UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 8 7 7

MANITOBA

Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics Newsletter for Alumni July 2009

Department website: http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/agric_economics/

Dear Alumni and Friends, Earlier this year, on February 24, the Department was pleased to hold the inaugural Daryl F. Kraft Lecture. The invited speaker, Dr. Alex F. McCalla, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, and an eminent agricultural economist, presented a lecture which covered one of the most important topics of our day - Agricultural Commodity and Food Prices. In recent years, commodity and food prices have soared, causing great concern about food prices and global availability - especially in developing countries. Dr. McCalla first placed these breathtaking events into a historic context attempting to explain why commodity prices increased so high, only to precipitously collapse. He then discussed the current state of affairs and likely future developments as he saw them at February 2009. The presentation may be viewed on the Department website: http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/agric_economics/McCalla/AgriculturalCommodityandF oodPricesAWildRide.pdf Approximately 170 people attended the lecture, including Kraft family members and friends, academics, students, alumni, and former colleagues of the late Dr. Kraft, followed by a cocktail reception at the University Club for Kraft family members and invited guests. Dr. Kraft passed away in 2003 and, in his honour, an Endowment Fund was established by friends and family from which funds would be used to provide support for an undergraduate paper prize awarded annually, an invited guest lecture series (of which the above lecture was the first) and to set up an M.Sc. graduate fellowship.

Welcome A warm welcome is extended to Daniel Capitani, an MS student in applied economics from the University of So Paulo, Brazil, who arrived June 16 to spend two months in the Department working with Fabio Mattos on a research project studying the dynamics of the rice market in South America and the feasibility of creating a rice futures contract in Brazil.

Recent Seminars arranged from our Department: Dr. Peter Boxall, Professor and Acting Chair, Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta, presented An Examination of Issues and Policies to Increase Producer Adoption of Best Management Practices for Reduction of Phosphorus in Watersheds: A Manitoba Case Study, February 26, 2009. Dr. Alex McCalla, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis, presented the inaugural Daryl F. Kraft Lecture titled Agricultural Commodity and Food Prices: A Wild Ride! Whats Next?, February 24, 2009. The Daryl F. Kraft Lecture was arranged with support from the GrainWorld 2009" Conference, the Solomon Sinclair Farm Management Institute and the Dr. Daryl F. Kraft Endowment Fund. Dr. Edmund Mupondwa, Economics Research Officer, Canadian Cellulosic Biorefinery Network (Bioproducts and Bioprocessing), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon, presented Canadian Cellulosic Biorefinery Network: TechnoEconomic Analysis, February 10, 2009. Dr. Ed Tyrchniewicz, Senior Scholar in our Department, presented Growing the Island Way: Report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture and Agri-food in Prince Edward Island, April 29, 2009. Dr. Tyrchniewicz co-chaired the recent Commission established by the PEI Ministry of Agriculture to articulate a long-term vision for agriculture and agri-food and to recommend an implementation strategy.

Graduate Program News: Matthew Hink was recently announced as a recipient of a University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship for 2009-2010. Matt completed his B.Sc. (Agribusiness) in May 2009, starting his M.Sc. in September with Ryan Cardwell as his academic advisor. At the recent 130th Spring Convocation, Matthew was awarded the program medal for Agribusiness. Also offered a UMGF for 2009-2010 is Linjing Xie, who has just completed her first year in our Masters program, with high achievement.

Undergraduate Program News: CIBC Agribusiness Scholarships for Undergraduates: A wine and cheese reception was held on February 13, 2009 to recognize the recent recipients of 2008-2009 CIBC Undergraduate Awards for Agribusiness Students. The Department and Faculty were well-represented, with Dr. Gary Johnson introducing the four student winners - Darren Froese, Matthew Hink, Jamie Poirier and Liane Vuignier. The CIBC guests were Rob Bennett, Vice-President (Retail Distribution-Prairies Market), George Pryce, General Manager-Operations (Prairies Market), and two Agriculture Specialists, Randy James and Quinn Friesen. Including these four current recipients, since 2003 there have been 20 CIBC Agricultural Scholarships, total value approximately $60,000, awarded to our agribusiness students in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences to recognize the recipients academic excellence and community involvement, both on and off the campus. The scholarships come from a $250,000 endowment fund, which CIBC donated to the University in 2001 as part of the Building on Strengths Campaign. To be eligible for the CIBC undergraduate scholarships, students must be full-time in the Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness degree, and have achieved high standing in courses related directly to Agribusiness, have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 and demonstrate community involvement, both on and off campus, and a strong interest in pursuing a career in agribusiness.

Exchange Program News - students attending the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences: Zaho Mattheos successfully completed a spring semester exchange at the Ultuna (Uppsala) campus of Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU). In May we bid fond farewell to two students from SLU - Carl Kjell, who completed two terms here taking courses in various departments of the faculty, and Elin Andersson, food science courses during the winter term. .... and, in the coming academic year, 2009-2010, we expect to welcome four students from SLU - Eva-Marie Larsson, Christel Lindgren, Nina Mogren and Josphine Tardy. Nina will take courses in Food Science whilst the other three venture into the Department of Landscape Architecture. We are sure they will enjoy their time with us, particularly the two students who will be here for a full academic year.

Recent research update:

Brewin, Derek G., D.C. Monchuk and M.D. Partridge. 2009. Examining the Adoption of Product and Process Innovations in the Canadian Food Processing Industry. In this paper, the authors studied factors associated with innovation in the food processing industry using a survey of Western Canadian food processors. The primary motivation was to gain a better understanding of the mechanics of innovation related to the adoption of product and process innovation. In particular, they considered the jointness of ex post realizations of product and process innovations, and assessed whether there were underlying differences that result from innovations developed inhouse versus those developed externally by a third party. Using a multivariate probit model, they found evidence of significant interrelationships between product and process innovations that are developed inhouse. These findings suggest that firms that conduct both process and product innovations inhouse are better able to enjoy complementarities that arise in the discovery process. They also found that firms are more likely to innovate in response to keeping pace with competitors. In Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 57 No. 1, p 75-97.

Staff Notes:

Congratulations!
In May, 2009, Derek Brewin was selected by the Faculty to receive a Teaching Award of Merit from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA). These awards are given annually to individuals who excel in teaching an agricultural discipline

Fabio Mattos, Assistant Professor, and Philip Garcia (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), co-authored a paper presented at the NCCC-134 Conference on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management, held in St. Louis, MO, April 20-21. The paper was titled The Effect of Prior Gains and Losses on Current Risk-Taking Using Quantile Regression.

Ryan Cardwell, Assistant Professor, was at the meeting of the Alberta Agricultural Economics Association in Red Deer, Alberta, on Friday, May 1, presenting a paper titled Food Aid and Biofuels: The Effects of Biofuel Policies on Procurement and Delivery. Ryan has also been elected an Executive Councillor for the International Association of Agricultural Economists for a 3-year term. Brian Oleson, Department Head, and Charles Mossman, I H Asper School of Business, have had their paper Red River Cooperative Limited: The Distribution Decision accepted for presentation at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Financial Management Association International, to be held in Reno, NV, October 21-24. Ed Tyrchniewicz, Senior Scholar in the Department, has been appointed as an external advisor to the office of the Auditor-General (Ottawa) for a performance audit of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canadas Research Branch. Ed also was the keynote speaker at the inaugural meeting of the New Brunswick Minister's Agriculture Roundtable on June 24. He spoke on strategic directions for agriculture and lessons learned in Prince Edward Island. Jared Carlberg was in Lihue (Kaua'i), Hawaii, this past week presenting a paper entitled "Effects of Cattle Attributes on Auction Prices in Manitoba" at the Western Agricultural Economics Association annual meetings, June 24-26. Harold Bjarnason, former Dean of the Faculty, has been appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation is responsible for preserving and protecting Canada's scientific and technological heritage; promoting and sharing knowledge about that heritage; and celebrating Canadian innovations. Harold retired from the Faculty in 2005, and currently serves as a Director of Ag Growth Income Fund, the Gimli Film Festival, and with the Betel Heritage Board. Recent paper published: Froehlich, E.J., J.G. Carlberg and C.E. Ward. 2009. Willingness-to-pay for fresh brand name beef. Cdn. J. of Agric. Econs. 57: 119-137. _______________ An invitation is again extended to Alumni and Friends to contact us. Your comments are welcome - you may also like to include any important announcements and we will consider them for publication in this online newsletter. Please email your comments or news to: John_Schoffner@umanitoba.ca

Judy Powell Editor Department Newsletter for Alumni