The balance of international trade and markets. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
American Agri-Women hosted the Global Food and Energy Supply Conversation recently to respond to member interest in rising input and food costs. Chief economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation Roger Cryan was one of the speakers. He started with a discussion on the importance of international trade.
“Trade is critical to prosperity and feeding the world. It’s critical to international development. Each country is allowed to work to its strengths, producing the things that it’s best and producing and having access to food where it’s best produced,” he said. “these things are disrupted by trade wars.”
He said they’re even more disrupted by actual wars like the attack on Ukraine. However, he said the markets can help when the world is facing supply problems, such as those created by the attack on Ukraine.
“the rising prices earlier this year and worries about food crisis and famine in many parts of the world that have relied on the imports of grain from [Ukraine] demonstrates the of the word and food supply markets though have stepped up. It’s kind of an amazing thing,” he said. “It’s a lesson on two sides. One is that it’s very easy to disrupt these markets. It’s very easy to disrupt supplies. It’s also clear that markets work. Prices went very high up and suppliers all over the world responded.”
Another hot topic during the discussion was the high prices of agricultural inputs and rising costs for food and fuel. Cryan was asked how regulations factor into those food and fuel costs. “As far as the cost of environmental and social governance issues, they are hard to measure,” he responded. “At the moment, it’s a first-world privilege to afford to do that in the market. When you’re buying things based on ESG, I think it’s important to do the math to understand what you’re getting and whether it’s worth it.”
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.