President's Message

AAEA Symposia: A New Opportunity to Advance Our Profession

AAEA has recently begun to accept proposals for stand-alone symposia designed to bring together groups of 50 to 150 participants for two to three day meetings focused around a specific theme.  Our first U.S. symposium, “Food Environment: The Effects of Context on Food Choice,”  will be held May 30-31, 2012 at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. This conference is jointly sponsored by AAEA and the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE). It is being organized by a distinguished committee co-chaired by Helen Jensen and Jayson Lusk and promises to be an outstanding event. More than 150 abstracts were submitted, and authors will be notified in January on the status of their papers and posters. Some of the accepted papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of Applied Economics Perspective and Policy scheduled for early 2013.

Past President Tom Hertel played a key role in developing the concept and operational details for the AAEA Symposia. They are modeled after the very successful EAAE Seminars that were initiated in 1980. In September 2010, we took our first step in this direction by co-sponsoring an EAAE Seminar on "The Economics of Food, Food Choice and Health" in München, Germany. It is appropriate that our first U.S. symposium is co-sponsored by EAAE.

The EAAE Seminar series has been a truly extraordinary vehicle for promoting the exchange of ideas around a highly diverse set of themes.  EAAE recently announced a slate of six seminars planned for 2012. Topics range from chain and network management, to valuation methods, and to innovation for agricultural competitiveness and sustainability. With these recently approved seminars, the total number organized over a 32 year period will reach 131. The common feature of all these seminars is that they have fostered a lively, intense, and focused exchange of ideas around a single theme. As such, they are an ideal complement to larger association-wide meetings.

A Protocol for New AAEA Symposia is now posted on the AAEA web site. It identifies the goals for AAEA Symposia:

• Provide an outlet for research
• Promote interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work
• Facilitate networking opportunities
• Enhance the value of AAEA membership
• Advance the profession

This protocol also describes the process for preparing symposium proposals, expectations for symposium organizers, and the roles that AAEA and the AAEA Business Office can play in supporting symposia.

AAEA Symposia offer a flexible, well-supported option for meetings of all kinds. We strongly encourage collaboration with other professional societies and other disciplines. These collaborations can be international in scope, but need not be. For example, in addition to EAAE, symposium organizers could collaborate with international societies such as the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, the International Association of Agricultural Economists, and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. One also can easily envisage themes around which there could be mutually beneficial collaboration with closely related societies here in the U.S. such as the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Food Distribution Research Society, and the four regional agricultural economics associations. Alternatively, there are many more opportunities for jointly sponsored symposia with other disciplines. These could be especially fruitful as the importance of multidisciplinary work is emphasized in competitive grant programs. Finally, while outside collaboration is encouraged, it is not required.

Sections are ideal organizational units within AAEA to take the initiative in organizing symposia. Their memberships already coalesce around well defined sets of common interests, and they have leadership structures in place that can take the initial steps in developing an idea. Some Sections, such as the Food & Agricultural Marketing Policy Section, already have a tradition of organizing stand-alone conferences that could be adapted for the symposium format. Regional research projects with strong representation from our profession could also initiate symposia.

Planning, organizing, and offering a symposium takes time, effort, and resources. The process begins with dedicated organizers who have a compelling idea for a stimulating meeting. Once this foundation is in place, the AAEA Business Office will work with organizers to develop a proposal that can be presented to the AAEA Board for endorsement. We look forward to seeing where you, the members of AAEA, will take this exciting opportunity.

Robert P. King
AAEA President