Minutes of NE-165 Meeting
Private Strategies, Public Policies, and Food System Performance

Minutes of NE-165 Meeting

Chairperson Julie Caswell opened the meeting at 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday, June 16 (see attached meeting agenda and list of those attending). The business meeting was held in conjunction with the NE-165 organized conference titled The Economics of HACCP: New Studies of Costs and Benefits, which had over 125 registered participants (for program and decision makers= summaries of papers see the NE-165 web site at http://www.umass.edu/ne165/). As the first order of business, the minutes of the previous meeting were accepted without changes. Our Administrative Advisor Dan Rossi and CSREES Advisor Susan Welsh were unable to attend the meeting but sent their greetings to the group.

Julie opened a round of reports and discussion by calling on Laurian Unnevehr, chair of the organizing committee, to give an overview of The Economics of HACCP: New Studies of Costs and Benefits conference. Laurian said that the conference attendance is high, with a large number of international participants. She noted that decision makers= summaries of the presented and poster papers had been posted on the NE-165 web site, generating instant access. Laurian will edit the proceedings, which will be published by Eagan Press in early 1999. Julie thanked Laurian on behalf of NE-165 for her excellent leadership in organizing the conference.

Julie reported that the 1997Annual Report for the project will be available shortly. Two new NE-165 Working Papers are now available on AgEcon Search (http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/). Julie and Eileen Keegan (UMass) are working on further development of the NE-165 web site, particularly on its coverage of completed work such as the HACCP conference.

Discussion turned to a Fall 1998 meeting. Julie said that our usual pattern has been to have a Fall meeting that is just NE-165 members. However, since we are planning a conference (see below) for February 1999, Julie wondered if the Fall meeting should be held. Stanley Fletcher said he thinks the Fall meeting is essential to keeping the momentum of the project going and others agreed that it should be held. Julie will poll the project members by email to determine a date and location.

Next the group discussed conference plans for 1999. Jim MacDonald, chair of the organizing committee, discussed plans for the NE-165 organized conference on Consolidation in the Meat Sector to be held February 24-25, 1999 in Washington, DC. Jim has circulated a call for papers (see NE-165 web site), with an October 15, 1998 deadline. Julie reported that planning is moving forward for the June 1999 conference on The Economics of Agricultural Biotechnology: Strategies, Polices, and the Future Performance of the Food System (title to be finalized). Bill Lesser is taking the lead in organizing the conference and will, in consultation with the organizing committee, circulate a call for papers later this summer.

The group then discussed several tentative ideas for conference and workshop activities in the year 2000. The ideas developed at the Fall 1997 meeting included Pricing Strategy Studies in the Food System and Food Safety, Liability, and International Trade (possible European location, tentative expression of interest from FAO to hold conference in Rome). Tanya Roberts presented a proposal for possible NE-165 sponsorship of a conference on Economic Methodologies for Valuing Health Risk Reductions, to be in conjunction with the federal government=s Food Safety Initiative. A fourth idea was introduced by Spencer Henson and Maury Bredahl, which would be a joint effort of NE-165 with the International Trade Consortium on Consumer Demand and Trade (tentative location at the University of Reading, UK). Julie noted that NE-165 has numerous opportunities to organize as well as to co-sponsor conferences and workshops in the next 2-3 years. She said the criteria she considers important in choosing activities is that they forward accomplishment of the NE-165 research agenda and that NE-165 members have a significant role in the organizing committees. Walt Armbruster said he agreed that these were the primary criteria. Time did not permit an in-depth discussion of the options for the year 2000. We will take up planning for 2000 at the Fall 1998 meeting.

The meeting ended with information on NE-165 related sessions at the AAEA meeting in Salt Lake City in August. These include: Free Session on HACCP Conference: Future Directions for Research (Laurian Unnevehr and Helen Jensen); Symposium on The Adequacy of Cost of Illness for Valuing Health Risk Reductions (Tanya Roberts and Elise Golan); Symposium on Private Incentives for Food Safety Assurance (Julie Caswell and Neal Hooker); Symposium on Foreign Direct Investment; Symposium on Retail Consolidation; and numerous other papers and posters. Several NE-165 members are also involved in the pre-conference on Economic and Policy Implications of Structural Realignments in Food and Ag Markets: A Case Study Approach. The business meeting adjourned at 8:15 a.m.

Respectfully Submitted,
Julie A. Caswell
Chairperson, NE-165  

 Meeting Participants

Business Meeting Agenda

Opening Comments

• Approval of Minutes of Last Meeting
• Brief Comments from Administrative Advisor and CSREES Representatives

 Reports and Discussion

• Conferences: Overview of June 1998 Conference: The Economics of HACCP
• Annual Report, Publication Series, and Web Site
• Overview of Future Plans
  • Committee Meeting in Fall 1998
  • Conference: Consolidation in the Meat Sector, Jim MacDonald, Chair, February 1999
  • Conference: Market Issues with the Commercialization of Transgenic Agricultural Products, Bill Lesser and Randy Westgren, Chairs, June 1999
    
• Plans for Further Down the Road
  • Tentative Plans for 2000:
    • Pricing Strategy Studies in the Food System Conference, Organizing Co-Chairs: Ron Cotterill, John Connor, James MacDonald, and Everett Peterson. Quantitative approaches to analyzing pricing strategies in the food industry using micro-level data and discussion of policy implications.
      
    • Food Safety, Liability, and International Trade, June at European Location (Tentative expression of interest from FAO to hold session in Rome), Organizing Co-Chairs: Spencer Henson, Jean Buzby, Tanya Roberts, Julie Caswell. Comparative conference with focus on food safety systems, economic incentives (such as product liability), and public and private mechanisms to facilitate food safety in international trade.
      Possible strategy: Combine two areas into single European-based conference.
      
    • Proposal for co-sponsorship by NE-165 of conference on Economic Methodologies for Valuing Health Risk Reductions, sponsored by the Food Safety Initiative among federal government agencies. Tentative date: March 2000. Tanya Roberts will distribute information.
      
• Other Business
  • NE-165 at AAEA Meetings in Salt Lake City: Free Session on HACCP Conference: Future Directions for Research (Laurian Unnevehr and Helen Jensen); Symposium on The Adequacy of Cost of Illness for Valuing Health Risk Reductions (Tanya Roberts and Elise Golan); Symposium on Private Incentives for Food Safety Assurance (Julie Caswell and Neal Hooker); Others??

 

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