Pheasant hunting benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) were approximately $80 million/year in 1991 in states where the CRP appears most critical to pheasant populations. To obtain this benefit measure, tire demand for pheasant hunting was estimated using a recently developed...

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...

Anaerobic digesters can provide renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from manure management. Government policies that encourage digester adoption by livestock operations include construction cost-share grants, renewable electricity subsidies, and carbon pricing (offset) programs....

In recent decades, urban encroachment and increasing environmental regulation have impacted California’s dairy industry. A complicated set of environmental legislation affects dairies in the state, and can differ depending on location, creating the possibility for within-state pollution...

Economic incentives created by the commodity programs are hypothesized to cause program participants to apply agrichemicals at greater rates than nonparticipants. Corn producers who participate in the USDA feedgrain program are shown to apply nitrogen, herbicides, and insecticides at...

Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that is emitted from cropland treated with nitrogen fertilizer. Reducing such emissions through nutrient management might be able to produce offsets for sale in a cap and trade program aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. We use the Nitrate Leaching and...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires concentrated animal feeding operations to develop and implement a comprehensive nutrient management plan. Changes in manure management to meet nutrient application standards will generally increase production costs. Some of these costs can be...