Farm Safety Net Programs: Background and Issues

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) operates several programs that supplement the income of farmers and ranchers in times of low farm prices and natural disasters. Federal crop insurance, farm programs, and disaster assistance are collectively called the farm safety net. Federal crop insurance is often referred to as the centerpiece of the farm safety net because of its cost and broad scope for addressing natural disasters. The program is permanently authorized and makes available subsidized insurance for more than 130 commodities (ranging from apples to wheat) to help farmers manage risks associated with a loss in yield or revenue. Program cost is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to total $8.8 billion per year over the next decade. Producers pay a portion of the premium which increases as the level of coverage rises. The federal government pays the rest of the premium—62Farm commodity programs historically represented the heart of U.S. farm policy by virtue of their long history (dating back to the 1930s). Price and income support is based primarily on statutorily fixed prices and not market prices (as in crop insurance), which can be quite low in some years. For crop years 2014-2018, the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 farm bill, P.L. 113-79) established minimum prices via the marketing loan program for approximately two dozen commodities, including corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, and peanuts. In addition, producers with production histories for covered crops have a one-time choice between Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) payments. Costs were projected in March 2015 at about$4 billion per year over the next decade. Programs are free for producers. Agricultural disaster assistance is permanently authorized for livestock and orchards. Under the 2014 farm bill, nearly all parts of the U.S. farm sector are now covered by either a disaster program or federal crop insurance, which is expected to reduce calls for ad hoc assistance. As of May 2015, producer payments had totaled more than $5 billion for losses in FY2012-FY2015. Compared with the previous farm bill, the 2014 farm bill was enacted with more crop insurance options and higher reference prices designed to trigger payments more often than under previous law. Funding was accomplished by eliminating direct payments that had been made annually since 1996 but played no role in managing farm risk because they did not vary with farm prices. Several facets of the current farm safety net might be of interest to the 114th Congress. An initial focus could be on USDA’s implementation of the farm safety net provisions. Issues could include the delayed payment schedule, which could expose cashflow problems, and the pending “actively engaged” rule that could affect program eligibility for some producers. With ongoing concern for budget deficits and federal spending, Congress also might be interested in reviewing the effectiveness of the revised safety net and actual costs, which are expected to be higher than earlier projections due to lower farm prices. Farm safety net proponents say the current suite of programs has been designed for such situations and is needed to adequately protect producers and the overall agriculture sector. Critics believe that a simplified approach might be more effective and less expensive, with funds used instead for broad societal gains, such as investment in agricultural research or transportation infrastructure. The Administration has proposed trimming crop insurance subsidies, arguing that the safety net could remain effective

AI-Generated Fashion Designs: Who or What Owns the Goods?

As artificial intelligence (“AI”) becomes an increasingly prevalent tool in a plethora of industries in today’s society, analyzing the potential legal implications attached to AI-generated works is becoming more popular. One of the industries impacted by AI is fashion. AI tools and devices are currently being used in the fashion industry to create fashion models, fabric designs, and clothing. An AI device’s ability to generate fashion designs raises the question of who will own the copyrights of the fashion designs. Will it be the fashion designer who hires or contracts with the AI device programmer? Will it be the programmer? Or will it be the AI device itself? Designers invest a lot of talent, time, and finances into designing and creating each article of clothing and accessory it releases to the public; yet, under the current copyright standards, designers will not likely be considered the authors of their creations. Ultimately, this Note makes policy proposals for future copyright legislation within the United States, particularly recommending that AI-generated and AI-assisted designs be copyrightable and owned by the designers who purchase the AI device

Non-abelian vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance

The influence of vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance on non-abelian gauge field theories is studied. Lorentz invariance is ensured by taking the average over a Lorentz invariant ensemble of background vectors. Like in the abelian case [hep-ph/0506210], the propagation of fermions is suppressed over long distances. Contrary to the fermionic sector, pure gauge configurations of the background suppress the long-distance propagation of the bosons only partially, i.e. not beyond the leading contribution for a large number of colours.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Modelling the effects of mall atmospherics on shoppers’ approach behaviors

Despite previous work, researchers still do not fully understand the mechanisms by which environmental stimuli influence emotions and affect behavior. This paper attempts to address this knowledge gap by modelling the effects of a stimulus on emotions and behavior within the context of a shopping mall and retail stores. We evaluate a stimulus-response model based on the influence of perceptions on shoppers’ moods, which in turn influence approach behaviors. A structured questionnaire survey of actual shoppers in a real mall environment (n=315) was analysed by structural equation analysis. The exemplar stimulus consisted of a Captive Audience Network (CAN or private plasma screen network) – a topic that has been little researched to date. The influence of the CAN was small but significant. The findings have implications for practitioners as even small changes in image can have a substantial effect on profitability

The flashing behavior of thunderstorms

Lightning flash distribution in thunderstorms - statistical analysi

Laser Doppler anemometry

The material in this NASA TM is to appear as a chapter on Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) in the AGARDograph entitled, A Survey of Measurements and Measuring Techniques in Rapidly Distorted Compressible Turbulent Boundary Layers. The application of LDA (specifically, the dual-beam, burst-counter approach) to compressible flows is discussed. Subjects treated include signal processing, particle light scattering and tracking, data reduction and sampling bias, and three-dimensional measurements