Corn containing high levels of available phosphorus (HAP) allows poultry to use more of the phosphorus they consume and could potentially reduce contamination of water from run-off. This study uses a conjoint analysis survey of Delmarva corn growers to model adoption of hypothetical HAP varieties over a three-year period. An optimal variety has a low technology fee and yield drag and a high harvest premium. Adoption of HAP corn increases during the period although growers’ tolerance of technology fees and yield drags diminishes over time. Adoption is further affected by farm size, farmer age, and the portion of income from corn.

North American agriculture is passing through yet another period of adjustment in markets, production levels, and government programs. The adjustment grows out of an enormous change in global food conditions after 1980. Nations that traditionally imported large amounts of foodstuffs begin to move toward greater self-sufficiency and nations that exported to them saw surpluses began to pile up in their warehouses. The burden of these shifts was not borne evenly by exporting nations. The United States experienced a dramatic downturn in its food exports while other nations, often using government subsidies to gain market share, went on increasing production and exports.

Program outreach activities are integral components of social welfare programs, but the relationship between availability of outreach services and households’ program participation has not been examined due to lack of data on outreach efforts. This study uses a unique, nationally representative, matched household-agency data set of more than 21,000 households from 2009 to examine relationships between household participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and outreach and eligibility services offered by local agencies. When agencies provide applications to clients of emergency food pantries and submit their applications to SNAP administrative offices, the probability of household participation in SNAP increases 5–6 percentage points.

This study examined the null hypothesis that getting started in farming in the 1970's was not more difficult than it was in earlier periods in the twentieth century. Comparative budgets were constructed using farm survey and farm account data for three different regions at four different time periods. In terms of years of farm wages required to earn beginning equity and cash flow to meet debt payments and family living costs, the null hypothesis was accepted. In general 1978–80 was more like 1910–12 than the more difficult times of 1930–32 and 1950–52.

We compare the research productivity of faculties housed in departments offering doctoral degrees in agricultural economics (AgEcon) with faculties housed in departments offering doctoral degrees in economics (Econ) that specialize in environmental and resource economics. Rankings are based on faculty publications in EconLit between 1985 and 2010. We find that AgEcon departments publish more papers and rate higher overall on productivity measures than Econ departments but that average productivity is greater for Econ departments. AgEcon publications dominate the Journal of Economic Literature's (JEL's) agriculture (Q1) subdiscipline while Econ and AgEcon departments publish evenly in the other Q subdisciplines.

Pest control efforts for tree fruits, as well as other agricultural crops, have intensified in the U.S. during the past few decades. This increase is the result of the increase in pest population, the Food and Drug Administration's reduction in tolerance levels of insect parts permitted in foods, and the raising of cosmetic standards by food wholesalers and retailers (Hough and Gallahan).

Data on farm numbers are widely discussed and frequently misinterpreted. These numbers comprise one of the nation's oldest and most basic statistical series. As such they are a fundamental part of our agricultural data system. This paper argues that American farms should be classified into three separate categories for both descriptive and analytical purposes. Such divisions will allow us to understand more fully the changes in farming which have occurred and the implications of changes now in progress. Rates of change in size distributions, productivity and net income may be examined in perspective. Public understanding of the policy issues involved will be enhanced.

Discussions about increasing diversity in economics have ignored the role that associations play in the engagement of underrepresented economists. We continue work on diversity and inclusion in the Northeastern Agriculture and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) and other associations by analyzing membership and meeting attendance to promote diversity in economics. We estimate a vector error correction model (VECM) to identify the determinants of membership and meeting attendance and use member survey data to model membership and meeting attendance behavior. We find inequalities across gender, income, and professional status. Recommendations include locating meetings in accessible cities, increasing networking opportunities, and providing more services supporting underrepresented groups.

Gauging the impact of recent policy changes, this article analyzes production characteristics and the impact of the dairy assessment for northeastern dairy farmers as compared to other major production regions. Employing a restricted translog variable profit function, returns to size, shadow prices, supply elasticities for milk and livestock as well as demand elasticities for concentrate were estimated. Northeastern, just as midwestern farmers, were less responsive in milk supply and concentrate demand, more responsive in livestock production, and less efficient than their California and Texas counterparts. The dairy assessment affected profits of northeastern farmers later than those of other regions. Negative shadow prices indicated overinvestment into fixed factors.

We develop a theoretical framework and present a corresponding empirical analysis of the Food and Drug Administration’s irrigation water quality regulatory standard under the Food Safety Modernization Act using lettuce as a case study. We develop a stochastic price endogenous partial equilibrium model with recourse to examine the standard’s efficacy under various scenarios of foodborne illness severity, standard implementation, demand response to foodborne outbreaks, and irrigation costs. The stringency of regulation is evaluated with endogenous producer response to regulatory requirements and corresponding implications for economic surplus. The baseline results show that in the case of the lettuce market, the proposed microbial irrigation water quality regulation in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is not cost effective relative to the existing Leafy-Greens Marketing Agreements relying on water treatment for mitigation of microbial contamination. However, FSMA can be cost effective if water treatment is sufficiently expensive.

This paper presents research on the benefits of removing legacy pollutants in Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). AOCs are heavily polluted coastal locations identified as priorities for restoration under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between the United States and Canada. Legacy pollutants pose a human and environmental health risk that can limit opportunities for redevelopment, recreation, and wildlife habitats. The AOC program improves water quality through remediation and restoration projects, which may increase the desirability of living in proximity to AOCs. In this paper, we estimate the economic benefit of cleaning up part of the Milwaukee Estuary AOC with a two-part sorting model using panel data on neighborhood populations and moving decisions before and after a series of remediation actions. Our results provide evidence that residents value remediation, though estimates are sensitive to the definition of the cleanup area. The average annual benefit for a household living near the AOC just downstream of cleanup is $268, with a range of $28-$499 depending on their race and tenure group; the aggregate benefit is $350 million. Results indicate a large difference in benefits between renters and owners but statistically insignificant differences between race groups.

In October 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released a report classifying processed meat as a type 1 carcinogen. The report prompted headlines and attracted immediate public attention, but the economic impacts remain unknown. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of the IARC report on selected processed meat prices and purchases using retail scanner data from US grocery stores. We compare changes in prices and sales of selected processed meat products to a constructed synthetic control group (using a convex combination of nonmeat food products). We find a significant decrease in bacon prices in the wake of the IARC report release, but we find no evidence of a sales reduction. We find no significant changes in price and sales for ham and sausage. The pattern of price and quantity changes are consistent with downward shifts in demand and outward shifts in supply for bacon and sausage following the release of the IARC report.

Government programs promoting locally produced foods have risen dramatically. But are these programs actually convincing consumers to pay more for locally produced food? Studies to date, which have mostly relied on hypothetical stated preference surveys, suggest that consumers will pay premiums for various local foods and that the premiums vary with the product and presence of any geographic identity. This study reports results from a large field experiment involving 1,050 adult consumers to reveal consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) premiums for “locally produced” foods – mushrooms and oysters. Despite strong statistical power, this study reveals no positive effect of the locally produced label on consumer WTP. These null results are contrary to most of the existing literature on this topic. The finding that consumers are not willing to pay more for local foods has important implications for state and federal agencies that promote labeling campaigns that seek to increase demand and generate premiums for locally produced foods.

Canadian agricultural trade promotion expenditures have dramatically increased from C$.4 million in 1969/70 to C$26.5 million in 1981/82. To evaluate the effect of these expenditures on agricultural exports an econometric analysis is presented in this study. The extended distributed lag model for export demand is developed and estimated using an iterative autoregressive least squares with instrumental variable (IALSI) method of estimation. The results reveal that the trade promotion programs (aggregate expenditure levels) have had a statistically significant effect on agricultural exports. The analysis of dynamic multipliers indicates that the effect of trade promotion expenditure on export levels is likely to decline gradually and last for about a five-year period. Also, the real export demand for aggregate agricultural products is found close to unitary elastic with respect to the real export price variable.

Contamination of groundwater by agricultural practices presents a dilemma between protecting a vital resource and maintaining a valuable part of the economy. Policies to balance these objectives are presented. In addition to an historical baseline, policies that ban certain pesticides, taxes and subsidies, and control cultural practices are also considered. A model is developed to reflect the current state of agriculture in Eastern Suffolk County. This model consists of a recursive programming component, which has input for it generated by a stochastic model of Colorado potato beetle pest dynamics and management strategies to control those pests. While income is reduced by banning pesticides, the reduction is small when compared with the improvement in environmental quality. Further efforts to reduce pesticide use resulted in a reduction in potato acreage and incomes, as well as yields. Analysis concludes that improvements in both farm income and environmental quality could be achieved through the adoption of subsidies for low-input conservation crops.

A long term whole farm analysis comparing conventional and low-input farming systems is reviewed. A computational error led to the mistaken conclusion that conventional farming with government programs is less preferred by risk-averse farmers than the low input alternative. The greater income variance of conventional agriculture need not make it less preferred provided a higher mean income sufficiently offsets the higher variance.

Agricultural economics became a formalized program at the University of New Hampshire fifty one years ago. During the first thirty five years, the program was primarily a traditional agricultural economics program emphasizing farm management, agricultural marketing, agricultural policy and related subjects. However, during the past fifteen years, the program has undergone profound changes and evolved into one which places emphasis on natural resource economics and community development. In this paper, I will discuss the evolution of the agriculture/resource economics at the University of New Hampshire and look at the changes in course offerings, student enrollment, faculty staffing and factors that have been responsible for the changes that have occurred. Then, I will discuss some of the factors that may influence the future trends in the Resource Economics teaching and research program during the next few years.

The decision to adopt a potentially profitable but unfamiliar conservation technology is cast in a multi-period Bayesian framework. Specifically, dairy farmers who are both risk-averse and susceptible to peer group influence progressively learn about the true impact of adopting reduced phosphorus dairy diets on their income distributions as they repeatedly experiment with this new technology. Empirically calibrated simulations are used to examine the effects of a voluntary green payment program on the rate of technological diffusion. Results suggest that (a) green payments can accelerate learning and produce significant, permanent changes in behavior relatively quickly and for a reasonable cost; (b) shorter contracts offering larger incentives may be more cost-effective when learning plays an important role in behavioral change; and (c) unknown prior beliefs can reduce the efficacy of a green payment program, implying efforts to verify these priors or to ensure against them by increasing the payment level may be worthwhile.