One voice that is commonly overlooked in debates about farm policy and payment limitations is that of the average tax payer. Surprisingly little research has been done on what taxpayers believe about farms and what they prefer regarding farm policy. Our sample of taxpayers believes that farmers...

Because of the potential malleability of stated and revealed preferences for new food technologies and attributes, this research sought to determine consumers' food value systems by utilizing recent advances in best-worst scaling. Based on previous literature related to human values and food...

Current debates on food and farm policy would benefit from an improved understanding of the public’s demand for the services provided by the USDA. We determine taxpayer’s preferences for six categories of USDA expenditures using data from a nationwide survey of almost 1,200 taxpayers. We...

U.S. farm income is on the rise. Yet, farm income alone is often insufficient for many farmers to service their debt. In fact, for many farm operations off-farm wages have become their main source of income. In 2008, 90 percent of all income for farm households came from off-farm activities. ;...

With the farm boom ending in 2009, many farmers have become less able to repay short-term loans. As farm profit margins erode and farm loan delinquencies rise, some in the agricultural industry worry that lending standards will tighten—as they did in the farm debt crisis of the 1980s. ; One...

Farmers have significantly increased their debt levels in recent years. Since 2004, real farm debt has risen nearly 5 percent annually, the fastest increase since the prelude to the 1980s farm debt crisis. Today’s rising debt raises questions about whether U.S. farm operations will face...

Consumers have shown an increasing interest in not only how their food is produced, but also who benefits from their food purchase. In some cases, such as organics, food is marketed as being produced in an 'equitable' food system. But are consumers willing to pay for a fair food system? Using a...