An Overview of the U.S. Agricultural Economy and the 2008 Farm Bill

The 2008 farm bill involved 16 months of debate. The end product is similar to the 2002 farm bill in the crops arena, continuing counter-cyclical payments, direct payments, and marketing assistance loans. In addition, however, the 2008 bill adds a new, optional counter-cyclical revenue program (Average Crop Revenue Election, or ACRE), authorizes a new permanent disaster program, and contains various other changes. The new ACRE program provides an entirely new set of dimensions for producers to consider in deciding whether to opt into the program, including the multi-year trade-off between the loss of potential “traditional†payments and the revenue protection provided by ACRE, as well as the producer’s own expectations about yield and price trends and variability. The payment calculation associated with the new permanent disaster program appears at first glance to be relatively simple, although the whole-farm nature of the program and the number of variables makes it quite complex.farm bill, farm programs, ACRE, permanent disaster assistance, regulatory process, Agricultural and Food Policy,

An assessment of tailoring of lightning protection design requirements for a composite wing structure on a metallic aircraft

The Navy A-6E aircraft is presently being modified with a new wing which uses graphite/epoxy structures and substructures around a titanium load-bearing structure. The ability of composites to conduct electricity is less than that of aluminum. This is cause for concern when the wing may be required to conduct large lightning currents. The manufacturer attempted to solve lightning protection issues by performing a risk assessment based on a statistical approach which allows relaxation of the wing lightning protection design levels over certain locations of the composite wing. A sensitivity study is presented designed to define the total risk of relaxation of the design levels

Congressional Representation of Black Interests: Recognizing the Importance of Stability

The relationship between black constituency size and congressional support for black interests has two important attributes: magnitude and stability. Although previous research has examined the first characteristic, scant attention has been directed at the second. This article examines the relationship between district racial composition and congressional voting patterns with a particular emphasis on the stability of support across different types of votes and different types of districts. We hypothesize that, among white Democrats, the influence of black constituency size will be less stable in the South, owing in part to this region’s more racially divided constituencies. Examining LCCR scores from the 101st through 103rd Congress, we find that this expectation is largely confirmed. We also find that, among Republicans, the impact of black constituency size is most stable—albeit negligible in size— in the South. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the relative merits of “influence districts” and “majority minority” districts

BIOTECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR FARM-LEVEL RISK MANAGEMENT

This study examines the risks associated with adoption of biotech crops and discusses their implications for risk management at the farm level. We develop an analytical risk evaluation matrix framework to illustrate changes in production and marketing risks of biotech and non-biotech crops. Price uncertainty generated by consumer concerns is the major risk facing biotech farmers, while cross-pollination with biotech crops and preservation of non-biotech status are major concerns for non-biotech farmers. Improved market infrastructure to handle biotech products and modification of the current risk management tools to accommodate new risks are essential in reducing the farm-level risks.biotechnology, genetically modified organisms, marketing risks, production risks, risk evaluation matrix, risk management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty,

Characteristics and Risk Management Needs of Limited-Resource and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers

Small U.S. farms and those run by socially disadvantaged minority operators tend not to purchase insurance or to participate in insurance-type programs operated by USDA. This report traces the lack of use of such risk management measures to several characteristics of such farmers, who include females, blacks, American Indians, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and operators of Spanish origin. These farmers tend, more than the typical U.S. farm, to raise livestock rather than crops, and there are no government-sponsored insurance-type programs for livestock.risk management, crop insurance, limited-resource farmers, limited-opportunity farmers, small farms, socially disadvantaged farmers, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,

Working with Randy: the diacylglycerol acyltransferase story

Vegetable oils are one of the main agricultural commodities. Demand has been increasing steadily over the last five decades and, with finite land available, it is vital that we increase productivity. My laboratory has focused on the regulation of plant lipid metabolism and, as part of this work, we identified diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) as important at regulating carbon flux during oil accumulation. This led to collaborations with Randy Weselake's research group when we quantified the importance of DGAT in oilseed rape by using flux control analysis. Later, with David Taylor, we showed that over‐expression of DGAT boosted oil accumulation in field‐grown crops by around 8%. These studies led to a multitude of experiments with different oil crops, such as oil palm and soybean, as well as many rewarding collaborations with Randy

Threat captures attention but does not affect learning of contextual regularities

Some of the stimulus features that guide visual attention are abstract properties of objects such as potential threat to one's survival, whereas others are complex configurations such as visual contexts that are learned through past experiences. The present study investigated the two functions that guide visual attention, threat detection and learning of contextual regularities, in visual search. Search arrays contained images of threat and non-threat objects, and their locations were fixed on some trials but random on other trials. Although they were irrelevant to the visual search task, threat objects facilitated attention capture and impaired attention disengagement. Search time improved for fixed configurations more than for random configurations, reflecting learning of visual contexts. Nevertheless, threat detection had little influence on learning of the contextual regularities. The results suggest that factors guiding visual attention are different from factors that influence learning to guide visual attention

THE POTENTIAL FOR REVENUE INSURANCE POLICIES IN THE SOUTH

The 1996 Farm Act and the 1994 Crop Insurance Reform Act are recent examples of policy changes that have increased risks for U.S. farmers. New products are emerging to help farmers manage risks. This article examines some of the policy changes, farmer responses, and new risk-sharing products. The focus turns to the new revenue insurance products and their potential in the South. While there are reasons to believe revenue insurance should be attractive in the South, any revenue products that use existing crop insurance rates will face difficulties since poor actuarial performance in the South has resulted in relatively high rates.Agricultural policy, Crop insurance, Revenue insurance, Risk, Southern agriculture, Risk and Uncertainty,

Oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids to produce lipid mediators

The chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology and molecular biology of oxylipins (defined as a family of oxygenated natural products that are formed from unsaturated fatty acids by pathways involving at least one step of dioxygen-dependent oxidation) are complex and occasionally contradictory subjects that continue to develop at an extraordinarily rapid rate. The term includes docosanoids (e.g. protectins, resolvins and maresins, or specialized pro-resolving mediators), eicosanoids and octadecanoids and plant oxylipins, which are derived from either the omega-6 (n-6) or the omega-3 (n-3) families of polyunsaturated fatty acids. For example, the term eicosanoid is used to embrace those biologically active lipid mediators that are derived from C20 fatty acids, and include prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes, hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids and related oxygenated derivatives. The keyenzymesfortheproductionofprostanoidsareprostaglandinendoperoxideHsynthases (cyclo-oxygenases), while lipoxygenases and oxidases of the cytochrome P450 family produce numerous other metabolites. In plants, the lipoxygenase pathway from C18 polyunsaturated fatty acids yields a variety of important products, especially the jasmonates, which havesomecomparablestructuralfeaturesandfunctions.Relatedoxylipinsareproducedby non-enzymicmeans(isoprostanes),whilefattyacidestersofhydroxyfattyacids(FAHFA)are now being considered together with the oxylipins from a functional perspective. In all kingdoms of life, oxylipins usually act as lipid mediators through specific receptors, have short half-lives and have functions in innumerable biological contexts

Managing Risk in Farming: Concepts, Research, and Analysis

The risks confronted by grain and cotton farmers are of particular interest, given the changing role of the Government after passage of the 1996 Farm Act. With the shift toward less government intervention in the post-1996 Farm Act environment, a more sophisticated understanding of risk and risk management is important to help producers make better decisions in risky situations and to assist policymakers in assessing the effectiveness of different types of risk protection tools. In response, this report provides a rigorous, yet accessible, description of risk and risk management tools and strategies at the farm level. It also provides never-before-published data on farmers' assessments of the risks they face, their use of alternative risk management strategies, and the changes they would make if faced with financial difficulty. It also compares price risk across crops and time periods, and provides detailed information on yield variability.crop insurance, diversification, futures contracts, leasing, leveraging, liquidity, livestock insurance, marketing contracts, options contracts, production contracts, revenue insurance, risk, vertical integration, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,