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Agricultural Conservation Policy at a Crossroads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Ralph E. Heimlich  and
Roger Claassen
Ralph E. Heimlich
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environment Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service
Roger Claassen
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environment Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service
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Abstract

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?

Type
Economics and the Environment in the 21st Century
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , April 1998 , pp. 95 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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