My latest post! open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

"God's finger"

My latest post: open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

We are looking for a 2-3 year postdoc in biodiversity economics for a joint project with top ecologists at the University of Helsinki. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

My latest post: Making Middle Powers Great Again I argue that the Cairns Group offers a useful template for cooperation among “middle powers”. A nice historical example from agricultural trade! shonferguson.substack.com/p/making-mid...

My latest post: How will farmers react to higher payments for small farms? The 2028-2034 CAP proposal incentivises a shift toward smaller farms, at least on paper. I explain why it could be a problem. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

Excellent overview of the strength of Europe's farm lobby in this Politico article by Bartosz Brzezinski today www.politico.eu/article/euro...

My thoughts on the year ahead. Lots happening in the US and the EU to keep an eye on. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

This week’s post looks at what students should think about when choosing a Master’s in Economics at an applied science university such as SLU. Please feel free to share with your students! open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

Lots of companies surely happy about the removed Trump tariffs on several food products, including coffee. A "wait and see" approach to location decisions in ag GVCs has definitely paid off in this case.

My latest post: Will the EU Deforestation Regulation actually reduce deforestation? How trade diversion could undermine the EU's efforts, and what to do about it. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

🚨The Moore Lab at UC Davis is hiring!🚨 Post-doc for a project with @adamsobel.bsky.social on the valuation of climate information for adaptation Could be a good fit for an environmental economist or a climate scientist - flexible start date and location Apply by Dec 1st: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07346

I never realized that I asked so many excellent and nuanced questions until I started using ChatGPT.

My latest substack post: Do farm animal welfare regulations hurt competitiveness? open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

My latest post: "Preventing Panic: Why Better Food Data Means Stronger Food Security" open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

I hoped that weight loss drugs would reduce the demand for meat. Unfortunately, they seem to have the opposite effect. Billionaire beef baron says US not producing enough to satisfy protein craze www.ft.com/content/5fad... via @ft

My latest post discusses the consequences of recent U.S. trade policy on global value chains in the agri-food sector. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

Very happy to share the published version of this paper, which is open access. "The impact of animal welfare regulations on pork trade: evidence from European countries" (with Anna Wallenbeck, Sigrid Agenäs, and Helena Hansson) doi.org/10.1016/j.fo...

This is a neat idea. www.bbc.com/travel/artic...

My latest post discusses an EU trade policy announcement from the summer that could have important implications. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

🚨 New paper accepted at Food Policy! 🚨🥳 "The Impact of Animal Welfare Regulations on Pork Trade: Evidence from European Countries" with Anna Wallenbeck, Sigrid Agenäs, and Helena Hansson. 2024 WP link: publications.slu.se?file=publ/sh...

Instead of the usual analysis of ag/env/trade policy, this week's post aims to give readers some insights into academic life. I hope economists/non-economists find it amusing/useful. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

My latest post discusses the potential trade and spatial implications of Canada's regulated system of dairy production, supply management. TL/DR: Canada's production per person is extremely uniform compared to U.S.; homogenized, you might say. shonferguson.substack.com/p/will-the-c...

Interesting and sobering update after Denmark passed a groundbreaking agriculture / nature / climate policy last year:

Amid the new tariff threats on the EU, my post is still relevant.

Just finished grading 17 Bachelor's theses and 7 Master's theses. Definitely ready for a summer break.

Woah! Such an important study published in Nature today! Quick thread with some of their key figures! 🧵

Fun Fact: Season 2 of The Bridge begins with a tanker colliding with the Öresund Bridge under mysterious circumstances. Looking back, that episode was ominously prescient.

This reference guide, provided by the library at @lunduniversity.bsky.social, is an excellent resource, especially for how to cite Swedish government documents: libguides.lub.lu.se/apa_short

My latest post discusses the concentration of Sweden's goods trade via one bridge open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

The Swedish government just announced a new grant program to support farmers in investing in measures to reduce ammonia emissions. 100 million SEK per year in 2025, 2026, and 2027. A potentially important step in reducing GHG emissions in agriculture. www.atl.nu/nytt-stod-ti...

Excellent @slu-econ.bsky.social seminar by Ricardo Guzman,visiting us from Aix-Marseille.

💥Research Assistant Positions💥 1. Ingvild Almås, Timo Boppart, Thor Berger, Hannes Malmberg, and I are looking for a research assistant to work on a project which investigates Sweden's spectacular economic growth during the late 19th century using establishment-level data.

Turned out that none of the students in my class had even heard of the movie "Office Space". What the heck!

My latest post explores some of the key economic questions surrounding food system preparedness. Dig in! open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

Hear, hear www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

EU and UK to link carbon markets, and cite desire to smooth trade in CBAM goods as a motivation. Hopefully, this is the first of many examples of carbon market linkages. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

My latest blog post, about the economic impact of the EU CBAM on farmers. TL/DR: EU nitrogen fertilizer producers will gain protection from imports, while EU farmers dependent on inorganic fertilizer are left exposed. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

It is worth noting that the most famous trade economist to ever serve as minister in the Canadian government began as the Minister of...National Defence. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mc...

My latest post! TL/DR: There are good reasons to expect that grant-based climate schemes for agriculture have a bright future. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

Today's Just ATE Blog post is about Canada and the importance of market access for its economy. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

By some miracle, my blog post on the latest Trump tariffs, released 24 hours ago, is still all factually correct.

nvm

Soybeans and corn are feed inputs for EU ag and energy industries, doesn't seem like a smart move to place tariffs on these. Unless of course the plan is to strike a deal on these items in the end. www.politico.eu/article/eu-t...

So I started a blog! I call it Just ATE Blog (Agriculture, Trade and the Environment). My first post: "Trump 2.0, tariffs and agricultural trade" TL/DR: EU agri-food exports should be resilient, but dangers loom. open.substack.com/pub/shonferg...

An example of agricultural global value chains' exposure to tariffs: Swiss coffee exports to the US in 2024 were USD 1.2 billion, and now face a new 31% US tariff. The beans are sourced from places like Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica, where the new US tariff is 10% www.admin.ch/gov/en/start...).

I'm seeing a huge spike in interest in tariffs from people who normally don't work in the economics of international trade. Here are a few useful things to know about them. (1/14)

Hard to believe that lower EU tariffs on US foods would increase European consumption by much. Lots of home bias in food choices. And for items unavailable in the EU, there is a limit to how much mac & cheese, baconaise etc that Europeans are willing to eat. www.bbc.com/news/article...

And in other news, EU auto emissions policy is completely shambolic. www.politico.eu/article/euro...