Cheap Food Policy: Fact or Rhetoric?

The term "cheap food policy" has frequently been used as a descriptor for U.S. commodity programs by those who contend these payments to farmers ultimately result in lower food costs for consumers. More recently, farm policy has been criticized for contributing to the obesity problem in the U.S. by making large quantities of fattening foods widely available and relatively inexpensive. This paper econometrically evaluates the impact of direct government payments to farmers from 1960-1999 on the proportion of disposable income consumers spend on food. The model finds the payments do not significantly affect the affordability of food.Agricultural and Food Policy,

FARM PROGRAM PAYMENTS AND ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Economies of scale are investigated and the impacts of farm payment limitations for producers of cotton and soybeans in Mississippi are evaluated. Limits proposed by the Senate following the recent farm bill debate are overlaid on estimates of the scale economies for the cost of producing these crops to determine the different impacts on farm efficiency and welfare benefits.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Willingness to Pay for a Potential Insurance Policy: Case Study of Trout Aquaculture

Using trout producer survey data and the contingent valuation method, we estimate willing-ness to pay for a potential insurance policy. The survey was conducted in 2005 across the United States; 268 producers completed the survey instrument, resulting in a response rate of 81 percent. Design of the contingent valuation method takes into account two coverage levels and four premium rates. Using standard willingness-to-pay techniques, we assess the premium rate that producers with varying practices and regions are willing to pay for two different cov-erage levels of insurance. In general, trout producers appear willing to pay premium rates of 2 to 11 percent for these coverage levels.willingness to pay, subjective elicitation and survey data, aquaculture trout insurance, Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Exploration of a rare population of Chinese chestnut in North America: stand dynamics, health and genetic relationships

With the transport of plants around the globe, exotic species can readily spread disease to their native relatives; however, they can also provide genetic resistance to those relatives through hybrid breeding programmes. American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was an abundant tree species in North America until its decimation by introduced chestnut blight. To restore chestnut in North America, efforts are ongoing to test putative blight-resistant hybrids of Castanea dentata and Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima), but little is known about the ecology of C. mollissima. In a forest in northeastern USA in which C. mollissima has become established, we explored questions of stand dynamics, health and genetic relationships of C. mollissima offspring to an adjacent parent orchard. We found that C. mollissima was adapted and randomly distributed among native species in this relatively young forest. The genetics of the C. mollissima population compared with its parents indicated little effect of selection pressure as each of the parent trees contributed at least one offspring. The ease with which this exotic species proliferated calls to question why C. mollissima is rare elsewhere in forests of North America. It is likely that a time window of low animal predation allowed seedlings to establish, and the shallow soil at this site limited the maximum forest canopy height, permitting the characteristically short-statured C. mollissima to avoid suppression. Our results indicate that because C. mollissima exhibited pioneer species characteristics, hybrids between C. mollissima and C. dentata have the potential to be successful pioneer species of future forests in North America, and we challenge the paradigm that exotic tree species are wholly detrimental to native biodiversity. We contend that exotic tree species should be assessed not only by their level of threat to native species, but also by their potential positive impacts on ecosystems via hybrid breeding programmes

MACE II - A Space Shuttle experiment for investigating adaptive control of flexible spacecraft

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76987/1/AIAA-1998-4319-483.pd