About The Institute

The Institute for the Advanced Study of Food and Agricultural Policy is housed within the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, OAC, University of Guelph. Professor Alan Ker is the Director.

The mission of the Institute is to attract and educate competent students to food and agricultural economics. In addition, we provide independent, credible, and timely policy analysis with respect to socially significant food and agricultural issues. To that end, we host and co-host policy conferences, support FARETalk (podcast), support FAREShare (newsletter), provide commodity price forecasting, house efficiency benchmarking tools for producers, and finally develop and maintain commodity market models for "what if" policy analysis.

Institute Outreach Activities

• 1) FAREShare
• 2) FARETalk
• 3) Market Models for What if Scenarios
• 4) Benchmarking Models

FARE Talk

The FARE Talk initiative is the brainchild of Professor Deaton, where he interviews top scholars about issues of significant public interest.

FARE Share Newsletter

The FARE Share Newsletter's mission is to provide independent, credible, & timely policy analysis with respect to socially significant food & agricultural issues. FAREShare is edited by Professor Getu Hailu.

Read the Latest Newsletter

To sign up to receive future issues of this Newsletter please contact Emily Vogelman (fare@uoguelph.ca)
View Past Newsletters

Student Achievements

One of the primary drivers of the Institute is to attract and support students in the field of food and agricultural economics. On that note, we would like to congratulate Jamie Naylor and Anna Chemeris for placing first and second respectfully in the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society (CAES) 2019 Annual Policy Conference Research Poster Competition.  In the 2019 Policy Brief Competition, Anna Chemeris and Laura Stortz placed first and second respectfully.  All students received financial support from the Institute. We would also like to congratulate Alex Cairns, Tor Tolhurst, Ken Poon, David Jacques, and Lin Yuang (all former students who received support from the Institute) for their Honourable Mention award for 2018 Best Published Article in the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics.  The article modelled the economic impacts of a disease outbreak in the livestock sector. We would also like to congratulate Regan Artnz-Gray co-winner of the  2017 Outstanding Masters thesis award and Rebecca Eslkamp winner of the CAES 2017 Outstanding Dissertation award (awarded once every three years). Ms. Arntz-Gray's thesis was titled "Economic Implications of a Changing Yield Weather Relationship". Ms. Elskamp dissertation was titled “Bidding Behaviour in Multi-Unit Auctions: Three Essays”. Both Regan and Rebecca received financial support from the Institute during their studies at Guelph.

Student Sponsorships

• April, 2019 - The Institute was pleased to provide monies for the 2019 T.K. Warley Agricultural Policy Prize for Undergraduate students.  
• February 2019 - The Institute was pleased to provide financial assistance for students to attend the 2019 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society Annual Policy Conference, Ottawa, Ontario.
• June 2018 - The Institute provided financial assistance for students to attend the 2018 International Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia.
• June 2018 - The Institute provided financial assistance for students to attend the 2018 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia.
• January 2018 - The Institute provided financial assistance for students to attend the 2018 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society Annual Policy Conference, Ottawa, Ontario.
• June 2017 - The Institute provided financial assistance for students to attend the 2017 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society Annual Meeting, Montreal, Ontario.
• May 2017 - The Institute provided financial scholarships for students to attend the International Dairy Federation Economic Outlook Meeting, Guelph, Ontario.
• January 2017 - The Institute provided financial scholarships for students to attend the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Conference, Ottawa, Ontario.
• January 2017 - The Institute financially sponsored the student policy paper competition at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Conference, Ottawa, Ontario.
  

  Student Reseach

• April, 2019 - Horlick Ng, "On Technological Change and Volatility in Canadian Agriculture."
• May, 2019 - Anna Chemeris, "Subsidized Crop Insurance and Technological Change in U.S. Crop Production."
• June, 2019 - Danielle Mayers, "The Impacts of Non-Legume Cover Crop Use on Crop Yields and Profit Margins in Ontario."

Conferences Hosted

• "Big Data, Changing Climate, and Agriculture", Guelph, May, 2017.

Conferences Sponsored

• Canadian Agri-Food Policy Conference, Ottawa Ontario, January 2020.
• Canadian Agri-Food Policy Conference, Ottawa Ontario, February 2019.
• Canadian Agri-Food Policy Conference, Ottawa Ontario January 2018.
• Risk Management Workshop, Winnipeg Manitoba November 2017.
• Seventh Annual Canadian Agri-Food Policy Conference, Ottawa Ontario January 2017.