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May 17, 2021
Agricultural production is primarily dominated by rather slow rates of change that persist for many decades. For example, corn and soybean yields have trended persistently higher over several decades, global soybean production has increased at 4.8% since the 1990s (compared to just 3% for corn), and U.S. wheat acres today are roughly 50% of the […]
May 10, 2021
Perhaps the biggest agricultural demand story of the 21st century has been China. Accounting for more than 18% of the global population, China’s large population – of 1.4 billion – has also experienced a dramatic rise of per-capita income. These two demand factors have occurred as domestic production in China has struggled to keep up, […]
May 3, 2021
From time to time, the AEI.ag team compiles an agriculture policy watch list summarizing the issues on the front burner now that may affect the farm economy for years to come. The 100-day mark of the Biden administration seems like an appropriate moment to take stock of what’s on the docket for farm policy during […]
April 26, 2021
By Brent Gloy and David Widmar Unknowns Facing the 2021 Macroeconomy Last spring, we wrote (here and here) about key factors and macroeconomic issues to monitor as the pandemic spread and the economic slowdown began. A year later, we’re following up to write about the key considerations for the economy in 2021 – and the […]
April 19, 2021
Agricultural trade with China had a wild year in 2020. While the signing of the “Phase 1” deal provided much enthusiasm, activity was downright disappointing throughout the summer. Conditions were a little dicey as late as June 2020, when a White House official said the trade pact was “over,” comments that were later clarified or […]
April 12, 2021
Lessons Learned from the 1980s Farm Crisis Last month, the hosts of AEI.ag’s Escaping 1980 podcast held a virtual event that went behind the scenes of the popular podcast series to discuss lessons learned and the implications for 2021. The conversation opened with a question for participants: If you could go back in time, what […]