This is a decision teaching case study, where the Program Manager, Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) is faced with the problem of determining the future direction of the MAEAP going forward from 2010. During the case discussion students should be able to: 1. Identify...

Reducing costs of controlling nonpoint source (NPS) pollution will be a high public priority in the next century. Compliance and transaction costs of reducing nitrogen runoff from dairies in the Lower Susquehanna Watershed by 40% are estimated for perfectly targeted and uniform performance...

Nearly every aspect of Michigan Agriculture is affected by the farm bill. Farm program payments are a major source of income (25 percent of Michigan's net farm income in recent years has come from farm program payments - Figure 1), conservation compliance requirements are beginning to affect...

Ten alternative seed corn contract specifications are evaluated with respect to nitrate leaching and profitability for the processor firm (principal) and contracted grower (agent). A whole-farm optimization and feasibility analysis suggest that contract terms can be used to reduce non-point...

Sustainable agricultural research and education have gained acceptability within the land-grant system in less than a decade, an impressive change. Attitudes were changed by a set of forces which include lobbying by sustainable agriculture advocates, requests from farmers as a result of the...

As contractual agriculture expands, contract design offers a non-regulatory opportunity to reduce non-point source pollution. A risk programming analysis of seed corn contract designs illustrates a tractable empirical principal-agent model, and shows that grower risk preferences affect contract...

Many business firms both in the U.S. and abroad are practicing corporate environmental management. They are committed to improving the efficiency of material use, energy use and water use; to recycle; to make safer products and processes and to reduce their overall impact on the environment. In...