Senior Section Track Sessions

This session examines the impacts of free trade agreements (FTA) on major topics included in U.S. FTAs: agriculture, the environment and labor. These are included in U.S. agreements with and, while they are contentious, labor and the environment are required under the 2002 Trade Promotion Act. They became very important issues during the NAFTA negotiations and have had significant impacts in Mexico, the ten FTAs approved following NAFTA and are important in the three (Colombia, Panama and South Korea) approved by Congress in 2011. Agricultural trade, both imports and exports, have increased in volume and value and are important to the U.S trade position, producing a surplus in contrast to the deficits in most other sectors. The paper on the agricultural impacts examines how FTAs impacted this balance, which had declined in the early years of this century, but have rebounded in recent years. Labor issues have been a contentious topic in several FTA negotiations and was an important roadblock to approval of the U.S.-Colombia FTA. Unions and others have sought assurances that unfair labor practices will not give an unfair advantage to trading partners. Environmental issues were critical in the NAFTA negotiations as there was concern that low environmental standards and weak enforcement would produce a race to the bottom, with firms locating in Mexico to avoid complying with stricter requirements in the U.S. and Canada. The environmental provisions in NAFTA and subsequent agreements address this issue and also include cooperative arrangements to enable trading partners to improve the environment.

This symposium will address the uniqueness’s of agricultural labor, policy options being considered, and problems in modeling.

This Track Session addresses the issues and challenges for grain-based ethanol, cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel to meet the mandates to the year 2022 under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Issues include the ethanol blend wall transition from 10 percent to 15 percent, the role of E-85 and prospects for ethanol trade. On cellulosic conversion, costs of enzymes, development of infrastructure and possibilities for reaching the 16 billion gallon RFS2 will be examined. The extent to which biodiesel will fill the advanced biofuel mandate other than cellulosic will be postulated along with the prospects for DDGS corn oil as a feedstock.

In 2011, USDA/FDA jointly issued a new set of dietary goals and nutrition guidelines. The goal of these Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 is to substantially reduce intake of calories and fats as part of the fight against obesity. Will these Dietary Guidelines be any more effective at changing food consumption patterns and reducing obesity than the previous guidelines? If so, what impacts would there be on the U.S. agriculture sector, and on food processing and retailing?

The 2012 Farm Bill will be negotiated under exceptional pressures related to budget deficits, environmental concerns, energy independence, food insecurity and food price inflation. This session will focus on the impact of these pressures on the Nutrition Title and on the changing food production, environment related to demands for sustainability, transparency and non-food uses of major crops, namely fuel. The role of agricultural and food policy in supporting human health increases; its advantages and limits will be explored. Speakers will address these issues followed by a moderated discussion.

Subsidized crop insurance has become the major farm program. Crop insurance subsidies already amount to about $6 Billion per year and current proposals for replacing direct payments with “shallow-loss protection” would raise the levels of subsidized protection and increase the cost of the program. The economic justification for subsidizing farming in this way deserves continued critical public examination.

As the effects of the obesity epidemic continue to be felt, it is clear that the way Americans eat needs to be improved. This session provides insights from current research into changing U.S. health dynamics and thoughts on potential solutions. The roles of economic and time constraints, consumer attitudes, public policy incentives to change behavior, and the link between food retailers’ corporate social responsibility strategies and the supply of healthier products to the market will be addressed.