Experimental Auction Summer School

For the 3rd year in a row, I've had the privileged to co-teach a summer school for the University of Bologna in Italy with Rudy Nayga, Andreas Drichoutis, and Maurizio Canavari.  The topic of the school is experimental auctions, which is a method used to measure consumer preferences and study consumer behavior. 

We have a great group of students this year from Italy, Germany, Sweden, France, South Africa, China, Thailand, and the U.S, among other places.   Here are a few of us learning a bit about the history of Bologna on our day off.

We also caught a couple races at the Dino and Enzo Ferrari Autodrome race track in Imola.  After the Ferrari's and Lamborghini's cleared the track, they had an interesting race with Mini Coopers.

Today we are back at work thinking about economics, consumer behavior, food policy, and food marketing.   

My colleagues have had a good time harassing me about eating horse meat (yes, I willingly ate some two days ago and I'm pleased to say it was perfectly eatable as I've previously argued) and organics (for my latest take on that one see here), and why Americans eat differently than Europeans.  

Here's the whole group just outside the classroom:

Conservatives split over farm bill?

At Business Insider, Josh Barro discusses some interesting developments on the conservative side of the spectrum with respect to the farm bill. After discussing that some Republican members are upset with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative "think tank," for opposing farm subsidies, Barrow writes:

I'm no fan of Heritage. But here's what's maddening about this fight: Heritage is not only right about the farm subsidy issue, they're advocating a consensus view among policy experts all across the political spectrum.

and

The [Republican Study Committee]'s problem with Heritage isn't that it's trying to push the GOP too far to the right to be competitive in elections. Their problem with Heritage is that they're interfering with the GOP's effort to put special-interest politics ahead of conservative principles.

House Republicans do not actually care about free markets or cutting government. They care about pleasing their electoral constituencies and getting re-elected. Old people tend to vote Republican, which is why House Republicans have built their last two campaigns around attacking President Obama with claims he was cutting Medicare. Almost all rural areas are represented by Republicans, which is why Republicans don't want to cut farm subsidies.

Democrats are just as likely Republicans to pander to special interests.  But, I think this special issue is particularly perplexing for many conservatives.  Our research shows strong support for farm subsidies among most Americans, including rural, Republican voters.  Interestingly, those rural, Republican voters are also relatively free market and small-government oriented.  Somethings gotta give.

Does Big Farming Mean Bad Farming?

That was the subtitle of an interesting article in the Washington Post.   While I do not agree with all the premises of the article, it does a good job debunking the notion that small size is the same as sustainable. 

Size, as they say, isn’t everything. As shorthand, the big-equals-bad equation is convenient. But it obscures an inconvenient truth: Plenty of small farmers do not embrace sustainable practices — the Amish farmers I know, for example, love their pesticides — and some big farmers are creative, responsible stewards of the land. “Tony’s is a fantastic operation,” says Helene Murray, executive director of the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. “And he just happens to grow a lot of corn and soybeans.”

and  

Thompson’s farm is not organic as he once dreamed it would be. Indeed, after studying the scientific literature, he finds himself mostly comfortable using genetically modified seeds. The rewards inherent in herbicide-tolerant soybeans outweigh the risks, he says. While he does have some concerns about GM corn, he says, “the prevailing technology is a good path, maybe the best available at the moment. This will change. We will learn.”

Still, Thompson has many tools to improve his farm’s environmental sustainability.

In my experience, Thompson is not all that unusual as a farmer - most are continuously trying to find ways to make food more abundant while making sure they leave healthy vibrant farmland for their kids.  

Quote of the day

My university has a sustainability coordinator whose main message, as far as I can tell, is to go out and tell people to buy food grown locally…Why? What’s bad about tomatoes from Pennsylvania as opposed to Ohio?

—Richard Vedder. “The Real Reason College Costs So Much.” The Wall Street Journal. A9., August 24-25, 2013.

Am I Pro- or Anti-Garden?

Partially in response to the opening lines of my piece in Townhall magazine related to the Obama's White House garden, one of my colleagues (Francis Epplin) said he didn't understand my objection to gardens, and he pointed out that they are bi-partisan (apparently our Republican-led Dept of Ag in Oklahoma has a garden too).    

My response was that I didn't mean to come across as "anti garden." Up until a couple years ago, my 91 year old grandmother grew tomatoes, okra, and other goodies in her backyard.  That said, I do find it strange when public officials (whether Obama or Governor Fallin) grow "symbolic" gardens.  In these cases, I think it is fair to ask what is being symbolized and ask whether the arguments used to promote gardens hold up to the scientific evidence.  Of course not all gardens are symbols of something bigger, and it seems perfectly reasonable for someone to say they grow a garden because "they like to."  There are certainly worse things one can do with their time.   

In any event, Epplin advanced an interesting hypothesis, which he consented to me sharing here:  

My hypothesis would be that families that grow, or try to grow gardens, would have a better understanding of the weed and pest challenges encountered by farmers.  I would also hypothesize that they would be more sympathetic toward herbicides and pesticides.

This is a testable hypothesis and would make a great research project.  A part of me thinks Francis is right.  However, tending a garden is also different than managing a 1000 acre farm, and I'm not sure it translates.  Indeed, I think it is possible that just the opposite opinion will be formed.

This reminds me a bit of the conversation that came up in the Food Dialogues Event I participated in a couple months ago.  The former deputy secretary of agriculture, Kathleen Merrigan, talked about farmers selling at farmer's markets as being agricultural ambassadors and representing farmers more generally.  The implication was that such farmers would help the average consumer better understand production agriculture.  However, someone in the audience made a good point when he argued that the farmer at the farmers market was not the same kind of farmer he was.  The implication is that the guy at the farmers market was just as apt to say something bad about his farm than be an ambassador.  

Will gardens or farmers markets make people more or less accepting of modern production agriculture?   

I don't know.