A rank-ordered logit model is estimated using data collected by a mail survey of consumers in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. The methodology, based on conjoint analysis, determines the average relative importance and value of three product attributes for fresh salmon (seafood inspection, production method, and price), and estimates the relative attractiveness of particular products to consumers. When used in combination with demographic data and responses to questions on perceptions, the analysis suggests market segmentations and potential marketing strategies based on the heterogeneity in preferences among consumers.

This paper examines the impact of pesticide regulation on the number of new pesticide registrations and pesticide toxicity. Results suggest that regulation adversely affects new pesticide introductions but encourages the development of pesticides with fewer toxic side effects. The estimated regression model implies that a 10% increase in regulatory costs (about $1.5 million per pesticide) causes a 5% reduction in the number of pesticides with higher toxicity.

This paper studies the preferences and willingness-to-pay of individuals for volunteer water quality monitoring programs. The study involves supporting water quality monitoring at two ponds in the state of Rhode Island. The paper uses both a hypothetical and a real-payment contingent valuation survey to directly measure individual preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for volunteer water quality monitoring at the two ponds. The overall results of the study suggest that hypothetical WTP is not statistically greater than real WTP, and that the average survey respondent is willing to support water quality monitoring on one of the two ponds. The study also finds that the specified purpose of water quality monitoring and certain socioeconomic characteristics of a respondent significantly affect the respondent's decision to support volunteer water quality monitoring.

A model of the domestic demand for eggs was estimated from quarterly data over the period 1987 through 1995, incorporating an index of consumer dietary cholesterol concerns and generic advertising efforts by the American Egg Board and the California Egg Commission. Empirical results indicated that most of the observed change in egg demand could be explained by dietary cholesterol concerns. Simulating the model in a constant elasticity supply framework demonstrated that advertising efforts over the past several years have resulted in net benefits to egg producers largely when considering inelastic supply responses. However, considering trade bias reduces these benefit-cost ratios substantially.

The Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact has been established to regulate milk prices. Simulation models show impacts on Vermont farms of alternative milk prices and accelerated productivity growth. Enhancing prices (by $0.85/cwt) improves financial performance the most, while impacts of doubling growth in milk production/cow (to 2.6% per year) and setting a price floor (which reduces the standard deviation of the price by 19% and raises prices $0.12/cwt) are substantially smaller. These impacts are inversely related to farm profitability. However, impacts on larger farms are not proportionately larger than those on smaller farms. Reducing price variability has smaller impacts than the $0.12/cwt price increase.

The role of land values in the dairy industry of an urban-influenced region is investigated by estimating a dairy herd equation based on pooled cross-section and time-series data from counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. The use of cross-terms between hypothesized causal variables and a dummy variable capturing the effect of location allowed the estimation of the differences across states in the effects of milk, feed, and land prices. Results confirm the important role of rising land values in the decline of the dairy industry in the tri-state area, and suggest greater vulnerability of dairy enterprises in urban-influenced areas to rising adverse economic forces. The adverse effects of declining milk prices and higher land values are greatest in New Jersey. The results support the notion that programs such as price support, farmland preservation, farmland assessment, and right-to-farm may have to be maintained in order to retain dairy farms at the urban fringe, where land values are rising rapidly.

Reducing costs of controlling nonpoint source (NPS) pollution will be a high public priority in the next century. Compliance and transaction costs of reducing nitrogen runoff from dairies in the Lower Susquehanna Watershed by 40% are estimated for perfectly targeted and uniform performance standards. The perfectly targeted standard reduces compliance and transaction costs by almost 75% compared with the uniform standard. Future NPS control policies should use spatial information to target policy resources to priority concerns, areas, and farms. Further research is needed to lower the costs and increase the accuracy of spatial information.

The growth of the poultry industry in Arkansas has exploded in the past decade. As a result, approximately 1.5 million tons of litter are produced every year. Concerns about possible contamination of ground and surface water from land applications of poultry litter have been raised. This paper compares four policy scenarios in terms of their efficiency and practicality to manage land applications of poultry litter. The results indicate that a litter tax per ton of litter applied could achieve the same level of litter control as that of a land tax on litter applications, but at a lower tax rate.

U.S. agricultural conservation policy has focused on a range of potential policy instruments centered on voluntary approaches tied into Depression-era commodity programs. Entering the twenty-first century, conservation policy is at a crossroads between more coercive regulatory policies, more costly voluntary programs, and more facilitative market-oriented policies. What are the pitfalls, advantages, disadvantages, and tradeoffs along these paths?

An indirect utility model is employed for measuring farmers’ willingness to voluntarily accept yield losses for a reduction in environmental risk by decreasing pesticide use. Results support the hypothesis that farmers have self-described risk perceptions that enable them to make assessments of risk-yield tradeoffs. Policies designed to encourage and assist farmers making voluntary pesticide reductions can result in environmental risk reduction.

Higher propety taxes and uncertainty about post-easement tax levels may create a disincentive for landowners to participate in federal easement programs such as the Wetlands Reserve Program, and thus may distort participation levels in a manner inconsistent with the environmental benefits associated with individual parcels. Support for this hypothesis is provided in an exploratory analysis of state level participation in the Wetlands Reserve Program. If such distortions prove to be policy relevant, then either they should be accounted for in the bid acceptance process of future federal easement programs, or individual states and localities should correct property tax differentials and post-easement tax uncertainty.