Is the demand of American and European consumers for organic foods a good thing? In this WebMemo ITIF looks at the costs of the growing organic food trend.

This report shows how IT is the key enabler of many of today’s key improvements in our lives and society—from better education and health care, to a cleaner and more energy-efficient environment, to safer and more secure communities and nations.

In a recent Huffington Post blog posting, Rob Atkinson argues argues that, instead of embracing growth policies to raise productivity in all the sectors of its economy, China, like many developing nations, has erected neo-mercantilist policies designed to favor a few select export sectors. Not only are these trade practices unfair, but they are not the best way to raise living standards – in China and elsewhere. It’s time to develop a new global consensus that domestic productivity growth should be the key focus of economic policy in every nation.

Professor Ken Kraemer, the co-author of a recent study of IT value chains, discussed the nature of the global supply chain for the iPod and notebook computer: where value is created, what each nation specializes in, and how much value each captures. Kraemer and ITIF President Rob Atkinson then discussed what kinds of public policies the United States needs to adopt to ensure that we stay competitive and capture a larger share of the value chain.

A discussion of the importance of four free trade agreements currently under consideration, featuring Jamie Estrada, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing, U.S. Department of Commerce; Marc Lautenbach, Americas General Manager, IBM Corporation; and John Zogby, pollster president of Zogby International.

Many nations use a host of unfair and protectionist policies to systematically disadvantage foreign, including U.S., technology companies in global competition. A newreport documents the myriad of unfair trade practices and outlines specific steps Congress and the Administration can take to combat this new wave of technology protectionism.