Link to Eighth Annual Florida Agricultural Policy Outlook Conference, 2024

Agenda

Day 1 (2/25): The Pandemic and Agriculture

Welcome and Introductions

1:00pm - Dr. Lisa House, Professor and Department Chair, UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department

Economic Impact of the Pandemic on Agricultural Markets

1:15pm - Dr. Jayson Lusk, Professor and Department Head, Purdue University College of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics
2:15pm - Dr. Christa Court, Assistant Professor, UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department

Agricultural Labor Issues in the Pandemic

2:45pm - Dr. Adam Kantrovich, Associate Professor, Clemson University, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Agribusiness Program Team
3:15pm - Dr. Derek Farnsworth, Assistant Professor, UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department

Wrap-up and Additional Q&A

3:45pm  - Moderator , Assistant Professor, UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department

Day 2 (2/26): Agricultural Policy and Industry Outlook

Welcome and Introductions

1:00pm -  Dr. J. Scott Angle, VP for Agriculture and Natural Resources, UF/IFAS

State, Federal, and International Agricultural Policy

1:15pm - Dr. Fred Gale, Senior Economist, USDA Economic Research Service, Market and Trade Economics Division, International Trade and Development Branch

1:45pm - John Walt Boatright, Director of National Affairs, Florida Farm Bureau

2:15pm - Adam Basford, Director of (State) Legislative Affairs, Florida Farm Bureau

Citrus and Coastal Industry Outlooks

2:45pm - Dr. Marisa Zansler, Director of Economic and Market Research, Florida Department of Citrus

3:15pm - Dr. Sherry Larkin, Professor and Director of Florida Sea Grant, UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department

Wrap-up and Additional Q&A

3:45pm - Moderator Dr. Derek Farnsworth, Assistant Professor, UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department

• Speakers

  Dr. Lisa House is Chair and a Professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida. She serves as Director of the Florida Agricultural Market Research Center. Dr. House holds a teaching and research appointment. She teaches classes in food and agribusiness marketing and management, survey research for economists, and comparative world agriculture. Her research interests focus on consumer preferences and demand for food products. Dr. House earned her B.S. in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University.

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  Dr. Jayson Lusk is Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. He has a BS in Food Technology and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University. He was previously Regents Professor and Willard Sparks Endowed Chair in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University and Assistant Professor at Mississippi State and Purdue. 

  Dr. Lusk is a food and agricultural economist who studies what we eat and why we eat it. Since 2000, Lusk has published more than 200 journal articles in peer reviewed journals, including several of the most cited papers in the profession. He has served on the editorial councils of eight academic journals including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and Food Policy. He was elected to and served on the executive committees of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, the Western Agricultural Economics Association, and most recently the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association for which he served as president. Lusk was named a fellow of the AAEA in 2015. 

  In 2007, Dr. Lusk co-authored a book on experimental auctions and coauthored an undergraduate textbook on agricultural marketing and price analysis. In 2011, Dr. Lusk released a book co-authored with Bailey Norwood on the economics of farm animal welfare and also co-edited the Oxford Handbook on the Economics of Food Consumption and Policy. In 2013 he published the popular book, The Food Police. His latest popular book is Unnaturally Delicious: How Science and Technology are Serving up Super Foods to Save the World.

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  Dr. Christa Court holds a research and extension appointment and serves as Director of the UF program in Economic Impact Analysis and as an Assistant Scientist in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida. Her research interests include regional economic modeling, the energy-water nexus, applied spatial econometrics, environmental accounting, and connections in human and natural systems.

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  Dr. Adam Kantrovich is an Associate Professor and Extension Economist with Clemson University and is located at the Sandhill Research and Education Center in Columbia, SC. Major responsibilities are programming activities in the areas of farm financials, ACA compliance for agribusiness, agribusiness succession and transition planning and agricultural and timber taxation management. Dr. Kantrovich conducts programs around the state and nationally to various agricultural groups and organizations. Prior to arriving at Clemson University Dr. Kantrovich spent 10-years with Michigan State University Extension working in the field with farms including a number of specialty crop farms.

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  Dr. Derek Farnsworth is an assistant professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida. His primary research interests include production economics, labor economics, agribusiness marketing, agricultural policy, international trade, and pest management. He has conducted research concerning labor market integration, invasive species, and international food safety regulations. Derek received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics in 2014 from the University of California, Davis.

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  Dr. J. Scott Angleis a national leader in developing the science that supports food production and management of natural resources. As chief executive of the agriculture and environmental sciences arm of a leading land-grant university, he champions public science as a path to improve lives and reduce human suffering. 

  His accomplished career in government, non-profit international development, and academia informs an approach to leadership based on service, partnership, and drive for impact. An innovator who holds seven patents, Angle has successfully guided multiple organizations through budget shortfalls and other challenges. 

  Dr. Angle leads nearly 2,300 employees who work in all 67 Florida counties. UF/IFAS encompasses the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the Florida Cooperative Extension Service, and the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. 

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  Dr. Fred Gale is a Senior Economist in the International Trade and Development (ITD) Branch of USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), Market and Trade Economics Division (MTED). Dr. Gale conducts research and market analysis on China's agriculture, policies, and international trade. Dr. Gale also has extensive experience in research on U.S. farm structure and the rural economy.

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  John Walt Boatright is the Director of National Affairs at Florida Farm Bureau Federation and has served as the national affairs staffer since May 2017. He handles most federal legislative and regulatory issues that affect Florida agriculture on behalf of the Federation’s 147,000 member-families, specifically trade, labor, sugar, and Farm Bill policies. In addition, John Walt manages congressional affairs for Florida Farm Bureau, establishing working relationships with Florida’s 29-member delegation in Washington, DC. In 2013, he graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in Food and Resource Economics and a minor in Agricultural and Natural Resource Law.

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  Adam Basford

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  Dr. Marisa Zansler is the director of economic and market research at the Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC) where she is responsible for implementing and overseeing the collection, analysis and reporting of economic and market research data. She also manages activities and relationships between the FDOC and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. 

  Prior to joining FDOC, Dr. Zansler served 10 years as a senior staff economist at the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, where she collaborated among a multidisciplinary team of scientists to analyze the economic impacts of policies designed to control the spread of pests and diseases that posed a threat to the Florida Citrus industry while preserving the integrity of the industry in the long run. 

  Dr. Zansler earned a Ph.D. in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida in 2004. She also holds a B.A. in Political Science, a B.S. in Agricultural Business, and a M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Louisiana State University.

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  Dr. Sherry Larkin is a natural resource and environmental economist tenured in the Food and Resource Economics Department at UF. She earned her Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from Oregon State University in 1998 and has been a faculty member at UF/IFAS since 2000. She moved into the Dean for Research Office in mid-2014 where she is the Associate Dean for Research and was the Associated Director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station (FAES) until March 2020. She currently serves as the director of the Florida Sea Grant College Program. 

  In the profession, Dr. Larkin has served as an elected member of the executive committee for the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET) and the president of the North American Association of Fisheries Economics (NAAFE). She was also an associate editor of the journal Marine Resource Economics from 2000-2015. 

  In the policy arena, Dr. Larkin has been actively involved in fisheries management by serving on the Scientific and Statistical Committees (SSC) for both the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils. In addition to seafood and fisheries, Dr. Larkin’s research has studied the economic valuation of non-market benefits associated with alternative production techniques in farming and forestry, programs to improve water quality (including harmful algal blooms or HABs), and the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.