One of the main provisions of the 2012 Farm Bill is a “shallow-loss” program. This program is being portrayed as a safety net, but there are significant questions that must be examined before the program is enacted. At this event, Vince Smith and Barry Goodwin will discuss these questions and will release new research and analysis on the cost of shallow-loss programs.

A total of 15 different U.S. food and nutrition programs (FANPs) serve about one in four Americans at a current annual cost of almost $100 billion. Can the government actually improve our personal eating habits? Are these billions of dollars well-spent?

Is it panic time at Obama headquarters in Chicago? You might get that impression from watching events -- and the polls -- over the past few weeks.

Just as the political air is filled with talk of the inevitability of Barack Obama's re-election -- we are told that the kids at his Chicago headquarters are brimming with confidence -- in come some poll numbers showing him behind.

Do teacher incentives actually make our schools better? New research on North Carolina schools by Thomas Ahn of the University of Kentucky suggests that the answer is a definitive "yes."

What do North Carolina citizens need to know about climate change policy and the global warming debate?

Experts critique disaster aid, mainly in the form of the Supplemental Revenue Assistance (SURE) program, which costs over $2 billion annually and makes payments to farmers who do not suffer disasters.

Dan Sumner, Barry Goodwin and Vincent Smith, co-directors of the AEI 2012 Farm Bill Initiative, will discuss the ways that reducing farm subsidies can contribute to federal deficit reduction and debt control and improve the efficiency of American agriculture without affecting the security of the U.S. food supply chain.