IMPLICATIONS OF THE 2002 U.S. FARM ACT FOR WORLD AGRICULTURE

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act (FSRIA) of 2002 for U.S. agriculture and its subsequent impact on world agricultural prices and world trade. In order to effectively illustrate the implications of the 2002 Act it is important to consider it in the context of the changes already made in previous farm acts. As the paper develops, many of the changes in U.S. cropping patterns were already captured by the policy changes occurring under the 1996 Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act. The estimated impact of the 2002 Act on commodity production is minimal and, therefore, estimated price changes are relatively small. In the conclusions is a discussion on how trends in U.S. farm policy tend to reflect international agricultural policy, an important observation as World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations are anticipated. Policy changes in the 2002 Act are discussed in detail followed by a description of how the policy instruments are incorporated in the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute's (FAPRI) U.S. crops model. Implications of the policy changes for the 2002 Act are discussed relative to a continuation of the FAIR Act. A brief review of the possible implications for longer-term trade, production, consumption, and prices are also included. Finally, some observations are included that trace the evolution of U.S. farm programs, especially the trend toward designs in the European Union.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Mississippi River Research Conclusions Executive Summary

Briefing paper requested by Senator Bond detailing the conclusions from the Mississippi River research to date.Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Iowa Baseline

Each year the FAPRl analysts conduct a baseline projection for U.S. and international agriculture. This baseline is unlike the traditional forecast in that i.t does not necessarily represent the most likely scenario for future events

Implications of Extending the Consertation Reserve Program for Iowa

A variety of alternatives have recently been proposed for the future of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) program. Among the proposals are: elimination of the program, targeting specific land types for reentry into the program, allowing renewal of all contracts, and redefining the program to bid land in for a one lime permanent easement payment

Implications of the GATT Agreement for Iowa Agriculture

The FAPRI analysis indicates that nearly all U.S. agricultural commodities benefit under GATT, although some commodities experience larger impacts than others. CARD extended the FAPRI analysis to commodities important to Iowa, such as com, soybeans, and pork and found that all are significant winners under the Uruguay Round Agreement

The Conservation Reserve Program

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) was originally created in the 1985 Food Security Act to assist owners and operators of highly erodible cropland in conserving and improving the soil and water resources of their farms or ranches

Policy Announcements

The current CRP debate has forced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to make some statements about the future of the CRP

Briefing Paper on the "Worst Case" Implications of Low Missouri River Flows for Power Plants

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Improving Collaborative Convergence through Distributed and Parallel Sorting

This paper examines a convergence process of organizing ideas that are generated during collaborative idea generation activities. The method presented reduces the impact of organizing brainstorming ideas on individual participants by dividing the convergence activity into smaller, discrete tasks that can be completed individually, and in parallel, by the participants. The entire pool of brainstorming ideas is subdivided into smaller pools and each participant is then tasked with organizing one of the subsets of ideas. The results show that by dividing up the overall activity into subtasks, the subjects experienced a more favorable environment. Furthermore, the subjects were able to work through their subset of ideas and produce results that were similar to those performing the full sort of the entire pool