CARD Director speaks at Oxfam and German Marshall Fund Events

Bruce Babcock, director of Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development and professor of economics, spoke at events hosted by Oxfam America and by the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, D.C., on March 7.

Babcock, along with colleague Bruce Gardner, an economist at the University of Maryland, participated in a Capitol Hill farm bill discussion sponsored by Oxfam, a development, advocacy, and relief agency. Specifically, the Oxfam briefing focused on empirical evidence that calls into question whether reforming the commodity title of the farm bill would hurt consumers through price hikes or threaten national food security through increased reliance on food imports. Oxfam is hosting a series of such briefings to generate discussion and debate around key issues of the 2007 farm bill.

Babcock then spoke at a luncheon of the German Marshall Fund, titled "Expanding Ethanol Production in the United States: Benefits and Challenges." The discussion was the first in a series on "Transatlantic Approaches to Biofuels" sponsored by the GMF, a public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe. Babcock spoke on the socio-economic impacts of an expanding corn-based ethanol production. Other speakers focused on challenges for a new U.S. transportation fuel, environmental impacts, and the role of biofuels in the European Union.

(Released March 2007)