Rural broadband infrastructure and service has received a significant amount of funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds should increase broadband availability, but will broadband be used in rural areas and in particular by farmers? This paper uses Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to investigate why the majority of U.S. farmers choose not to use the Internet in their farm business. Although frequently cited by policymakers, concerns about inadequate Internet service or security actually account for a small percentage of responses. This research identifies targeted educational programs that focus on alleviating perceived barriers to Internet use.

In this paper we estimate the demand for rock climbing and calculate welfare measures for changing access to a number of climbs at a climbing area. In addition to the novel recreation application, we extend the travel cost methodology by combining the double hurdle count data model (DH) with a multinomial logit model of site-choice. The combined model allows us simultaneously to explain the decision to participate and to allocate trips among sites. The application is to climbers who visit one of the premiere rock-climbing areas in the northeastern United States and its important substitute sites. We also estimate a conventional welfare measure, which is the maximum WTP to avoid loss of access to the climbing site.

This paper presents a case study of the economic damages to homeowners in a northern New Jersey community due to an exotic forest insect—the hemlock woolly adelgid. Hedonic property value methods are used to estimate the effect of hemlock health on property values. A statistically significant relationship between hemlock health and residential property values is established. Moreover, there are some signs of spillover impacts from hemlock decline, as negative effects are realized on the parcels where the declining hemlock stands are located as well as on neighboring properties. These results give some indication of the benefits of potential control programs and strategies and also show support for community- or neighborhood-based programs in residential settings.

Data on the number of Pennsylvania dairy farms by size category are analyzed in a Markov chain setting to determine factors affecting entry, exit, expansion, and contraction within the sector. Milk prices, milk price volatility, land prices, policy, and cow productivity all impact structural change in Pennsylvania's dairy sector. Stochastic simulation analysis suggests that the number of dairy farms in Pennsylvania will likely fall by only 2.0 percent to 2.5 percent annually over the next 20 years, indicating that dairy farming in Pennsylvania is likely to be a significant enterprise for the state in the foreseeable future.

Some of the implications of ethical preferences for traditional welfare analyses of existence values are discussed in this paper and illustrated with a lexicographic model for preference structures. Although willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-sell are well-defined, their connection with Hicksian surpluses is lost when a person is motivated by an ethical commitment to others’ welfare. Researchers need to expand contingent valuation methods to collect information on underlying motives and types of preferences in order to identify respondents who fit the neoclassical model of egoistic man.

The use of conjoint analysis in assessing consumers’ preferences for attributes is demonstrated with the apple as an example. Conjoint analysis may be used to estimate the importance of attributes and attribute levels through decomposition of consumers’ ranking of alternative attribute combinations. It is shown that conjoint analysis provides results that may not be obtained from a survey where respondents are asked to directly state their assessment of the importance of attributes.

The role of health knowledge in consumer use of nutritional labels on food packages is explored using data from the 1995 Diet and Health Knowledge Survey. Two types of label use models, a binary choice label use model and a level of label use model, are employed with particular attention given to the endogeneity of health knowledge. The binary choice model is concerned with factors affecting the probability of label use. The level of label use model deals with factors affecting the number of food products in which label use occurred. The results show that health knowledge has a significant role in increasing label use.

Agritourism is an alternative source of farm income. We examine farmers’ participation in agritourism activities to assess the impact of participation on farm household income and return to assets using a large farm-level survey. The results reveal that older, educated, and female operators are more likely to participate in agritourism. However, government subsidies and the population of the county are negatively correlated with agritourism. Of the types of farm operations examined, small-scale farms that involved agritourism generated the greatest household incomes and returns to assets. For operators of small farms, agritourism can boost the economic well-being of farm households.

We assess the nonmarket value for retention of farmland in the Moncton area of New Brunswick. We examine a number of factors explaining household external values for farmland preservation and expand on previous work by Beasley et al., Bergstrom et al., and Halstead. Our findings indicate that the marginal external benefit of preserving farmland in general in this region is small compared to the market price and that spatial embedding is not automatic in contingent valuation studies.

Agricultural agencies have long offered agri-environmental payments that are inadequate to achieve water quality goals, and many state water quality agencies are considering point-nonpoint trading to achieve the needed pollution reductions. This analysis considers both targeted and nontargeted agri-environmental payment schemes, along with a trading program which is not spatially targeted. The degree of improved performance among these policies is found to depend on whether the programs are coordinated or not, whether double-dipping (i.e., when farmers are paid twice—once by each program—to undertake particular pollution control actions) is allowed, and whether the agri-environmental payments are targeted. Under coordination, efficiency gains only occur with double-dipping, so that both programs jointly influence farmers’ marginal decisions. Without coordination, double-dipping may increase or decrease efficiency, depending on how the agri-environmental policy is targeted. Finally, double-dipping may not solely benefit farmers, but can result in a transfer of agricultural subsidies to point sources.

Oyster aquaculture has experienced tremendous growth in the United States over the past decade, but little is known about consumer preferences for oysters. This study analyzed preferences for oysters with varied combinations of brands, production locations, and production methods (aquaculture vs. wild-caught) using dichotomous choice, revealed preference economic field experiments. Results suggest significant and distinct differences in behavior between first-time and regular oyster consumers. While infrequent oyster consumers were drawn to oysters labeled as wild-caught, experienced oyster consumers preferred oysters raised via aquaculture. These findings will be valuable for growers and policymakers who invest in aquaculture to improve surrounding ecosystems.

The number of food hubs—businesses that aggregate and distribute local food—in the United States is growing, fueled in part by increasing public support. However, there have been few data-driven assessments of the economic impacts of these ventures. Using an input-output-based methodology and a unique data set from a successful food hub, we measure net and gross impacts of a policy supporting their development. We estimate a gross output multiplier of 1.75 and an employment multiplier of 2.14. Using customer surveys, we estimate that every $1 increase in final demand for food hub products generates a $0.11 reduction in purchases in other sectors.

A point-space model of interregional trade is used to define market integration and to explore its implications for modeling spatial price relationships. This analysis indicates that spatial prices are related nonlinearly, contrary to much of the work on spatial price analysis which uses linear models. As an empirical example, corn market integration along the Mississippi River is examined during the Midwest flood of 1993. Higher transport costs during this period significantly reduced the extent of integration and thereby decreased excess demand shock transference across regions.

Policy makers are looking for ways to preserve farmlands, especially near urban areas. Farmers are also trying to find ways to increase their farm income by incorporating non-traditional activities into their farm routine. This paper attempts to quantify the contributions of selected nontraditional activities towards farmers’ efforts to enhance their farm income. For farmers involved in direct marketing, a logit model is used to estimate the probability of attaining high income for each activity considered. The results indicate that activities such as agrotourism, direct retailing to consumers, selling of farm related value-added products, greenhouse operations and urban location of farm markets will increase the chance of attaining high income levels.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) serves as the primary tool to alleviate food insecurity in the United States. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated in numerous studies, but the majority of SNAP recipients are still food insecure. One factor behind this is the difference in food prices across the country—SNAP benefits are not adjusted to reflect these differences. Using information from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap (MMG) project, we compare the cost of a meal by county based on the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP)—which is used to set the maximum SNAP benefit—with the cost of the average meal for low-income food-secure households. We find that the cost of the latter meal is higher than the TFP meal for over 99 percent of the counties. We next consider the reduction in food insecurity if, by county, the maximum SNAP benefit level was set to the cost of the average meal for low-income food-secure households. We find that if this approach were implemented, there would be a decline of 50.9 percent in food insecurity among SNAP recipients at a cost of $23 billion.

This paper presents the methodology, assumptions, and data used to generate regional and national environmental benefit estimates of the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It's assumed that, without the program, production and conservation practices on CRP lands would be the same as those used on surrounding lands. When range and forest lands are (are not) included as land-use options, 54 (71) percent of the CRP land would be in crop production—which is consistent with past analyses. Soil erosion would be 222 to 248 million tons per year—about 11 percent—higher than the current level. Benefits are estimated by applying environmental benefit models, estimated in previous analyses, to the CRP's estimated effect on erosion and wildlife habitat. Nationally, the CRP is estimated to provide $1.3 billion in annual benefits, which represents 75 to 80 percent of the program's cost. In seven of the 10 USDA Farm Production Regions, the CRP's environmental benefits exceed costs. Thus, reallocating acreage to these regions could increase net program benefits. However, because many benefits could not be estimated, one cannot conclude that regional and national benefits do not exceed costs.

This study examines the effects of a wife's participation in the labor force and other socioeconomic factors on family expenditures for prepared food, food prepared at home, and food away from home using the Bureau of Labor Statistics 1992 consumer expenditure survey. On the one hand, results indicate that the number of children, home ownership with mortgage, seasonality, region, wife's age, and income are important determinants of expenditures on food prepared at home. A wife's education and participation in the labor force, on the other hand, affect expenditures on prepared food and food away from home. The impact of both these factors is greater on food away from home than on prepared food expenditures.

As demand and supply of organic produce has increased, it has become possible to distinguish between the many individuals that express a preference for organic and the share of their purchases that is organically produced. This study examines the share of a consumer's produce purchases that are organic, and how that is influenced by economic factors, environmental and health motivations, and demographic characteristics. Results from a model of organic preference are compared to those from a model of organic buying proportions. Buying proportion models are also estimated separately for those that preferred organic and those that preferred conventional produce. A limitation in this study is that it evaluates stated buying proportions rather than actual purchases.

We present a conceptual, but empirically applicable, model for determining the optimal allocation of resources between exclusion and control activities for managing an invasive species with an uncertain discovery time. This model is used to investigate how to allocate limited resources between activities before and after the first discovery of an invasive species and the effects of the characteristics of an invasive species on limited resource allocation. The optimality conditions show that it is economically efficient to spend a larger share of outlays for exclusion activities before, rather than after, a species is first discovered, up to a threshold point. We also find that, after discovery, more exclusionary measures and fewer control measures are optimal, when the pest population is less than a threshold. As the pest population increases beyond this threshold, the exclusionary measures are no longer optimal. Finally, a comparative dynamic analysis indicates that the efficient level of total expenditures on preventive and control measures decreases with the level of the invasive species stock and increases with the intrinsic population growth rate, the rate of additional discoveries avoided, and the maximum possible pest population.

An empirical analysis reveals that states with more highly educated populations have better environmental conditions, after controlling for income, population density, and industrial composition. The strategy of raising human capital stocks to maintain or improve environmental quality is proposed as a complement, if not an alternative, to direct government intervention, which consists of command and control, market incentives, and moral suasion. Under this approach, general education becomes the control variable that guides economic behavior in a manner consistent with long-term environmental sustainability.