By Jim Baer
With growth comes recognition and success. With gain always comes some pain. FAPRI-MU, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) has certainly emerged from its shadows since dropping anchor as a research body in 1979. That year, agricultural-economic researchers were working on fledgling computers, costing $80,000 to $90,000 for use of the University computer system. Today, the modeling data comes from PCs that cost the institute as little as $2,000 for each unit. While operational costs are down significantly, production is up dramatically.
There's a lot of satisfaction working for an institute that has gained stature as a reporting agency to bodies as far-flung as the U.S. Capitol; in the halls of the statehouse in Jefferson City and even around the world.
Publications, the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and CNN have interviewed FAPRI economists, just in the past four months.
"It's certainly great to be recognized, and be in demand, but sometimes, we have so many media requests to fill that we have a hard time managing our work day or even finding time for a brief vacation," says Professor Patrick Westhoff, co-director of the institute. Westhoff shares those director duties with his mentor, Professor William "Willi" Meyers.
FAPRI-MU keeps the public informed regarding current agricultural research and covers a whole spectrum of farm-related issues.
Members of the staff reguarly testify before Congress and they are constantly called upon to produce data for the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. and other national bodies.
The institute experienced its first significant growth spurt under the tutelage of Professor Abner Womack, who served as
the first director.
More than 40 years ago, Womack grew up on a cotton, peanut and watermelon farm in rural Alabama. He majored in mathematics at Auburn University, Auburn, Ala. and as he says, "As far as the farm was concerned, I never wanted to go back."
Farming for a youngster meant working the fields all day long before going to football practice at 4:30 in the afternoon. Eventually, he earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota, and migrated to Columbia after a five-year stint working on various economic projects with the U.S. government in D.C. The early days of the institute were fulfilling, even if recognition from the outside world was scant.
Since its inception in 1979, FAPRI-MU has encouraged effective agricultural policy through the development and operation of comprehensive analytical systems. Today, the MU operation is comprised of a consortium of seven teaching institutes across the Midwest. MU has joined hands with its anchor satellite partner FAPRI-ISU at Iowa State University, and also has a close working relationship with Texas A&M, the University of Wisconsin, Arizona State University, Texas Tech and the University of Arkansas.
Each November, FAPRI-MU prepares a baseline project for the U.S. and world agricultural sectors for all major grains, oilseeds, livestock and dairy commodities. They produce the latest copy of the U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook, a 400-page publication released in February of each year. Their model provides projections going 10 years out. "That works out well because the U.S. Agricultural Department is always working on a five-year budget," says Dr. Womack.
In addition to traditional projections that give just one possible view of the future, FAPRI-MU provides "stochastic" analysis that looks at a wide range of possible futures that result from different assumptions about petroleum prices, yields and other factors.
"This is not official data, this is an outside set of quantitative analysis created by
the research from seven universities. We make no recommendations to governmental bodies," says Professor Womack.
"This is a democratic process to support data. We find a balance for the Farm Bill that comes before Congress each year," says Womack. "Creating an objective farm program is a real balancing act."
Professor Westhoff Weighs In
Professor Westhoff has been with FAPRI-MU since 1996. He earned his Ph.D. from Iowa State University and his Masters from Texas-Austin. Dr. Meyers was his professor at Iowa State, and he worked several years for the FAPRI-ISU contingent that was started and headed by Meyers until 1998, so he had a strong working relationship when heading to Columbia.
Before arriving at MU, he also did a four-year stint as chief economist for the Senate Agriculture Committee in the U.S. Congress, 1992-1996.
Professor Westhoff has seen a lot of evolution within the FAPRI-MU project. "People tend to come and go. We've had larger and smaller staffs, based upon current budgets. I came to
MIZZOU primarily to work on the Irish project. Since then, FAPRI has gone international, creating agricultural partnerships and collaborations with the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, South Korea Mexico
and Japan.
Professor Westhoff is well versed in the future of Missouri farmers. "Flooding caused some serious problems for our farmers (this summer), but not as bad as for those in Iowa. We had such a wet spring, some of our farmers never got into the fields to plant their crops. Fuel costs are rapidly rising and that has a big impact today on the value of future crop production," he says.
Professor Westhoff says that farmers in Missouri face a constant challenge to maintain their existence.
"A lot of our farmers have other jobs to supplement their income." He reports that in 2007 Missouri had 104,500 farms according to the National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS).
FAPRI-MU continues to provide information to Missouri legislators, trade organizations, agricultural businesses and individuals. They also work on specialized research to address important local concerns.
"We work closely with our state legislators as well as a variety of people who work in state government. We have a very good reputation for providing unbiased information that works for legislators on both sides of the aisles in Missouri and in Washington, D.C. too."
FAPRI-MU has grown tremendously since the first group of mathematicians and ag-economists gathered in 1979 to kick-start
the program.
The world market continues to increase its demand for food and feedstocks and FAPRI-MU continues playing a vital role to provide current and accurate information to create budgets and find fair
trade balances that satisfy all parties
concurrently. Local, state and federal agencies call their work remarkable and
truly invaluable. Their neutrality and depth of knowledge makes it all work so well and it has to be just right.
|
