Governments over two centuries have repeatedly confronted whether freer trade helps or hinders th... more Governments over two centuries have repeatedly confronted whether freer trade helps or hinders the problem of widespread food shortages. This issue is of utmost concern in the current pandemic and the accompanying reaction of food markets to COVID-19, in which food insecurity is now a central challenge. This article will consider the historical record of the Great Famine in Ireland and its economic, agronomic, and political lessons for food and trade policy. These lessons include the likelihood of supply chain disruptions and panic buying as well as export restrictions, food purchases from abroad and the complexities of political and military strife. It finds that allowing market forces to cause freer flows of commodities is important if not sufficient to deal with the crises that pandemics cause. Resolute political intervention is also critical: the historical record reinforces the role of political leadership in this process. Corn Laws, Tariffs, COVID-19, Potato Blight, Great Iris...
This article proposes a set of sustainability indicators based on a combination of economic, soci... more This article proposes a set of sustainability indicators based on a combination of economic, social and health data that meet three tests: the indicators are simple, measurable and capable of being extended to workers in the field. They result from a scoring model which ranks the progress of agricultural projects in three key areas: (1) sustaining improvements in agricultural productivity
I would like to explore in some detail the often clouded interaction between agriculture and fore... more I would like to explore in some detail the often clouded interaction between agriculture and foreign policy, focusing specifically on certain provisions of the 1981 farm bill and the recent Soviet/American grain agreement. I believe that these issues can tell us something about what the 1985 Farm Bill should strive for, and what it should avoid. I will make three general points: (1) The international setting of American agriculture has created increased instability for producers, (2)The legislative response to this instability has been inadequate, (3) New farm legislation must confront instability by recognizing the linkages between farm and foreign policy, and must build in the flexibility necessary to respond to this new policy environment.
... The recent bill continues a 57 year old tradition represented by loan rates, target prices, d... more ... The recent bill continues a 57 year old tradition represented by loan rates, target prices, deficiency payments, base acres and yields, quotas, production controls, marketing loans, and other devices which support prices and income in ... Vande Kamp, Philip & Runge, C. Ford, 1994 ...
This paper outlines emerging issues in agricultural trade and the environment. Its intent is to p... more This paper outlines emerging issues in agricultural trade and the environment. Its intent is to provoke discussion, rather than to capture all of the issues and details that merit analysis. It focuses primarily on "micro" issues rather than global issues such as green house gas emissions or biodiversity, although these are in many respects simply the aggregation of questions that must be resolved by changes in practices and incentives at the farm level. It begins with a description of the stylized facts of trade-environment interactions, arguing that the widely cited "Kuznets function" underscores our ignorance concerning the mechanisms linking growth, trade, and pollution. Especially in agriculture, there is evidence that market and government failures have not yet led to substantial interventions to reduce environmental externalities. The second part of the paper discusses these mechanisms, and raises a set of research questions designed to guide OECD and other...
... extent that the disappointment of reasonable investment-backed expectations is used to justif... more ... extent that the disappointment of reasonable investment-backed expectations is used to justify compensation, such a takings test will be frustrated continually because expectations (even if investment-backed) are unobservable and subject to strategic misrepresentation by self ...
Governments over two centuries have repeatedly confronted whether freer trade helps or hinders th... more Governments over two centuries have repeatedly confronted whether freer trade helps or hinders the problem of widespread food shortages. This issue is of utmost concern in the current pandemic and the accompanying reaction of food markets to COVID-19, in which food insecurity is now a central challenge. This article will consider the historical record of the Great Famine in Ireland and its economic, agronomic, and political lessons for food and trade policy. These lessons include the likelihood of supply chain disruptions and panic buying as well as export restrictions, food purchases from abroad and the complexities of political and military strife. It finds that allowing market forces to cause freer flows of commodities is important if not sufficient to deal with the crises that pandemics cause. Resolute political intervention is also critical: the historical record reinforces the role of political leadership in this process. Corn Laws, Tariffs, COVID-19, Potato Blight, Great Iris...
This article proposes a set of sustainability indicators based on a combination of economic, soci... more This article proposes a set of sustainability indicators based on a combination of economic, social and health data that meet three tests: the indicators are simple, measurable and capable of being extended to workers in the field. They result from a scoring model which ranks the progress of agricultural projects in three key areas: (1) sustaining improvements in agricultural productivity
I would like to explore in some detail the often clouded interaction between agriculture and fore... more I would like to explore in some detail the often clouded interaction between agriculture and foreign policy, focusing specifically on certain provisions of the 1981 farm bill and the recent Soviet/American grain agreement. I believe that these issues can tell us something about what the 1985 Farm Bill should strive for, and what it should avoid. I will make three general points: (1) The international setting of American agriculture has created increased instability for producers, (2)The legislative response to this instability has been inadequate, (3) New farm legislation must confront instability by recognizing the linkages between farm and foreign policy, and must build in the flexibility necessary to respond to this new policy environment.
... The recent bill continues a 57 year old tradition represented by loan rates, target prices, d... more ... The recent bill continues a 57 year old tradition represented by loan rates, target prices, deficiency payments, base acres and yields, quotas, production controls, marketing loans, and other devices which support prices and income in ... Vande Kamp, Philip & Runge, C. Ford, 1994 ...
This paper outlines emerging issues in agricultural trade and the environment. Its intent is to p... more This paper outlines emerging issues in agricultural trade and the environment. Its intent is to provoke discussion, rather than to capture all of the issues and details that merit analysis. It focuses primarily on "micro" issues rather than global issues such as green house gas emissions or biodiversity, although these are in many respects simply the aggregation of questions that must be resolved by changes in practices and incentives at the farm level. It begins with a description of the stylized facts of trade-environment interactions, arguing that the widely cited "Kuznets function" underscores our ignorance concerning the mechanisms linking growth, trade, and pollution. Especially in agriculture, there is evidence that market and government failures have not yet led to substantial interventions to reduce environmental externalities. The second part of the paper discusses these mechanisms, and raises a set of research questions designed to guide OECD and other...
... extent that the disappointment of reasonable investment-backed expectations is used to justif... more ... extent that the disappointment of reasonable investment-backed expectations is used to justify compensation, such a takings test will be frustrated continually because expectations (even if investment-backed) are unobservable and subject to strategic misrepresentation by self ...
Uploads
Papers by carlisle runge