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The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) is anticipating research activity needs in agricultural trade and policy and is recruiting two post-doc researchers.
Specific duties of the International Grains Analyst position:
1. Research and analyze policies impacting world agricultural markets with an emphasis in food and feed grains, and publish research results in scholarly journals. ...read more
Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) has received three grants of $200,000 each from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the feasibility of water quality trading programs in three watersheds located within the Upper Mississippi River Basin. ...read more
WASHINGTON--After dramatic increases in the prices of most commodities in the last three years, prices retreat in 2009/10, but growing demand for food, feed, and fuel is expected to return them to historically high levels over the rest of the decade, according to analysts with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), who briefed Congress this week on their 2009 agricultural economic baseline projections. ...read more
Dermot J. Hayes has been invited to join the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee, jointly administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Energy. The appointment is for three years.
The committee was established by the Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000 and assists the two departments in meeting the act's "important national goals of a healthier rural economy and improved national security."
As a member of the committee, Hayes will advise the Biomass Research and Development Board, which coordinates research and development activities relating to biofuels. ...read more
The Midwest Agribusiness Trade Research and Information Center (MATRIC) at Iowa State University has published a book on using distillers grains, a co-product of biofuels production, as a feedstuff for livestock and poultry. The book is only available online at http://www.matric.iastate.edu/DGbook and is free for downloading. ...read more
In recent years, several health and food groups have made claims that farm subsidies that support agricultural commodity production are directly implicated in the growing obesity problem in the United States and the increased consumption of sweetened foods and drinks. A new analysis finds otherwise. ...read more
Expectations for greater biofuel plant capacity and the federal Renewable Fuels Standard have created a "can't lose" demand proposition for U.S. corn and soybean farmers. This is according to the testimony of Bruce A. Babcock at a field hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee on food, feed and fuel production at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, on August 18. ...read more
ACRE, short for Average Crop Revenue Election, is a new commodity program included in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008—the 2008 farm bill. This new commodity program presents farmers with a choice for covering their eligible crops over the period of the new legislation, 2009–2012. ...read more