Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

The Economic Impacts Of Soil Contamination In Wenatchee, Wa, Jessica R. Martin

All Master's Theses

This study determines the economic impacts of soil contamination as a result of historical pesticide use in Wenatchee, WA. A hedonic regression analysis of home values before, during, and after cleanups of six contaminated schoolyards demonstrates the public’s willingness to pay for remediated soil as a housing amenity. A qualitative analysis of media coverage of the contamination and cleanups confirms public awareness and categorizes public perception of risk. Results show a significant positive price effect following remediation, and benefit-cost analysis enumerates sizable private and public financial losses incurred as a result of remediation delay.

Impact Of The Zambian Agricultural Policy On Grain Trade, Onesphore Karuho

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The agricultural sector in Zambia is supported through the government use of public expenditure programs to spur the production and subsidize the consumption of key grains to stabilize prices. Previous research has documented the effects of public spending on agriculture in terms of food prices and food security. The effects of government spending on the trade of key grains, however, is not well understood. As such, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the impact of agricultural policy on the agricultural trade. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Zambian agricultural policy on grain trade. A …

Analyzing The Rio Chama Flow Project’S Capacity To Implement Adaptive Management, Avery Olshefski

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Rio Chama is the main tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Several reservoirs were built on the Rio Chama to store water for downstream users, which has led to the river section becoming highly managed, resulting in negative ecological effects. Approximately 400,000 AF per year of water is conveyed through the system without considerable consumptive amounts, 96,200 AF of which were added with the San Juan-Chama trans-basin diversion, creating more water in the system then historically available. Therefore, the flow between the El Vado and Abiquiu Reservoirs has the potential to be optimized in order to provide …

Seed Policy In Pakistan: The Impact Of New Laws On Food Sovereignty And Sustainable Development, Amna Tanweer Yazdani, Nosheen Ali

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper highlights the challenges that genetically modified (GM) seeds pose for farmers, citizens and the land itself in Pakistan. It explores the history of agricultural policy in Pakistan from the Green Revolution to what is now being dubbed the “Gene Revolution”, and analyzes how harmful effects of both are being amplified by two recently passed laws: the Seed (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Plant Breeders' Rights Act 2016. The analysis of these laws is done from a food sovereignty perspective on sustainable development, where food sovereignty represents “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through …

Climate Change Crisis: Prescribing Alternative Economic Policy Using An Austrian Framework, Elina N. Mcgill

Honors Program Theses

This paper reviews the literature surrounding climate change adaptation and mitigation to assess the possible contributions and limitations of heterodox economics to climate change policy. Through interdisciplinary research between economics and environmental issues, this paper aims to stress the importance of utilizing heterodox schools of economics to create more pragmatic and dynamic policy. The secondary aim is to use Austrian frameworks to contribute to the construction of feasible, efficient, and equitable climate change policy. This paper used qualitative and textual analysis of the Austrian schools of economics conceptualize possible policy responses to climate change. Research found that the Austrian prescription …

Closing Abandoned Livestock Lagoons Effectively To Utilize Nutrients And Avoid Environmental Problems, Leslie J. Johnson, Charles Shapiro, Amy Schmidt

Nebraska Cooperative Extension: Faculty and Staff Publications

In Nebraska alone, nearly 400 earthen manure storage structures are in operation; approximately four dozen requests to cease operation of permitted lagoons were received by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality in the prior decade with many more non-permitted storage structures being in need of proper closure. Abandoned livestock lagoons, earthen manure storage basins, and other manure storages (e.g. concrete pits) need to be decommissioned in a manner that controls potential environmental risk and makes economical use of accumulated nutrients. Currently, limited guidance is available to support lagoon closure planning and implementation and few professionals who support livestock producers have …

Empathy Conservation: Experiments Suggest A Need For More Attention In Policymaking, Natalia V. Czap, Hans J. Czap, Gary Lynne, Mark E. Burbach

CAFIO: Policy Research Group Policy Pagers

One of the major challenges of environmental policy with regard to conservation is that it must often rely on voluntary and non-selfish actions of individuals. Traditionally policy makers rely on direct regulation and financial incentives, but both approaches face problems. Regulations may lead to resentment and the costs of perfect enforcement are prohibitively high. Financial incentives can be perverse and may lead to unintended consequences, including crowding out of intrinsic motivation. In addition, behavioral economics and economic psychology studies demonstrate that the assumptions of the neoclassical economic models (such as self-interest only, rationality, and willpower) on which the policy design …

Renewable Portfolio Standards May Reduce Green Energy Used In Electricity Production, Karina Schoengold, Suparna Bhattacharya, Konstantinos Giannakas

CAFIO: Policy Research Group Policy Pagers

Rising energy prices, dependence on foreign oil supplies, and consequences of climate change have prompted governments worldwide to initiate policies to shift from fossil fuels to renewables for electricity generation. One of the most commonly used policy instruments is the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires electricity providers to procure green energy (e.g., wind, solar, biomass) for a portion of their electricity supplies. To date, RPS has been a state-mandated program in the United States. As of February 2017, 29 states, Washington DC, and 3 territories have adopted RPS policies.

Executive Summary, Agroforestry: Enhancing Resiliency In U. S. Agricultural Landscapes Under Changing Conditions, Toral Patel-Weynand, Gary Bentrup, Michele M. Schoeneberger

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Agroforestry, the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal production systems, is being deployed to enhance productivity, profitability, and environmental stewardship of agricultural operations and lands across the United States. The full assessment at https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-96 and summarized here provides a science-based synthesis on the use of agroforestry for mitigation and adaptation services in the face of climatic variability and change. It provides technical input to land-use sector issues in the National Climate Assessment (NCA) and serves as a framework for including agroforestry systems in agricultural strategies to improve productivity and food security and to build resilience in …

Assessment Of Oil Quantification Methods In Soybean And Chia Seeds And Characterization Of Oil And Protein In Mutant Chia (Salvia Hispanica L.) Seeds, Ahmed N. Al-Bakri

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

This thesis includes two main parts:

I. Evaluation of techniques for oil (total lipid) quantification of chia and soybean seeds.

This study evaluated ten different methods of seed oil quantification, including some methods that have not been applied to oilseeds before. The main aim of this study was to find one or more techniques that are easy, inexpensive, safe and fast with a small amount of ground seeds. The Soxhlet method was used as a standard to compared between techniques of oil quantification. The oil extraction by the Soxhlet method was evaluated with two solvents petroleum ether and acetone. There …

Environmental Values, Stated Preferences, And Hypothetical Bias, Jerrod M. Penn

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Contingent Valuation (CV) methods are a primary tool in environmental economics to ascertain non-use or other values not observable through existing market mechanisms. Because common CV approaches typically rely on hypothetical answers from surveys in order to generate welfare estimates, these are often labelled stated preferences. Results from stated preference methods often diverge from those obtained when actual preference or behavior are involved. This divergence is commonly known as Hypothetical Bias (HB). This dissertation addresses HB as it applies to environmental applications. To begin, a meta-analysis using a sample of studies many times larger than previous works was performed. Its …

Restoring And Sustaining Smallholder Kappaphycus Alvarezii Farming Post-Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda In Molocaboc, Central Philippines, David C. Fenlon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The farming of marine seaweed has the potential to provide both nutritional and financial resources to developing communities such as the Molocaboc Islands in the Philippines. To foster this mariculture development approximately $1,000 USD in grant funds received from the US-Philippines Society was used to purchase materials needed to replace seaweed production infrastructure lost to Typhoon Haiyan (known as Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines). The goal was to restore and expand smallholder farming of the seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii (locally known as ‘guso’ in the Visayan dialect) in the Molocaboc Islands, thereby increasing harvest yields as compared to those …

Betting On The Big: State-Brokered Land Transfers, Large-Scale Agricultural Producers, And Rural Policy Implementation, Weigang Gong, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As rural governments have become hollowed out and detached from rural society, can they still effectively implement policies that lack popular support? This article examines a county in Hunan Province, where local governments had strong incentives to implement a national policy of increasing double cropping in rice farming. Small farmers rejected double cropping as unprofitable. Local governments’ limited capacity prevented them from either reshaping small farmers’ economic calculus or coercing compliance. They strategically selected a policy tool acceptable to most small farmers (paid land transfers) and gave new private large-scale producers incentives to double crop by providing subsidies and access …

Comments On “Rich Debt, Poor Debt: Assessing Household Indebtedness And Debt Repayment Capacity”, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper assesses the system-wide impacts of Malaysia’s rising household debt.Malaysia’s household debt-to-GDP ratio (HDGR) increased from 76% in 2009 to 89%in 2016. This increase has raised concerns regarding the implications for householdfinancial resilience and banking system stability. The paper uses a micro-level datasetthat integrates income and debt to calculate financial margin (FM) and the probabilityof default (PD) for individuals at the baseline, and when subject to various shocks.This allows the estimation of loss to lenders in the event of default, and from there,the banking system’s debt-at-risk. The findings show that default is more likely forhouseholds with a debt service …

Comments On “Rich Debt, Poor Debt: Assessing Household Indebtedness And Debt Repayment Capacity”, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper assesses the system-wide impacts of Malaysia’s rising household debt.Malaysia’s household debt-to-GDP ratio (HDGR) increased from 76% in 2009 to 89%in 2016. This increase has raised concerns regarding the implications for householdfinancial resilience and banking system stability. The paper uses a micro-level datasetthat integrates income and debt to calculate financial margin (FM) and the probabilityof default (PD) for individuals at the baseline, and when subject to various shocks.This allows the estimation of loss to lenders in the event of default, and from there,the banking system’s debt-at-risk. The findings show that default is more likely forhouseholds with a debt service …

Nutritious Meals For The Homeless Population: Challenges And Opportunities, Kayla A. Albrecht

Masters Theses

Objective: Consuming a nutritionally adequate diet is extremely challenging for the homeless population. Though meals are available to the homeless population through soup kitchens and homeless shelters, these settings often do not serve meals that provide essential nutrients. The consumption of energy-dense, low-nutrient foods has led in part to high prevalence of obesity, heart disease, and chronic illnesses among the homeless. The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the challenges that homeless shelters face in providing nutritious meals to guests and (b) investigate the need and interest of nutrition education at homeless shelters.

Methods: Nine homeless shelter directors …

The Treadmill Of Destruction In Comparative Perspective: A Panel Study Of Military Spending And Carbon Emissions, 1961-2014, Alex Stoner, John H. Bradford

Journal Articles

This article analyzes a unique panel data set to assess the effect of militarism on per capita carbon dioxide emissions. We extend previous research examining the effects of military expenditures on carbon emissions by including in our analyses over 30 years of additional data. In addition, we compare our preliminary results to those obtained from other estimation procedures. Specifically, we report and visually illustrate the results of 54 cross-sectional models (one for each year) and 36 unique panel regression models on both balanced and unbalanced panels. We assess how this relationship has changed over time by testing for interactions between …

Roots Of A Movement: Community Action And The Impact Of Urban Agriculture In Chicago, Maia Welbel

Pomona Senior Theses

Efforts to maintain a relationship to food pathways have been consistent throughout U.S. history despite the general evolution towards an increasingly industrialized food system. Urban agriculture serves as a means of reclaiming and furthering knowledge of where food comes from while also addressing larger social, economic, and environmental goals. This has been demonstrated in Chicago where urban farmers have worked to improve food access, increase employment, and revitalize communities all across the city. For many years, federal policies have promoted maximum production of commodity crops and kept supermarket prices low, allowing the government to ignore the impacts these policies are …

Evaluation Of The Brazilian Agrarian Reform Objective: Agricultural Production Yield Change, Tiffany Kwader Harbour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Brazil has an active agrarian reform policy program, publicly organized by the federal government and publicly administered at the state level by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform. The objective of the agrarian reform policy program is to retitle unproductive and underproductive rural lands to increase agricultural production and land use. Previous agrarian reform researchers have examined quantities of land redistributed, rural technology developments, and the impact of social movements on land redistribution, but a knowledge gap remains regarding the correlation of agricultural production yields in rural municipalities before and after policy program participation. The State of Ceará …

Strategies For Preventing And Mitigating The Effects Of Agro-Food Supply Chain Disruptions, Everjoyce Muzvondiwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supply chain disruptions are detrimental to the performance of companies due to the associated loss of profitability and reduced sustainability. In 2016, organizations lost at least $1.2 million in a single supply chain disruption. Guided by the contingency theory of fit, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore the strategies agribusiness managers use to prevent and mitigate the effects of disruptions in the agro-food supply chains. A total of 5 purposefully-selected agribusiness managers from Harare, Zimbabwe participated in semistructured interviews. Participants were senior agribusiness managers who implemented successful strategies for preventing and mitigating the effects of …