Newswise — On Friday, March 9, U.S. Rep. Bill Owens will host members of the House Agriculture Committee for a public hearing on the 2012 Farm Bill, one of only a handful of such hearings scheduled this year and the only one in the Northeast. The multi-year legislation will affect federal policy on everything from crop production to school lunches for years to come.
Cornell University, New York’s Land Grant university and home to one of the nation’s top-ranked agriculture colleges, has several experts available to talk about the implications of the Farm Bill for producers, consumers and the American economy.
They include:
David Just, a professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, is the co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs. He says:
“Congress should fund the promotion of fruits and vegetables in schools.
“We currently spend tens of millions of dollars on making fruits and vegetables more available in schools. One of the key problems is that almost two-thirds of children don’t like fruits or vegetables. In addition to availability, we need to fund the programs that have been proven to get kids to try the foods and promote better eating habits. “And, considering the press for encouraging healthier eating, I think two key changes are also warranted in food assistance programs.
“First and foremost, Congress should provide funding to extend the acceptance of electronic benefit cards for food stamp recipients – especially to locations that feature fruits and vegetables. Secondly, providing a small incentive to those who buy fruits and vegetables could have a big impact on health and wellbeing among low-income families.”
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Brad Rickard is a professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and director of Cornell’s Horticultural Business and Policy Program. Rickard’s work analyzes the economic implications of government policies and industry-led initiatives as they apply to markets for fruits, vegetables and wine.
“Many commentators have speculated that agricultural policies have contributed to increased obesity rates in the United States. Recent research results indicate that removing subsidies on grains and oilseeds would cause caloric consumption to decrease by less than 2,000 calories per person, per year, while removal of all agricultural policies (including barriers against imports of sugar and dairy products) would cause total caloric intake to increase by approximately 3,000 calories per person per year.”
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Andrew Novakovic is a professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Novakovic does applied research and has extension responsibilities that focus on the economics of dairy markets, with specific interest in federal and state market policies.
“Dairy Farmers may be facing a tough economy as Congress ponders an overhaul of federal dairy policy. “Milk prices and costs of production are always hard to predict with any kind of confidence, but recent market indications are that both milk prices and the prices of feed that make up about half the cost of producing milk will combine to make 2012 a difficult year for the nation's 60,000 dairy farmers. Current policies will help to blunt those effects to some degree, but Congressional agricultural leaders are struggling to find sufficient funding to revamp dairy and other agricultural programs to improve the safety net for farmers, even as critics are calling for deep cuts.”
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