Demand for value-added products is highly segmented among different types of consumers. In this article, we assess consumer preferences for local, organic, and GMO-free potatoes in order to discover their potential niche markets. We identify sociodemographic characteristics that affect consumer preferences and compare the effects of different attributes on consumers' willingness to pay. Results suggest that the attribute “Colorado grown” carries a higher willingness to pay than organic and GMO-free attributes.

Meta-analysis is used to quantitatively summarize previous studies of residential electricity demand to determine if there are factors that systematically affect estimated elasticities. In this study, price and income elasticities of residential demand for electricity from previous studies are used as the dependent variables, with data characteristics, model structure, and estimation technique as independent variables, using both least square estimation of a semilog model and maximum likelihood estimation of a gamma model. The findings of this research can help better inform public policy makers, regulators, and utilities about the responsiveness of residential electricity consumers to price and income changes.

It is commonly asserted that speculative buying by index funds in commodity futures and over-the–counter derivatives markets created a “bubble“ in commodity prices, with the result that prices, and crude oil prices, in particular, far exceeded fundamental values at the peak. The purpose of this paper is to show that the bubble argument simply does not withstand close scrutiny. Four main points are explored. First, the arguments of bubble proponents are conceptually flawed and reflect fundamental and basic misunderstandings of how commodity futures markets actually work. Second, a number of facts about the situation in commodity markets are inconsistent with the existence of a substantial bubble in commodity prices. Third, available statistical evidence does not indicate that positions for any group in commodity futures markets, including long-only index funds, consistently lead futures price changes. Fourth, there is a historical pattern of attacks upon speculation during periods of extreme market volatility.

Exchange rates have long been thought to have an important impact on the export and import of goods and services, and, thus, exchange rates are expected to influence the price of those products that are traded. At the same time, energy impacts commodity production in some very important ways. The use of chemical and petroleum derived inputs has increased in agriculture over time; the prices of these critical inputs, then, would be expected to alter supply, and, therefore, the prices of commodities using these inputs. Also, agricultural commodities have been increasingly used to produce energy, thereby leading to an expectation of a linkage between energy and commodity markets. In this paper, we examine the price relationship through time of the primary agricultural commodities, exchange rates, and oil prices. Using overlapping time periods, we examine the cointegration relationship between prices to determine changes in the strength of the linkage between markets through time. In general, we find that commodity prices are linked to oil for corn, cotton, and soybeans, but not for wheat, and that exchange rates do play a role in the linkage of prices over time.

Factors affecting the adoption of crop insurance, forward contracting, and spreading sales are analyzed using multivariate and multinomial probit approaches that account for simultaneous adoption and/or correlation among the three risk management adoption decisions. Our empirical results suggest that the decision to adopt crop insurance, forward contracting, and/or spreading sales are correlated. Richer insights can be drawn from our multivariate and multinomial probit analysis than from separate, single-equation probit estimation that assumes independence of adoption decisions. Some factors significantly affecting the adoption of the risk management tools analyzed are proportion of owned acres, off-farm income, education, age, and level of business risks.

Animal welfare concerns are having dramatic impacts on food and livestock markets. Here we examine consumer preferences for pork products with a focus on use of gestation crates. We examine underlying consumer valuations of pork attributes while considering preference heterogeneity as well as voluntary and legislative alternatives in producing gestation crate-free pork. Our results suggest that prohibiting swine producers from using gestation crates fails to improve consumer welfare in the presence of a labeling scheme documenting voluntary disadoption of gestation crates. Consumers are found to implicitly associate animal welfare attributes with smaller farms. Preference heterogeneity drives notably diverse consumer welfare impacts when pork produced with use of gestation crates is no longer available for consumption.

The first decade of the 21st century has perhaps witnessed morestructural change in commodity futures markets than all previous decadescombined. Not only have trading volumes and open interest increasedmarkedly, but this time period also saw historic changes in both trading andparticipants. The available literature indicates that the irrational andharmful impacts of the structural changes in commodity futures markets overthe last decade have been minimal. In particular, there is little evidencethat passive index investment caused a massive bubble in commodity futuresprices. There is intriguing evidence of several other rational andbeneficial impacts of the structural changes over the last decade. Inparticular, the expanding market participation may have decreased riskpremiums, and hence, the cost of hedging, reduced price volatility, andbetter integrated commodity markets with financial markets.

Using data from a survey of farm operators in two Virginia counties, the authors analyze farmers' soil conservation decisions. Results indicate that financial factors, including income and debt, are the most important influences on the sample farmers' use of conservation practices. Additional factors such as perception of erosion, education level, off-farm employment, and tenancy also influence conservation expenditures. Factors influencing conservation tillage acreage differ from those influencing expenditures for other conservation practices. In particular, age and race of the operator and on-farm erosion potential are significantly related to the use of conservation tillage but not other practices. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for conservation programs.

The interconnections of agriculture and energy markets have increased through the rise in the new biofuel agribusinesses and the oil-ethanol-corn linkages. The question is whether these linkages have a causal structure by which oil prices affect commodity prices and through these links, instability is transferred from energy markets to already volatile agricultural markets. In this article, we present empirical results using contemporary time-series analysis and Granger causality supplemented by a directed graph theory modeling approach to identify the links and plausible contemporaneous causal structures among energy and commodity variables. The results show that although there is a strong correlation among oil and commodity prices, the evidence for a causal link from oil to commodity prices is mixed.

Simulation as an analytical tool continues to gain popularity in industry, government, and academics. For agricultural economists, the popularity is driven by an increased interest in risk management tools and decision aids on the part of farmers, agribusinesses, and policy makers. Much of the recent interest in risk analysis in agriculture comes from changes in the farm program that ushered in an era of increased uncertainty. With increased planting flexibility and an abundance of insurance and marketing alternatives farmers face the daunting task of sorting out many options in managing the increased risk they face. Like farmers, decision makers throughout the food and fiber industry are seeking ways to understand and manage the increasingly uncertain environment in which they operate. The unique abilities of simulation as a tool in evaluating and presenting risky alternatives together with an expected increase in commodity price risk, as projected by Ray, et al., will likely accelerate the interest in simulation for years to come.

We model the interaction of off-farm work and adoption of agriculturaltechnologies and the impact of adopting these technologies on farm householdincome from on farm and off-farm sources after controlling for suchinteraction, and estimate the model for the case of adoption ofherbicide-tolerant (HT) soybeans using a nationwide survey of soybean farmsfor 2000. We find that adoption of HT soybeans is positively andsignificantly related to off-farm household income for U.S. soybean farmers,after controlling for other factors. In addition, while on-farm householdincome is not significantly related to adoption, total household incomeincreases significantly with adoption.

The paper analyzes the relationship between off-farm labor allocation and on-farm enterprise diversification as farm household income stabilization strategies with census data from the federal state of Upper Austria, Austria. The results suggest that both on-farm diversification and off-farm labor allocation are related to farm and household characteristics. Larger farms tend to be more diversified. Younger farmers are more likely to work off-farm. Larger farm households tend to allocate more labor to off-farm income activities.

Data from a national survey of food shoppers are analyzed by probit and ordered probit models that incorporate elements of Lancaster's product attribute model and Weinstein's precaution adoption process. The models are used to investigate the characteristics of organic and nonorganic food shoppers. Where one shops, food beliefs, and food knowledge have the largest significant impact on the probability that shoppers buy organic food. Among the demographic characteristics, only the lack of religious affiliation, higher education, and youth are significant explanatory variables.

The US pork sector has experienced many significant structural changes in recent years. Such changes may have influenced price dynamics and transmission of shocks through marketing channels. We investigate linkages among farm, wholesale, and retail markets using weekly price data for the period covering 1987 through 1998. Our analysis uses a threshold cointegration model that permits asymmetric adjustment to positive and negative price shocks. Our results reveal important asymmetries. Our results are consistent with existing literature which has determined that price adjustment patterns are unidirectional and that information tends to flow from farm, to wholesale, to retail markets.

This study examines how sociodemographic characteristics of a household's main meal planner affect use of nutritional information concerning ingredients, health benefits, calories, sodium, vitamins/minerals, fiber, fat, cholesterol, and sugar content on food packages. Results generally suggest that well-educated, female main meal planners are more likely to use various types of nutritional information than others. Main meal planners who place more importance on nutrition but less importance on taste and those who have a higher perception of the healthfulness of their diet are more likely to use nutritional information on packages than others. Household size, race, employment status, urbanization, region, age, and income are also significant factors.

Consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for three nonconventional attributes associated with six processed blueberry products was examined through an in-store conjoint experiment survey. Both credence and experience attributes were considered, including whether the products were produced locally, and whether they were organic or sugar-free. The results indicate heterogeneity in consumer preference and willingness to pay for different attributes across product categories. Local products and organic formulations generally received positive willingness to pay across all products. This information has implications for blueberry growers and retailers who are trying to create and position value-added products for maximum revenue.

This study provides an analysis of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners' participation in forestry assistance programs. A probit model was used for data collected from a random sample of 329 Indiana landowners. The analysis revealed that total land owned, commercial reasons for ownership, government sources of information, and membership in forestry organizations influenced NIPF landowners' program participation. Age, fear of loss of property rights, and duration since the first wooded tract was acquired also influenced program participation. Location of landowners' residence on their wooded land and landowners' knowledge of and willingness to participate in a conservation easement influenced the participation in cost-share programs.

Factors influencing the adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques are studied using survey data from individual vegetable producers from Florida, Michigan, and Texas. Farmers who adopt IPM tend to be less risk averse and use more managerial time on farm activities than nonadopters. Adopters are also more likely to operate large, irrigated farms and use more family labor. Locational factors and the type of crop grown are also influential in IPM adoption. The analysis uses a logit framework and introduces adopter categories first conceptualized by rural sociologists.

This paper examines factors influencing the adoption of improved maize seeds and the use of inorganic fertilizer for maize production by farmers in the intermediate and lowland zones of Tanzania. The results indicate that availability of extension services, on-farm field trials, variety characteristics and rainfall were the most important factors that influenced the extent of adopting improved maize seeds and the use of inorganic fertilizer for maize production. Farmers preferred those varieties which minimize field loss rather than maximizing yields. Future research and extension policies should emphasize farmer participation in the research process and on-farm field trials for varietal evaluation and demonstration purposes.

In this paper, we assess consumer willingness to pay for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program applied to beef ribeye steaks, chicken breasts, and pork chops, all labeled as “Certified U.S.” products. A consumer survey was mailed in spring and early summer 2003 to households in the continental United States. Results indicate that consumers are in general very concerned about food safety issues, viewing U.S. meat as the safest among the selection of countries considered. Nevertheless, consumer willingness to pay for Certified U.S. products is relatively small, although above the expected implementation costs associated with a mandatory labeling program. This finding coincides with the fact that only 36% of the sample favored consumers paying directly for the costs related to a mandatory COOL program.