Newsletter March 2001

SAEA web site http://www.saea.org
JAAE web site http://www.agecon.uga.edu/~jaae/

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

SAEA is now in its 33rd year. I am honored to serve as your President for 2001-2002. Hal Harris of Clemson University will continue to serve on the Board as Past-President. Our new President-Elect is Steve Turner of the University of Georgia. Lois Willett of the University of Florida begins a 3-year term on the Board as a Director. Our other two Directors are Michael Dicks of Oklahoma State (1 year remaining) and Steve Halbrook of the Farm Foundation (2 years remaining). Chuck Moss and Jim Seale of the University of Florida continue as editors of the JAAE through publication of the December 2001 issue. We hope to announce our new JAAE Editor(s) soon. Bob Nelson and Walt Prevatt of Auburn University serve as our Secretary/Treasurers. However, their 3-year term will end at the February 2002 Annual Meeting. The Board would welcome nominations or volunteers for this very important role in the Association.

While I am on the subject of the need for volunteers, the Board is also seeking coordinators for the Selected papers process for the 2002 meetings. Thanks to David Anderson and Joe Outlaw of Texas A&M University who served as coordinators last year.

Many thanks to Hal Harris for his leadership this past year and to Kim Jensen, who leaves the Board after two years of service as 2nd Vice-President and Director. And we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mary Marchant, our outgoing Past-President, for her service on the board for five long years. Hal and I have been fortunate to be able to follow her model.

Ft. Worth Meeting Highlights. Our attendance rebounded from the Lexington low as we had 187 regular members, 57 graduate students, and 53 undergraduates for a total of 293. With next year's meeting in Orlando (February 2-6), hopefully we will have 350 or more.

First off, thanks to Director Steve Halbrook for his initiative and persistence in organizing the multidisciplinary SAAS symposium titled, "Serving a Changing Food System," that was held on Sunday afternoon from 4:00-6:00 p.m. This symposium was jointly sponsored by the SAEA and the Farm Foundation. From the comments I heard at the SAAS Board meeting Tuesday morning, I believe our efforts to foster more interaction with other disciplines was very well received. I might note that there were four other multi-disciplinary sessions within the organized symposia segment of our program. Two were co-sponsored by the Southern Rural Sociological Association (one with involvement of the Southern Rural Development Center). The other two addressed livestock topics and involved animal scientists as speakers and in the audience.

I believe we had three excellent Invited Paper sessions. The titles and organizers were as follows: 2002 Farm Bill Policy Options: Their Impacts on the South (Ron Knutson, Texas A&M University), Land Use Change, Resource Competition, and Conflict in Southern U.S. (John Reynolds, University of Florida, and Patricia Norris, Michigan State University), and Globalization, Technological Advances and Other Threats to American Agriculture (Steve Blank, University of California-Davis). If you have any ideas or suggestions for Invited Paper sessions for next year, please communicate these to President-Elect Steve Turner right away (see formal call for Invited Paper proposals elsewhere in this Newsletter).

The Selected Paper, Organized Symposia and Selected Poster components of the program appeared to be of high quality and well attended, generally speaking. Of 138 papers submitted, 113 (82%) were accepted. All 10 proposed symposia were accepted. Twenty posters were displayed.

A highlight of the Ft. Worth experience was our Tuesday night SAEA reception, which took place at Joe T. Garcia's, THE place for all-you-can eat Tex-Mex. Most participants followed up dinner with a visit to Billy Bob's in the Stockyards District, where we were treated to a bull riding demonstration and a variety of country music. Many thanks to Blake Bennett for making arrangements for us to enjoy the true flavor of Ft. Worth.

Finally, special thanks to Carol and Vic Lee of Auburn University, as well as Gloria Cook of Oklahoma State University, for their help at the SAEA registration desk.

Awards. One of the Association's most important functions is peer recognition through our awards program. Thanks so much to Mary Marchant, who as Past-President served as Chair for all of the award committees.

SAEA is proud to salute five new Lifetime Achievement Award winners: Garnett Bradford of Clemson University, Gary Fairchild of the University of Florida, Ron Lacewell of Texas A&M University, Harry Mapp of Oklahoma State University, and Richard Shumway of Washington State University. A summary of their accomplishments and comments they made in a lively symposium will be included in the August JAAE

Thanks to Carl Anderson, Howard Clonts, and John Holt for serving on this committee, and to Richard Connor, Carl Anderson, and Ron Knutson for organizing the symposium.

The SAEA Award for Teaching of a Course went to Karl Kepner, Tim Taylor, and Gary Fairchild of the University of Florida for their capstone course for seniors titled "Contemporary Issues in Agribusiness Management." Dixie Watts Reaves, Molly Espey, and I served on this committee.

The recipient of the SAEA Extension Program Award was Danny Klinefelter of Texas A&M University. His award-winning program was titled "The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers." Thanks to Nathan Smith, Merritt Taylor, and Lee Meyer for serving on this committee.

We presented two Graduate Student Paper Awards this year. Congratulations and a $500 check go to both Brian Coffey of the University of Kentucky for his paper titled "An Analysis of the Effects of Feed Ingredient Price Risk on the Selection of Minimum Cost Backgrounding Feed Rations" and to Ecio Costa of the University of Georgia for his paper titled "Brazil's New Floating Exchange Rate Regime and Competitiveness in the World Poultry Market." Thanks to Wes Harrison, Tesfa Gebremedhin, and Lisa House for serving on this committee.

JAAE Editors, Jim Seale and Charles Moss, together with members of the editorial council, selected as the outstanding 1999 JAAE article, "Estimating Market Power and Pricing Conduct in a Product-Differentiated Oligopoly: The Case of the Domestic Spaghetti Sauce Industry," written by Steven Vickner (University of Kentucky) and Stephen Davies (Colorado State University).

Three Selected Posters Awards were given. Congratulations to Michael Popp, Terry Keisling, and Patrick Manning (University of Arkansas), who received the First Place Award for "An Economic Simulation Game with Fast Feedback." Honorable Mention Awards went to Sara Short (USDA/ERS) "Measuring the Success of U.S. Cow-Calf Ranches in 1999"; and to Charles Adams and Sherry Larkin (University of Florida) "Reported Trip Costs and Estimated Earnings for U.S. Atlantic Pelagic Longline Vessels." Thanks to Sukant Misra (Texas Tech University) for coordinating this part of our program, and to Donna Lee (University of Florida) and Dan Rainey (University of Arkansas) for their help as well.

Participation in the undergraduate Academic Quiz Bowl rebounded from Lexington, numbering 53 from 13 universities. Congratulations on winning the 2001 Quiz Bowl go to Tyler Broughton (Sam Houston State), Crystal Gormus (Virginia Tech), and Devin Childers (University of Florida). The runner-up team was comprised of Matt Burroughs (Clemson University), Chrissy Wemmer (University of Florida), and Cody Goodman (LSU). Thanks to Octavio Ramirez and graduate student David Blackshear of Texas Tech, as well as David Barber of the University of Florida, for their hard work on the Quiz Bowl. Thanks as well to all of you who served as judges and advisors. A tradition of sorts was established, with Hal Harris and I serving as judges for the final round.

2002 Meetings. The 2002 meetings will be held in Orlando. Under our new organizational structure, President-Elect Steve Turner will be coordinating the Invited Paper and Organized Symposia sessions. Hal Harris, as Past-President, will be coordinating all awards this year. As stated earlier, we are seeking one or more volunteers to coordinate the selected papers for next year. The calls for selected papers and organized symposia will appear in the June Newsletter.

Highlights from Board Meeting. In our Board Meeting on Sunday, January 28, we addressed the normal recurring agenda items, including officer and committee reports, as well as a number of other items that have come to our attention.

Based on review of the financial and membership reports, I can tell you that your Association is in good health. Our net worth did decline due to a combination of three factors: (1) a drop in the value of our investment fund, (2) lower than expected revenue from the Lexington meeting, and (3) higher than expected expenses for the newsletter. Hopefully, we won't face as much in the way of negative financial impacts beyond our control this year. However, we have taken three significant steps to insure that we are prudent with regard to what we can control within our fiscal affairs.

One was to approve a tentative budget for 2001 at our January meeting, something that, regrettably, we had not done in previous years. We will review our situation at the July Board meeting and finalize the budget. The second was to appoint a committee made up of the three Directors to present a revised investment plan for final approval at the July meeting. The third was to appoint a committee to investigate the logistics of shifting to primarily, if not exclusively, electronic distribution of the newsletter, with the hope that we could do so starting in 2002.

Another aspect of our health as an Association is reflected by our continuing rebound in membership from a low of 756 in 1997. We increased overall membership between 1999 and 2000 by 112, to 1,014. We are attracting more and more members from outside the Southern region as the JAAE, and even our Annual Meetings to some extent, shed their "Southern-only" image.

Speaking of the JAAE, the Board heard a report from Charlie Huang (University of Georgia) on his efforts to increase its visibility through listing in Research Papers in Economics (RePEc). Currently, the 189 articles from 1996-2000 are listed. A committee was established to bring the Board a recommendation as to how much further back in time we want to have the JAAE indexed and how much information we want to provide (abstract only or full text).

The Board did take action on the recommendation Hal Harris made at the 2000 meetings regarding SAEA membership in C-FARE. The Board discussed the idea at its meeting last June and again in Ft. Worth. The Board then approved the financial requirement for SAEA participation as a C-FARE member. President-Elect, Steve Turner will represent us on the C-FARE Board through his three-year period as an SAEA officer.

In closing, I would like to offer special thanks to Bob Nelson and Walt Prevatt for their hard work in making things go smoothly, both at the meetings and in handling many of the operational affairs of your Association, such as this quarterly newsletter. Besides replacing these two important cogs in our wheel, we will of course be electing a new President-Elect and a new Director next fall. Please feel free to submit nominations to me at any time. Questions or ideas for improving the Association are welcome as well. Have a great Spring Season!

Bill Park, President

The Southern Agricultural Economics Association is soliciting proposals for Invited Papers Sessions for the 2002 SAEA meeting in Orlando, FL. The Board seeks proposals that will be of broad interest to members and that will have a long-lasting impact in the new Century. Proposals should include a session title, topics to be covered with preliminary paper titles, paper presenters and discussants, a brief rationale for the session and its importance to the southern region. List names and affiliations of moderator, presenters and discussants. No more than four people should be proposed to present and/or discuss papers and all proposed participants must agree to be at the meetings prior to submitting an Invited Paper proposal. All accepted proposals must submit a PowerPoint presentation for Board review of acceptability prior to the meetings (guidelines to be provided upon acceptance). It is the organizer's primary responsibility to correspond with and keep all participants on schedule. Invited Papers are normally published in the August issue of the Journal of Agricultural & Applied Economics.

Proposals must be received by May 31, 2001. FAX submissions will not be accepted. Please send submissions to:

Steve Turner
Dept. of Ag. & Applied Economics
University of Georgia
312 Conner Hall
Athens, GA 30602
Phone: 706-542-0852
Fax: 706-542-0739
Email: sturner@agecon.uga.edu

The Society welcomes submissions of Research Reports, Research Updates and Poster Session Presentations for the 42nd Annual Conference, which will be held October 14-17, 2001 at the Mesa Hilton Pavilion in Phoenix, AZ. The theme of this year's meeting is "Know Thy Customer." Research Reports and Research Updates will be evaluated and accepted on the basis of one page abstracts. Poster Session Topics will be evaluated and accepted on the basis of a 50 word abstract. The FDRS will provide a cloth covered table in an area set aside at the conference. The presenters will be responsible for supplying their own poster backing material and an easel for the display of their posters.

Send all materials to:

Dr. Delmy Calderón-Salin
P.O. Box 3906
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Phone: (662) 323-3539

All materials should be postmarked no later than July 1st, 2001. Authors will be notified about the status of their submissions by August 31, 2001. For more information visit our website "http://fdrs.ag.utk.edu".

In order to be accepted as part of the Annual Conference, and to be published as part of the proceedings in the Journal of Food Distribution Research, at least one author must be a member of the Food Distribution Research Society and at least one author of an accepted research report and research update must make the presentation and be registered at the Annual Conference. Papers can be submitted to the Journal of Food Distribution Research for consideration as refereed papers. Authors of Research Reports that are accepted for presentation at the annual meeting are required to send a hard copy and a computer disk (3.5") copy of the paper three weeks before the annual meeting to:

Dr. Rick Weldon,
University of Florida,
Department of Food & Resource Economics,
P.O. Box 110240,
Gainesville, FL 32611-0240.

Funds for SAEA Graduate Student Activities

The SAEA Board allocated $1,000 for graduate student activities from June, 2000 to June, 2001. The intent of this award is to reimburse graduate students for out-of-pocket expenses that were not reimbursed by their own institution. Some of this money was used to waive registration for applicants who pre-registered at the Lexington meetings, and for the student party after the Quiz Bowl. About $700 remains, which can be spent on graduate student travel reimbursement, according to the following Board rules for disbursement:

- "the funds remaining (after the Recruitment Fair refreshments and registration waiver) will be divided among the attending graduate students who are senior authors of invited or selected papers or posters; or organizers, moderators, or invited participants of invited papers, selected papers, or organized symposia. Funds will be used to reimburse travel expenses, up to a limit of $200 per person, with eligible receipts (e.g. hotel, airfare, etc.)." - "the funds remaining after the uses mentioned above will be divided among the attending graduate students who are junior authors of papers or posters. Funds will be used to reimburse travel expenses, up to a limit of $200 per person, with eligible receipts (e.g. hotel, airfare, etc.)."

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hotel	[___]	$ ____________
air fare	[___]	$ ____________
other (specify) [___] __________________________________________________

Name of advisor (please print):___________________________________________

Signature of advisor:___________________________________________________

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Bob Nelson/Walt Prevatt
SAEA Secretary/Treasurer
Dept. of Ag. Econ. & Rural Soc.
208 Comer Hall
Auburn University, AL 36849-5406

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Bob Nelson / Walt Prevatt
SAEA Secretary/Treasurer
Department of Ag. Economics & Rural Soc.
Auburn University
208 Comer Hall
Auburn, AL 36849-5406