By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Jada Thompson, assistant professor in the department of agricultural economics and agribusiness in the University of Arkansas System, was recently recognized with the Southern Agricultural Economics Association’s 2023 Emerging Scholar Award for research.

EMERGING SCHOLAR — Jada Thompson is a 2023 Emerging Scholar Award recipient from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association. The agricultural economist has focused much of her work on HPAI bird flu. (U of A System Division of Ag photo by Fred Miller)

Thompson, an economist with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, has spent much of her academic career researching bird flu’s economic impact.

She said the new strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 poses a longer-running risk on the supply chain and may lead to structural changes in poultry production. The 2022 bird flu epidemic has raised questions about how the poultry industry proceeds.

The agricultural economics and agribusiness department now has three SAEA Emerging Scholar Award-winning faculty. Brandon McFadden, professor and the Tyson Endowed Chair in Food Policy Economics, and Trey Malone, assistant professor, were recognized with the award in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

“Dr. Thompson has established an outstanding record of research, with nearly 40 peer-reviewed publications including not only high-impact journal articles but also Extension publications summarizing stakeholder-relevant work,” John Anderson, head of the agricultural economics and agribusiness department, stated in his nomination letter for the award.

Anderson, who is also director of the Fryar Price Risk Management Center of Excellence, stated that Thompson’s record shows that she is a versatile researcher who is able to apply her skill set to a variety of relevant problems. A common thread that is evident in her work is the link between farm-level production issues and market impacts, he said.

“This is an increasingly important line of inquiry, as her work on both domestic and international market impacts of animal disease outbreaks demonstrates,” Anderson wrote. “This kind of integrated research requires not only a solid economics toolkit but also a thorough understanding of both production systems and agricultural markets. Any one of these facets of the work is difficult to master. Dr. Thompson ably integrates her mastery of all three.”

Anderson noted Thompson’s work is highly collaborative with economists from a wide range of institutions and experts from other relevant disciplines. Her proficiency extends to the extension and teaching mission areas, where she engaged directly with stakeholders, Anderson added.

“She is an excellent instructor, having already taught a variety of courses at three different land-grant institutions,” Anderson said. “Dr. Thompson has also actively engaged in service activities, both in our department and within the profession. Across all aspects of her faculty work, Dr. Thompson is productive, hard-working, and unfailingly collegial. She is rapidly emerging as a leader within our profession.”

Malone said the SAEA Emerging Scholar award is national in scope and a “premier designation” for early career faculty members in agricultural economics.

“Jada’s applied research program as a poultry economist is top-notch, so it’s fantastic to see such a hypercompetitive award acknowledge her hard work,” Malone said.

Thompson, a northwest Arkansas native, is among a small group of agricultural economists who specialize in poultry, Anderson said. She has a long history with the University of Arkansas, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics there. For her bachelor’s degree, Thompson double-majored in poultry science and agricultural economics. In June, she returned as an assistant professor following five years as an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

She earned her doctorate in 2016 at Colorado State University.

“When you come into agriculture as a woman, there is a smaller subset of us, and to get this award is validating and exciting,” Thompson said. “To be nominated was humbling and to win was very nice.”

2022 HPAI potential impacts

As part of the award, Thompson will give a presentation on her investigations into the economic ramifications of this highly pathogenic avian influenza — HPAI — at the SAEA annual symposium in February in Oklahoma City. Her talk will provide a comprehensive overview of HPAI, the differences between the 2015 and 2022 outbreaks, market impacts and her analysis of how the event may change the poultry sector.

“In animal health economics it is important to push the boundaries of information gathering, analysis and multidisciplinary work because of this concept of ‘One Health,’ that plants, animals and humans are interconnected on local, regional, national and global levels,” Thompson said.

Some of the discussion around HPAI include continued research on a cost-beneficial aerosol vaccine that would be the most practical option for inoculating tens of thousands of birds at once. H5N1 has had a bigger impact on turkeys and laying hens, however, because older birds are more susceptible to the virus, Thompson noted. Broilers, the largest sector of Arkansas’ poultry industry, are harvested after about two months of growth.

Questions remain on what the producer response should be if the H5N1 strain continues into 2023, Thompson said. How much to increase production to compensate for potential losses and changes in placements are at the top of the list because of issues with increased food prices and potential fear in the marketplace of continued disruptions.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Trey Malone, assistant professor in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, was recently awarded the 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Research and Communication from the Food Distribution Research Society.

RESEARCH AWARD —Trey Malone was recently awarded for his work on a Journal of Food Distribution Research article. (Photo courtesy Caroline Kraft Malone)

He was selected for his work on a Journal of Food Distribution Research article titled “The Changing Role of Fat Perceptions in Fluid Milk Labeling: Would the Dairy Industry Sell More if 2% Milk Was Called 98% Fat Free?” Malone’s co-authors and fellow award recipients include Oishi Kazi and Steven Miller from Michigan State University and Christopher Wolf from Cornell University. Malone conducts research for the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and teaches in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

“This is certainly a well-deserved award,” said John Anderson, head of the agricultural economics and agribusiness department. “Dr. Malone has an exceptional ability to identify relevant problems, to conceptualize those problems in ways that provide unique insights, and to apply appropriate methods to address researchable questions.”

Anderson, who is also director of the Fryar Price Risk Management Center of Excellence, said the project Malone was awarded for is an example of how “effective and impactful his approach to research can be.”

The milk marketing study explored how perceptions of fat content may have changed over the past few decades. Malone said these changes are particularly relevant for the dairy industry as fluid milk is marketed with several fat content options. The article explored the consequences of how fat is described on the fluid milk label. Their research indicated that consumers would pay less for 2 percent fat milk if labeled “98% fat-free milk.”

“At the end of the day, even though people have different beliefs about milk fat, there is no evidence that changing the label would lead to a positive nudge in consumer willingness to pay,” Malone said.

In the research article, Malone and his co-authors note the scientific consensus regarding the link between fat and health risks has changed relative to prior decades. Studies that influenced government recommendations in the 1970s and 80s on dietary fat and cholesterol, for example, were turned on their head by 2015 when dietary guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services dropped “fat” as a “nutrient of concern” and imposed no upper limit on total fat consumption but recommended keeping saturated fat intake within less than 10 percent of total calorie intake. The article pointed to studies that found inconsistent evidence of an association between whole-fat dairy and cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Total sales of fluid milk, compared to cheese and butter, have continued a downward trend over the past 50 years, but not all varieties of fluid milk are in decline, the journal article noted. Between 2010 and 2015, trends in whole milk, 2 percent (reduced fat) milk, and skim milk sales seem to have reversed compared to prior years. Skim milk sales peaked in 1998 and have decreased to 1975 levels. Meanwhile, following decades of decline, aggregate whole milk consumption has increased each year since 2013 with 2019 being 17 percent higher than six years earlier. In 2018, whole milk passed 2 percent (reduced fat) milk as the largest milkfat category consumed.

“This article was fun to write, as it showcases the importance of cognitive processes for consumer decision-making in the agri-food industry,” Malone said.

Malone, a former professor at Michigan State who joined the experiment station in 2022, will teach a food and agricultural marketing undergraduate course at the University of Arkansas in the spring of 2023.

“I’m excited to start teaching students in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. I’d like to think that my approach to food and agricultural marketing is like a behavioral supply chain logistics course.”

“We are excited to have him bringing his practical, problem-solving perspective to food marketing into the classroom in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department,” Anderson said.

Malone will also teach an agribusiness entrepreneurship course in the spring of 2023.

Malone has conducted studies to assist stakeholders in many agricultural value chains, including dairy, beef, eggs, hops, hemp and morel mushrooms.

In addition to preparing grant proposals and advising Ph.D. students, Malone is working on a new tool for business owners called the Food and Agriculture Systems Sentiment Index in collaboration with Brandon McFadden, Tyson Endowed Chair in Food Policy Economics for the experiment station. The index is in review and expected to be available for use by the public early next year. Malone was also recently appointed as a mentor for the Venture Mentor Service with the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Arkansas ag econ professor Jada Thompson wins SAEA Emerging Scholar Award

2022 HPAI potential impacts

Arkansas ag econ professor awarded by Food Distribution Research Society