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Welcome to the 1st Quarter, 2010 issue of Choices. Our theme, Local Food—Perceptions, Prospects, and Policies, analyzes an area of the food system receiving lots of attention these days in the media, in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and in various states. The mix of social, economic and environmental factors that are embraced within the local food system are important drivers of this segment of U.S. agriculture. The articles examine perceptions about local foods, look at what the future may hold in terms of the supply of and demand for them, and discuss policy issues guiding or impacting local food systems. The authors provide insights that will help us think about to what extent local foods will become a significant force in the total food system, what some of the challenges faced by producers and marketers may be and how policies can help to shape the local or regional food systems.
In addition to Choices, articles posted in our related Policy Issues series address other individual topics of debate in policy circles and by the public. One just posted addresses net farm income and land use under a U.S. greenhouse gas cap-and-trade. It provides interesting insights which all those interested in this timely policy topic will want to understand. This and other articles of potential interest may be accessed at Policy Issues page on the AAEA website.
We encourage submissions of proposals for future themed sets of papers, individual articles, and timely policy issues analyses. Submit Choices theme proposals and Policy Issues proposals to Walter J. Armbruster, and individual papers for the quarterly Choices to Clement Ward. We look forward to working with you to address important economic and policy issues affecting consumers, food, farms, resources, and rural communities.
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