This paper investigates the farm-level impacts of the 1996 farm bill on the South. Focus group perceptions of risk sources, observed acreage changes, and the farm-level impact of increased price risk are evaluated. Focus group respondents ranked price and yield as the two most important sources of risk, and diversification was ranked highly as a risk-management tool. Limited data suggest that acreage shifts among crops are occurring in the South, presumably aided by the 1996 farm bill. Higher probabilities of cash flow deficits are estimated for cotton and rice relative to feedgrain, wheat, and oilseed operations.

In the wake of a severe economic crisis in the 1980s Costa Rica abandoned animport substitution model of development adopted in the 1960s andimplemented policies supporting foreign investment and the diversificationof its exports. This study presents an application of the model proposed byHerzer and Nowak-Lehnmann to test the hypothesis that export diversificationhas contributed to economic growth in Costa Rica via externalities oflearning-by-doing and learning-by-exporting over the period of 1965–2006.After using the autoregressive distributed lags and dynamic ordinary leastsquares models no long-run relationship was found between exportdiversification and growth.

Public health officials and physicians are concerned about possible development of bacterial resistance and potential effects on human health that may be related to the use of antimicrobial agents in livestock feed. The focus of this research is aimed at determining the economic effects that subtherapeutic bans of antimicrobials would have on both swine producers and consumers. The results show that a ban on growth promotants for swine would be costly, totaling $242.5 million annually, with swine producers sharing the larger portion in the short run and consumers sharing the larger portion in the long run.

The rapid adoption of genetically engineered (GE) crops by U.S. farmers suggests that these technologies have been perceived to improve farm financial performance. This study develops and applies an econometric model to data from corn and soybean producers in order to evaluate the financial impacts of the adoption of GE crops. Results indicate that the adoption of GE crops has had a limited impact on financial performance that varies by crop, type of technology, type of farm, and region of the nation. Factors other than the financial impacts appear to be important reasons for the rapid adoption of GE crops.

Recently enacted food safety regulations require processors to meet product standards for microbial contamination in meat products. An analysis of the cost-effectiveness of several technological interventions for microbial control in beef and pork processing shows that marginal improvements in food safety can be obtained, but at increasing costs. The additional food safety intervention costs represent about 1% of total processing costs for beef and pork. Some interventions and combinations are more cost-effective than others.

A choice experiment was conducted concurrently with eye-tracking technology to examine consumer preferences for local and organic produce, notably effects of logo- versus text-labeling formats. We find consumers prefer local to nonlocal, but some consumers will pay a higher premium for logo-labeled produce compared with text-labeled produce. Additionally, we find evidence that a local logo tends to attract attention quicker and hold attention longer compared with a text label. The organic text label was preferred by some consumers compared with the USDA certified organic logo, even with though consumers looked at the logo longer and more often.

The interval measurement approach was used to obtain risk preference measures for 23 Michigan farmers in 1979 and again in 1981. This paper analyzes how risk preferences of the individuals in this group of decisionmakers changed over a two year time period. Risk preferences were most stable near typically experienced personal income levels.

A hedonic price function is developed for estimating the implicit prices for selected quality characteristics of fresh tomatoes at three points in the marketing season. The estimation of this function, proposed as a method of evaluating changes in the post-harvest system, is accomplished using a flexible functional form. Those quality characteristics that most affect the price of tomatoes can help determine the economic feasibility of alternative handling techniques or new technologies.

A Just-Pope model was developed to assess tillage, nitrogen, weather, and pest effects on risk for cotton grown after alternative winter cover crops. Yield risk for cotton after hairy vetch was less than for cotton with no winter cover when no nitrogen fertilizer was used to Supplement the vetch nitrogen. However, because cotton after vetch has a higher production cost, farmers growing conventionally tilled cotton may be slow to adopt because risk-return tradeoffs may be unacceptable under risk neutrality and risk aversion. For risk-averse farmers who have already adopted no tillage, cotton grown after hairy vetch is risk efficient.

The economic feasibility of soybeans, grain sorghum, and corn in annualrotation with winter wheat using reduced tillage and no-tillage systems inthe Central Great Plains was evaluated, with continuous wheat and grainsorghum also analyzed. Net returns were calculated using simulated yield andprice distributions based on historical yields, two historical annual priceseries, and 2011 costs. Stochastic Efficiency with Respect to a Function wasused to determine the preferred strategies under various risk preferences.The no-till wheat-soybean and reduced-till wheat-soybean systems are thefirst and second most preferred, regardless of the level of riskaversion.

This paper examines the supply response of the Greek pork market. A GARCH process is used to estimate expected price and price volatility, while price and supply equations are estimated jointly. In addition to the standard GARCH model, several different symmetric, asymmetric, and nonlinear GARCH models are estimated. The empirical results indicate that among the estimated GARCH models, the quadratic NAGARCH model seems to better describe producers' price volatility, which was found to be an important risk factor of the supply response function of the Greek pork market. Furthermore, the empirical findings show that feed price is an important cost factor of the supply response function and that high uncertainty restricts the expansion of the Greek pork sector. Finally, the model provides forecasts for quantity supplied, producers' price, and price volatility.

Private investment in plant breeding has been increasing while public plant breeding has stagnated or declined. Moreover, research investment among crop commodities is uneven. Using a comprehensive survey of U.S. plant breeders from 1994, we use a simultaneous equations model to examine incentives and public-private tradeoffs in plant breeding research among 84 crop commodities. Allocation of private breeders among crops is strongly influenced by market size, hybrid seed technology, and ease of breeding improvement. In general, the allocation of public breeders does not appear to “crowd out” private breeders, but some competition may occur in applied breeding. Public breeding declines as private breeding increases on a commodity. Public breeding is also affected by market size, ease of breeding improvement, and political influence.

Three index-based crop insurance contracts are evaluated for representative south Georgia corn farms. The insurance contracts considered are based on indexes of historical county yields, yields predicted from a cooling degree-day production model, and yields predicted from a crop-simulation model. For some of the representative farms, the predicted yield index contracts provide yield risk protection comparable to the contract based on historical county yields, especially at lower levels of risk aversion. The impact of constraints on index insurance choice variables is considered and important interactions among constrained, conditionally optimized, choice variables are analyzed.

Using a stochastic version of the POLYSYS modeling framework, an examination of projected variability in agricultural prices, supply, demand, stocks, and incomes is conducted for corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton during the 1998–2006 period. Increased planting flexibility introduced in the 1996 farm bill results in projections of significantly higher planted acreage variability compared to recent historical levels. Variability of ending stocks and stock-to-use ratios is projected to be higher for corn and soybeans and lower for wheat and cotton compared to the 1986–96 period. Significantly higher variability is projected for corn prices, with wheat and soybean prices also being more variable. No significant change in cotton price variability is projected.

Personal digital assistants (PDA) and handheld global positioning systems (GPS) have become increasingly important in cotton production but little is known about their use. This research analyzed the adoption of PDA/handheld GPS devices in cotton production. A younger farmer who used a computer in farm management and had a positive perception of Extension had a greater likelihood of adopting the devices. In addition, farmers who used complementary remote sensing, plant mapping, and grid soil sampling information were more likely to use PDA/handheld GPS devices. Finally, the COTMAN in-field decision support program from Extension also positively impacted adoption.

Increased demand for corn for ethanol production has helped push grain prices to record levels. This has increased livestock production costs, and producers have responded with changes to production systems. This paper explores the degree to which costs can be mitigated with alternative feeds, the effect this might have on physical performance, and the impact of alternative feeds on the competitive position of different species.

With sustained appreciation of the U.S. dollar over the past 4 years, the exchange rate has again taken on importance for agriculture. This overview paper revisits the analysis of exchange rate impacts, reviewing the relevant conceptual arguments, summarizing the evidence economists and agricultural economists have marshaled from the 1970s and the 1980s and from several more recent papers, presenting some illustrative recent empirical analysis of exchange rate effects, and briefly examining the detrimental consequences that sustained appreciation of the dollar is having on U.S. farm policy.

Simulation results showed that simultaneous outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Asia, the United States, Brazil, and selected European countries will have significant impacts on world poultry trade. Assuming demand for chicken meat is constant, the global export price is simulated to increase by 9.63%. HPAI outbreaks in the United States, Economic Union, and Brazil will have a greater impact on export price than in any other possible three-region case. Outbreaks in the United States and Brazil would still lead to major impacts on world poultry trade, confirming large country effects.

Livestock producers can respond to increasing consumer demand for certain production process attributes by providing verifiable information on the practices used. Consumer willingness to pay data were used to inform producer decision-making regarding selection of verification entities for four key production process attributes in the production of pork chops and milk. The potential for informing farm-level decision-making with information about consumer demand for product and production process attributes exists beyond the two products assessed as example cases in this analysis.

The optimal size and location of an invasive species population depend upon spatially differentiated biological growth, economic costs, and damages. Although largely absent from most economic models, spatial considerations matter because the likelihood and magnitude of the invasion vary spatially and the threatened assets may be unevenly distributed across space. We map the current and future populations of an invasive species, Miconia calvescens, on Oahu, Hawaii, and the potential damages to water quantity, quality, and endangered-species habitat, and weigh these against treatment costs. We find that optimal densities vary from approximately 1% to 18% cover throughout the island.