A Statement from the Editors

• Choices continues to gain a wider distribution. A review of our website statistics shows that counts on page views and downloads have more than doubled from last year. The number of subscribers has nearly doubled as well. The first issue of 2005, for example, had nearly 20,000 PDF downloads, or eight times the AAEA membership.
• We went on a major initiative at the AAEA Meetings to encourage submissions of thematic proposals and expand our outreach partnerships. We have since received the first unsolicited thematic proposal from Rachel Goodhue and Gregory McKee of the University of California, Davis and a second one from Siân Mooney and Christopher T. Bastian at Wyoming. We hope for more thematic proposals as well as articles submitted for the "Grab Bag" section of Choices. We also would like contributions centered on the Washington Scene; that is, hot issues involving public policy. For submission requirements, see our submissions page.
• The response from potential outreach partners has been slow in developing. We hope those with mailing lists will help us redistribute Choices announcements to extension, policy, agribusiness, USDA and to non-members of AAEA. Outreach partners are important, not only in helping us increase readership, but also in helping us maintain relevance. More information and forms to nominate or agree to be an outreach partner are available on our outreach page.
• Our objective is to publish at the end of each quarter of the year. This quarter we are only going ahead with one theme as one was not going to be ready to allow timely publication. Please note that our thematic coverage in this issue focuses on nonmarket valuation for informing public policy debates. Future themes will focus on supply chains in the agricultural sector, GMOs and developing new energy sources from agriculture. Additional themes in coming issues will include focus on the Farm Bill, biofuels, checkoff programs, and emerging trends in Latin American agriculture.