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Welcome to the twelfth and final issue of our editorship of Choices (Q2 2007). As discussed in the AAEA President's statement just below, the Association intends to continue Choices and hopes to have it back online by the end of 2007. Watch for announcements from the AAEA later this year.
Our term as editors expires with this issue. We wish to thank those who have served on the editorial board as well as those who have served as reviewers during our editorial term. Special thanks are due to those individuals who served as guest editors for specific issues. Choices had a fantastic run the last 3 years as an outreach vehicle for the association. Thank you for your interest.
As our final offering, this issue contains a theme on water quality in the Cornbelt dealing with the problem origin, and issues regarding conservation programs, multiple service provisions and tradeoffs and water treatment options. This issue also contains articles on
Organic Produce Consumer Characteristics
Challenges in Water Quality Credit Trading in Agriculture
Dairy Farm Growth, Consolidation, and Diversification
Fruit and Vegetables in School Food
Again thank you for your readership and participation.
Co-Editors: Oral Capps, Jr., Rodolfo Nayga, Jr., Bruce McCarl, Joe Outlaw, and John B. Penson, Jr., and Associate Editor, Linda Crenwelge
Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University
A Message from AAEA President Steve Buccola
CHOICES has been the American Agricultural Economics Association's outreach arm for 23 years, our principal means of communicating with those interested in food, farm, natural resource, and rural community issues but who are not necessarily professional economists. CHOICES brings economic research alive to a policy audience, and internet hits and downloads suggests it has been increasingly successful in doing so. Policy communication is essential to the AAEA's ethic because it is essential to the mission to which many of our members—and their employers—are committed.
CHOICES has always run at a substantial financial loss. AAEA members have, in constant 2006 dollars, contributed $1,262,018 to this journal ($21 per member per year) since 1990 alone. Annual losses were reduced when CHOICES went electronic but still have hovered around $50,000 and, because our membership has declined, is still $20 per member per year. The financial environment in which the AAEA operates requires that it further reduce these costs by providing CHOICES with a new publishing and editorial structure. Plans for doing so are well underway.
The AAEA is deeply grateful to the editorial team of Bruce McCarl (Coordinating Editor), Oral Capps, Jr., Rodolfo Nayga, Jr., Joe Outlaw, and John B. Penson, Jr. at Texas A&M University, to Associate Editor Linda Crenwelge, and to the 17–member Editorial Board for raising CHOICES to new standards of clarity, relevance, and accessibility. Their work provides a bridge to our next format. Stay tuned.
Steve Buccola
President, American Agricultural Economics Association
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