FDA Refusals of Food Imports by Exporting Country Group

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade, F1, I18, Q17,

Convergence in Food Demand and Delivery: Do Middle-Income Countries Follow High-Income Trends?

This study uses food expenditures and food-sales data from 1990 to 2004 to examine whether food-consumption patterns and food-delivery-mechanism trends are converging across 47 high- and middle-income countries. Results point to a high degree of convergence in global food systems. Middle-income countries appear to be following trends in high-income countries. Convergence is apparent in most important food-expenditure categories and in indicators of food-system modernization such as supermarket and fast food sales.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Managing Firm Competitiveness in Global Markets

The globalization profile of US food firms is mixed. US sales from foreign direct investment is now over six times the level of exports, while US processed food trade balance has moved from +$9 billion in 1995 to -$7 billion in 2004. Competitive forces drive firms to seek new areas of growth, with either portfolio expansion or penetration and expansion in new markets. Although the forces that weigh heavily on a firm are recognized, their influence in determining a firm’s action in choosing a particular strategy is not well understood. As the nature of food manufacturing is evolving and the operational scope of a food manufacturing firm has grown from local, to regional, national, and global, is there a new role for policy? What we do know is that a firm trades with other firms and that aggregate trade patterns do not fully reflect how firms view prospects, make decisions and factor in policies as they organize themselves for trade. Addressing the potential characterizations of competitiveness for the industry and the firm followed by the conflicting influences of R&D on competitiveness, we focus on what is meant by a global food firm with the use of the experiences of three industry case studies.Competitiveness, Food Manufacturing, Globalization, Case study

Trade and Welfare Impacts of Partial Liberalization of U.S. Sugar TRQs: The Application of a PE/GE Modeling Approach

The sugar sector is one of the most heavily protected commodities in agriculture using a system of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) with a complex set of administration procedures. General equilibrium models are not suitable to analyze trade liberalization scenarios that involve numerous tariff-rate quotas across narrowly defined product lines. We use the Rutherford/Grant/Hertel modeling approach by embedding a detailed, partial equilibrium (PE) model into a standard, global general equilibrium (GE) framework. We use this PE/GE model to compare trade and welfare outcomes of two liberalization scenarios: Increasing quota levels by 25% and cutting over tariffs by 50%, versus increasing quota levels by 50% and cutting over-quota tariffs by 25%. We find that lowering over-quota tariffs relatively more has more positive welfare effects than increasing quota levels relatively more.International Relations/Trade,

Policy Implications of Ranking Distributions of Nitrate Runoff and Leaching by Farm, Region, and Soil Productivity

WP 1996-21 December 1996The purpose of this study is to understand the implications of farm-to-farm and regional variations in nitrogen runoff and leaching for targeting specific policies to reduce nutrient contamination. To do this, we estimate 3D-year distributions of nitrate runoff and leaching for individual soils on nearly 150 farms in three farm production regions of New York and rank the distributions according to second degree stochastic dominance criteria. Based on these rankings, it is evident that cropland across farms and regions of New York is so heterogeneous that it is impossible to target policies to reduce nitrate contamination based on farm or regional characteristics. A much clearer ranking is found if soils are grouped by productivity group as measured by corn yield. Based on the estimated elasticities of nitrate runoff and leaching with respect to nitrogen application, one can target those areas where contamination problems are I most severe by focusing on soils with potential yields greater than 125 bu.lac. For it to make sense to target lower productivity soils, the productivity of additional nitrogen application at the margin on the highest yielding soils would have to be about double that of the lower yielding group. Evidence indicates that the ratios of productivities are less than unity in all three production regions

MARKET ACCESS FOR HIGH-VALUE FOODS

Market access remains a major impediment for expansion of global trade in high-value foods, particularly processed foods. Countries use tariffs and other measures that effectively stimulate imports of relatively unprocessed agricultural commodities at the expense of processed products. Tariff escalation, in which tariffs rise with the level of processing, discourages trade in high-value foods, and trade remedy measures, such as antidumping duties, are concentrated among high-value products. Globalization has provided countries with easier access to capital and technology needed to produce processed food, further affecting trade patterns and markets for high-value foods. A uniform cut in tariffs increases trade in high-value foods more than trade in raw agricultural commodities and improves real wages in developing and developed countries.Food trade, processed food, high-value foods, tariff, tariff escalation, trade remedy measures, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, safeguard measures, revealed comparative advantage, trade complementarities, International Relations/Trade,

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The value of information in integrated pest management of corn rootworm and European corn borer in Minnesota

The value of information in integrated pest management (IPM) of corn rootworm (CRW) and European corn borer (ECB) on continuous corn is estimated in this research. A bioeconomic model for corn is developed considering CRW and ECB. Economic thresholds are estimated for each pest, and the sensitivity of the estimated thresholds to relative corn and pesticide price changes is analyzed. The value of pest information to individual farmers and the economic justification of scouting data collection methods are also examined. A bioeconomic simulation model is used to generate net revenue distributions under different management strategies and economic conditions. To incorporate stochastic behavior into the model, the performance of each strategy is simulated under many random states of nature. By evaluating a wide range of strategies, the model is used to identify preferred pest management strategies for CRW and ECB. Changes in producer welfare associated with different pest management strategies are measured by changes in the levels of certainty equivalents. The results indicate that flexible decision rules which base CRW control actions on information are preferrable to fixed CRW decision rules of routine control and routine no-control. Hence, scouting for CRW information are economically justifiable. When the cost of acquiring information is considered, CRW beetle counts are better sources of information than egg counts, and combined egg and beetle counts. Based on this study, the best control action for ECB is routine no-control, and scouting for ECB information is not economically justifiable. The results also indicate that the value of information differs with producer risk preferences. However, the optimal pest control action is invariant to different levels of absolute risk aversion