A five-year linear programming farm planning model, permitting the inclusion of nitrogen decay rates, was constructed to include the use of sewage sludge as a primary crop nutrient source. Twenty-two scenarios depicting various operating conditions were examined and maximized net farm incomes compared.

Although only a small percentage difference resulted between the highest and the lowest net revenues over the five-year period, given a variety of operating circumstances, those scenarios including the use of sludge yielded the highest net incomes. Nitrogen application restrictions were at their upper limits when sludge use was included in the optimal solution. The calculation of net present values, for the two sludge contents considered, provided value estimates compatible with the linear programming solutions.

The food processing industry is Canada's second-largest manufacturing industry. It employed 226,579 people in 1986, and shipments were valued at CDN $47 billion, or 15 percent of the value of total manufactured output that year. More significantly, the food and beverage industries together ranked highest among all manufacturing industries in terms of value added, at CDN $15 billion or approximately 14 percent of total value added in Canadian manufacturing industries in 1986 (Statistics Canada). Given the high degree of competition in this industry in the United States, the history of “comfortable” competition in the food industry in Canada, and the significant contribution of this industry to the Canadian economy, it becomes important to look more carefully at how this industry has been and will be affected by the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Agricultural problems associated with population growth have been analyzed in the Northeast for some time. The loss of cropland and the effect on agricultural output have been documented by Otte and Krause. In addition to the actual loss of agricultural land, changes in land-use, taxation and agricultural input infrastructure continue to be analyzed. Indeed, rural land-use policy researchers in the Northeast have provided national leadership for several institutional innovations, e.g. agricultural districts, transferable development right sales and differential assessments. The Conference on Rural Land-Use Policy in the Northeast held at Atlantic City in 1974 and the on-going regional research project, “Rural Land Use Policy in an Urbanizing Environment” attest to the continued research in this area.

Three major problems appear common to recent research efforts aimed at measurement and assessment of the adequacy of community services. These include:

1. (i) difficulties and inconsistencies which relate to the definition and interpretation of utilization behavior,

2. (ii) econometric misspecification—e.g., omission of critical variables affecting needs or use—, and

3. (iii) choice of inappropriate estimation technique when the dependent variable (e.g., use or non-use of the service) is dichotomous.

The dwelling unit is often described as the focal point or hub in the delivery of a whole array of services to a household. It delivers “physical space … sanitary and cooking facilities …” and its geographic location provides access to a particular neighborhood and affects proximity and access to jobs, retail stores, public services, association with other people, and cultural and religious facilities. Thus, housing has a very important role in human resource development, and, subsequently, in economic growth and development. In general, housing plays an important role in the quality of life and living.

This paper examines the impact of PST on the optimal production/marketing decisions of a grow-finish hog farm operation. The analysis evaluates PST from three angles: the feed efficiency effect, the leaner meat price effect, and the aggregate-supply-induced price effect. When limited to the feed efficiency effect only, the primary response to the new technology is to increase the animal turnover rate of the operation. When the leaner meat price effect is also included, marketing weight increases while turnover rate remains relatively unchanged. Additionally, if the increased aggregate supply depressed the market price by more than 10%, the benefits from improved feed efficiency and leaner meat will be completely dissipated. Aggregate price adjustments (reductions) of less than 10 percent maintained positive producer benefits resulting from improved feed efficiency and leaner meat.

We conduct a laboratory experiment to test for the existence of the endowment effect—a gap between willingness to accept and willingness to pay—for improved drinking water quality using a within-subject design. We find a statistically significant and positive gap. Willingness to accept is 62 to 125 cents higher than willingness to pay on average, indicating the presence of endowment effects. This gap is robust to information about the quality of water being consumed. We also identify some heterogeneity in the size of the gaps that is associated with differences in subjects' knowledge of drinking water quality and disparities in their incomes.

This study presents the environmental impacts of agricultural policy instruments as evidence from an ex-ante farm-level policy simulation model in Japan. Simulations did indicate that all types of agri-environmental payments achieved the environmental benefit for the land studied. Conversely, market price support does not inevitably increase nitrogen runoff or greenhouse gas emissions at any time since paddy fields themselves have the function of purifying water pollution and work as a biodiversity nursery. The direction and magnitude of the policy impacts are an empirical matter that should be considered carefully at a local level.

In response to survival challenges, small farms in the United States undertake decisions to minimize downside risk or maximize gross revenue. Using primary survey data of small farms in Tennessee, we examined farmers’ strategic decisions on specialization or other forms of diversification and estimated the impacts of these decisions on farm financial performance. We found that farmer’s age, farmland holdings, use of a smartphone in farm-related activities, and off-farm work significantly influenced these strategic decisions. Our multinomial endogenous switching regression estimates suggested that small farms could attain significantly higher performance, around 45% higher gross farm income and a 30% higher return on assets, by adding alternative on-farm enterprises.

Four key policy challenges, framed here as dichotomies, are commonly associated with attempts to improve the use of natural resources in the socioecological commons. These dichotomies present tradeoffs when addressing market failures and in general seem to suggest the need to settle for second-best outcomes rather than first-best outcomes identified in stylized models. Citing examples, we argue that these models, while illustrating these dichotomies, also suggest means for circumventing them, and perhaps provide a degree of optimism about prospective outcomes in socioecological systems.

Using the public-use files of the Canadian Community Health Survey and a difference-in-differences methodology, we estimate the impact of a universal income transfer (the Universal Child Care Benefit) on food insecurity, separately for adults and children within households. The income transfer reduced the risk of overall food insecurity by 20% at the child level, and the effect was larger in households with lower education or income. The transfer also reduced the likelihood of moderate/severe food insecurity among adults in single-parent families, as well as adults and children in households with secondary education or less. These findings withstand several robustness checks.

There exists no mechanism for federal agencies, national laboratories, industry, and academic institutions to set a national environmental research agenda. Moreover, funding for social science research is inadequate for providing a sound scientific basis for making environmental policy. Despite this lack of leadership, it is quite possible to define an environmental economic research agenda that could lead to improved policies for protecting and managing the environment. The present paper makes some recommendations from an insider's viewpoint.

Control of sediment has become increasingly important as an element of many water quality improvement programs. An analytical method using the universal soil loss equation and linear programming to determine the cost-effectiveness of alternative sediment control practices is developed. Applications of this method to four case study farms and a hypothetical watershed are analyzed. The analyses illustrate the need for developing priorities so as to achieve greatest reduction in sediment losses per dollar of cost. The costs per unit of sediment reduction vary greatly with area, soil, and strategy or technique used.

This study investigates the effects on the U.S. cotton industry of textile trade liberalization using a multi-market equilibrium displacement model. The simulation results suggest that textile trade liberalization would induce small changes in the total demand for U.S. cotton but would affect considerably U.S. cotton demand structure, making U.S. cotton growers more dependent on world markets. The welfare analyses reveal that textile trade liberalization would result in a small welfare loss for U.S. cotton producers. As expected, textile trade liberalization also would lead to considerable substitution of imports for domestic production and substantial declines in prices of all textile products.

Nearly level terrain, heavy soils, and impermeable subsoil horizons commonly cause poor drainage in Northern New York. Forty-five percent of the cropland in this region is classified as poorly drained (Lucey). The soils in this area dry slowly, consequently restricting the effective length of the growing season. Production of corn is marginal and the establishment of legume seedings is prevented by poor drainage. Poor drainage is only a single characteristic of a farm's soil resource, but it has multiple effects. Farm managers have adjusted to poor drainage by using grass hay crops as a forage base and by adopting other management practices which utilize land more extensively.

Point-of-use/point-of-entry treatment can provide an affordable means for rural residents on private wells to remedy groundwater contamination. Cooperation among homeowners was hypothesized to be a means of further reducing treatment costs due to quantity discounts and avoidance of dealer mark-ups. Data obtained through a mail survey of water treatment firms was used to test this hypothesis. Individual and group purchase, installation and maintenance costs and manufacturer and dealer costs were compared using analysis of variance. Results indicate a cooperative treatment approach may provide benefits due to quantity discounts but little potential exists for savings via direct manufacturer purchase.

Crop yields which determine farm income deficiency payments have been frozen at 1981-1985 levels since 1986. Data from a longitudinal survey of Ohio farm operators are analyzed to evaluate whether updating payment yields will differentially affect farm operators. Results of the analysis imply that farm operators who operate larger farms, live in counties with higher yields, and have higher fertilizer and pesticide expenses per acre of corn will benefit more. In addition, low (high) existing payment yields are understated (overstated) relative to updated payment yields.

The energy crunch of the mid-seventies has adversely affected the greenhouse tomato industry in the North Central and Northeast regions. Traditionally, these two regions had been the main producers of greenhouse tomatoes in the U.S. where, because of the climatic restriction, greenhouse tomato production evolved to supply fresh tomatoes during winter and spring months. Since greenhouse producers in the north rely on fossil fuels for heating purposes, their production costs have escalated, thereby tending to price these tomatoes out of the market. In recent years many greenhouse tomato producers in the northern regions have either ceased production or switched into alternative enterprises. For instance, the Census of Agriculture reported 45 growers in Massachusetts in 1974, with covered areas of 535,842 square feet; by 1979, according to extension experts, the number declined to 25 and the area declined to between 150,000 and 200,000 square feet. The number of growers in New Jersey declined from 42 in the 1974 census to only 19 in 1979. Similar declines have occurred in New York and Pennsylvania.

Present land use control mechanisms are seen as inadequate for the preservation of open space, agricultural land, and other “uneconomic” uses of land. Many proposals have been cited as possible solutions to the problems created by present land use control mechanisms. The transfer of development rights (hereafter known as TDR's) is one such proposal. This mechanism for land use control can be of several forms. There are severe theoretical and practical problems, to be discussed, which a transfer of development rights program must overcome if it is to function in practical application.