A set of ordinary and inverse demand systems for U.S. quarterly meat consumption is estimated for use to measure the effects of U.S. meat trade on consumers' welfare. The approach is useful to incorporate all direct- and cross-commodity effects into price forecasting and the Hicksian compensating variation measurement.

Although the importance of multiple goals in the decision-making process has been recognized for years by economists, economic analyses typically are based on the assumption of maximization or minimization of a single goal. Some firm growth analyses have considered two or more goals by maximizing one goal subject to constraints on the remaining goals. In other cases, utility functions that incorporate expected income and income variability have been estimated for individual farm operators. Although these approaches are an effort to incorporate more than one goal in the decision process, firm growth research in general has not been based on multiple-goal decision models.

Entrepreneurs innovate their individual business organizations not only to deal with production and price risks, but also to cope with the risk of sanctions or penalties imposed by society's laws and regulations. More specifically, labor-intensive agricultural firms, faced with potentially large fines for violation of immigration and labor laws, increasingly modify the organization of their firms by shifting the management of routine seasonal labor jobs to independent farm labor contractors. The use of labor contracting is further intensified because of the effectiveness of labor contractors in the recruitment of illegal aliens.

Rotations have historically been used to alleviate pest problems in crop production. This paper considers methods of modeling rotations in linear programming models for Southeastern vegetable production. In such models, entering each possible crop rotation as a separate activity can be burdensome because of the large numbers of possible rotational alternatives. Conventional methodology for double crop rotations reduces the number of activities but must be adapted to accommodate triple crop rotational requirements in vegetable production. This paper demonstrates these methods both for a simple example and an empirical problem with numerous rotation alternatives. While the methods presented in this paper may have computational disadvantages compared to entering each rotation as a separate activity, they do have advantages in model design and data management.

Recreational pursuits have been discussed by economists and others involved in the planning of public sector investment since early in the 1930s. This discussion developed from a peripheral concern to an intense interest as legislative legitimacy was gained for the use of recreational benefit measures to justify public sector investment in multiple purpose river developments. The history of recreation benefit assessment has been adequately discussed elsewhere. In this paper, the justification for inclusion of recreation benefits in economic analyses is not addressed. However, it is worth noting that emphasis has shifted over time from an almost exclusive concern with recreation opportunities provided by development activities to an emphasis upon the recreation opportunities lost in that process as well.

We investigate the impact of five types of subsidies granted under the European Union Common Agricultural Policy on the persistent and transient inefficiency of Polish dairy farms. Our research shows that coupled and environmental subsidies reduce transient technical inefficiency, while the opposite is true for Less Favoured Areas (LFA) and other rural subsidies. Simultaneously, environmental, LFA, and other rural subsidies increase persistent technical inefficiency. These results imply that the impact of each type of subsidy on technical efficiency can be different and that the effect of the particular type of subsidy can vary between transient and persistent technical inefficiency.

Livestock risk protection (LRP) insurance is a price risk management tool available to cattle producers; however, producers have been hesitant to adopt LRP. The objective of the study was to determine the monthly feeder cattle LRP contract coverage level and length maximizing the probability of the LRP net price being greater than the CME Feeder Cattle Index (CME FCI) price. The CME FCI prices were higher than the LRP net price for the majority of the contract lengths and coverage levels. Several coverage lengths and levels provided similar price protection, and there was no consistent preferred coverage length and level.

The real advantage of receiving a Southern Agricultural Economics Association Lifetime Achievement award is the ability to make this presentation and have it published without having to deal with editors and referees. This provides a certain license of freedom to abstract outside the box without being constrained by your peers. So in this vein, consider the following myths and predictions concerning biofuels. These myths are generally consistent with the Grunwald's (2009) seven myths about alternative energy.

A framework was developed in order to specify a model for annual U.S. per capita consumption of cigarettes. Three separate time related variables were utilized to measure the effects of health related information regarding smoking. The empirical results from the post World War II data set reveal that while prices and income are important determinants of cigarette consumption, the estimates for both were in the inelastic range. The age distribution of the adult population is also an important variable. While the development of the filter tip has been successful in stimulating smoking, the low tar and nicotine innovation has not had a statistically significant effect. Health information has repeatedly produced substantial short and long run effects. Current consumption is falling at an annual rate of between 3 to 4 percent.

The Common Agricultural Policy increases European poultry production costs, prohibits imports, increases domestic prices, and subsidizes exports. This policy has displaced some U.S. exports. However, the net impact in the U.S. has been quite modest, even assuming poultry is homogeneous, independent of source country. Costs to U.S. producers are almost entirely offset by gains to U.S. consumers. Effects in the U.S. are even smaller when imperfect substitutability between poultry from different countries is accounted for. A retaliatory U.S. export subsidy would have more dramatic effects in U.S. markets.

This paper investigates the relationships among land-use change, biological invasion, and interspecific competition in a tropical ecosystem by linking a behavioral model of land conversion by agriculture and an ecological model of interspecific competition between a native species and an exotic invader. The model is used to examine how relative farm prices and access to forest areas influence land clearing and thus the ability of the invasive species to eliminate the native species. Simulations show that only a 20% rise in relative prices and a 2.75% increase in forest access are necessary for this outcome to occur.

The poultry industry is the most vertically integrated of U.S. agriculture and food production and is rapidly progressing toward being one of the most concentrated. In 2002, the top 15 broiler states accounted for 94.4% of U.S. production. From 1982–2002, the top four broiler firms had a fivefold increase in Ready-to-Cook (R-T-C) pounds, a tripling of plants and four- and eight-firm concentration ratio increases of 27.9% to 48.2% and 44.1% to 66.6%. In a broad sense, chicken became more affordable, appealing, and available; total R-T-C pounds increased from 234 to 663 million pounds between 1982 and 2002.

It is a privilege and pleasure to have the opportunity to present the inaugural presidential address of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA). As I considered alternative topics which might be candidates for this presidential address, an intriguing question kept attracting my attention. Why are there regional agricultural economics associations and in particular why is there a Southern Agricultural Economics Association? What services does the SAEA provide to its membership that a national association such as the American Agricultural Economics Association does not provide? Or possibly it is not what services a regional association provides but how and in what kind of an environment the services are provided to members.

My objective today is to put forth a call for each of you to rethink how we do applied policy analysis. I plan to justify the need for this rethinking using a variety of arguments. Some of my arguments will be familiar to most if not all of you, others may be unfamiliar to most if not all. I claim no originality for the basic theoretical arguments, they all appear in the literature. What 1 hope you find to be original and useful is the synthesis of these arguments. Furthermore, though in places 1 will point out the need for additional theoretical work, my primary goal is to convince practicing agricultural policy analysts to become more comprehensive in their analyses. In the grand tradition of presidential addresses, my remarks cover a rather broad range of issues at the expense of depth on any one issue. Nevertheless, I hope that my remarks will stimulate discussion and thought about how we as agricultural economists do applied policy analysis.

The ornamental horticultural industry continues to be one of the most rapidly expanding sectors in agriculture. This study examined a decision model for landscape plant production based on portfolio analysis. A quadratic programming model was developed to generate an optimal crop portfolio for a selected southeastern nursery. Empirical results indicate opportunities exist for modest diversification to offset income variability in landscape plant production and marketing.

Approximate profit functions are estimated using time-series, cross-sectional, county level data for 12 midwest states. Measures of climate variability are included in the profit functions. Simulated impacts of climate changes on profits are derived. Results show that inclusion of measures of climate variation are important for measuring the impact of changes in mean temperature and precipitation levels. Failure to account for the impact of differences in variability leads to an overestimate of damages. If global warming increases diurnal variation, such increases would have negative impacts on the profitability of midwest agriculture.

Economists have demonstrated considerable concern with the appropriateness of profit maximization as a sole firm objective. Agricultural economists have adopted suggestions of economic theorists in writings on production economics; for example, Heady relaxed the objective of profit maximization to incorporate preferences for family consumption and risk aversion. Production economics research has supported the theoretical reasoning for multiple firm objectives; in a recent article, Lin, Dean, and Moore state “… empirical studies explicitly employing the profit maximization hypothesis … have generally provided results inconsistent with observed or plausible behavior”. Previous studies incorporating multiple objectives in analysis of agricultural production have largely been concerned with the general theoretical categories suggested by Heady. Lin, Dean, and Moore considered profit maximization and risk aversion. Patrick and Eisgruber considered accumulation of net worth, annual net income for consumption, leisure, and risk-taking; Hatch, Harmon, and Eidman included eight similar goals in their analysis. These studies have followed the tradition in micro-economic theory of separate production and consumption decision-making. While previous analyses have departed from the perfect knowledge, static basis of conventional micro-economics, the major interaction between production and consumption decisions concerns the level and variability of income available for consumption.

This study determines which factors are associated with the use of rotational grazing and the frequency with which Tennessee producers rotate cattle during the summer months. Survey data were used to estimate an ordered response model with sample selection. Most respondents used rotational grazing, and the most frequent rotational schedule was rotating cattle one to two times per month. Factors including labor, capital, knowledge, and water availability influenced the use of rotational grazing and the frequency of rotating cattle. The insights from this study can inform the development of incentives to promote more intensive use of rotational grazing.

We utilize a unique primary data set of farms in Russia and Kazakhstan to investigate the link between policy reforms and technical efficiency. These countries have heavily subsidized their domestic agricultural production over the last decade, with a total of around USD 76 billion USD and USD 11.5 billion USD in government funding directed towards the agricultural sectors in Russia and Kazakhstan, respectively. Results of a stochastic frontier analysis make evident that variable inputs, such as fertilizer, have a relatively large influence on wheat production compared to land. Nearly every fifth farm has a technical efficiency level lower than 60%, suggesting significant unrealized production potential. While our analysis shows a negative relation between subsidies and efficiency, other factors, such as farmer’s education, cooperative and agroholding membership, and participation in insurance programs, are positively related to farm efficiency. The results imply that the governments and policymakers could mobilize the unutilized wheat production potential by improving the farmer education system, fostering cooperation among farms, and developing functioning farm insurance schemes.

This study investigates the determinants of crawfish consumption in South Louisiana using a generalized limited dependent variable model that accounts for both participation and consumption decisions. Income, Catholic, white, and household size increase the likelihood of crawfish consumption but not the conditional level of consumption. Education and employment status are among the other household characteristics that determine the conditional level of consumption.