Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Bridging The Food Gap: Addressing The Feasibility And Applicability Of Three Key Traditionally Western Food Preservation Techniques To Improving Household Food Security And Reducing Malnutrition In Uganda., Eva K. Baguma

Capstone Collection

Food wastage is the leading cause of food insecurity and malnutrition in the world today. A huge amount of food gets wasted along the food supply chain from the time it is harvested to the time it gets to our plates. A significant amount of the food wasted happens in the home as well as on farms, in restaurants and supermarkets across the globe.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, many families and communities are facing severe food shortages due to lack of electricity for refrigeration, poor storage facilities and limited access to markets.

However for many centuries, different cultures around the world …

Resource Scarcity From An Applied Economic Perspective, José Cuesta

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Farm Bill Trends And Food Insecurity: Impacts On Rural And Urban Communities, Adell Brown Jr., Susan E. Nelson

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

With the constraints in federal budgeting requiring the shrinkage of federal programs, programs outlined in the 2014 Farm Bill are significantly impacted, showing a thirteen year trend toward funding reduction. This paper examines historical Farm Bill programs, including crop subsidies and the nutritional assistance programs and how these programs historically addressed food insecurity versus how they are impacted by today’s budgetary constraints. The paper also examines new models for addressing food insecurity and how communities are pulling together resources to address food insecurity. In discussing the new models, the paper focuses on policy trends and funding structures; for example community …

Organic Growers Of Alabama Cooperative, A Loosely Fitted Cooperative: Nurturing The Community And Growing Together, Wylin D. Wilson, Jose Gbadamosi, Decetti Taylor, Susan Barnes, Jan Garrett, Asabi Hunter, Cheryl Parker, Wendy Williams, Henry Williams

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

The age-old connection between the people and the land is something that seven women, who have organized themselves into a loosely fitted cooperative, are reviving. In the process of growing together as members of a cooperative, these women in Macon County, Alabama, are not only promoting healthy living and nurturing community, but are also addressing the issue of food security by making nutritious affordable produce and other agricultural products available to their community. Additionally, they are illustrating alternative strategies of community and economic development. This article examines why they chose the structure of a loosely fitted cooperative over a traditional …

Economic Impact Of Agriculture On South Dakota, Gary Taylor

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Crime And Safety In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans are not worried or not very worried about either crime in their community or about personally being a victim of crime. However, persons living in or near larger communities are more likely than persons living in or near smaller communities to be worried or very worried about crime. Furthermore, most persons living in or near communities with populations less than 10,000 are not worried or not very worried about crime in their community.

Trust also remains high in the rural areas. Most rural Nebraskans say they count on their neighbors to watch their property while they are …

The Gap Between Science And Policy: Assessing The Use Of Nonmarket Valuation In Estuarine Management, Judith T. Kildow Dr, Jing Guo

Working Papers

Estuaries, which are among the most productive natural systems on earth, provide an array of human welfare benefits if well managed. Non-market valuation (NMV) is considered a powerful tool, which can contribute to informed policies for estuarine management. More than 30 year of research valuing estuaries around the world does not appear to have had a major impact on estuarine management. Published examples of policy applications using estimates from these studies, are rare, leading to the question whether the effort and money spent on this research has been useful and worth the cost.

Despite raising public awareness of the importance …

New Orleans Producers: Directing The Regional Food System One Informal Contract At A Time, Emily Nichols

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Large corporations largely control food production and distribution in the global food system and have generated a desire for locally produced food. Although small independent producers still contribute to regional food systems, there is little understanding about how they distribute and market their products. This thesis uses both semistructured interviews to investigate the distribution practices of urban, family, and regional producers in the New Orleans region and discourse analysis to disclose how localist discourse shapes producers marketing practices. The discourse analysis discovered that the web presence of local New Orleans restaurants, farmers, and Crescent City Farmers Market targeted concepts that …

Potential Investment In High-Efficiency Snowmaking At Sugarloaf, Lindsay C. Jarrett

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Northern Maine will potentially suffer from temperatures increases, effecting the recreational value of the skiing industry. Sugarloaf currently has 300 high-efficiency snowguns that allow the mountain to make snow at higher temperatures and lower costs than the old equipment. With the threat of increasing temperatures, there is a need to invest in new technology in order to maintain ski season length and maintain a reputation as one of the largest, best skiing in New England. With current hourly temperatures in November, Sugarloaf would need to invest in 540 new high-efficiency snowguns at a cost of about $1.8. The costs incurred …

Leap: Land Endowment Action Plan For Sustainable Colby, Victoria Palffy

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper proposes that Colby College purchase land endowments to fuel its recently constructed campus biomass plant. Rather than contract with a third party, the college should invest in 30,000 acres² and sustainably harvest its own renewable fuel. Beyond this, LEAP, the land endowment action plan, presents an opportunity to improve forest health, conserve valuable ecosystems, implement major additions to the curriculum, gain fuel independence, and create a constant annual revenue stream. With a 40-year payback period, the long-term investment brings profits of over $260 million in its 100-year outlook.

Modeling Maine’S Rockweed Harvest, Meagan Hennessey

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Currently, Maine is in a political struggle over the best way to manage the harvesting of Rockweed, or Ascophyllum nodosum. As the dominant macro algae along the state’s rocky intertidal zone it supports over 150 different species, meaning its loss could impact food web stability, protection of endangered species, and support of economically viable harvests. This work takes parameters found in the literature to create a Stella model, which is then manipulated to explore the relative impact of possible management strategies. It is found that a strictly accurate model is not possible to create given the current biological knowledge and …

A Choice Experiment Survey Analysis Of Public Preferences For Renewable Energy In The United States, Lucy O'Keeffe

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

In recent years, the need to address anthropogenic contributions to climate change and develop more sustainable energy sources has placed pressure on U.S. policymakers to expand the development of renewable energy sources. The creation of renewable portfolio standards (RPS), production tax credits, and investment tax credits have been an impetus for the recent growth in U.S renewable energy capacity; currently, renewable energy accounts for 13% of the U.S. Electricity Supply and this figure is projected to grow (Energy Information Agency, 2013). Therefore, economic analysis related to public preferences toward renewable energy has become increasingly critical to help inform renewable energy …

A Cost Benefit Analysis Of Improving Energy Efficiency Of A Fitness Facilty, Inuri A. Illeperuma

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Abstract: Nearly 40% of the total U.S. energy consumption in 2012 was consumed in residential and commercial buildings, as recorded by U.S. Energy Information Administration. With the urgent need to reduce overall energy consumption in the U.S., many efforts are made to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. However, energy managers identify budget constraints as one of the main obstacles in improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Hence this study focuses on a cost benefit analysis of improving the energy efficiency, with a special focus on fitness facilities in college environments. As a case study, the author focuses on improving …

Perceptions Of Climate Change, Cole T. Kleinberg

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

With the help of students from Environmental & Natural Resource Economics course (EC 231), a survey was distributed to hundreds of respondents across the nation with the intention to study beliefs about climate change. More than 70 students from EC231 conducted 5-10 surveys while traveling for Spring Break. The questions included in the survey address each respondent’s knowledge of climate change as well as the various influences that may alter ones beliefs as to how they are affected by climate change. This paper investigates all variables and looks for potential patterns in the survey data in the hope of finding …

Clean Cooking: The Value Of Clean Cookstoves In Ethiopia, Shannon H. Kooser

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This project investigates how demographic differences affect the way people value clean cookstoves in Ethiopia. Previous research indicates that traditional cooking methods are harmful to human health as well as the environment, as people need to cut down trees or collect other biomass sources for fuel. However, clean stoves can solve both these environmental and health problems, as well as provide a sustainable method for cooking and heating in developing countries. Using choice survey data, this study examines Ethiopian households’ valuations of different characteristics of stoves, including durability, fuel reduction, smoke reduction and the amount of time they may save …

The Political Economy Of Oil Spill Damage Assessment: Nrda And Deepwater Horizon, Matt Nichols, Judith T. Kildow Dr

Working Papers

The federal effort to quantify and capture non-market damages to coastal ecosystems from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Phase II of United States of America v. BP Exploration and Production, centers on the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. This paper makes the case that the current NRDA process has done a poor job protecting the public interest and resolving the issues surrounding oil spills from deep water drilling activities. After 5 years, the findings of the NRDA still remain sealed from both affected maritime communities and academic researchers until litigation is settled with civil and criminal fines …

Life In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Perceptions Of Well-Being, 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

By many different measures, rural Nebraskans are positive about their community. Many rural Nebraskans rate their community as friendly, trusting and supportive. Most rural Nebraskans also say it would be difficult to leave their community. In addition, most rural Nebraskans disagree that their community is powerless to control its future.

Differences of opinion exist by the size of their community. Residents of smaller communities are more likely than residents of larger communities to rate their community favorably on its social dimensions. However, residents of larger communities are more likely than residents of smaller communities to say their community has changed …

Investing In Sustainable Agricultural Resource Use - Reference Metrics: A Companion To The Report Card On Sustainable Natural Resource Use In Agriculture, Anne Bennett

All other publications

No abstract provided.

The Environmental And Health Costs Of Alternative Diets: A Comparative Study Of The U. S. Diet Relative To The French, Japanese, Mediterranean, And Nordic Diets, Sarah Rehkamp

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis contributes to the literature on sustainable consumption by using scenario analysis to evaluate the environmental and health costs of the U.S. diet relative to the French, Japanese, Mediterranean, and Nordic diets, identified in the literature as healthier diets. As a first step in estimating environmental costs, the energy efficiencies of each diet are calculated by decomposing each of the diets into their respective components. Then, the dietary efficiencies are translated into CO₂ emissions. As a first step in estimating health costs, a pooled cross-section time-series dataset is used to find the association between BMI and five countries, …

Economic Impacts Of Increased Corporate Average Fuel Economy (Cafe) Standards, Ann K. Hunter-Pirtle

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates that U.S. transportation fuel producers blend specific volumes of ethanol and other biofuels with fossil fuels to spur U.S. biofuel production and to minimize foreign oil imports. Ethanol is more corrosive to auto engines than gasoline, and although vehicles manufactured since 2001 are approved to use up to a 15% ethanol blend (E15) (Naylor & Falcon, 2011), E10 is much more widely available. Ethanol producers therefore face a so-called blend wall at 10 percent—a maximum amount of ethanol that is usable domestically based on the demand for gasoline.

Meanwhile, gasoline demand in the U.S. …