This report summarizes the ARIMS analysis for the 1990 Farm Bill Conservation Initiatives Work Group. Three major tasks were completed. First, ARIMS was updated to reflect the short-run nature of possible 1990 farm bill policies. Specifically, ARIMS now incorporates a more differentiated set of...

Soil erosion as an on-site problem received much attention in the 1985 Food Security Act (FSA), which established programs for the Conservation Reserve and conservation compliance. The 1985 FSA explicitly linked farmers' resource use and conservation activities to benefits received from...

Least cost production versus the environmental on- and off-site erosion damage of agriculture is evaluated in a policy context for a major Corn Belt watershed. Compromise programming, previously utilized in firm-level multi-criteria decision making problems is applied to a regional agricultural...

Within the Conservation Reserve (CR) program, a change in program criteria could reduce the amount of erosion material entering our nation's waterways. The inclusion of land adjacent to water bodies, flowing streams, and river waterways may reduce erosion from these lands and improve water...

Concern about environmental impacts of nitrogen fertilizer use is increasing. Mainstream agriculture is dependent on nitrogen fertilizer and use patterns are polluting water resources. A five cent tax on nitrogen fertilizer is shown to have three benefits. National nitrogen fertilizer use is...

The livestock and dairy industries are consolidating and concentrating within confined geographical areas. Accompanying these structural adjustments that are under way in the dairy and livestock industries is the potential for increased point and nonpoint source pollution problems from animal...

Contamination of the Nation's ground and surface water supplies from normal use of pesticides and fertilizers has caused growing concern about the impact of agricultural practices on water quality. Informed decisions on sustainable agricultural policies to protect soil and water quality, and...

A viable agricultural policy should adapt to any changes occurring within the agricultural sector. With the growing focus on environmentally friendly agriculture, increased role for markets by reducing the influence of farm programs, agricultural-related global climate change, and budgetary...

Fueled by economic forces, dairy sector policies, technological progress, and strict environmental regulations the U.S. dairy industry is consolidating into large, confined animal feedlot operations (CAFOs) and concentrating in a few localized areas. These structural changes produced a...

Informed debate on agricultural nonpoint pollution requires evaluation of regional water quality in relation to management practices. It is prohibitive, in terms of cost and time, to run the site-specific process models for regional policy analysis. Therefore, a simplified and robust...