Using data from a survey of farm operators in two Virginia counties, the authors analyze farmers' soil conservation decisions. Results indicate that financial factors, including income and debt, are the most important influences on the sample farmers' use of conservation practices. Additional...

Agricultural activities have been identified as major contributors to the non-point pollution of the Chesapeake Bay. Low-input agricultural practices are being considered to reduce pollution in areas adjoining the Chesapeake Bay. A multiperiod mathematical programming model was used to examine...

Energy use and it's availability, now and in the future, have been of increasing concern as the decade of the 1970's elapsed and the 1980's begin. This paper describes a farm energy audit project that addressed this concern of energy use by farms in Michigan. The objectives of this paper are...

Lignocellulosic portion of municipal solid waste (MSW) is considered a potential feedstock for fuel ethanol production. I review the trends in MSW generation, composition and disposal practices, and evaluate the aggregate and regional potential of MSW as a feedstock. I present an overview of the...

During the last several years there has been significant development in the energy situation. The present shortages and the resultant problems were not widely anticipated by the American public nor its elected leaders. Recognition of the current and possible future impacts of the energy shortage...

This paper outlines the economic surplus approach to economic impact assessment and how it may be applied to natural resource management (NRM) projects. Three challenges confront NRM impact assessment: measurement, attribution, and valuation of non-market impacts. While various methods for...

Rapidly expanding ethanol production in the U.S. was given further impetus with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandating a minimum production of 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2012. The availability of the by-product feeds of ethanol production (corn gluten feed and meal...