ABSTRACT
The 1997 International Association of Agricultural Economists Conference in Sacramento, California, USA, was the 14th that included organized discussion groups. General discussion for the mini-symposium suggested that foreign direct investment data are problematical owing to different means of collection, different purposes for data collection, different definitions across countries, short time-series and non-disclosure by governments or companies of data in some cases for confidentiality or other reasons. The mini-symposium brought forth a range of perspectives on the globalization of the food economy. By exchanging reports on the experience of various countries attempting to develop environmentally beneficial agriculture for rural revitalization, a forum for cooperative research was established. The importance of the institutional structure, within which agricultural policy is developed, was high-lighted in a discussion of the differing political viewpoints relating to the agricultural sector in some of the nations of the European Union.
