We examine how much on-farm reservoirs can increase groundwater quantity and improve surface water quality using a spatial-dynamic model of farm profit maximization in the Arkansas Delta. Sensitivity analysis of the farm profit objective by including the value of surface water quality and the groundwater buffer value evaluates how accounting for environmental value affects the optimal crop mix, water use, and farm profits. The best policy for a critical water resource area is to have the government cost share construction of on-farm reservoirs because groundwater conservation and surface water quality goals are achieved efficiently for a modest redistribution of income.

The objectives of this article were to determine: 1) students' preferences for college course attributes; and 2) how the amount of course attribute information impacts enrollment. Results indicate students had the highest preferences for face-to-face (F2F) courses offered late morning and early afternoon and two to three days per week. Students selected online over F2F courses depending on course makeup; for example, course topic, online course design technology, and when the F2F version was offered. Additionally, students selected online courses more frequently when additional online course attribute information was available during course selection.

U.S. ethanol production capacity increased more than threefold between 2002 and 2008. We study the effect of this growth on corn acreage. Connecting annual changes in county-level corn acreage to changes in ethanol plant capacities, we find a positive effect on planted corn. The building of a typical plant is estimated to increase corn in the county by over 500 acres and to increase acreage in surrounding counties up to almost 300 miles away. All ethanol plants are estimated to increase corn production by less than their annual requirements.

We quantify weather effects on output and incomes for a panel of Kansas farmers. The effects of weather are largely asymmetric with negative temperature and precipitation values affecting output and income differently than above average observations. Precipitation effects depend on timing and seasonal averages. The number of days exceeding 32.2°C (i.e., the “hot” years) negatively impacts production and income measures, although the impact is positive for crop output in the cooler years. The results indicate the importance of including weather in predicting output and income and designing risk management instruments to mitigate weather trends and variability.

“Farm bill” is a colloquial term for omnibus legislation that authorizes various government programs related to agriculture, food, and rural areas. Some of these programs have their roots in New Deal legislation. Others were initially authorized after the New Deal and subsequently included in farm bills. Some debate exists about exactly which omnibus legislation was the precursor of modern-day farm bills. However, since at least 1973, farm bills have included titles related to farm programs, trade, rural development, farm credit, conservation, agricultural research, food and nutrition programs, and marketing. Beginning in 2008, crop insurance-authorizing language was also included in the farm bill.

Farm bills generally have a life of approximately five years. In the case of farm support programs (typically authorized in Title 1), the farm billtemporarily amends permanent legislation. When the farm bill expires, theseprograms revert to permanent legislation (from the 1930s and 1940s) unless a new farm bill is adopted that again temporarily amends permanent legislation. The permanent legislation would put in place price supports, at extremely high levels, for many agricultural commodities, distorting markets and greatly increasing federal costs. The specter of reverting to permanent legislation has, through the years, been used by Congress to ensure that future Congresses will replace expiring farm bills with new legislation.

One of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development's most popular programs is the funding for public water and sewer infrastructure projects in rural communities. This article reviews the water and sewer infrastructure projects funded in the state of Oklahoma between 1990 and 2000 and evaluates their impact on different measures of economic growth over both the short (one to 10 years) and long (10 to 20 years) term. Evaluation techniques include multivariate regression and average treatment effects. Results suggest that although most economic growth measures (population, income levels, and poverty levels) are not impacted by the program, housing values do show a statistically significant increase in communities receiving water or sewer infrastructure funding over the long term.

Field experiment data were used to study the effect of numeric calorie labels in two full-service restaurants. Ultimately, both field experiments, despite using different experimental designs, reached the same conclusion: the numeric calorie label had no significant effect on total caloric intake. However, results revealed the addition of a traffic light symbol to the numeric label led to a 67.8-kcal reduction in average calories ordered. Furthermore, results showed restaurant revenue is unlikely to be affected by the addition of calorie labels on menus. The results have implications for restaurant labeling laws that are being considered around the world.

This study examines water system characteristics, managers' attitudes and perceptions toward water conservation, and future planning strategies that influence the adoption of water conservation programs for urban and rural communities. We surveyed water system managers in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Florida; and we parameterized predictive adoption models for price-based (PC) and nonprice-based (NPC) conservation programs. Notably, results suggest that information about the price elasticity of water demand for a community does encourage PC and NPC adoption; and we found no evidence that PC and NPC adoption is jointly considered by water systems.

This study examined how various components of the Certified South Carolina campaign are valued by participating restaurants. A choice experiment was conducted to estimate the average willingness to pay (WTP) for each campaign component using a mixed logit model. Three existing campaign components—Labeling, Multimedia Advertising, and the “Fresh on the Menu” program—were found to have a significant positive economic value. Results also revealed that the type of restaurant, the level of satisfaction with the campaign, and the factors motivating participation significantly affected restaurants' WTP for the campaign components.

Government support uncertainty, scarce yield information, and the inherent risk in bioeconomic phenomena are some of the deterrents faced by investors in the nascent cellulosic biofuel industry. A financial probabilistic model was developed to contrast the economic feasibility of producing cellulosic biofuels from energy cane and sweet sorghum using three technologies: hydrolysis, pyrolysis, and gasification. Hydrolysis and pyrolysis proved feasible (showed possibilities of a positive net present value) without government support and conditioned to stochastic feedstock yields and biofuel prices. Gasification was feasible with government support. Improved feedstock and biofuel productivity would considerably raise the feasibility probabilities for hydrolysis and pyrolysis without government support.

The best advice given to me on my first real job was, “The only way you’re not going to make mistakes is if you’re not doing your job” (Laubhan, 1972). Another quote from Henry Ford, “Theonly real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing,” added tomy philosophical base (Ford and Crowther, 1922). Without the wisdom conveyedby Laubhan and Ford, plus Oklahoma State University colleague Phil Kenkel’s (1990) famous quote, “How hard can it be?,” mine could have been just another mediocre career.

As a dairy and farm boy from Muskogee County, Oklahoma, with a new Ph.D. in agricultural economics, I set out to educate producers in the area of marketing and risk management. I noticed that attendance at meetings and workshops was good. Participants were interested and listened. They even triedsome of my ideas. Nearly all of them, if not all, reverted back to decisions and techniques they had used before my meetings or workshops.

Observant and inquisitive soul that I was, I conducted research to determine who was right. The results indicated that the producers were mostly right! If research-based information and education were to be transferred, and management practices were to be changed, either the subject matter and/or the method of delivery had to change.

Few studies to date have addressed the relationship between the food industry's environmental and financial performances although the industry is one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. We analyze the impact of environmental news about selected food companies on their stock prices. Results show that positive (negative) events that are the result of direct internal company actions lead to higher (lower) predicted returns, whereas events related to third-party opinions lead to smaller changes in predicted returns in short event windows. This study highlights the importance of conducting the analysis on a disaggregated basis by incorporating firm-level variables.

Conversion of biomass to electricity is often not economically feasible as a result of large transportation costs and low output prices. We build a model of an adaptable biorefinery situated at an agri-processing facility that already has biomass on-site and consider the optimal scale of the plant to achieve a price premium by selling peaking power given uncertain biomass deliveries year over year as a result of climatic variability. We find that, for conservative electricity prices, a plant situated near cotton gins in Texas could operate with positive expected net revenue while converting on average only 38% of available biomass for peak electricity prices.

This article analyzes economic tradeoffs among harvest date, fertilizer applied, nutrient removal, and switchgrass yield as they vary with respect to input and output prices. Economic sensitivity analyses suggest that higher biomass prices lead to earlier harvest. Optimal harvest time occurs beyond time of maximum yield because nutrient removal in the biomass is an important economic consideration. Switchgrass price premia that reflect the cost of non-optimal harvest time are driven by standing crop yield loss, nutrient removal, storage loss, and opportunity cost. These price premia could provide a mechanism to compensate producers for alternative harvest times and aid with logistics management.

This study evaluates the Adjusted Gross Revenue-Lite (AGR-Lite) whole-farm adjusted gross revenue insurance program on net farm income risk using panel data from 49 southeast Kansas beef farms. On average for the group, but not each individual farm, AGR-Lite reduces the mean and standard deviation of net farm income, raises the average minimum, and lowers the average maximum observations of the net income distribution. Thirty-four farms (69%) received at least one indemnity payment. Stochastic efficiency with respect to a function reveals that AGR-Lite is preferred by 18 of the farm managers (37%) when an upper bound on the risk-aversion coefficient is used.

Federal subsidies for nonprice export promotion of farm products have been criticized on the grounds that they merely substitute taxpayer dollars for private promotional expenditures. This “displacement hypothesis” is tested by estimating export demand and advertising-goodwill re-lations using time series data for 1975-2008. The displacement hypothesis receives some support in that three of the nine tests show an inverse relationship between industry and government expenditures. However, the remaining tests show no relationship. These results, coupled with the finding of Kinnucan and Cai (2011) that expenditures for export promotion may be too high when consumer impacts are taken into account, suggest it is time to let the Market Access and Foreign Market Development programs operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture lapse.

Erosion of agricultural croplands is a significant contributor of sedimentation to reservoirs. Here, physiographic and economic models for a large agricultural watershed (2377 square miles with 27 subwatersheds) are integrated for the reduction of sedimentation of one Midwestern reservoir. Sediment reduction and the cost-effectiveness of three agricultural best management practices (no-till, filter strip, and permanent vegetation) implementation were considered under three modeling scenarios: random assignment; the globally most cost-effective approach; and a cost-effective targeting approach. This study demonstrates how physiographic and economic data can be harnessed to yield readily comprehendible cost-effective targeting maps. Cost-effective targeting may be preferable to watershed managers for its “user-friendliness” without too great a sacrifice of the globally most cost-efficient solution.