Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Lb108 Repeals Fence Viewer Process, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

In Nebraska, if I want to make a neighbor pay for part of a division fence, I can ask him or her to do so. If they refuse, for over a century I could have requested fence viewers to determine how much of the division fence each neighbor should pay for. Now if I want to do that I must go to court. I can also build the fence myself and assume full responsibility for the costs of construction and maintenance. Ideally, neighbors should have a written agreement (filed with the real estate deeds) identifying how the costs of building …

Examining The Socioeconomic Impacts Of Irrigation In The Southeast Anatolia Region Of Turkey, Sachiko Miyata, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

We explore the socioeconomic changes following implementation of an irrigation system in the Southeast Anatolia region of Turkey, and examines whether the improvement originally envisioned was achieved. We surveyed seven irrigated and eight non-irrigated villages in Sanliurfa Province, collecting several indicators at the household level, including crop patterns, household living standards, and access to water. Local perception of the irrigation project and decisions regarding water use also are examined. The irrigation projects have improved knowledge sharing of irrigation technology and helped to introduce the sharing of agricultural machinery. The projects also seem to have shifted the tribal hierarchy toward peer …

Competing Visions Of U.S. Agriculture: Can We Have Our Cake And Eat It Too In Reforming Federal Farm Policy?, Thomas L. Dobbs

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Measuring Economic Development Ii - Persistent Income Inequality 1980-2000, David J. Peters

Cornhusker Economics

Economic development is “sustained progressive change to attain individual and group interests through the expanded, intensified and adjusted use of resources,” where “human welfare is the end product of the development process.”1 The previous issue of Cornhusker Economics2 used persistent poverty as one way to measure development at the communitylevel. Another way social scientists measure development is to look at how evenly income is distributed within a community. Thus, an equal distribution has ten percent of households receiving ten percent of the income, fifty percent of households receiving fifty percent of the income, and so on. Although the question of …

Measuring Economic Development I - Persistent Poverty 1980-2000, David J. Peters

Cornhusker Economics

Economic development is a priority for nearly all Nebraska communities. However, development is often confused with economic growth. Economic development entails “sustained progressive change to attain individual and group interests through the expanded, intensified and adjusted use of resources,” where “human welfare is the end product of the development process.”1 How do you measure such a value-laden and multifaceted concept to know whether development efforts have been successful? While there is no single answer to this question, one common and relatively easy method is to look at community poverty rates over time.

Ethanol, Oil And Corn, Richard K. Perrin

Cornhusker Economics

When will ethanol plants stop being built? Ethanol plants under construction in Nebraska will have the capacity to grind over 40 percent of the Nebraska corn crop by the end of 2007, and nearly 60 percent by the end of 2008. Nationally, capacity for these years will be roughly 25 percent and 35 percent of the crop. The plants under construction will bring total annual ethanol production to 11 billion gallons or so, well over the renewable fuels standard of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.

Farm Business Succession And Estate Planning Or “What You Need To Know Before You Go To See The Attorney”, David J. Goeller

Cornhusker Economics

Nearly everyone agrees that it is important to plan for the future. Why, then, do less than half of all farmers and ranchers have an estate plan? Many will say it is just too complicated so it gets put off until…well, later or maybe never. Farm and ranch estate planning can involve some rather complicated concepts. Attorneys and other estate planning professionals spend a lifetime honing their skills and evaluating various estate planning options. Should a trust or a will be used? What about a corporation or an LLC? Should we have a durable power of attorney and an advanced …

Simulated Analysis Of Drought’S Impact On Different Cow-Calf Production Systems, Matthew C. Stockton, Roger K. Wilson

Department of Agricultural Economics: Presentations, Working Papers, and Gray Literature

Five representative, firm-level, stochastic simulation models were constructed using historical production cost, cattle prices, weather information and scientifically collected production data from the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory operated by the University of Nebraska. The five hundred iterative results indicate the inclusion of crop residual grazing is a viable drought mitigation tool.

Does The Data Support Ikerd’S “Economic Fallacies Of Industrial Hog Production”?, Azzeddine Azzam

Cornhusker Economics

In one of the most comprehensive studies of U.S. hog production, McBride and Key (2003) found that although the cost of producing hogs declines with increasing farm size across producer types (farrow-to-finish, farrow-tofeeder, and feeder-to-finish), the distribution of costs is such that many small and medium-sized operations produce at a cost that is competitive with industrial-scale operations. The study attributed the cost competitiveness to managerial ability, which "is likely to be as important as size economies lowering the costs of hog production" (p. 18). The same view is shared by Ikerd (2001), a well-known advocate of small hog farms. He …

Accounting For Agricultural Decline With Economic Growth In Taiwan, Ling Sun, Lilyan Fulginiti, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

In this paper, we develop an empirical model to decompose the evolution of the agricultural share of GDP into three components: price changes, factor endowment changes and technological change. Our results suggest that relative prices have a positive but small influence on the share of agriculture in GDP in both the long-run and the short-run. An increase in capital per unit of labor, on the other hand, is associated with a smaller agricultural share. Technical change has been biased in favor of the agricultural sector but this effect has been swamped by the magnitude of the input effects, in particular, …

Farm Wages In Nebraska, H. Douglas Jose

Cornhusker Economics

As farm sizes increase, questions related to labor management, employee working conditions and employee wages become more important. Farm operators want to know if the wages they are providing are competitive and employees want to ensure they are being compensated fairly. The most comprehensive set of information on farm wages in this region is a report published by Iowa State University in 2006. This resulted from a survey of Iowa farmers who employ one or more workers on a full-time basis. Another source of information is the periodic report of farm wages published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Perspectives Of Cow/Calf Producers In The Dakotas On The Price Discover Process, Martin Beutler, Scott Fausti, Bashir Qasmi

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

The Swine Industry: 2006 S The Year In Review, Allen Prosch

Cornhusker Economics

January of 2006 was marked by some concern that the modest expansion in pork production may be more than markets could absorb. Cash and futures markets started lower, and it was clear that daily product movement would dictate prices. Both market fundamentals and attitudes appeared negative.

Let’S Be Practical: A New Integration In The Approach To Economic Policy, Gary D. Lynne

Cornhusker Economics

Both the Nebraska Unicameral and the U.S. Congress are just now coming back into session with many new faces, in Nebraska due to the term limit law showing its impact, and with a shift in the power structure in Washington. With all this change, and the many substantive policy issues facing these entities, from the farm bill to the war in Iraq, along with the wide array of environmental, ecosystem and natural resource (e.g. global warming, renewable energy, water and biodiversity) issues, as well as the always present set of social issues (e.g. the minimum wage), perhaps it is a …

Federal Court Invalidates Initiative 300, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

On December 15, 2005, the U.S. District Court for Nebraska (Judge Camp) ruled that Article 12 Section 8 of the Nebraska Constitution (popularly known as Initiative 300) violated federal law. The court ruled that I300, which regulates corporate farming, violated the Interstate Commerce Clause and the Americans with Disabilities Act. On December 13, 2006, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Camp’s 2005 ruling that 300 violated the Interstate Commerce Clause. The state of Nebraska will appeal the circuit court’s decision to the United States Supreme Court.

Intellectual Property Management In Health And Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook Of Best Practices, Vol. 2, Anatole Krattiger, Richard T. Mahoney, Lita Nelsen, Jennifer A. Thomson, Alan B. Bennett, Kanikaram Satyanarayana, Gregory D. Graff, Carlos Fernandez, Stanley Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities …

Agroecological Transition In Cuba: Towards A Better Way Of Life, Donna Chollett, Bruce Ferguson, Koyu Furusawa, Mari Furusawa, Stephen Hollis, Audrey Hollis, Alley Kent, Sheehy Skeffington, Masuru Sugai

Anthropology Publications

The current financial and fuel crises threaten food security in poorer nations and among the poor in wealthier countries. Sustainable food production benefits communities and their food supply and can maintain farming systems in less developed agricultural regions. Many small farmers have long practiced organic agriculture, but face pressure to adopt green revolution farming, using chemicals and commercial seed. Some are resisting this, but lack the technology to apply organic methods on a larger scale. Cuba provides an instructive example of a nation that confronted a sudden food and fuel crisis by adopting organic agricultural technologies across production systems that …

An Equitable, Efficient, And Implementable Scheme To Control Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Arthur J. Caplan, Emilson C.D. Silva

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We design an international scheme to control global externalities in which autonomous regions choose their own emissions levels in anticipation of interregional resource transfers implemented by an international agency. This agency follows a proportional equity principle, which preserves the status-quo ratio of regional welfare levels. We show that it is individually rational for each region to participate in the proposed international scheme and that regional environmental authorities choose policies that fully internalize the global externality. Although based on an admittedly ideal scheme, these results are especially noteworthy in light of the call for various forms of transfers in international agreements …

Using Choice Question Formats To Determine Compensable Values: The Case Of A Landfill Sitting Process, Arthur J. Caplan, Therese Grijalva, Douglas Jackson-Smith

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Siting noxious facilities, such as community landfills, is a challenging problem for local planners who recognize the importance of economic efficiency and equity, political acceptance, and meeting federal regulatory standards. Meeting these criteria requires technical and socio-economic analyses in conjunction with public input. Planners may also recognize that political acceptance requires compensation for the host community, either in the form of monetary or in-kind transfers. Following Breffle and Rowe (2002), we use a “resource-toresource” paired-comparison survey method to estimate compensatory values associated with an in-county landfill for both the host and non-host communities. Our results indicate that while a host-community …

A Bayesian Examination Of Information And Uncertainty In Contingent Valuation, David M. Aadland, Arthur J. Caplan, Owen R. Phillips

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

A theoretical framework is presented to explain how agents respond to information under uncertainty in contingent valuation surveys. Agents are provided with information signals and referendum prices as part of the elicitation process. Agents use Bayesian updating to revise prior distributions. An information prompt is presented to reduce hypothetical bias. However, we show the interaction between anchoring and the information prompt creates a systematic bias in willingness to pay. We test our hypotheses in an experimental setting where agents are asked to make a hypothetical, voluntary contribution to a public good. Experimental results are consistent with the model.

Intellectual Property Management In Health And Agricultural Innovation: Executive Guide, Anatole Krattiger, Richard T. Mahoney, Lita Nelsen, Jennifer A. Thomson, Alan B. Bennett, Kanikaram Satyanarayana, Gregory D. Graff, Carlos Fernandez, Stanley Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities …

Intellectual Property Management In Health And Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook Of Best Practices, Vol. 1, Anatole Krattiger, Richard T. Mahoney, Lita Nelsen, Jennifer A. Thomson, Alan B. Bennett, Kanikaram Satyanarayana, Gregory D. Graff, Carlos Fernandez, Stanley Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities …

Ip And The Global Public Interest: Challenges And Opportunities, Jon R. Cavicchi, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt from article] Intellectual property (IP) capacity is essential for economic development, particularly as countries transition into the higher technology sectors, for example biotechnology. For developing countries, a commitment to minimal IP rights protection will determine inclusion in the World Trade Organization (WTO), facilitate access to foreign-direct investment, and accelerate economic development. However, on a more fundamental level, capacity in IP management will affect whether a country can provide basic health and nutritional needs for its citizens. For example, sustainable food security presents a serious challenge in many developing countries; as their economies rapidly emerge, urban centers expand, arable land …

Caring Globally: Jane Addams, World War One, And International Hunger, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Several feminist philosophers, including Virginia Held, Joan Tronto, and Fiona Robinson, see the need for, and the potential of, care ethics for achieving far-reaching political and even global transformation. Tronto recommends that care be used as "a basis for political change" and a "strategy for organizing" (Tronto 1993, 175). Held advocates that "the ethics of care should transform international politics and relations between states as well as within them" (Held 2006, 161).

During and immediately after World War One, Jane Addams attempted to do just that. She sought to bring perspectives and moral sensibilities that have since been theorized in …

Review Of Methods For Modelling Systems Evolution, Charles F. Nicholson

Agribusiness

Acceleration of economic, technological, social, and environmental change challenge decision-makers of various kinds to learn at increasing rates, and at the same time, the complexity of the dynamic systems in which we live is growing (Sterman 2000). In agriculture and international development contexts, there are often significant delays in the development and implementation of technologies and policies, and agriculture-based livelihood systems are in constant and sometimes rapid evolution. In order to make technologies and policies better match the future state of these systems, it is necessary to better understand the likely evolution of agricultural systems. The goal of these efforts …

Science, Technology And The Garden Of Maine: Industrial Farming In Aroostook County, 1850-1900, Thomas J. H. Reznick

Senior Scholars Papers in Computer Science

In the mid-nineteenth century, northern Maine farmers existed amidst tension between capitalist and non-capitalist forces. This conflict is best described in terms of recent discourse on the question of rural capitalism, a topic debated by such scholars as Allan Kulikoff and Christopher Clark. This is an intricate and nuanced debate that this paper does not intend to treat with. Suffice to say, Maine farmers were caught between traditional social institutions associated with their trade that did not entail market production, and the rise of rural capitalism associated with burgeoning new markets. However, by the turn of the century, northern Maine …

Book Review: The Nature Of The Farm: Contracts, Risk, And Organization In Agriculture By Douglas W. Allen And Dean Lueck, Azzeddine Azzam

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

The conventional wisdom about the future of family farming in North America is that it is a bleak one. Like any other family firms, family farms are not immune to industrialization and eventually all stages of food production will be in the hands of large corporations. The poultry industry has become the poster-industry for the corporate take-over of food production and the guide to what is in store for the rest of agriculture. That, among other theories about organizational features of North American agriculture, is closely examined by Allen and Lueck’s Nature of the Farm—Contracts, Risk, and Organization in Agriculture. …

Ovophilia In Renaissance Cuisine, Ken Albala

College of the Pacific Faculty Books and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Consumers And Citizens In The Global Agrifood System: The Cases Of New Zealand And South Africa In The Global Red Meat Chain, Keiko Tanaka, Elizabeth Ransom

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This chapter aims to show that the process of changing rules within the capitalist market system, specifically meat safety governance reform in New Zealand and South Africa, raises profound obstacles for human agency, yet opens new spaces for conceptualizing who participates in promoting change. Agency and structure are complex concepts with dueling tensions that alter the form and substance (as Wright and Middendorf argue in their Introduction to this volume) of individual and collective action in the red meat commodity chains of these two countries. We show that, far from being monolithic, the ways in which capitalism and a changing …

Devolution Of Federal Agricultural Policy: The Case Of Specialty Crop Block Grants, Jay E. Noel, David Schweikhardt

Agribusiness

There is a lengthy history of devolution of federal policy and programs to the states through the use of grants-in-aid in general and block grants in particular. In the area of agricultural policy, for example, programs for agricultural research and extension have, since their origin, been jointly funded by a system of grants from the federal government to the states. In recent years, the possible consequence of a major devolution of farm policy and programs from the federal government to the states has received much attention.