This paper critically examines linkages between alternative farming practices and environmental quality. Environmental impacts of high-yield farming are contrasted to those of low-yield farming. Traditional low-yield farming systems, while being promoted by environmental groups, have resulted in...

Much has changed in the 50 years since modern food aid began with the enactment of U.S. Public Law 480 in 1954. Yet contemporary policy debates often become derailed by failures to appreciate the significant changes that have already occurred. This paper identifies the most important of these...

The U.S. government has been extensively involved in providing income support and risk management policies for U.S. farmers over the last 65 years. Risk management policies have included crop insurance, disaster relief, and in recent years, revenue insurance. Recent policy changes signaled an...

Legislatively mandated declines in government program payments have coincided with sharp declines in most major crop commodity prices. Thus, a debate has begun about the direction of future farm policy. The debate has been largely expressed in terms of a "safety net" for producers. This paper...

Under the direction of the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000, the U.S. Congress proposed a crop insurance program for the Bristol Bay, Alaska, commercial salmon fishery. This study examines the feasibility of extending crop insurance to this commercial fishery. The specific focus of this...

This study generates an econometric model of the allocation of political contributions by food firms. It combines information about food firms' total expenditures for political influence with the behavioral assumption of profit maximization to test the hypothesis that food manufacturing firms do...