Variety, Agricultural Trade, and Income

This paper looks at a sample of middle income countries to determine 1) what different measures researchers can use to gauge demand for variety, and 2) whether taste for variety increases with income according to these measures. The goal of the research is to learn the stylized facts regarding the desire for variety as reflected by diet and by trading behavior. The next section briefly discusses empirical and theoretical work on the demand for variety, whether that demand increases with income, and the demand for variety in traded goods. The following section discusses measures of variety and tests of the relationship of variety to income. The following sections discuss the results of applying those measures to countries and testing their relationship to income.Consumer/Household Economics,

Estimating the Effects of Selected Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade on US-EU Agricultural Trade

This study investigates the effects of non-tariff measures (NTM)-specifically, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade-on agricultural trade between the United States and the European Union (EU). Along with tariff reduction, the removal of NTMs has emerged as a key focus of negotiations in the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Agriculture in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Tariffs, Tariff-Rate Quotas, and Non-Tariff Measures

This study assesses the potential effects of the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on agriculture under three broad scenarios: complete removal of tariffs and tariff-rate quotas; elimination of non-tariff measures along with tariffs and tariff-rate quotas; and a lowering of the willingness of consumers to purchase imported goods previously limited by non-tariff measures

Food Safety and International Trade: Theoretical Issues

No abstract is available for this item

Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States

Genetically engineered (GE) crops (mainly corn, cotton, and soybeans) were planted on 169 million acres in 2013, about half of U.S. land used for crops. Their adoption has saved farmers time, reduced insecticide use, and enabled the use of less toxic herbicides. Research and development of new GE varieties continues to expand farmer choices

Measurement of volatile organic compounds emitted in libraries and archives : an inferential indicator of paper decay?

A sampling campaign of indoor air was conducted to assess the typical concentration of indoor air pollutants in 8 National Libraries and Archives across the U.K. and Ireland. At each site, two locations were chosen that contained various objects in the collection (paper, parchment, microfilm, photographic material etc.) and one location was chosen to act as a sampling reference location (placed in a corridor or entrance hallway). Of the locations surveyed, no measurable levels of sulfur dioxide were detected and low formaldehyde vapour (< 18 μg m-3) was measured throughout. Acetic and formic acids were measured in all locations with, for the most part, higher acetic acid levels in areas with objects compared to reference locations. A large variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was measured in all locations, in variable concentrations, however furfural was the only VOC to be identified consistently at higher concentration in locations with paper-based collections, compared to those locations without objects. To cross-reference the sampling data with VOCs emitted directly from books, further studies were conducted to assess emissions from paper using solid phase microextraction fibres (SPME) fibres and a newly developed method of analysis; collection of VOCs onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer strip. In this study acetic acid and furfural levels were consistently higher in concentration when measured in locations which contained paper-based items. It is therefore suggested that both acetic acid and furfural (possibly also trimethylbenzenes, ethyltoluene, decane and camphor) may be present in the indoor atmosphere as a result of cellulose degradation and together may act as an inferential non-invasive marker for the deterioration of paper. Direct VOC sampling was successfully achieved using SPME fibres and analytes found in the indoor air were also identified as emissive by-products from paper. Finally a new non-invasive, method of VOC collection using PDMS strips was shown to be an effective, economical and efficient way of examining VOC emissions directly from the pages of a book and confirmed that toluene, furfural, benzaldehyde, ethylhexanol, nonanal and decanal were the most concentrated VOCs emitted directly from paper measured in this study

Economic Crises and US Agricultural Exports

During the past few decades, economic crises have become commonplace, affecting both developing and developed countries and often hitting a number of countries simultaneously. These crises typically reduce the impacted countries’ imports, including agricultural products. Given that the United States is a major agricultural exporter, its farm sector is particularly vulnerable to such crises. Examination of past crises and a simulation exercise of the effects of possible future crises show that such shocks can reduce U.S. agricultural exports considerably, especially if a crisis hits a number of countries simultaneously rather than a single country alone, as happened in the 1997-98 East Asian Crisis and 2008-09 world financial/economic crisis. In 1998 and 2009, agricultural imports from the United States by the major foreign markets struck by these crises fell collectively by 16 and 17 percent, respectively