The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at Iowa State will present its annual U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook Book to the agriculture committees of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives in March.

This year, FAPRI Co-Director and International Livestock Analyst Jacinto Fabiosa said biofuel mandates in the United States and abroad have had a strong effect on the projections about the agricultural market in the Outlook Book.

“A good example [of a biofuel mandate] is the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007,” Fabiosa said. “And [there are] several other mandates in Brazil, Argentina, the European Union and several other countries. They have biofuel mandates. Those will sustain high prices of agricultural commodities in our outlook.”

Fabiosa said those mandates, coupled with increasing populations and increasing income growth in many countries in the world, create “a very strong demand for agricultural products for fuel, food and for feed.”

He said this is a new dynamic in the agricultural market.

FAPRI scientists, along with other scientists at the University of Missouri, will brief members of the agriculture committees in Congress about these projections, as they do every year.

The briefing can help Congress make policy decisions, Fabiosa said.

The 2007 Farm Bill is an important piece of legislation being considered by Congress, and Fabiosa said FAPRI’s projections could affect some of the changes made to the bill.

For example, Fabiosa said, the projection that the market will be strong might cause members of Congress to argue that reducing subsidies to farmers would be acceptable.

Simla Tokg”z, international grain analyst at FAPRI, said the projections cover such aspects of the market as production, consumption, net trade and stocks.

“We provide information on supply and utilization and prices,” Tokg”z said.

The outlook spans 10 years and covers both the U.S. and international agricultural markets in the areas of livestock, dairy, grains, oil seeds, sugar and biofuels, she said.

“Our outlook publication is important in an environment where the biofuel market is expanding,” Tokg”z said.