EXTENSION ECONOMICS: AN EFFECTIVE RESEARCH INDUSTRY INTERFACE - A DISCUSSION

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The Allocation of Advertising and Research Dollars in the Florida Orange Juice Industry

This study considers the allocation of Florida citrus‐grower money between advertising and research programs to maximize grower revenue net of program costs. The allocation depends on the impact of advertising on demand and the impacts of research on the cost of production and supply. A number of studies have estimated the impact of advertising on OJ demand, but little is known about the impact of research. Research on citrus greening, a disease that has no known cure, is examined in the present study. There are no past studies to reliably gauge the impact of this research. The approach taken here is to ask if a given amount of research dollars is needed to reduce average production costs by certain amount, then what should be spent on advertising based on past estimates of the elasticity of demand with respect to advertising. The optimal ratio of advertising to research dollars increases with the advertising elasticity and declines with the amount of research money needed to reduce average costs. The results of this study provide a range for this ratio based on different advertising elasticities and amounts of research dollars needed to reduce production costs. The approach provides an indication of the importance of advertising given expectations on the research needed to successfully fight this diseaseorange juice, returns to research, advertising, Agribusiness, Food Security and Poverty,

THE IMPACT OF THE REDUCTION IN THE AUSTRALIAN ORANGE-JUICE TARIFF

After substantial reduction in the Australian orange juice tariff, citrus growers in that country shifted their efforts away from Valencia orange production towards Navel oranges intended for the fresh market. Australia has been successful in penetrating the world market for fresh oranges. Given the large size of the orange industry in Florida, however, it is unlikely that Florida growers could follow the same model if the U.S. orange juice were substantially reduced or eliminated.oranges, tariffs, Australia, International Relations/Trade,

A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING FARM MACHINERY PURCHASE DECISIONS

This paper presents a model of the farm management process. The model suggests that certain socioeconomic characteristics of farm managers will influence their decision-making process. Several characteristics are hypothesized an tested using multivariate techniques (multivariate analysis of variance, range tests, and multiple comparisons). The analysis indicates that the soil zone, value of machinery inventory, operator's age, and operator's education influence the importance placed on each of 20 factors. On the basis of the analysis it was concluded that such a model of the farm management process can contribute to an understanding of farm management decisions. In addition, it was concluded that farm managers, farm machinery dealers, and extension agents had significantly different perceptions of the importance of these factors to farm managers. This latter conclusion suggests that more research related to the actual process of decision making is warranted.Farm Management,

Simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters of a subwavelength structure based on the weak value formalism

A mathematical extension of the weak value formalism to the simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters is presented in the context of an optical focused vector beam scatterometry experiment. In this example, preselection and postselection are achieved via spatially-varying polarization control, which can be tailored to optimize the sensitivity to parameter variations. Initial experiments for the two-parameter case demonstrate that this method can be used to measure physical parameters with resolutions at least 1000 times smaller than the wavelength of illumination

IMPACTS ON U.S. PRICES OF REDUCING ORANGE JUICE TARIFFS IN MAJOR WORLD MARKETS

A demand model is developed to examine the impacts on orange juice prices resulting from elimination or reduction of the tariffs on orange juice imposed by the United States, European Union, and Japan. An empirical analysis suggests that elimination of the U.S. tariff by itself would decrease the U.S. orange juice price by about $0.22 per gallon, while simultaneous elimination of the U.S., European, and Japanese tariffs would decrease the U.S. price by about$0.13 per gallon. Alternatively, reducing these tariffs according to the Swiss 25 formula would decrease the U.S. price by an estimated $0.09 per gallon. The U.S. produces about 1.4 billion gallons of orange juice annually and each penny reduction in the price impact increases U.S. orange juice FOB revenue by$14 million.Demand and Price Analysis,

Production and Price Effects of New Diseases and Other Challenges Confronting the Processed Orange Industry

Sao Paulo and Florida are the primary producers of orange juice. Both regions face production challenges. In this paper, a model of the world orange juice market is used to analyze the effect of citrus greening and high sugarcane prices on the production and price of orange juice.Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Production Economics,

Trends in the not-from-concentrate orange-juice segment

Agribusiness,

Rural Land-Use Trends in the Conterminous United States, 1950-2000.

In order to understand the magnitude, direction, and geographic distribution of land-use changes, we evaluated land-use trends in U.S. counties during the latter half of the 20th century. Our paper synthesizes the dominant spatial and temporal trends in population, agriculture, and urbanized land uses, using a variety of data sources and an ecoregion classification as a frame of reference. A combination of increasing attractiveness of nonmetropolitan areas in the period 1970–2000, decreasing household size, and decreasing density of settlement has resulted in important trends in the patterns of developed land. By 2000, the area of low-density, exurban development beyond the urban fringe occupied nearly 15 times the area of higher density urbanized development. Efficiency gains, mechanization, and agglomeration of agricultural concerns has resulted in data that show cropland area to be stable throughout the Corn Belt and parts of the West between 1950 and 2000, but decreasing by about 22% east of the Mississippi River. We use a regional case study of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions to focus in more detail on the land-cover changes resulting from these dynamics. Dominating were land-cover changes associated with the timber practices in the forested plains ecoregions and urbanization in the piedmont ecoregions. Appalachian ecoregions show the slowest rates of landcover change. The dominant trends of tremendous exurban growth, throughout the United States, and conversion and abandonment of agricultural lands, especially in the eastern United States, have important implications because they affect large areas of the country, the functioning of ecological systems, and the potential for restoratio