On Monday, December 3, 2012, The Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences kicked off its 2013 Agricultural Policy and Outlook series with a special preview meeting hosted by Bruce A. McPheron, Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Dean of the College. The Agricultural Policy and Outlook series is organized yearly by the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics (AEDE).
The preview meeting, which was attended by over 125 agricultural contacts from the State of Ohio, was held at Ohio State’s 4-H Center. The event featured presentations and Q and A with experts from AEDE, who discussed issues that the food and agricultural community should expect in 2013. The event focused on policy changes, as well as market behavior with respect to farm, food, energy resources and the environment.
Dean McPheron opened the meeting with welcome remarks for the event’s guests and was followed by AEDE’s Department Chair, Dr. Tim Haab, who reflected on the high-quality of the research of the economists working in AEDE.
The morning session featured Dr. Douglas Southgate, who presented on long terms trends in the world food economy; Dr. Carl Zulauf, who offered his thoughts on farm policy in the coming year, especially in regards to changes in the farm bill that is currently being debated in Congress; Dr. Ian Sheldon, who offered insight on high food prices and riots in regards to trade policy; as well as a U.S. and Ohio economic forecast from Dr. Mark Partridge.
The afternoon session featured Barry Ward, OSU Extension Leader in Production Business Management, who presented on land values, cash rents and crop inputs, with a focus on forecasts for 2013; Dr. H. Allen Klaiber, who presented his research on the economic impact of shale oil exploration on housing values in Pennsylvania; as well as a grains forecast for 2013 from Dr. Matthew C. Roberts.
Presentations from the preview meeting are available on the AEDE website. Videos from the event will be added in the near future. Additionally, the event was tweeted live on Twitter, a full recap of which can be found here.
The Dean's preview event kicks off a series of county meetings to be held statewide in early 2013. More information on these meetings can be found on the AEDE website; this content will be updated as information becomes available.
If you would like more information on the Agricultural Policy and Outlook Conference series, please contact Dr. Matthew C. Roberts at roberts.628@osu.edu or 614-688-8686.
December 5, 2012