Evolution of the Economics of Agricultural Policy

Sumner, Daniel A.; Alston, Julian M.; Glauber, Joseph W.

doi:10.1093/ajae/aaq015

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…In this way, he was directly inspired by the story of Joseph in the Old Testament quoted in a previous section of this paper (Sumner et al 2010). As Pollan notes, while this was not a perfect system, it delivered good results at several levels.…”

Section: Discussion: Policies To Promote and Manage Food Reservesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food stocks and grain reserves: evaluating whether storing food creates resilient food systems

Fraser

Legwegoh

2015

J Environ Stud Sci

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Many are worried that the global food system is entering a period of intense volatility driven by a combination of climate change and population growth. One way to address this problem is for governments and the international community to store more food as a buffer against crisis. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of food storage as a component of a robust food security strategy in the twenty-first century. We do this by first drawing on historical examples from ancient Rome and China, where preindustrial government designed extensive systems that ensured adequate food storage to keep food systems stable. Next, we review the links between food storage and price volatility in the last 20 years and demonstrate that the size of food stores (and in particular grain reserves) directly relates to price volatility. Third, we explore three different types of policies designed to promote grain reserves, the US's Bever-normal granary^policy, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, and the Strategic Grain Reserve in Africa. In this third section, we show how there has been a decline from state-owned strategic grain reserves in favor of a more market-oriented approach that is dominated by a handful of powerful corporations who maintain sophisticated supply chains. Because data on the amount of food supply these corporations hold in storage are proprietary secrets, it is impossible to assess how resilient or vulnerable this makes our food system. Finally, we conclude that over time, food storage has fallen in and out of favor, criticized for being expensive yet often shown to play an important role in protecting poor consumers in times of food crisis. Given the lack of data on current levels of supply chain and household storage, more research is needed to evaluate the scale at which food storage systems should be implemented to ensure food system resilience as well as the most effective mechanisms to govern and manage them.

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Section: Discussion: Policies To Promote and Manage Food Reservesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food stocks and grain reserves: evaluating whether storing food creates resilient food systems

Fraser

Legwegoh

2015

J Environ Stud Sci

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“…The evolution of farming in the United States is inevitably connected to the The evolution of farming in the United States is inevitably connected to the evolution of farm subsidies (Dimitri, Effl and, and Conklin 2005;Gardner 1992; evolution of farm subsidies (Dimitri, Effl and, and Conklin 2005;Gardner 1992;Gardner 2002;Sumner, Alston, and Glauber 2010). As commercial farms have Gardner 2002;Sumner, Alston, and Glauber 2010).…”

Section: Farm Subsidies and Farm Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As commercial farms have Gardner 2002;Sumner, Alston, and Glauber 2010). As commercial farms have become larger and more productive and farm operators have become wealthy relabecome larger and more productive and farm operators have become wealthy relative to other Americans, farm policy in the United States has also evolved.…”

Section: Farm Subsidies and Farm Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

American Farms Keep Growing: Size, Productivity, and Policy

Sumner

2014

Journal of Economic Perspectives

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107

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Commercial agriculture in the United States is comprised of several hundred thousand farms, and these farms continue to become larger and fewer. The size of commercial farms is sometimes best-measured by sales, in other cases by acreage, and in still other cases by quantity produced of specific commodities, but for many commodities, size has doubled and doubled again in a generation. This article summarizes the economics of commercial agriculture in the United States, focusing on growth in farm size and other changes in size distribution in recent decades. I also consider the relationships between farm size distributions and farm productivity growth and farm subsidy policy.

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“…They include such programs as direct payments based on historical yields and acreage, countercyclical payments, loan deficiency payments, disaster assistance programs, or payments tied to conservation practices. Changes in policies over time are surely connected to changes in farming structure (Sumner et al, 2010), although clear causation is difficult to establish. For example, empirical evidence suggests that a share of agricultural program payments are capitalized into the prices of land, but it is difficult to separately identify how that might affect farm structure, apart from the key drivers of structural change (see MacDonald et al (2013) for a review of recent literature).…”

Section: Agricultural Policymentioning

confidence: 99%