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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Georgia: Peanuts vs. Cotton

Jeffrey Perloff, (2007), states that market pricing is related to three distinct tradeoffs regarding the decision to produce goods: 1. which goods are produced, 2. how goods are produced, and 3. who receives these goods once they are produced, (p. 3). Georgia’s peanut growing industry scaled back production from 685,000 acres to 508,000 acres in 2009 to bring supply and expected demand closer together. This was in part due to the 2008 distribution of salmonella tainted peanut butter associated with Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia, and also partly due to a reduction in European exports due to the global economic recession. Neither of these concerns ended up having a devastating consequence on peanut sales. In actuality, the U.S is in danger of losing too many peanut growers this year due to the unpredictability of pricing in the market and the large amount of peanuts already in storage. In actuality, peanut and peanut butter sales tend to increase during difficult economic times, (Smith, 2010), so the demand for peanuts is expected to increase this year.

Georgia will likely increase arable acreage devoted to peanut production this year to cover some amount of anticipated increase in sales, however, the amount of acreage available may be mitigated by prices for this year’s cotton crop. Cotton is expected to trade at between .70 and .80 per pound, whereas in the previous year cotton traded at between .50 and .60 per pound. This significant increase in the price of cotton is primarily due to deficits in the international cotton market, especially in China, Turkey, and Vietnam, (Smith, 2010). An additional mitigation factor that could affect the peanut crop would be the harvest period. Both cotton and peanuts are harvested at the same time in Georgia leading to possible shortages in the number of machinery and workers available to harvest peanuts as workers needed to harvest peanuts would most likely be harvesting cotton instead.

Canada is the single largest customer for U.S. peanut butter, consuming more per capita than the U.S. Additionally Mexico is expected to continue being one of the best foreign markets. Consumption of peanuts and peanut butter in European markets is expected to be curtailed as sales there are more affected by the economic recession, (Smith, 2010).

References:

Perloff, J. M. (2007). Microeconomics (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Addison Wesley.
Smith, R. (2010, March 10). Contracts short for Virginia-type peanuts. Southeast

Farm Press. Retrieved from http://southeastfarmpress.com/peanuts/virginia-peanuts-0310/index.html

Smith, R. (2010, March 18). Peanut demand remains strong. Southeast Farm Press. Retrieved from http://southeastfarmpress.com/peanuts/peanut-markets-0318/

Smith, R. (2010, March 24). Cotton market bullish awhile. Southeast Farm Press. Retrieved from http://southeastfarmpress.com/cotton/cotton-markets-0324/index.html

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David Hector Thibodeau

1045 Wylie Street SE • Atlanta, GA 30316

• davidhectorthibodeau@gmail.com



Professional Experience:



Georgia College & State University - Milledgeville, GA 31061 2008 - Present

www.gcsu.edu



­Serials/Acquisitions Coordinator

­• Establish policies and procedures for the efficient operation of the Serials and Acquisitions Department, oversees database maintenance and quality, and processing of materials.

­• Supervise full-time faculty, staff, and student positions.

­• Manage electronic serials collection using electronic management software systems.

­• Update bibliographic holdings for serials collection using standard library utilities.

­• Direct all major projects and daily activities involving the management of the serials collection.

­• Oversee participation in National Library of Medicine’s DOCLINE ILL program.

­• Meet with department faculty to review their acquisitions needs and serve as a library liaison with academic departments.

­• Provides assistance and advice to the Dean/University Librarian in the overall administration of the library, including strategic planning and the establishment of overall goals and objectives.

­• Assist library administration in monitoring the budget and expenditures, recommends equipment, supplies, personnel, and other needs. Perform fiscal period close in Voyager integrated library system.

­• Serve as primary liaison to vendors and as the technical contact for electronic databases, including setting up trials, negotiating licensing agreements, managing SLAs, and authoring RFQs and other correspondence.

­• Participate in collection development to support the curriculum by recommending acquisitions and participating in the evaluation of current collections.

­• Develop and prepare statistical and narrative reports.

­• Provide reference services as assigned.



KPMG LLP - Atlanta, GA 10/2003 - 10/2007

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Southeast Area Library Associate

­• Relocated from Miami to Atlanta by KPMG due to assuming additional offices in 2006.

­• Reference, research, and collection management for fifteen Southeast area libraries.

­• Developed on-line training sessions for proprietary accounting research platform.

­• Set up, developed, and administered SharePoint internal collaboration web site.

­• Liaison to National Operations teams on SharePoint development.

­• Redeveloped external acquisitions web site to be high functioning and suitable for firm-wide use.

­• Collaborated with marketing department to improve collateral for delivery to clients and targets.

­• Account contact and administrator for firm-wide on-line subscription.

­• Coordinated development of the Latin American Tax Handbook between the European Tax Centre, the Latin American Tax Center, and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.

­• Led a team to develop an electronic tool to survey library users.

­• Appointed Work Environment Initiative Local Action Committee Representative in South Florida.

­• Promoted from Area Library Coordinator to Area Library Associate and relocated from Boston to Miami in 2003; originally responsible for library collections, acquisitions, vendor relations, and accounts in 13 Northeast area offices.



KPMG LLP - Boston, MA 03/200- - 10/2003

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Northeast Area Library Coordinator

­• Implemented integrated library system software in area libraries.

­• Assisted in creating a collection development database on MS Access to track expenditures.

­• Substantially decreased print purchases through resource sharing and eliminating duplicative materials.

­• Developed electronic process for Partners to select and order professional literature annually that resulted in $60K savings in the Northeast in the first year, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Piloted on-line access to tax literature platform in Northeast Area that resulted in over $25K cost savings in Northeast area and a wider distribution of resources, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Coordinated and developed training programs for Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, and other information platforms for professionals and support staff, (project adopted firm wide).



Education:



American Intercontinental University

­• 2010 – Present, MBA – Project Management Concentration



­Simmons College--Boston, MA

­• Summer 2000; audited - Knowledge Management

­• Summer 1999; audited- Management of Information Technology

­• 1996-1998 MLIS, Graduate School of Library and Information Science



­Boston College--Newton, MA

­• 1984-1988 BA, College of Arts and Sciences: Double Major: English and Psychology





­Hebrew University--Jerusalem, Israel

­• Summer 1988 & summer 1990, Assistant Archaeological Field Supervisor and associated graduate level classes.



Leadership:



Georgia Leadership Institute – State Personnel Administration

­• 2009 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People



­Florida Library Leadership Program -- Tallahassee, FL

­• 2005-2006 - Year-long comprehensive series of learning sessions that focuses on developing an understanding of leadership, within a conceptual framework and practical applications.



Certifications:



Emory University - Center for Lifelong Learning – Atlanta, GA

­• 2008 - Emory University: Management Certification.

­• Courses included: Essentials of Personnel Management, Win-Win Negotiations, Essentials of Supervision, Essentials of Motivation, and Essentials of Coaching for Managers.



­New Horizons--Boston, MA

­• 2002 - Certified Internet Webmaster – Foundation Fundamentals

­• Courses included: Networking, Internet, and Web-Page Authoring Fundamentals.



Professional Memberships:

SLA Georgia Chapter Board Member 2009 - Present

­Tennis Club II Condominium Association President, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2005-2006

­Member: ALA, NASIG, CIP



Skills / Strengths:

• Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, Factiva, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, & other information databases.

­• Conversational French, some Spanish

­• MS office: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, SharePoint, Visio, and Project.