For most economic goods market participants are ‘not forced to make a deal.’ They can walk away, perhaps permanently, or revisit a transaction later if the terms of trade are more to their liking. That is not the case for food. It is a biological necessity to participate in the food market. This coercive property of food demand and other unique market characteristics make the agricultural sector very unresponsive to changes in price and hence—in contrast to textbook expectations—its ability to quickly self-correct. In recent decades agricultural policy legislation has not taken into account the root causes of agriculture's chronic price and income problems. As a result, it has been largely ineffective and unnecessarily expensive. We argue in this paper that a well-designed supply management program can take agriculture's unique characteristics into account in a way that benefits farmers, consumers and the public as a whole.

Nearly two decades into the 21st century, we revisit the topic of changes in the US agricultural system. We focus on trends in structure, technology and policy, and on the increasing influence of consumer preferences on this system, particularly for organic agriculture and local and regional foods. We examine technological innovations in the 21st century, including biotechnology, precision agriculture and indoor farming. Within overall trends toward consolidation, we identify an increasing number of vegetable farms and greenhouse operations, accompanied by a decrease in average size of those operations. We note the shift away from price support toward greater reliance on risk management in farm policy, and also track the impact of food movement trends on recent farm bills. While farm bill policies continue to focus on conventional field crop agriculture, some trends—expanded crop insurance, conservation program support and spending on federal data collection, research and community-based grants, for example—have begun to incorporate the growing movement toward organic, local and regional food systems into the mainstream of US agricultural production and policy.

Had only a farm program like the new ACRE state revenue program existed instead of the authorized 1996–2008 programs for com, soybeans, and wheat, farm support expenditures would have occurred earlier but totaled less. In contrast, at the higher prices forecast for the three crops over the 2009–2012 crop years, spending per acre is expected to be higher for acres enrolled in the ACRE program than for acres enrolled in the traditional programs. These results reflect the different design features of the two programs: revenue versus price assistance and assistance levels that adjust with lagged market revenue versus fixed nominal support triggers. The design issues and policy questions raised for both domestic policy considerations and WTO compliance are discussed.

A major objective ofthe Food Security Act of 1985 was to make the United States more competitive in world markets. U.S. wheat exports in 1987/88 were 75 percent above their 1985/86 level. This paper analyzes the change in U.S. competitiveness in wheat exports by quantitatively assessing those factors responsible for this export expansion. The results indicate that about half of the increase can be attributed to the provisions ofthe 1985 Act. About 40 percent ofthe increase is due to nonprice factors in the Soviet Union and China—namely production shortfalls and domestic policies—that increased import demand. The rest is due to reduced competitor yields.

The purpose of this study was to describe an LP/IO model for evaluating the economic impacts of alternative farm policies on rural communities and demonstrate its capabilities by analyzing the impacts of three farm policies on a rural community in Texas. Results indicate that in the noncrop sector, two groups of industries are most affected by farm policy. The first group relates to production directly (agricultural services, banking and credit, and nondurable manufacturing) and the second group relates to households (retail trade and services). Farm policies which reduce production but increase net returns cause losses for the first group while benefitting the second group. Both groups are made worse off by farm policies which reduce agricultural production and the value of output.

This study investigates the factors likely to affect an individual’s decision to enter farming after and/or while participating in an off-farm employment activity. Additionally, an ordered multivariate regression procedure was used to analyze the degree of importance of selected motivating reasons that were drivers of individuals’ decision to enter farming. Results indicate that individuals with lower education, children in the household, and older family members were more likely to have entered farming as an occupation. Findings further suggest that federal policies in the form of farm program payments may provide retired nonfarm workers incentives to enter farming in later life.

A whole farm Monte Carlo simulation model was used to simulate a typical rice farm on the Texas Gulf Coast for 10 years under the 1980, 1981, and 1982 income tax provisions. Results for this analysis indicate that the 1981 tax provisions clearly were more beneficial to farm operators than the 1980 or 1982 income tax provisions. While the 1981 and 1982 tax law changes clearly improved the cash flow of farm operators, they did not greatly improve the wealth positions of farm operators in the Texas Gulf Coast.

Farm-level data from Illinois and Kansas for the 1991-2007 crops are used to examine the interaction and overlap among crop revenue insurance, Supplemental Revenue Assistance (SURE), and Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE). Compared with 75% Crop Revenue Coverage Insurance (75% CRCP), ACRE provides more payments and has a greater impact on minimum farm revenue for the Illinois farms. In contrast, for the Kansas farms, 75% CRCP has the greater impact. SURE's relative impact on the Illinois and Kansas farms depends on the metric. The overlap in payments from ACRE and 75% CRCP resulting from covering the same part of the revenue risk distribution is estimated to be less than 5% of ACRE payments. Several proposals for improving the farm safety net are discussed.

The development of the commodity programs in the 2008 Farm Bill involved the origination of two complex revenue support initiatives. The two new programs, Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) and Supplemental Revenue Assurance (SURE), expanded the risk management tool kit of agricultural producers. The SURE program is a permanent disaster assistance program, whereas the ACRE program is a revenue-based commodity program offered as an alternative to the price-based Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program (DCP) created in the 2002 Farm Bill. For the 2009 signup, only 7.7% of eligible U.S. farms enrolled in the ACRE program. In the southern region, three states had no farms electing ACRE and four others had less than 50. Excluding Oklahoma, less than 1% of all farms in 13 southern states made the ACRE election.

The transition away from forage-based cropping systems in Iowa to corn and soybean rotations since World War II has corresponded with degraded economic and environmental conditions in the state. Falling net incomes for farmers and concern over global warming and the effects of agriculture-related pollution on water, wildlife and human health have increased interest in diversified cropping systems. This paper reviews the benefits of diversifying Iowa corn and soybean rotations with perennial forage species such as alfalfa and red clover. Perennial forage crops improve soil quality, decrease NO3-N leaching and soil erosion, increase carbon sequestration and decrease pesticide and herbicide needs by controlling weed and insect pests. Forage legumes reduce N fertilizer needs for succeeding corn crops at a higher rate than soybeans, and corn crops following forages have higher yields than after corn or soybeans. Farmers who add alfalfa to corn and soybean rotations could realize significant economic gains. A simulated 5-year rotation in Iowa including corn–soybeans–oats/alfalfa–alfalfa–alfalfa would result in a 24% net income increase over 5 years of corn–soybean–corn–soybean–corn, even with government farm support payments for the row crops. Farm policies that encourage commodity production create little incentive for Iowa farmers to diversify their cropping systems beyond corn and soybeans, despite the clear economic and ecological benefits. We recommend increasing federal support for conservation programs that reward environmentally beneficial farm practices such as the Conservation Securities Program and we encourage land grant universities to hire researchers interested in alternative agricultural systems.

Two conventional cropping systems (winter wheat/dry peas and winter wheat/spring barley/dry peas) in the dryland grain region of southeastern Washington were compared with several alternative systems regarding profitability and environmental impacts. Two of the alternative systems use green manure crops and have low fertilizer and pesticide requirements. The remaining two are otherwise conventional rotations modified to include soil-building crops, bluegrass seed and rapeseed.

Estimates of annual off-site erosion damage ranged from $6.56 to $20.50 per rotational acre, while on-site damage estimates ranged from $0.50 to $1.55 per rotational acre. Estimated leaching losses of pesticides to a water table 3.6 feet deep were negligible, but significant leaching losses of nitrate-N were predicted to occur from fall-applied inorganic fertilizer.

Including bluegrass in a conventional grain rotation increased estimated net returns over variable costs by 16% and decreased soil loss by 33% compared with the most profitable conventional rotation. The next most profitable alternative system, rapeseed plus a conventional grain rotation, had slightly higher net returns over variable costs than the second most profitable conventional rotation, with slightly less soil loss. When fixed costs of machinery depreciation and land are included, the alternative systems fared relatively better. An experimental wheat/pea/medic system had higher projected net returns over total costs than the most profitable conventional rotation, while averaging just one-third as much soil loss per year. A wheat/barley/sweetclover green manure rotation was similar in profitability to the less profitable conventional rotation, but had only two-thirds as much soil loss.

We constructed a mixed-integer linear programming model to determine the profitmaximizing combination of conventional and alternative rotations under 1990 farm bill provisions. Planting all or nearly all land to the bluegrass plus conventional grain rotation maximized returns over total costs for high, medium, and low program crop price scenarios. Farmers maximized profit by participating in both the wheat and barley programs under the low price scenario, only in the wheat program with moderate prices, and in neither the wheat nor the barley program under the high price scenario.

Farm programs influence the profitability of a crop rotation through five effects: (1) a deficiency payment (DP) effect, (2) an acreage reduction (ARP) effect, (3) a base effect, (4) a crop price effect, and (5) a risk reduction effect. This study initially examines ARP and DP effects of the 1985 Farm Bill on the relative profitability of a low-input rotation and a grain-intensive conventional rotation in Washington state over 1986–1990. In years of low deficiency payments or high foregone returns from ARP land, the low-input green manure rotation was competitive with the conventional rotation but lost its advantage in years of low ARP costs or high deficiency payments. Long-runincentives to maintain wheat base introduced a consistent bias against the low-input green manure rotation. Planting flexibility options proposed during the 1990 Farm Bill debate could reduce farm program barriers to green manure and other low-input rotations. The Bush Administration's Normal Crop Acreage (NCA) proposal, which was not accepted in the 1990 legislation, would have largely eliminated base erosion for the green manure rotation in this study. More importantly, non-ARP green manure acreage would have qualified for deficiency payments under the NCA, thereby sharply increasing the low-input rotation's relative profitability. Proposals like the NCA might receive further attention in the future due to environmental concerns, fiscal pressures, or possible trade agreements requiring multilateral phaseout of agricultural subsidies coupled to commodities.