger Coupal.

With Americans becoming more reliant than ever on broadband due to the pandemic and an expectation to be able to compete with the larger market that is now accessible via the internet, broadband inequities are becoming more and more obvious.

Panelists Alexander Marre (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond), John Pender (USDA ERS), Anne Read (The Pew Charitable Trusts), and Mike Malandro (Choptank Electric Cooperative) discuss their on-going research into rural broadband-related issues and potential ways we could adapt our current infrastructure to create increase broadband access.

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The year 2020 has focused a great deal more attention on the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and the logistics of food assistance as well. On Aug. 31 the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics hosted a four-expert panel on the matter hosted by board member Sean Cash, the Bergstrom Foundation Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and featuring panelists George Davis of Virginia Tech, Shewana Hairston McSwain of North Carolina A&T State University, and Parke Wilde of Tufts University. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to ease state requirements for reporting and proving need, and for so-called “Pandemic EBT” — extra food aid (by electronic benefits transfer) for any child who would otherwise have received free or reduced-price meals at school.

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At 11 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 14, the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics will bring together a few representatives of 1890 schools, the 19 institutions established under the Second Morrill Act of 1890 that comprise a group of historically black universities (HBCU’s) seeded with federal dollars to strengthen research, extension and education in food and agricultural sciences. These representatives will be joined by others from national and regional agricultural and applied economics associations to discuss the importance of economics in agricultural curriculum, and the greater importance of 1890 universities’ graduates in the nation’s food and commodities’ policy work. This 90-minute panel webinar will be led by council board member Chyi Lyi “Kathleen” Liang, chair of the Agriculture and Applied Economics Association mentoring committee and faculty at North Carolina A&T State University, an 1890 school.

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More than 300 registered for NextUp, the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics’ (C-FARE) virtual summer early career development program July 22. C-FARE Board Chair Dr. Gal Hochman of Rutgers University moderated a panel discussion that included Dr. Cynthia Nickerson, Deputy Chief Economist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Chief Economist; Dr. John Newton, the Chief Economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation; Barbara Patterson, Director of Government Affairs for Washington-based Michael Torrey Associates; and Philip Brasher, Executive Editor of Agri-Pulse.

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