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November 2, 2018 8:30am-2:30pm

Nationwide 4H Center

Conference Speakers:
Ben Brown, Program Manager, Farm Management Program – “Ohio Commodity Outlook”

Chris Hurt, Professor, Agricultural Economics, Purdue University – “US Livestock Outlook”

Ani Katchova, Chair, Farm Income Enhancement Program – “Ohio Farm Financial Conditions and Outlook”

Ian Sheldon, Professor and Andersons Chair of Agricultural Marketing, Trade and Policy – “Trade and Policy”

Barry Ward, Director, OSU Extension Income Tax School Program – “Farm Management Update”

Carl Zulauf- Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University- “Agriculture Policy”

Register at go.osu.edu/2018AGOutlook

Have a topic you would like AEDE to research? Email trinoskey.1@osu.edu or aede@osu.eduSave the Date: 2018 Agricultural Policy and Outlook Conference

Robert Dinterman and Ani Katchova, dinterman.1@osu.edu; katchova.1@osu.edu

For landowners in Ohio, their farmland’s property tax is not based on the market value of the land but instead through the Current Agricultural Use Value Program (CAUV). The stated intention of the program is to provide a value of agricultural farmland based on expected value from agricultural use and depends on soil type, yields, prices, non-land costs, and capitalization rate (derived from interest rates on farmland) that is used in place of the market value of land.

Ben Brown, brown.6888@osu.edu

The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 2014 (more commonly know as the 2014 farm bill) reformed the safety net for U.S. row crop producers. Among several changes, direct decoupled payments were replaced with two countercyclical programs that targeted shallow loses in revenue and price. The Agriculture Risk Coverage program (ARC-CO) uses both a county's current and historical revenue to calculate payments. The Price Loss Coverage Program (PLC) allows the market to fluctuate, but triggers payments when the Marketing YeAverage (MYA) price falls below a fixed reference price set by Congress. The two programs operate differently and are not substitute programs. The ARC- CO program uses a county's average yield to calculate both current and historical revenue allowing the program to account for weather events that negatively impact one county’s yield but not another. Producers were allowed one choice in 2015 between the two programs for the length of the farm bill. Participation rates in Ohio followed the national trend for corn and soybeans with the majority of producers electing ARC-CO.

Payments in autumn of 2018, representing the 2017 crop, are expected smaller and less frequent than a year ago for corn and wheat, but triggered in more counties and larger for soybeans. For the 2016 crop, every Ohio county except Ashtabula triggered an ARC-CO corn payment, whereas the 2017 crop is expected to trigger a corn payment in only six counties. Nearly half of the counties are expected to trigger a soybean payment and two thirds are expected to trigger a wheat payment. Total payments made in October 2018 are expected lower in Ohio than a year ago even with the higher soybean payments. Expected net cash farm inflow for the month of October is expected down from the three-year average on price and lower government payments.

These calculations were made based on yields reported by the National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS) in February of 2018. Actual payments made in October will be calculated using Farm Service Agency Yields. NASS does not provide county yields for all counties, partially due to a low survey response rate. Counties with a NASS yield are included. Price estimates are those published by the World Agricultural Outlook Board in the May World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates. Expected MYA prices are corn- $3.40, soybean- $9.35 and wheat- $4.70. It is possible that price estimates could change between now and the end of the marketing year, but because of the position in the marketing year, it is going to take large shifts in the cash market to move the MYA price. Higher prices result in a smaller payment, similarly, a lower price results in a larger payment. 

Established in the ARC-CO and PLC formulas is a restriction that payments be made on 85% of base acres. The estimates included have been adjusted to reflect both the 85% restriction and a federal sequestration of 6.8%, outlined in the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Expectations for corn payments made this October are for smaller payments than those distributed in October 2017. A lower historical revenue benchmark and above average yields lowered the probability of corn payments for many of Ohio’s counties. Large quantities of corn base acreage exist across Ohio, and is a leading factor in total commodity payments. Payment variations across counties are a result of the yield component included in the ARC-CO formula. Highland county triggers the largest payment at $24/ base acre with a yield of 167 bushels/acre in 2017 vs a yield of 176 bushels/acre in 2016. The program is designed to smooth the differences in revenue from one year to the next, whereas crop insurance is designed to protect against revenue losses within the same year. The average estimated payment this year is expected to be $8, whereas the 2017 average payment was $57.

Smaller soybean yields across Ohio in 2017 increased the likelihood of ARC-CO payments in several of the state’s 88 counties. While more counties are expected to trigger payments this October than last October, the size of the average payment is only slightly higher. The average soybean payment in 2017 was $18/base acre whereas this year the expectation is for $23/ base acre. Payments are more frequent in the northern part of the state where yields lagged from late planting and large rains.

Fewer base acres of wheat exist in Ohio compared to corn and soybeans, but ARC-CO payments for wheat are expected in two-thirds of Ohio’s counties. The average ARC-CO payment for wheat is expected to be $24/base acre down from $32 last year. Wheat acreage is up in Ohio this year, but because the field is planted to wheat does not mean that there will be a commodity payment. Only if the field contains historical wheat base acreage and enrolled in the wheat ARC-CO program, will the field be eligible.

To use these estimates in cash flow planning, producers will need to know their base acreage and which of the two commodity programs they enrolled under. By multiplying the base acreage value by the county estimates above, producers can calculate their estimated commodity program payment. The federal government limits total payments per person (not entity) to $125,000.

These estimates are based on current forecasts for MYA prices. Final prices and yields will be made by the Farm Service Agency in September, with payments expected in October. Large swings in cash prices could alter these estimates. PLC payments are expected higher for corn and lower for wheat in 2018, but apply to a small percentage of Ohio base acreage. Soybeans prices have to date not fallen below the reference price to distribute a PLC payment and the expectation is zero soybean PLC payments this year.

Access the complete Agricultural Risk Coverage Payments Expected Lower in 2018 article at https://tinyurl.com/y6us5uyf

As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited for saying, “Change is the only constant in life.” Continuing the theme of changes in AEDE from our past newsletters, I am excited that this month we are focusing our newsletter on the introduction of our new faculty and staff in AEDE.

For those who haven’t been around the department in some time, I think you would be surprised at the number of new faces in the hallways. This month we brought on board four new tenure-track faculty members and a new instructional faculty member — a position that is new for us here at AEDE. Through success in the University’s Discovery Themes initiative, we are now able to say that we are a faculty of 21 outstanding applied economists. The influx of new talent will further solidify our reputation as one of the top departments of applied economics in the world.

In addition, over the past six months we have brought on board five new staff members, and I am now confident in saying that we have the best staff support of any department at the University.

I hope you will take the time to read through the brief biographies of our new faculty and staff in this newsletter, and whenever you are in the building, take a minute to introduce yourself. 

Finally, on a more personal note, the start of a new school year has given me added perspective on the challenges that students and parents go through as they adjust to life in college. Over the past few weeks, I moved two of my own kids in to college and I see the excitement, nerves and challenges that the transition from high school to college presents. To help ease my own kids' nerves, I wrote a letter to each of them giving them one last "Dad lecture" before they start the academic year. But this lecture was a little different, it comes from twenty years’ of experience as a college professor. In the letter, I shared three things that I’ve seen lead to student success, and I thought I would share them with you as well.

Here are three things I've seen lead to success for students:

1) Go to class: This might seem obvious, but for some reason students forget. Even if your professors don't take attendance, there is a direct correlation between the number of times you go to class and how well you do in class. Why? Because it is in class where you figure out what the professor wants, how they think and what is needed. I don't play favorites in the classroom, but those who come to class do better (even if they fall asleep). It's that simple. Get your butt out of bed and go to class.

2) I have no idea what you will use any of this for... and neither do you. Just yesterday I was sitting in my office trying to remember how to work with natural logarithms. If you would've asked me my freshman year what I would ever use a natural logarithm for, I would have told you I have no clue. And that's the point. There's not a single professor who can predict what you will be or how you will use anything you learn. And neither can you. Don't dismiss learning just because you don't know what you are going to do with it. Learn a lot. You just might use it someday. And even if you don't use it yourself, you might have to help your kids with their homework someday.

3) Think big: A lot of students show up at college thinking they either already know or need to quickly figure out who they are going to be for the rest of their life. They think they need to narrow themselves down to fit in a little box of a major. Don't think that way. You have the rest of your life to limit yourself. Now is the time to explore, to think different, to express ideas and be proven wrong, to express ideas and prove your professors wrong, to meet new people, to find out who they are, and then to find out who you are. In short, now is a time to learn. So don't limit yourself by what you think others want you to be. Be yourself, once you figure out who that is.

Now, for all you students out there, get your butt out of bed and go to class.

Prior to starting her first year of university study at Middlebury College in Vermont, Leah Bevis visited Africa for the first time --- Malawi. She returned to work in Uganda after her first year at Middlebury, then after her second, and so-on. 

“By the time I got to my senior year, I realized that I wanted to keep working in Africa, and to work in development,” Bevis says.

After finishing her undergraduate degree in geography she moved to Uganda to work with a public health NGO called Uganda Village Project. However, her time in the international development arena left her with more questions than answers.

“It struck me that, often, development NGOs were running programs because the donors liked them, or because they seemed like the only feasible programs, or because one guy once said that the program was effective… I felt there was a real lack of solid, research-based evidence behind many programs. So I went into economics to ask the deeper questions, in order to inform development policy in sub-Saharan Africa and more broadly,” she says as a now practicing development economist.

Bevis focuses on the linkages between biophysical systems and human systems in her research, most of which has been conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

During her graduate work at Cornell, she examined linkages between soil fertility, soil and crop minerals, and human health and welfare. She has looked at soil degradation and farmer choices in Uganda, examining how soil fertility effects plot-level productivity, and also how farmers invest differentially in their soils according to various dimensions of soil fertility. She has also examined the role that soil zinc plays in shaping crop zinc content, and how trade patterns move crop zinc across markets in Uganda, driving eventual consumption of zinc by consumers.

“I study intersections between development, human health and welfare, and biophysical resources. Biophysical resources are a key constraint on human productivity and welfare in most rural, developing countries --- and often, they are also non-tradable. If you have poor soils, you’re likely stuck with them. So what are the implications?” Bevis explains.

While at Cornell, Bevis specialized in development economics, econometrics and food systems.

Bevis was hired under Ohio State’s Discovery Themes initiative, and in particular as a researcher in the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT), which seeks transformational solutions for global food security. She was attracted to Ohio State in part because she felt that the university, through the Discovery Themes Initiative, was excited to support the interdisciplinary nature of her research.

“At Cornell, I worked with soil scientists, nutritionists and crop scientists. A lot of my research interests are broadly interdisciplinary, intersecting with many other academics who also study food systems. I hope and believe that the InFACT program will facilitate collaboration with researchers in other Ohio State departments,” Bevis explains.

“From the very beginning this job was at the top of my list. The department has also been great. AEDE’s collegiality really sold me– I had a good feeling about the people here from the start,” she says.

Bevis is currently working on designing her teaching curriculum, which will include a seven-week module for the department’s PhD program focused on development economics. “I really enjoy teaching,” she says. “Working with students is fun. It’s also challenging. And it makes you look more broadly at things, which is only good for your own research.”

In her PhD module she hopes to create a class that is tool-oriented and fairly heavy in econometrics. She aims to situate the class in development economics literature and rely heavily on development datasets.

Bevis was raised in Hawaii and when she’s not sitting at a computer running regressions, or in the field, she’s often found upside-down doing yoga, acro-yoga or aerials. And, as a food and farm policy specialist, she of course enjoys all things food in her free time, from gardening to cooking to exploring her new city’s farmers markets.

Get in touch with Leah.

Hailing from rural western Massachusetts, and having lived in Washington and California, Zoë Plakias is familiar with a number of agricultural regions in the United States. However, with her recent appointment to assistant professor with a focus on agribusiness at the Ohio State University, she now has the opportunity to immerse herself in yet another agricultural powerhouse in our nation’s food system.

“This is a new region for me and that’s exciting in terms of agriculture, as every region has its own character and climate,” she says.

Plakias, who joins Ohio State’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics as a recent graduate of the Agricultural and Resource Economics doctoral program at the University of California, Davis, studies domestic agricultural economics and agricultural policy. Thus far, her research has focused on agricultural producer organizations, technology adoption, and intellectual property rights in the agricultural arena.

“I am interested in all aspects of our contemporary food system. The diversity of producers and consumers within our food system, especially as we think about crafting policy and programs, is very important to me,” Plakias notes.

During her undergraduate studies, Plakias spent a period of time studying environmental studies and geology. She eventually landed in an economics course and fell in love with the discipline. “I find it valuable that I have studied environmental issues. I think all of these things together make me who I am in terms of a researcher and a person,” she says.

Arriving in California’s Central Valley to pursue her PhD, Plakias did not know that she would end those years having earned the title of agricultural economist. However, landing in the heart of America’s food system, where more than two-thirds of fruit and one-third of the vegetables grown in the U.S are produced, ignited a variety of questions for Plakias. These questions would become the foundation for her graduate program research. She also had the opportunity to work with several prominent agricultural economists at UC Davis who sparked her interest in the field.

With her recent move to the Ohio State University and Columbus, Plakias sees nothing but opportunity. “I am excited to be at Ohio State due to its amazing reputation in terms of research. It’s fabulous to be here with thousands of other scholars – that’s just such a cool opportunity – I want to pursue all of these connections and interact with so many people. I am really excited about the diversity in the city and at the university – diversity of ideas, economic diversity, racial and ethnic diversity, and religious diversity.”

Plakias also looks forward to interacting with students in the Agribusiness and Applied Economics program as she begins to take on teaching responsibilities. In addition to her research experience, she hopes to bring her previous experience as a board and committee member of several consumer-owned retail food cooperatives to the classroom.

Of note, she also has the interesting distinction of (most likely) being the only person in the department’s history of having listed “deckhand” on their CV, a talking point brought up in her interview by the department’s inquisitive faculty.  

“For several years, I worked as a crew member on tall ships. I’ve sailed along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the Caribbean. On those boats we were doing education programs focused on leadership, marine science and environmental issues. I still love to sail,” she says, while reflecting on her diverse background. 

Get in touch with Zoë.

With the start of the 2016-2017 academic year, the department welcomes several new staff members and a restructured model of administration for servicing the needs of the faculty and students in the department's academic programs.

As our Chair, Tim Haab, has noted in previous newsletters, the department's staff are the engine that keeps AEDE running. As any of our faculty will attest, without our outstanding staff, the faculty would not be able to do what they do so effectively, nor would we have gained such an outstanding reputation for service to students.

Below, see a Q & A with each of the recent additions to our team. We look forward to a wonderful academic year with our full administrative and academic staff teams in place.

Brandi Gilbert-Hammett

What are your duties at AEDE?

I serve as the HR Generalist for the department.  I oversee recruitment, employee relations, performance management and compensation. 

What are you looking forward to the most about working with the faculty, staff and students in the department?

AEDE is my first academic unit since joining the College in 2015. I’m excited to jump back in to the academic side of OSU and learn about the programs that AEDE offers. 

What do you like to do in your free time?

What’s that? :)

Get in touch with Brandi.

Megan Larger

What are your duties at AEDE?

I serve as the Human Resources Associate for the department. I initiate the hiring process and provide guidance on HR related matters.

What are you looking forward to the most about working with the faculty, staff and students in the department?

As a graduate of the College, I am looking forward to returning but as a staff member and continuing to work with the faculty, staff and students of the department.  

What do you like to do in your free time?

Spend time with family and friends.

Get in touch with Megan.

Cheryl Lyman

What are your duties at AEDE?

In my role as Fiscal Officer, I provide oversight for department’s financial, procurement, financial analysis and reporting operations. I advise faculty, staff and students on fiscal issues, and I assist the Chair with budgetary matters.

What are you looking forward to the most about working with the faculty, staff and students in the department?

I look forward to learning more about the amazing variety of academic and research activities in which our students and faculty are involved.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Reading, spending time with family and friends, and trying to learn all the lyrics to the Broadway musical Hamilton.

Get in touch with Cheryl.

Katie Miller

What are your duties at AEDE?

As the Undergraduate Program Coordinator, I will be advising the Agribusiness and Applied Economics and Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability (EEDS) majors. I will also be meeting with prospective students and their families and representing the department at recruitment events.

What are you looking forward to the most about working with the faculty, staff and students in the department?

I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone and figuring out how I can best make connections among people and resources.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Running, trying new restaurants, spending time with friends and family, and exploring with my dog.

Get in touch with Katie.

Marlene Poches

What are your duties at AEDE?

I serve as Administrative Office Manager. I manage the daily processes of AEDE’s Business Office, support the Chair and department committees, initiate/manage promotion and tenure processes, facilitate faculty and staff onboarding, and provide customer service to faculty, staff, and students within the department and college.

What are you looking forward to the most about working with the faculty, staff and students in the department?

I have always had a vested interest in agriculture and the environment. I look forward to seeing OSU’s innovation at work and continuing to learn from those around me.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Organic gardening, baking for others, fly fishing for trout, horseback riding, and (more recently) golf.

Get in touch with Marlene.

With the completion of the 2015-2016 academic year, AEDE faculty member Eugene Jones retired from Ohio State. Jones had been a faculty member in the department since 1984.

In his work at Ohio State, he focused on marketing and price analysis, as well as consumer demand for food and beverages. His research looked at supermarket scanner data to examine the differences in purchasing behavior between lower and higher income consumers. Additionally, his research examined game-theoretic frameworks to explore pricing competition among supermarket chains. He also studied the US frozen potato market and the export market for bananas.

Jones taught a number of classes while at AEDE including undergraduate courses in data analysis, the principles of food and resource economics, and an internship in agribusiness program, among others. At the graduate level he taught a course on marketing economics in agriculture.

During his academic career Jones was a member of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, the Food Distribution Research Society, and the Southern Agricultural Economics Association.

Jones earned his bachelors degree in economics from Tuskegee University, his masters in economics from American University, and his PhD in food and resource economics from the University of Florida. Prior to joining Ohio State he worked as an agricultural economist for the US Department of Agriculture, as an economic development supervisor in St. Louis, Missouri, as an economic development specialist in Illinois, and as an economist and financial analyst for the US Agency for International Development.

He will be greatly missed by all of AEDE, especially the undergraduate student body, who recently awarded him with the 2015-2016 Outstanding Faculty Member award for his commitment to teaching excellence. A reception will be held in autumn 2016 to honor Jones.

Thank you, Dr. Jones, for your service to AEDE!

Daniel Crown, an AEDE doctoral student who just finished his second year of the program, is spending the summer as an intern at USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) in Washington D.C. A native of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Daniel focuses on regional economics in his work at AEDE. He also has an interest in migration and is advised by AEDE's Professor Alessandra Faggian. Daniel completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, College Park and previously worked as an intern at the US Census Bureau. 

Through his own narrative, Daniel gives us an account of what it's like to spend the summer applying the economic concepts that he has learned in the AEDE classroom to a real-world setting as an intern in our nation's capital.

Photos (except where noted) and story by Daniel Crown

Ohio State’s Environmental Policy Initiative (EPI) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2016 summer research grant competition. Each year, EPI summer research grants support Ohio State doctoral students conducting innovative, environmental policy-related dissertation research. Recipients receive an award of $4,500 to aid them in their research during the summer semester.

This year, the award was given to three outstanding Ohio State doctoral students: Debangana Bose from the Department of Geography, Emily Hutchins who is pursuing a degree in environmental social science in the School of Environment and Natural Resources, and Jonathan Ogland-Hand who is in the Environmental Science Graduate Program.

Bose is advised by Nancy Ettlinger and focuses on the effects of urban restructuring through resettlement and its impact on the environment in her studies at Ohio State. She will use the funding for travel to Delhi, India in 2016 to investigate how resettlement in Delhi’s peri-urban areas have impacted the region’s environmental ecosystems. Her research will also critically evaluate the “Sustainable and Smart Cities” program and “Clean India Mission,” which are policies initiated by the government of India to protect and conserve urban and peri-urban ecosystems.

Hutchins, who is advised by Eric Toman, focuses on climate adaptation policy in her work at Ohio State. She earned a B.S. in environmental science from the University of Maryland where she studied wildlife management and soil science. Before pursuing a graduate degree she worked for the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management in Lewistown, Montana where she gained an appreciation for the work of resource managers and the impact of policy on environmental conservation efforts.

Ogland-Hand is advised by Jeffrey Bielicki who oversees Ohio State’s Energy Sustainability Research Group, which Ogland-Hand is affiliated with. The group focuses on the interaction of energy, the environment and policy. In his studies at Ohio State, Ogland-Hand focuses on quantifying the impact that CO2-Geothermal Bulk Energy Storage (CO2-BES) can have on CO2 emissions from regional electricity systems. This summer Ogland-Hand will apply the EPI grant to research on the impact that CO2-BES could have on regional water stress. Before coming to Ohio State Ogland-Hand earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Valparaiso University.

EPI, which is housed in Ohio State's Department of Agricultural, Environment, and Development Economics (AEDE), aims to stimulate and focus systematic collaboration in environmental policy through research, graduate and undergraduate education, communication with the policy community, and interaction with the national and international community of scholars in environmental policy. The program is overseen by AEDE’s Professor Brent Sohngen.

Image (left to right):  Debangana Bose, Emily Hutchins and Jonathan Ogland-Hand

Elmer Baumer, a former professor in the department, passed away on May 25, 2016 in Columbus, Ohio.

Baumer earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in agricultural economics from The Ohio State University. After completing his masters degree, he was employed by a marketing cooperative in Cleveland for two and a half years. Baumer then returned to Ohio State to complete his PhD, which he earned in 1954. At this time, he was offered a position as an assistant professor in the agricultural economics department.

Baumer remained with Ohio State for the duration of his career, serving as associate professor and then professor in the department. He was a very active advisor and served on numerous faculty committees in the department, college and university. Baumer eventually moved into university administration where he served as the associate dean of Ohio State’s Graduate School and then associate provost of the university. He retired from Ohio State in 1987.

Baumer was married for 70 years to his wife Virginia, who is survived by him along with his five children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He and Virginia raised their family in Upper Arlington, Ohio where they were devoted community members.

To read his full obituary, including a nice story about his determination as a student, please click here.

Image: Elmer Baumer (www.schoedinger.com)

This week AEDE will lose one of its longest-serving staff members, Joan Weber, who will retire at the end of April. Joan has spent 30 years as an employee of The Ohio State University. She joined AEDE in 1996 as the administrative manager for the department’s Rural Finance program. In 2000, she moved to her current role as the Business and Administrative Manager for AEDE.

In her position, not only has Joan managed AEDE’s human resource and fiscal functions with the utmost professionalism, but she has unofficially served as a department historian, OSU policy encyclopedia, gatekeeper, and an answerer of all things, all the time.

Many faculty and staff have relied on Joan’s extensive expertise on nearly every administrative function at Ohio State. Often, conversations and meetings end with the phrase, “I’ll just ask Joan….”

Tim Haab, AEDE Chair, recently noted that the hole being created by Joan’s departure is immense and the appreciation the department has for Joan’s professionalism and dedication cannot be overstated. In 2006, Joan was formally honored with the Ohio Chapter Gamma Sigma Delta Service Award of Merit.

Thank you, Joan, for sharing your experience, professionalism and caring character with all of us for all of these years. We were so fortunate to have you on our team. We hope you enjoy the tributes below from several of the colleagues that you have worked with over the years. And most importantly, enjoy the many games of golf and days on sunny beaches that are surely in your future.

Sathya Gopalakrishnan, Assistant Professor

I am extremely thankful to Joan for her immense patience in working with me through the immigration process, among other things. I can’t imagine how I would have navigated the OSU system; she always had answers, or would find the answers, to what I can imagine were annoying questions.

Ian Sheldon, Professor and Andersons Chair in Agricultural Marketing, Trade and Policy

In 34 years as a professor both here in the US and back in the UK, I have never met a staff member so totally professional and dedicated as Joan – it has been an absolute privilege to work with her. Her total knowledge and understanding of the financial, human resource and administrative rules at Ohio State have been a tremendous asset to the department, and I am sure she has prevented us getting into trouble on many occasions. Having interacted with Joan on several faculty searches, as well as other administrative jobs, I can only say that her management skills and attention to detail are truly second-to-none. On a personal level, I have always enjoyed and appreciated Joan’s willingness to listen to me as a faculty member on so many issues – I will really miss that daily interaction. Hopefully, she can enjoy being on the golf course more in her retirement, as well as having time to drink a margarita or two down Mexico way.

Carl Zulauf, Professor Emeritus

Joan is the consummate professional. You need say no more. Joan was incredibly important to the functioning of the department as anyone who has been around and experienced the importance of fiscal and human resource management. Much like many things in life you have to experience the bad to know how good the good is. The department was blessed to have Joan.  Joan was interested in you as a person not just as an employee. The department was a better place to inhabit when you were asked a simple question, “How is your day going?” I will miss our conversations about golf. Being a non-player but a huge fan, it was insightful to hear an accomplished player’s take on the game, both now and in the past. Sports provide a window into the world. My window will get somewhat smaller without our conversations. I wish Joan the best in whatever she chooses to do, but I hope she shoots a personal best round of golf as a celebration of retirement and of a professional life that positively impacted others by helping them navigate the systems of Ohio State.

Ana Crespo, Fiscal Records and Office Administrative Associate

Congratulations, Joan on surviving working 30 years at OSU! I appreciate the hard work you put into making sure everything was done correctly. We both know how easily everything can fall apart if attention is not paid to details and work processes. I hope you enjoy your retirement because you have certainly earned it. I am sure the worst part of your retirement will be that you will not see our faces on a daily basis, but we can send you a picture every week or monthly if you like. Have fun golfing and keep in touch.

Gina Hnytka, Program Manager, Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability (EEDS) and AEDE Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

Joan is the first AEDE contact I met when I decided to apply for a position with the department. Her professionalism, work ethic, and commitment to success reinforced my decision to join AEDE’s team, without a question. Throughout the time I’ve worked in the department, Joan’s experience, dedication, and guidance has helped to make my own work easier and more successful. Joan will be truly missed. She has been a constant, excellent staff member in the department who simply cannot be replaced.

Barb Lee, Former AEDE Staffer

When I first met Joan over 20 years ago, she was interviewing for my job in International Finance. I was immediately struck by her professionalism, her enthusiasm and her overall caring persona. She would be a perfect fit for this group. Joan quickly learned the fast-paced nature of the rural finance group including faculty, graduate students and constant visitors from the U.S. and abroad. She went on to accept the position she now holds in AEDE. No one could survive in her job without being an intelligent, detailed, and multi-tasking individual. Joan is well respected by her peers and administrators throughout OSU, the State, and internationally. It has been my great pleasure to know Joan as a colleague as well as a good friend. We joke when we meet for a quick lunch at China Dynasty (I don’t think Joan and I have ever eaten anywhere else) that when she retires we can have long lunches and shopping trips together – I look forward to those days. Enjoy your retirement, Joan. You and Larry certainly deserve some time together – golfing, being beach bums, and whatever else your heart desires. 

Douglas Southgate, Professor Emeritus

Joan is an unusually capable individual as well as a dedicated professional. The department has benefited enormously from her effective administrative service. And what a pleasure Joan is to be around, always cheerful and encouraging. She will be missed!

Janice DiCarolis, Research and Extension Communications Liaison

Congratulations, Joan!  Best wishes for a happy, healthy, long retirement….QUITTER!!!  Seriously, it has been such a pleasure working with you. You are the consummate professional. You will be missed, so please keep in touch or come back and visit…but not for two months. Once I retire, we can work on that book!

Tony Gallenstein, an AEDE doctoral student, is currently in Tanzania serving as a program manager for the Innovative Agricultural Research Initiative (iAGRI), a USAID Feed the Future project. AEDE’s Dave Kraybill serves as the iAGRI project director.

Author: Tony Gallenstein

The Ohio State University has joined Sokoine University of Agriculture on an iAGRI funded research and capacity-building initiative: Promoting Financial Inclusion and Technical Transformation among Smallholders in Tanzania: A Capacity-Building Exercise.

The project has several objectives:

• Conduct high-quality research on the impact of weather-based index insurance on technology adoption and farmer group sustainability in Tanzania;
• Improve economics research capacity at Sokoine University of Agriculture; and
• Raise awareness of the potential uses of index insurance in the agricultural finance sector in Tanzania.  

Through this initiative, it is hoped that food security in Tanzania will be improved due to the ability of the country’s leading agricultural university to conduct high-quality economics research and promote the understanding of index insurance to stakeholders in the country. The project aims to promote opportunities for index insurance to manage the risks faced by smallholder farmers throughout the country.

The research team is composed of two principal investigators from Ohio State: Dr. Mario Miranda and Dr. Abdoul Sam, as well as one principle investigator from Sokoine University: Dr. Flavianus Magayane.

In addition to the principal investigators, the team is composed of two graduate research assistants from Ohio State: myself and John Daugherty, as well as one recent Sokoine University graduate: Erick Temu.

During the first phase of the project implementation, I have assumed the role of iAGRI program manager for the research team. I have been based in Tanzania from February 2016 and will remain here into June.

In my work, I am overseeing a number of project activities, including the implementation of a framed field experiment that is investigating the impact of index insurance on risk-taking in individual and joint liability smallholder agricultural lending.

The experiment is in effect from late March to early May in the drought prone districts of Kongwa, Bahi, and Dodoma Urban in the Dodoma region. During this time, I am located with the experiment team in Dodoma.

The other project activities include a collection of capacity-building exercises, including a research discussion group with four Sokoine University graduate students. The discussion group involves reading academic papers in experimental and development economics and discussing new research ideas and research methodologies. The participants also serve as enumerators for the implementation of the framed field experiment thereby providing them with hands-on experience implementing the methodologies studied in the literature.  

Additionally, I am working with Professor Miranda and the iAGRI leadership team to develop a proposal for capacity-building activities for Sokoine University’s School of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.

The proposal includes further student mentorship, teaching a seminar on experimental and behavioural economics, an external review of the Agricultural Economics graduate program, training for Sokoine University faculty on teaching doctoral level quantitative research methods, and inclusion in an upcoming index insurance conference.

We recently sat down with Mark Partridge, a regional economist, AEDE professor, and Ohio State’s C. William Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy to talk about his work, the Swank program and some of his favorite places to visit across the globe. Check out our Q & A with him.

In a recent study you were ranked as the most influential author working in the field of regional science. What trends do you see in the future in this field?

Regional science and regional economics are very germane as tools to help direct future policy issues that will guide society. For example, issues of income inequality and poverty are not just important political issues in the U.S. but they are important global issues that drive long-term economic growth and how political institutions adapt to solve pressing socioeconomic challenges.

Moving forward, society is increasingly interested in issues such as climate change and mass migrations after traumatic shocks such as war, economic volatility, or climatic events. These have long been key issues that have dominated regional science. For instance, issues of how people migrate in response to climatic conditions and environmental conditions have been studied by regional scientists since the 1970s, forming what should be the basis of current research on how climate change will affect mass migration.

Going forward, I think regional science will continue to focus on the major issues that face society. One issue that I think will remain at the forefront is helping local regions create sustainable development that is inclusive for their residents.

How has working at a large research institution like Ohio State helped you further develop your research portfolio?

Being at The Ohio State University has been so rewarding for my research. I have been exposed to so many brilliant scholars across the university, allowing me to learn from many different fields and viewpoints.

Probably the most rewarding aspect are the ideas and enthusiasm that our students possess. I enjoy teaching but it is the most fun when students teach the professor. I have learned so much from their ideas and unique views.

What is the subject matter of your most recent research and what impact do you hope to see from this research?

Much of my research has been on how economic shocks such as the development of new industries or world economic volatility affects local communities and their regions. This is demonstrated with my current work on France, the U.S., or China, as the global economy produces winners and losers.

Another key theme is my current work on income inequality and poverty and how policy can work to reduce their negative effects on the economy, well-being, and on governance.

Another key area of my current research is assessing how the recent shale boom and the "old" carbon economy such as coal have affected local areas that have experienced development of extractive industries.

What has been the greatest accomplishment of the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy since you became the program’s Chair?

There are many accomplishments that I am proud of in my work as the Swank Program Chair.

One is the relationships and connections that I have made in my outreach work with key stakeholders such as Ohio Farm Bureau, Ohio County Commissioners, and various education and workforce groups. Closely related to this are the relationships that I have made with my Swank assistants in developing policy briefs and trying to shape better policies for Ohio and its communities.

Another is my outreach work on energy development. While many noted the "boom" aspects of the initial rush for drilling, I have tried to caution communities to look more at the long-term in that energy cycles are highly volatile and to plan for not only the boom but also for the inevitable bust. I believe that Ohio communities have heard many of these arguments and there have been fewer problems as the energy economy cooled off.

Another is my research on how rural and urban areas are economically interdependent and the need to develop regional policies for better economic outcomes. One area that illustrates the impact of this research is the recent push by international development organizations such as the World Bank and OECD to consider focusing development efforts on the smaller and intermediate sized cities.

Finally, I am also proud of the international reputation we have developed for the program. When I came to OSU, I was charged with building an international footprint and I believe that we have succeeded.

What is your favorite country that you have traveled to and why?

I have been fortunate to visit many countries for my work. Yet, I caution people considering international travel that I am not a good person to consult on things to do. A culinary pleasure for me is a burger and fries. While abroad, I spend most of my time thinking about a country's economic development and what can be learned from those patterns.

The country that fascinates me the most is China. In China, you see the hustle and bustle that I suspect characterized the remarkable rise of large American cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but on a much larger scale. Likewise, China is experiencing the same growing pains as the U.S. did, such as dramatic transformation with major winners and losers. One key difference is the U.S. developed with a much more hands-off approach, while China has been heavily guided by the hand of their central government. It will be fascinating to see how each approach fares in the long run.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Authors: Mark Partridge, Mark Rembert, and Michael Betz

As the United States adopts policies to lower greenhouse gas emissions, some communities will benefit from the shift to lower-carbon energy sources. But others will lose.

Communities that have historically relied on coal production – especially in Appalachia – have been suffering major economic and employment losses for decades. Today far fewer miners are needed to produce the coal that we consume, and alternative energy sources like natural gas, solar and wind have chipped away at coal’s cost advantage. These forces have led to many lost jobs in coal-reliant regions, which will only intensify as the coal industry becomes more efficient in mining and the nation takes steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to coal’s uncertain future, last year the Obama administration proposed a US$3 billion plan called Power+ to assist coal-dependent regions.

Transitioning local economies that rely on resource extraction industries requires long-term investments. Instead of significantly expanding investment in coal-reliant communities, two-thirds of the Power+ Plan funding is directed toward providing what we consider life support to the coal industry. These investments are unlikely to have any significant short-term effect on employment in coal-reliant regions. In our view, the plan misses an opportunity to provide the sustained investments communities need to develop a post-coal economy.

Why has coal employment declined?

Since 1949, coal industry employment has fallen from more than 500,000 workers to fewer than 63,000 workers today. Coal advocates contend that environmental regulations, such as the Clean Air Acts of 1977 and 1990, have caused hardship and job losses in many coal-dependent regions. But what these policies actually have done is to change where coal is mined.

By requiring power producers to reduce sulfur emissions from electricity generation, the Clean Air Act triggered a shift in U.S. coal production from Appalachia, where coal is high in sulfur, to western states with abundant supplies of low-sulfur coal. However, overall U.S. coal employment was mostly unaffected by these regulations.

Instead, the decline in coal employment has been largely driven by market forces. The coal industry has invested in new mining methods and better machinery, so production requires far fewer coal miners.

What’s more, coal is rapidly losing market share. Natural gas surpassed it twice as a fuel for power generation in 2015. Coal once dominated all other sources as the primary fuel for U.S. electricity production, but now faces increased competition from other energy sources, most notably shale natural gas, wind and solar. Through September of 2015, all of the new electricity generation capacity added in the U.S. was powered by natural gas, wind and solar, while nearly all of the retired capacity was powered by coal.

Many coal advocates continue to blame environmental policies, such as the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan – which the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked and will review in June – for job losses in the coal industry. But in reality, mining jobs are primarily driven by market forces.

How to help coal communities

To aid workers and communities where industries are declining, governments typically choose one of two approaches: offering direct support to those industries or funding investments in people and places.

Industrial support aims to maintain employment by providing subsidies or regulatory relief. The U.S. auto industry bailout, in which the Treasury Department invested nearly $80 billion in the auto industry to save General Motors and Chrysler from bankruptcy, is a recent example. President Obama’s proposed Power+ plan would provide $2 billion in tax credits for the deployment of carbon capture technologies on coal power plants to hopefully allow them to continue production. These tax credits are in essence a subsidy to coal producers.

But industry support policies are unlikely to provide effective aid for workers and communities in coal-dependent regions, for several reasons.

First, declining coal employment has largely been driven by productivity gains. Providing subsides to the industry may slow the decline in production, but their effect on employment will be diminished because mining operations are more productive and efficient at extracting coal. It is likely that most of the benefits from industry subsides will go to owners of coal companies who may live far away, not to workers or their communities.

Second, our research has shown that dependence on coal adversely affects noncoal employment in places like Appalachia. High levels of coal employment are associated with lower levels of entrepreneurship and higher levels of migration out of Appalachian regions as coal crowds out other types of businesses. Prolonging coal employment may actually slow the transition to other economic activities and reduce long-term economic growth.

Alternatively, aid programs could invest in people and places through initiatives such as job retraining programs, small business support, and infrastructure programs. The proposed Power+ plan designated $110 million for workforce development programs for coal communities. Of this, $20 million was earmarked for retraining coal workers to help them transition to new jobs and careers, and $90 million was designated for workforce development and training programs associated with mine cleanup.

So far, however, Congress has approved only a few small pieces of the Power+ plan. And even if the plan was fully funded, its workforce development programs would only provide a little more than $1,700 for each worker employed in the coal industry. Including the mining workers that have already lost their jobs reduces the dollar/worker amount even further. Moreover, research on the gains from retraining programs for laid-off workers has been inconclusive.

One issue is that displaced workers tend to seek new work based on skills from their previous jobs, which significantly outweighs the effect of job-retraining programs. When focusing on improving a particular community or region, retraining programs can have even less of an effect. If retrained workers cannot find work that matches their new skills, they are likely to migrate to another region.

The plan also included some funding for place-based initiatives, including $1 billion in funding for cleaning up hazardous abandoned coal mine lands and polluted waters and $25 million to the Appalachian Regional Commission to support economic development planning, entrepreneurial development and investment in basic infrastructure. We are more encouraged by these proposals, although we feel that they are underfunded.

Investing in quality of life

What does work? We have found that entrepreneurship and creativity are key factors for promoting economic development in lagging areas of Appalachia. To support this approach to development, aid programs should focus on improving the quality of life in coal communities and attracting new, highly skilled residents. This could be achieved by investing in natural resource amenities, which the plan does through its proposed $1 billion investment in abandoned mine cleanup.

Another strategy would be to investing in basic infrastructure, such as road maintenance, public schools and health care. By making a long-term investment in these necessary services, the federal government can free up local governments to invest local tax dollars in assets that are unique to each place. The Appalachian Regional Commission, a partnership between state and federal agencies, already facilitates these types of programs. Substantially increasing funding to the ARC would be an effective way to help coal communities.

President Obama’s Power+ plan rightfully acknowledges that energy policies are negatively affecting some regions, but we believe the money is misaligned. If the goal is to help coal-dependent communities transition to a post-coal economy, $2 billion in tax credits for the coal industry will be ineffective.

Instead, that money would be better used to invest in basic infrastructure. A place-based investment strategy does not guarantee rapid economic development in these areas, but it can improve the quality of life for people who are most impacted by our national shift away from coal.

Mark Partridge, Professor of Rural-Urban Policy, The Ohio State University; Mark Rembert, Ph.D. Student, The Ohio State University, and Michael Betz, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science, The Ohio State University

Did you know that an AEDE staff member had a critical role in bringing an innovative sustainability learning program that operates outside of the classroom to Ohio State students?

SUSTAINS (Students Understanding Sustainability and Taking Action to Improve Nature and Society) is an Ohio State learning community targeted at undergraduates studying or interested in the environment.

Gina Hnytka, an AEDE staff member, is one of the founders of SUSTAINS and currently oversees programming for the community. At AEDE, Hnytka directs program management for the Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability (EEDS) undergraduate major and supervises AEDE student services for undergraduate and graduate programs. 

How did SUSTAINS come to life?

Early in 2013, through her work with the EEDS program, Hnytka identified a need to provide opportunities for students to engage around issues of sustainability both inside and outside of the classroom. Students seemed eager for opportunities to pursue professional development, education, and other growth opportunities related to social, economic, and environmental sustainability, but they needed structure and a supportive community of peers, professionals, and faculty. The EEDS program was instrumental in supporting Hnytka’s proposal for this new initiative and in helping her to identify the group’s exhaustingly long, but meaningful acronym: SUSTAINS.

After garnering solid support from the community’s partners: Ohio State University Housing in the Office of Student Life, AEDE, the School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR), and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), Hnytka conducted a small recruitment campaign for program launch in fall 2014. Students applied to the program and the result was a group of 15 fantastic students who became what she now refers to as the “roots,” or the foundation of the SUSTAINS learning community. These students were enrolled in a variety of major programs but all were engaged with sustainability offices and organizations on campus.

Fast forward to year two and there are now 40 students living in the SUSTAINS learning community. This includes 25 new members (or what Hnytka calls “shoots”) and 15 upper-class members, some of which returned to the group as mentors, or “roots,” in their second year in the program. Sixty percent of the participants are enrolled in majors outside of CFAES. This connection to the larger campus community allows the students to engage with partners from many disciplines in the context of sustainability. 

Aaron Moore, the Residence Hall Director for the building in which SUSTAINS is housed, is Hnytka’s co-lead for the program. Moore’s knowledge of co-curricular programming, effort in creating new opportunities, and dedication to the success of the students has been instrumental in growing and sustaining a high-quality program. 

So what does SUSTAINS do?

SUSTAINS is an intentional residential experience that focuses on the exploration of the delicate balance between environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Students must apply to the learning community and, if extended an offer to join the group, all live in the same residence hall to better facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and learning. All members move to campus a few days early and participate in an early arrival program, which includes a welcome dinner with faculty, staff, and students (and their families); a day-long retreat; and this past year, a service day at Stratford Ecological Center.

All first year SUSTAINS students enroll in a seminar class with Hnytka during the fall semester. During this seminar experience students participate in dialogue around current issues in sustainability and have the opportunity to interact with and learn from experts on specific topics. Participants are also required to create and present a project proposal at the end of fall semester. This project must focus on improving an existing sustainability initiative on campus or developing a new one. At the end of the semester, students present their project proposals and vote on which project the entire group will implement during spring semester 2016. Current proposals include a community garden in the North Residential District, a large scale community service day sponsored by SUSTAINS, a recycling education campaign targeting local elementary schools, and reusing K-Cups to grow seedlings which will be donated to area gardens and campus dining services. 

SUSTAINS also offers a robust calendar of events with a large number of engagement and growth opportunities for students. Over the past two years, the community has engaged with many professionals, agencies, and policymakers during a professional development trip to Baltimore and Washington D.C.; participated in the annual OEFFA conference; toured Blue Rock Station; completed community service hours with OSU Zero Waste, FLOW, Franklinton Gardens, OSU Wetlands, 4th Street Farms, Indianola Gardens, and other organizations; canoed the Olentangy with COMPAS; presented to Cardinal Turkson; learned about climate change and ice cores; hosted multiple dinner and dialogues with professionals and faculty…and the list goes on.

What began as a small project to support students has grown into a well-respected sustainability program for undergraduate students on OSU’s campus. If interested in learning more about SUSTAINS or collaborating with the group, please contact Gina Hnytka at hnytka.4@osu.edu.

First and third images: SUSTAINS students during their Fall 2015 professional development trip to the Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD region. Second image: Gina Hnytka.

We recently sat down with AEDE master’s program student Jack Willoughby, a Princeton, New Jersey native and First Team Academic All-American, to talk all things football, applied economics, and life after graduation. Check out our Q & A with him.

You are a member of our school’s famous football team. Tell us about this experience and how you made it to Ohio State.

I originally played football at Duke University as an undergrad where I was a double major in economics and statistics. I went to Duke having never previously played football. I had always played sports and I was on the soccer team in high school. I was planning on playing soccer in college but I was also a huge college football fan. My grandfather played at the University of Oregon and I grew up loving college football. I thought I could either be a bench player on the Duke soccer team or take a shot at kicking a football as I could always kick a soccer ball pretty straight and far. I thought it would be pretty awesome to live out a dream of mine and try to play collegiate football. So, I bought an instructional DVD and taught myself how to kick and then managed to walk on to the Duke team as a freshman.

At first I was the fourth string kicker at Duke, however the three kickers ahead of me were seniors when I was a freshman and they graduated. Before my second season, Duke recruited the number one kicker in the country, so for most of my sophomore and junior years I backed him up. However, at the end of my junior year I started to do kickoffs for the team while he kicked field goals. We continued this way through my senior year.

By the end of my football career at Duke I had never kicked a field goal in my life in a competitive game and I really wanted to. So, I decided that I would try to look around and see if I could find a good team with a need for someone like me who can do kickoffs and who could also have a shot at kicking field goals. I made a list of all of the schools that I would want to play for, then I started doing research to see if they had quality kickers and if they might have a need for someone with my skills. I put together a highlight tape and sent it out to a bunch of coaches. I heard back from schools and underwent the first recruiting process of my life. I decided on Ohio State based on both the football and academic opportunities that I felt that I could take advantage of here.

When I arrived I was in a kicking competition with the incumbent kicker, Sean Nuernberger. Sean, by the way, has become one of my best friends at Ohio State. I ended up starting on both kickoffs and field goals for the first nine games of the season while Sean started on field goals in the last three games and I continued to do kickoffs.

Wow, that’s a pretty incredible story. So, tell us why you chose AEDE for your graduate studies at Ohio State.

I chose the AEDE program in applied economics because I think that to really make change in the world one needs the practical knowledge of how to apply economics to the issues facing our global community today. I thought that this program would teach me how to apply economics to correct inefficiencies in things like trade, environmental resource allocation, and agriculture. I knew that these skills would also translate well to other fields.

Before starting the program I also didn’t know much about agriculture, the environment, and resource allocation, and I knew that through this program I would get to learn about these areas and how to apply economics to challenges in these fields.

Finally, I thought studying applied economics at the graduate level would be fun and intellectually stimulating. I was also attracted to the fact that I could complete the degree in one year.

What have been some of your favorite things about studying in our applied economics program?

I like the fact that the MS program enrolls students from a variety of backgrounds. Personally, I have a lot of experience in economics and statistics from my undergraduate studies. However, during that program I had very little interaction with topics such as agriculture, the environment, resource allocation, as well as international trade and development. However, compared to me others that I have met in the program have less background in economics but considerably more background in fields such as agriculture, sustainability, or trade. It’s an interesting mix of backgrounds and perspectives that students bring to the table and I have learned a lot from my interactions with other students in the program.

I also appreciate the fact that I have learned a lot about applied economics beyond theoretical economics.

One of my favorite classes has been my cost-benefit analysis class with Dr. Allen Klaiber. He’s really a great teacher. I learned as a statistics major at Duke how to combine elicitation and bayesian statistics to incorporate uncertainty and most accurately calculate a range of results for a cost-benefit analysis. While this may have yielded the most statistically accurate forecast, simplicity of methodology is important when trying to convince people, like a budget committee, to agree with a proposal. Dr. Klaiber's course has taught me that the interpretability of methods is as important as accuracy of results in the real world.

I’ve also really liked Professor Ian Sheldon’s international trade economics class as I think that the content is really current. There is a lot going on right now in the world that has to do with international trade, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and presidential political discussions on things like labor migration and currency manipulation. In the course, we are provided with an international trade toolkit to understand what’s going on in the world, which makes reading the news more engaging.

So, what’s next after you graduate in the spring?

Well, the summer after my junior year at Duke I interned at McKinsey & Company in New York City. As an intern I spent half of my summer working for a financial services company and the other half for a state government energy authority. I was offered a job after graduation at McKinsey, which I deferred for a year to come to Ohio State to study and play football. This summer I will move to New York and begin my job.

At McKinsey I will be consulting with a wide variety of companies. I am looking forward to traveling and working with diverse clients in different locations. This will give me the opportunity to figure out what field I really want to dive into and spend my life doing, which is what really attracted me to consulting.

Any other thoughts before we sign off?

I’ve had an awesome experience both on the football field and in the classroom at Ohio State. While the conclusion of my football career is not something that I am looking forward to, and which I am pretty sad about, I am excited for the extra 20 or 30 hours a week in my schedule that will be freed up during the spring semester, which I hope to use to take advantage of the research resources offered in the MS program.

Photo credit, top image: BCSN.tv.

After seven years of negotiations, 12 nations agreed to terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement in early October.

While each country now needs to ratify the agreement for it to be put into effect, an international trade expert at The Ohio State University said TPP could significantly boost the market potential for American farmers, entrepreneurs and other small-business owners.

“TPP is the largest regional free trade agreement that has been struck in the past two decades,” said Ian Sheldon, Ohio State’s Andersons Professor of International Trade and an economist in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.

Sheldon presented on the agreement at the Agricultural Policy and Outlook Conference Series organized by the department. The series kicked off on Dec. 7 on the Ohio State campus.

The partnership includes 12 countries that account for approximately 40 percent of the world’s economy: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States. The agreement is anticipated to reduce more than 18,000 tariffs, including some agricultural trade barriers.

Several institutions are forecasting impressive economic growth under TPP.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimates that TPP will result in a 6.6 percent increase in agricultural trade by 2025. This increase will account for an additional $8.5 billion in the agricultural marketplace, assuming the complete elimination of existing agricultural tariffs by 2025, Sheldon said.

Additionally, the ERS anticipates that the agreement will result in a 33 percent overall increase in U.S. exports and a 10 percent increase in imports by 2025.

“American dairy farmers may benefit from a loosened dairy sector in Canada,” Sheldon said. “Japan’s beef market will get freed up a bit.”

In addition, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a private, nonprofit and nonpartisan research institute, estimates that under TPP, $225 billion will be added to global gross domestic product by 2025, including $77 billion to U.S. GDP. The institute forecasts that U.S. manufacturing industry exports will grow by about 4.5 percent by 2025 due to TPP.

However, Sheldon said, some of the biggest winners look to be smaller countries involved in the partnership, such as Vietnam. 

“We will see a much bigger impact on some of the emerging economies included in the negotiations,” Sheldon said. “For example, Vietnam is anticipated to receive a 10.5 percent increase in GDP thanks to TPP.

“My sense is that Vietnam is a winner because China is not in the agreement.”

Vietnam, which is a low labor cost economy, will expand as a manufacturing hub in industries such as textiles, and will have preferential access to these other 11 economies included in the agreement, he said.

“However, at the same time, it looks like the agreement partners are trying to tighten up things like state-owned enterprises, which would impact Vietnam since it is a communist country," Sheldon said. “These stipulations could also impact China, should it choose to participate in the future.”

Sheldon said the long-term objective of TPP is to align Asian economies and serve as a template for future free trade agreements that might include China.

Additionally, Sheldon notes that the agreement is anticipated to have an important impact on trade in services, rules on intellectual property rights, as well as environmental and labor regulations.

For example, through TPP there will be stricter enforcement of the Convention on Trade and Endangered Species, he said. Additionally, recognition of unions will be pushed, especially in developing countries that participate. Rules of origin will be important, which is always a complex and contentious issue in international trade discussions, Sheldon said.

However, in regards to the impact on agriculture, trade barriers such as the labeling and approval of genetically modified foods as well as food safety issues are not included under TPP, Sheldon said, noting that these issues are seen as the stalemates of international agricultural trade debates.

These issues are currently included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) discussions, which are under negotiation between the European Union and the U.S. If the final TTIP agreement includes these elements, agricultural trade growth under TTIP would far outweigh trade growth under TPP, Sheldon said.

However, TTIP is still far from being agreed upon and signed.

AEDE bids adieu to three outstanding long-serving faculty members who have recently retired from the department: Cameron Thraen, Douglas Southgate and Carl Zulauf.

Thraen spent over 40 years studying the U.S. and world dairy food industry during his career as a dairy economist. Of note, he recently served as the co-director of the National Program for Integrated Dairy Risk Management Education and Research, a program that developed educational materials and computer software for the dairy industry.

In his retirement, Thraen plans to spend more time with his family, especially his three granddaughters, fish, boat, and play golf. He notes, that "Shelle and I have no plans to leave Westerville, as we enjoy the seasons and this includes the central Ohio winter."

During his time at Ohio State, Southgate specialized in the study of natural resource issues in the United States and around the world. Most recently he served as the associate director of the university’s Subsurface Energy Resource Center, which the university created in September 2011 in response to accelerated oil and gas development in eastern Ohio. His next book – Globalized Fruit, Local Entrepreneurs – How One Banana-Exporting Country Achieved Worldwide Reach, coauthored with historian Lois Roberts, will be published in early 2016 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

In his retirement, Southgate hopes to travel, visit his children often, and visit more of this country's magnificent national parks.

Zulauf, an agricultural economist, focused on commercial agricultural policy and commodity futures and options markets during his time at Ohio State. One of the nation's foremost farm policy experts, he has testified before Congress on farm policy and wrote a paper that laid out many of the principles that helped guide development of the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) farm program enacted in the 2008 U.S. farm bill and the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) program in the 2014 U.S. farm bill.

In his retirement, Zulauf plans to focus on his family's farm. He will also continue to contribute to the daily agricultural blog farmdoc daily, which is published by the University of Illinois.

All three emeritus professors will maintain close ties to the department.

Thank you to Cameron Thraen, Douglas Southgate, and Carl Zulauf for your many years of service to AEDE!

The department recently announced changes to the team that supports AEDE student services with a new leadership role for Gina Hnytka and a new undergraduate coordinator role for Holly Hall.

Hnytka has been appointed to a joint role as the Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability (EEDS) Program Manager and the Student Service Center Manager.

Hall has been named the Undergraduate Program Coordinator for AEDE.

Launched in 2012, the EEDS undergraduate program has seen overwhelming success over the last three years with over 200 students enrolled in the major to date. EEDS is a joint program of AEDE with Ohio State's School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR). Due to this program growth, the department has restructured management of the EEDS leadership team to provide longevity and a common vision to the program.

In her new role as EEDS program manager, Hnytka will serve as program director of operations and program development for EEDS. As the Student Service Manager for AEDE, Hnytka will be responsible for overseeing the AEDE Student Service Center and managing AEDE student services programs and staff. She will also continue to work with the SUSTAINS learning community on campus.

In her role as Undergraduate Program Coordinator for AEDE's undergraduate program in Agribusiness and Applied Economics, Hall will become the primary contact for all Agribusiness and Applied Economics advising and programmatic needs. Hall will also provide advising services for EEDS Sustainability and Business, and Environmental Economics students.

Additionally, Neil Drobny will serve as the Development and Outreach Manager for the EEDS program.

The AEDE Student Service Center, which launched in early 2014, provides academic support services to all undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in AEDE’s programs. The Center serves as a one-stop shop for all AEDE students and should be the first point of contact for students for all academic questions and needs.

The Center is located in Suite 249 of the Agricultural Administration Building and is usually staffed during normal working hours Monday through Friday, though appointments are recommended (see the Appointment Request Form).