We propose a market-based approach to reducing the environmental risk posed by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The dual problems of hidden information and hidden action faced by policymakers are considered alongside the competing incentives faced by the CAFO manager in a multiple...

Livestock rations are formulated to minimize feed cost subject to nutritional requirements for a target performance level, which ignores the potentially substantial cost of disposing of nutrients fed in excess of nutritional requirements. We incorporate nutrient disposal costs into a modified...

Three index-based crop insurance contracts are evaluated for representative south Georgia corn farms. The insurance contracts considered are based on indexes of historical county yields, yields predicted from a cooling degree-day production model, and yields predicted from a crop-simulation...

A dynamic-stochastic model is developed to evaluate preferences among alternative countercyclical payment programs for representative farms producing corn or soybeans in Iowa and cotton or soybeans in Mississippi. Countercyclical payment programs are found to not necessarily be preferred to...

Results are presented from a Web-based survey of instructors in agricultural economics and related departments about their use of, and attitudes about, classroom economic experiments.

Moving from price-triggered to area revenue–triggered programs was perhaps the most common theme among 2007 farm bill proposals. Area revenue–triggered commodity programs may make farm-level revenue insurance products seem redundant, raising questions about why the federal...