Submitted Articles

Research suggests the Critical Access Hospital program maintained rural access through increased revenue, profitability, and quality of hospitals with relatively minor decreases in cost efficiency. Improved performance through increased revenue brought about by the program may provide insight into new health policies such as the Affordable Care Act.

The 2013 Farm Bill is being written as Congress searches for ways to reduce federal spending on discretionary programs. Some farm subsidies are likely to be reduced and others discontinued. In the context of the current policy environment, we examine which programs may survive unscathed and which may not.

The new USDA microloan program addresses organic farms’ concern that their loan requests have been usually dismissed by lenders as too small. However, this article lays out issues raised by organic farmers that lenders need to take into consideration for better lender-borrower relationships and successful implementation of micro lending operations.

Despite recent policy changes, mandated use of ethanol in the United States continues under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). The RFS, in combination with limited domestic demand, has distorted trade patterns through an ethanol shuffle. Lower world sugar prices mean that this could be replaced by ethanol tourism.

One important agricultural productivity measure—total factor productivity—is showing rapid growth at the global level led by improved performance in developing countries. Growth is uneven, however, across and within countries. Policies driving productivity growth include investments in research and rural education, economic and institutional reforms, and improved infrastructure.

Long standing U.S. public investment in research, education and Extension programs created the base for highly productive agriculture and food sectors. Congress and stakeholder input drives NIFA’s funding priorities. To address the complexity of problems, Dr. Ramaswamy proposes to incorporate human dimensions into the science agenda. Further, scientists must better inform the public about the need to continue public investment.

Many institutions conduct surveys of land values, but it is not known how these compare to actual sales data. Sales data from 20 Iowa counties for eight years is compared to Iowa State University’s annual land value survey to determine to what extent the survey values differ from actual sales values.

Whole-farm revenue insurance can provide coverage for crops, particularly fruits and vegetables, in regions without crop-specific insurance policies and reduce premium costs relative to multiple crop-specific policies. This article describes design features that have deterred purchases of existing policies and proposes enhancements.

This article analyzes some of the forces for change in the U.S. fresh berry and leafy greens/lettuce subsectors. It discusses market structure, firm rivalry, and the threat of new entrants and substitute products. It is a companion article to another in this issue, entitled Fundamental Forces Affecting U.S. Fresh Produce Growers and Marketers.

Federal, state and local government budgets will be strained during recovery from the recent recession. A "twin transfer" threat-concurrent cutbacks in transfers to households and local governments-is increasingly likely. This threat has strong implications for rural communities. This article illustrates this crisis, using Virginia as an example.

This article analyzes forces for change in the U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable industry. It highlights changes in firm rivalry and the relative bargaining power of buyers and sellers, the threat of new entrants, substitute products, information technology, and other drivers of change.

This article begins with a synopsis of the major provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). It then explores the potential economic impacts on the agrifood industry, the issues not addressed by the new law, and several of its intended and unintended consequences.

Biofuel certification does not address the ecosystem damage caused by biofuel demands. Vegetable oil that fails certification as fuel can be sold as food. Certifying all vegetable oil, not just the part used as fuel, addresses the above problems, but accentuates the food scarcity part of the biofuel sustainability problem.

Iowa farmers who enrolled in ACRE desired more risk protection and believed that ACRE payments would exceed the direct payments forfeited. Nonenrollees said the program was too complex, they did not want to give up any direct payments, and it was too difficult to explain to their landlords.

The United States Congress is seeking to reduce the federal budget deficit. Farm bill commodity program payments are expected to be reduced. One proposal would lower the adjusted gross income cap for payment eligibility by farmers. This article examines the state and commodity distributional impacts if a cap proposed in the 112th Congress had been adopted.

The current public policy focus on cutting Federal spending is driving changes in farm programs and crop insurance. Attention has focused on redesigning farm revenue programs to supplement or replace part of crop insurance. This article examines the choices, including expanding crop insurance to replace farm programs, an option that has received less attention.

Deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets lead to legal disputes over the approval of the genetically modified crop. Unresolved outcomes increased uncertainty for the U.S. sugar beet industry and buyers of sugar in the short-run. Additionally challenges to regulatory processes have long-run implications for future GM crop approvals.

U.S. biofuel mandates can be waived. The cellulosic mandate was waived in both its first two years. Options for waiving mandates create uncertainty in biofuel and feedstock markets. Biodiesel and conventional ethanol use to meet the mandates could exceed commonly quoted limits, with consequences for biofuel and agricultural commodity markets.

Taxpayer's preferences for six categories of USDA expenditures were determined using a nationwide survey. Results reveal consumers would prefer to see more USDA dollars for food safety and inspection, natural resources and environment, research and education, and rural development, but fewer dollars for food assistance and farm support.

Agricultural trade, which held up well during the recent economic downturn, contributes significantly to the U.S. agricultural economy and also creates positive effects throughout the economy. This article provides information on the contributions agricultural exports make to the overall economy and highlights their role in generating output, employment and income.

This article discusses how the livestock industry distracts consumers from the well-being of farm animals with two red herrings, and that the public good nature of animal welfare limits the ability of product differentiation to reconcile differences of opinion on how farm animals should be raised.

A successful strategy for expanding the availability of fresh organic produce from the Great Lakes region in retail markets of the region needs an understanding of the diversified production and marketing strategies and portfolios of the region’s organic farmers, as well as the challenges and opportunities identified by regional buyers.

Growth and diversification patterns of size cohorts in four Washington agricultural industries between the 1992 and 2002 agricultural censuses are examined. Three industries (wheat, apples, and beef) show similar growth patterns. Two (wheat and apples) show similar diversification patterns. Dairy is unique on both measures.

The authors investigate how biofuel policies, such as mandates and import tariffs, influence corn price by considering changes in domestic ethanol supply and demand, fuel price, and the importation of ethanol. We find that corn price impacts are generally modest although strongly conditioned by market factors such as oil price.

Rural development advocates argue that significant local ownership of biofuels production assets (other than farmland) is needed to ensure maximum rural development impact of policies to promote biofuels. We critique the arguments used to support this position, pointing in particular to the omission of ownership risk as a consideration, and suggest alternative approaches for leveraging biofuels promotion policy into rural development.

Information about positive impact of food safety policies affects consumers’ perception up to the point where they become lax and negligent about the way they prepare and consume their food. Offsetting behavior should be taken into account in order to correctly evaluate the net benefits of food safety regulations.

Policymakers are considering including stricter standards in international trade agreements. Using auctions to assess preferences, we find that the median consumer places no premium on fair trade foods produced under more stringent labor and environmental standards. This indicates that current trade policies may be preferable to U.S. consumers.

Current policy discussions include a range of proposals aimed at limiting emissions of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Many of these proposals, including those currently under consideration in the United States, embrace market-based approaches to achieving reductions, including provisions for carbon emissions trading and incentives for carbon sequestration in agriculture and forestry. This article briefly describes basic features of these policy options and possible implications for agriculture.

Using ACNielsen Homescan data, we found that organic price premiums increased by 42% between 2001 and 2004. Organic vegetables appear to be the preferred organic produce among light users, while heavy users seem to have an affinity for organic fruits, especially apples and grapes. Overall, organic potatoes command the highest percentage of price premiums, while organic tomatoes are clearly the most favored choice for all organic users.

Water quality credit trading is being promoted as a way to more cheaply and quickly reach water quality goals. Can the expected benefits of trading be realized? This article discusses: the key elements of water quality credit trading, challenges to making it work in the agricultural water quality context, evidence of performance to date, and policy issues. It concludes that water quality credit trading is in its infancy and significant implementation challenges exist. Policymakers must reduce their expectations of such programs until more evidence about their workability and performance is obtained.

Using longitudinal data from the Agricultural Census, we examined growth and diversification of Washington dairy farms. Largest farms grew the fastest, suggesting they are not converging toward a size that minimizes average cost within the current size range. Smallest farms were most diversified, and farms of all sizes became more diversified over time.

Trends in adult and childhood obesity are a cause of great concern. These trends have inspired the continued development of government programs targeted at the improvement of dietary quality, especially in our schools. Factors affecting the success of these programs are varied.

This paper reports results from a survey of public perceptions of food safety and food defense. Differences in the extent of public concern, who is believed responsible, and who should pay will be useful to the food industry and public officials as they shape programs to prevent the deliberate contamination of America's food supply.

Less than 4% of the Japanese are obese, whereas 32% of Americans are obese. The Japanese both eat less and are more physically active than Americans. If we understand why, much can be learned about reducing obesity in the United States.

The Bush Administration has proposed major changes in federal funding mechanisms for state agricultural experiment station research with a reallocation from formula to grant funding. This article examines who wins and who loses from such changes based on differences in who sets the research agenda, the types of research discoveries that would be favored, distributional effects it would have across the states and regions, the payoff to society, and sustainability of future funding. A case is made for maintained and perhaps increasing federal formula funds due to their high rate of return and equitable distribution of research capacity among the states and increasing competitive grant funding to address selective high priority national or perhaps regional needs.

This paper compares the current fixed ethanol subsidy with a subsidy that varies with the price of ethanol and corn. With the variable subsidy, we can hold expected profit and government cost about the same, while significantly reducing producer risk, or we can lower expected profit, government cost, and producer risk to differing degrees.

Wal-Mart is revered on Wall Street for its business success, but often reviled on Main Street for driving out mom and pop retailers. Just what are the local benefits and costs of Wal-Mart? Here we provide a summary of recent research on the local impacts of Wal-Mart and suggest some community strategies for managing large retail development.

The Dairy Case Management Program, a retail-level fluid milk promotion program to improve sales and consumption is evaluated in a selected market of New York State. The program demonstrated increases in current store sales volume; however, overall program success will depend on a maintained long-run strategy with continual evaluation.

Studies using longitudinal data suggest that previous populations, albeit having significantly lower BMI than today's population, suffered from the same chronic diseases that are commonly thought to be caused by being overweight and obesity. It is not certain, based on long-run studies, that short-run-oriented policy actions directed at weight reduction would improve the health and mortality rate of the American population.

Forty-two states have state grown promotions. These often publicly funded promotions are intended to increase returns for home state producers. Although theoretical arguments suggest little likelihood for success, some empirical results are positive. Still, quality standards enforced by a licensing agency could improve the effectiveness of these programs.

The emergence of a two-step system in the U.S. beef industry for tracking animals and meat is discussed. Aspects of how this system may or may not address consumer issues relating to traceability and appropriate protocols of BSE testing are provided.

Liberalization of textile and clothing trade sent a shock through the U.S. and global markets as fears mounted that China's textile industry would flood world markets and decimate domestic textile industries. In the long term, however, China's textile industry faces difficulties that make such an expansion less likely.

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Act) introduced counter-cyclical payments (CCPs) to the array of income-support programs for agricultural commodities in the United States. CCPs are available for specified crops when market prices are below levels set forth in the legislation. As such, these payments can reduce price-related revenue risks faced by farmers, which may influence agricultural production decisions. Several mitigating factors, however, suggest that overall production effects of CCPs through revenue risk reduction are likely to be limited.

The popular saying that a picture is worth a thousand words may be misleading when the media displays widely accessible aerial photographs of the world's surface to formulate conclusions about interregional land use and resource policy differences. This paper shows that "ground truthing" is essential to avoid small sample bias from selected images.

According to the 2002 US Census of Agriculture, 40% of US farmers are (or will soon be) eligible for Social Security retirement benefits. This article looks at how the Social Security system might be reformed and the potential difficulties some farmers might face with the new system.

Producers enjoying an agricultural "way of life" may not all be "hobby farmers" as often thought. Many may be real estate investors using off-farm income to help them stay on the farm until they choose to capture their capital gains. Whether this rural lifestyle can be called a "farm" worthy of government support is debated.

Captive supplies in the livestock industry continue to be a divisive, contentious issue. New data to better track captive supplies are available since mandatory price reporting (MPR) was established. Data for the first three years since the beginning of MPR in 2001 show no upward trend in buyers' use of captive supplies and generally small price differences with cash market prices.

Despite early stumbles, the E-grocery market rebounded and has grown dramatically since 2003. New entrants — many of them traditional grocery retailers venturing into E-commerce — are offering more products and services to broader geographic areas. This paper addresses the question of whether or not surviving E-grocers are entering the "right" markets — the ones containing enough of the kinds of customers inclined to use this service and generate profits — and what a right market looks like.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been a major recipient of development aid. This level of donor support has not made a dent in alleviating poverty and improving the standard of living in the subregion. This paper highlights the Farmapine model, a market-based development approach that provides a basis for sustainable rural development. The paper also discusses the factors that facilitate replication of the model in other communities.

Decoupling is being considered or implemented worldwide to reduce production distortions, facilitate trade, improve environmental health, and lower commodity program costs. Decoupling approaches in Europe and North America are analyzed, drawing lessons for the future.

Animal tracking and testing programs are considered, including programs that focus on Canadian animals. Calculations show that the economic value of a more aggressive tracking and testing program may exceed $500 million per year.

Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 into law as US Public Law 480. This article addresses how food aid can become a more effective tool for reducing poverty and hunger and reducing costs without sacrificing any benefits to US agriculture.