Corn ethanol plants consume large amounts of corn and their location has the potential to alter local crop prices and surrounding agricultural land values. The relationship between ethanol plant location and agricultural land prices is examined using data obtained from the Agricultural Credit...

Livestock waste presents an important potential source of renewable energy. A variety of factors make the production of renewable energy from livestock waste particularly appealing. Rising energy prices, rising fertilizer prices, and incentives for renewable energy production have increased the...

This paper conducts a financial analysis of anaerobic digestion systems on dairy farms and describes a financial model developed for this purpose. The model is flexible and can be utilized with farm-specific data to assist in the evaluation of an anaerobic digestion system. The model is...

A survey of agricultural banks in New York State found that inability to compete with the low interest rates offered by the Farm Credit Service (FCS) rather than the unavailability of funds per se was limiting agricultural lending by commercial banks. A MASI-like intermediary would (1) be of...

In a departure from past contingent valuation research of groundwater quality, this paper estimates a damage function for nitrate exposures based on actual water test results of individual wells. From the perspective of reliability, it is argued that such a full information approach more closely...

Geologic estimates of remaining global petroleum resources place about 50% in the Persian Gulf. Production costs are estimated at $5 per barrel there, and $15 per barrel in the North Sea and Alaska. Using mathematical methods derived from depletion theory is utilized to explain the $15-$20 per...

A real option analysis of dry-grind corn ethanol plants compared to a standard net present value analysis (NPV) shows that the option values increase entry prices and lower exit prices of investment and disinvestment considerably. For a large plant, the gross margin of ethanol price over the...