Discussion: What Have We Learned from the New Suite of Risk Management Programs of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008?

New revenue-based support programs in the 2008 Farm Bill represent a fundamental shift in farm programs and risk management decision-making. However, complexity, uncertainty, economics, and, arguably, an incomplete analysis of the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program all contributed to low enrollment in the new program in 2009. An effective analysis of ACRE should consider farm programs as part of an integrated risk management portfolio, including crop insurance, marketing, and other risk management tools as opposed to a separate lottery program. Improving this integration could be one of the most significant consequences of the 2008 Farm Bill.farm bill, commodity programs, risk management, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Public Economics, Risk and Uncertainty, Q18,

Analyzing Crop Revenue Safety Net Program Alternatives and Impacts on Producers and Program Costs

This study evaluates the policy effects of alternative program designs for federal revenue-based farm income safety net programs. Eight representative farms across Nebraska are used to stochastically simulate the financial impact of changing the current farm crop revenue-based safety net with a state revenue trigger against potential alternative programs involving guarantees at the district, county, or farm level. Results indicate that decreasing the aggregation of the revenue guarantee increases expected farm-level payments and program costs for the revenue-based safety net.agricultural policy, farm bill, farm programs, government payments, representative farms, risk management, simulation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, Q12, Q18,

Lubben Social Network Scale – 6 (Lsns-6). Outcomes measurement tool: relationships – social networks / peer relationships.

Assesses the social networks surrounding the individual including family and friendships. The Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS) is a brief instrument designed to gauge social isolation in older adults by measuring perceived social support received by family and friends which typically takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. It consists of an equally weighted sum of 10 items used to measure size, closeness and frequency of contacts of a respondent’s social network. It was originally developed in 1988 and was revised in 2002 (LSNS-R) along with an abbreviated version (LSNS-6) and an expanded version (LSNS-18). These versions have been developed in order to meet clinician’s needs for brevity (LSNS-6) and the expanded version (LSNS-18) for basic social and health science research oriented purposes

In-Service Support for a Technological Approach to Science Education

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Updating the Farm Bill Safety Net in an Expanding Sea of Risk

Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, H10,

Out With the Old, In With the New: Are Western Commodity Producers Ready for Buyouts?

Agricultural and Food Policy,

MATHEMATICAL FORMULAS FOR CALCULATING NET RETURNS FROM PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS, CRP, AND CROP INSURANCE ALTERNATIVES

The purpose of this report is to provide a revised version of the publication, "Mathematical Formulas for Calculating Net Returns from Participation in Government Commodity Programs including Marketing Loans" (Williams and Barnaby, 1994). The change in design of the government commodity programs and development of several crop insurance alternatives has been significant since the previous paper was published. The formulas for calculating net returns incorporate provisions from the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 and several crop insurance designs developed in the 1990s. Individuals conducting research or education programs will be able to use this revision for reference when estimating net returns for producers under current commodity program and crop insurance plan provisions.Agricultural Finance,

Investigating the composition of organic aerosol resulting from cyclohexene ozonolysis: low molecular weight and heterogeneous reaction products

The composition of organic aerosol formed from the gas phase ozonolysis of cyclohexene has been investigated in a smog chamber experiment. Comprehensive gas chromatography with time of flight mass spectrometric detection was used to determine that dicarboxylic acids and corresponding cyclic anhydrides dominated the small gas phase reaction products found in aerosol sampled during the first hour after initial aerosol formation. Structural analysis of larger more polar molecules was performed using liquid chromatography with ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. This indicated that the majority of identified organic mass was in dimer form, built up from combinations of the most abundant small acid molecules, with frequent indication of the inclusion of adipic acid. Trimers and tetramers potentially formed via similar acid combinations were also observed in lower abundances. Tandem mass spectral data indicated dimers with either acid anhydride or ester functionalities as the linkage between monomers. High-resolution mass spectrometry identified the molecular formulae of the most abundant dimer species to be C₁₀H₁₆O₆, C₁₁H₁₈O₆, C₁₀H₁₄O₈ and C₁₁H₁₆O₈ and could be used in some cases to reduce uncertainty in exact chemical structure determination by tandem MS