Atrazine: Environmental Characteristics and Economics of Management

Restricting or eliminating the use of atrazine in the Midwest would have important economic consequences for farmers and consumers. Atrazine is an important herbicide in the production of corn and other crops in the United States. Since atrazine is such an important herbicide, mandatory changes in application strategies are likely to generate sizable costs for producers and consumers. However, recent findings indicate that elevated amounts of atrazine are running off fields and entering surface water resources. This report presents the costs and benefits of an atrazine ban, a ban on pre-plant and pre-emergent applications, and a targeted ban to achieve a surface water standard. A complete atrazine ban is hypothesized to be the costliest strategy, while the targeted strategy is the least costly.Crop Production/Industries,

Estimating Water Quality Benefits: Theoretical and Methodological Issues

Knowledge of the benefits and costs to water users is required for a complete assessment of policies to create incentives for water quality improving changes in agricultural production. A number of benefit estimation methods are required to handle the varying nature of water quality effects. This report reviews practical approaches and theoretical foundations for estimating the economic value of changes in water quality to recreation, navigation, reservoirs, municipal water treatment and use, and roadside drainage ditches.benefits, water quality, economic welfare, demand, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Importance of Cost Offsets for Dairy Farms Meeting a Nutrient Application Standard

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires concentrated animal feeding operations to develop and implement a comprehensive nutrient management plan. Changes in manure management to meet nutrient application standards will generally increase production costs. Some of these costs can be offset by savings from replacing commercial fertilizer with manure nutrients, and through financial assistance programs such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). A manure application cost model was used to examine the costs to confined dairy farms of meeting nutrient application standards, and the ability of fertilizer offsets and EQIP to reduce these costs.animal feeding operations, Environmental Quality Incentive Program, dairy, manure nutrients, Livestock Production/Industries,

IMPORTANCE OF COST OFFSETS FOR DAIRY FARMS MEETING A NUTRIENT APPLICATION STANDARD

The Environmental Protection Agency requires concentrated animal feeding operations to develop and implement a comprehensive nutrient management plan. Changes in manure management to meet nutrient application standards will generally increase production costs. Some of these costs can be offset by savings from replacing commercial fertilizer with manure nutrients, and through financial assistance programs such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). A manure application cost model was used to examine the costs to confined dairy farms of meeting nutrient application standards, and the ability of fertilizer offsets and EQIP to reduce these costs.Environmental Economics and Policy,

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH REDUCING THE USE OF ATRAZINE: AN EXAMPLE OF CROSS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Restricting or eliminating the use of atrazine in the Midwest would have important economic consequences for farmers, consumers, and the environment. These consequences can only be evaluated with cooperation between economists and weed scientists. The weed control choice set available to farmers cannot be observed through deductive research. Economists and weed scientists worked together to identify all possible weed control strategies for corn and sorghum in the Midwest and to incorporate them into an economic model. An atrazine ban was found to be the costliest strategy, and a targeted, water-quality based strategy the most cost effective.Atrazine, Deductive research, Environmental exposure, Herbicides, Inductive research, Welfare, Crop Production/Industries,

Can Taxing Sugary Soda Influence Consumption and Avoid Unanticipated Consequences?

Nonpoint Source Pollution, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), Best Management Practice, Conservation Program, Policy Instruments, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Q58,

Establishing a Baseline for Nitrogen Policy Assessment

nitrogen, nitrogen use efficiency, nitrogen management, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Farm Act's Regional Equity Provision: Impacts on Conservation Program Outcomes

The 2002 and 2008 Farm Acts increased funding for conservation programs that provide financial assistance to farmers to implement conservation practices on working farmland. Along with seeking cost-effective environmental benefits, these programs have a goal of spreading conservation funding equitably across States. The 2002 and 2008 Farm Acts strengthened this allocative goal by setting a minimum threshold for conservation funding for each State—one that exceeds historical funding for some States—for enrolling agricultural producers in specified conservation programs. This study uses conservation program data to examine evidence of the impacts of the Regional Equity provision of the 2002 Farm Act, and explores the tradeoffs that can occur among conservation program goals when legislation gives primacy to fund allocation. The study found that cross-State shifts in funding reduced the acres receiving conservation treatment for many resource problems, but increased the net economic benefits from treatments on some of them. Overall impacts on the types of producers enrolled were small.Conservation program outcomes, working-land, land protection programs, state funding levels, regional equity provision, cost & benefits, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE EFFECT OF FEEDGRAIN PROGRAM PARTICIPATION ON CHEMICAL USE

Economic incentives created by the commodity programs are hypothesized to cause program participants to apply agrichemicals at greater rates than nonparticipants. Corn producers who participate in the USDA feedgrain program are shown to apply nitrogen, herbicides, and insecticides at statistically greater rates than those who do not participate.Crop Production/Industries,

Changes in Manure Management in the Hog Sector

In recent years, structural changes in the hog sector, including increasing farm size and regional shifts in production, have altered manure management practices. Over the same period, changes to the Clean Water Act, new state regulations, and increasing local conflicts over odor have influenced manure management decisions. This study uses data from two national surveys of hog farmers to examine how hog manure management practices vary with the scale of production and how these practices evolved between 1998 and 2004. The findings provide insights into the effects of structural changes and recent policies on manure management technologies and practices, the use of nutrient management plans, and manure application rates.hog production, manure management, structural change, environmental regulation, Livestock Production/Industries,