FARM FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 30-YEAR CHALLENGE POLICY COMPETITION

News Date October 13, 2009

An essay that argues for a principle-based, rather than a program-based approach to public policy development has been selected as the top entry in Farm Foundation's 30-Year Challenge Policy Competition.  A total of $20,000 in prize money was awarded in the competition.

The competition sought innovative and promising public policy options to address the agriculture and food system challenges outlined in Farm Foundation's report, The 30-Year Challenge: Agriculture's Strategic Role in Feeding and Fueling a Growing World.

"It is our intent that the winning entries will contribute to constructive and deliberative debate of the policies that may be needed to meet the challenges ahead," said Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. "However, Farm Foundation does not endorse or advocate any of the concepts presented in these entries.  Farm Foundation has a 76-year history of objectivity.  We do not lobby or advocate positions.  The competition entries are no exception."

"We encourage public and private decision makers to review these policy proposals and consider the concepts in light of the challenges facing agriculture and the food system," Conklin added.

Released in December 2008, the Foundation's 30-Year Challenge report identifies six major areas of challenges agriculture faces as it works to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world.

The top entry in the competition, Three Decades Hence-Thinking About Global Agricultural Resource Allocation Policies, was written by William C. Motes, Ph.D.  Dr. Motes, who submitted the entry as a private individual, is chief economist at Informa Economics.  This entry, which will receive the $5,000 overall prize, also won the challenge category of global markets and recession.

Motes and the six other winners in the competition will be recognized at the Farm Foundation 30-Year Challenge Policy Conference on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.  There is no fee for this conference but registration is required.

The seven winning entries--two entries shared the prize in the challenge category of climate change--are posted on the Farm Foundation Web site.  Category winners receive $2,500.  They are:

  • Global Food Security – Jean-Phillippe Gervais of North Carolina State University:  Moving Agricultural Trade Liberalization Forward to Improve Global Food Security
  • Global Energy Security – Chad Hellwinckel and Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, both of the University of Tennessee:  Peak Oil and the Necessity of Transitioning to Regenerative Agriculture
  • Climate Change - Two Shared Winners – Loni Kemp, Kemp Consulting:  Greener Biofuels Tax Credits: A Policy to Drive Multiple Goals; and Tristin Brown, Dermont Hayes and Robert Brown, all of Iowa State University:  The Embedded Carbon Valuation System: A Policy Concept to Address Climate Change
  • Competition for Natural Resources – Dean Lemke and Shawn Richmond, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship:  Iowa Drainage and Wetlands Landscape Systems Initiative
  • Global Economic Development – Gregory Vaughan:  Integrated Policies for an Agricultural Revolution in the Sahel

The seven-member judging panel said Motes' paper "argues that policy development must first focus on critical principles....This paper is an initial cut at the principles and a more comprehensive debate on those principles is needed."

While recognizing that Motes' essay was broad in scope, rather than specific to one policy, the judges said it "best addressed the overarching criteria of contributing to the policy debate with its emphasis on the need for principles to precede policy.  Today's challenges require a rethinking of agricultural food policy worldwide.  That requires debate of wide-ranging issues, both domestic and global...To begin requires coming to grips with the basic moral and economic principles that have not been the center of recent policy debates."

The judging panel included:  Sandra Batie of Michigan State University, Vernon Eidman of the University of Minnesota, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Michael Espy, John Hardin of Hardin Farms, Chuck Hassebrook of the Center for Rural Affairs, Doug Hedley of Hedley & Associates, and James McDonald of Bread for the World.

Thirty-eight entries were submitted to the competition on topics ranging from global trade liberalization and regenerative agriculture, to new approaches for addressing biofuel tax credits and carbon valuation systems.  Entries were received from professionals working around the world in such diverse areas as economics, conservation, economic development and anthropology.  Energy security and climate change attracted the largest number of entries.

The 30-Year Challenge project is directed and led by Farm Foundation.  Contributing financial assistance to the project are: the Global Harvest Initiative, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Pork Producers Council, and the United Egg Producers.  (Contact: Amy Mann)