Depressed agricultural commodity prices have led to concern about widespread possible economic impacts in Iowa because the state’s economy is strongly linked to agricultural production. This article compares the income and tax estimates produced by the Iowa State University (ISU) Department of Economics and the Iowa Economic Forecasting Council (IEFC).

Last November, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) staff from both Iowa State University and the University of Missouri met at Iowa State’s Memorial Union to begin work on the annual baseline.

In November, the Food and Agricul tural Policy and Research Institute (FAPRI) established its preliminary annual baseline projections. An updated outlook for Iowa agriculture from 1999 to 2002 was generated from the results of these projections. Currently, Iowa producers wraped up near-record harvests of corn and soybeans last fall; unfortunately, these large yields are being added to already large world supplies. Thus, producers have been met with low prices.

I owa’s agricultural industries are caught in the middle of large world supplies and stagnant export growth. The government has agreed to provide producers some short-term economic support (see article on government payments), but this does not change the forces that are driving down today’s commodity markets. Once again, Iowa producers seem to be at a crossroads, with high supplies. However, it appears that grain production from the United States’s major competitors will be lower next year.

Bruce Babcock, a professor in the economics department, is the new director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD). His appointment was effective November 16, 1998.