The debate over a new farm bill has focused on how to spend an additional $73.5 billion in funding for the agricultural budget over 10 years. The House of Representatives, the Senate agriculture committee, and Senators Cochran and Roberts (supported by the Bush administration) have each proposed...

The United States Congress is currently devising the next farm bill. One of the many factors influencing the debate is the effect of trade agreements into which the United States has entered. Under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Agriculture, government spending on trade-distorting...

Driven by the expanding production of biofuels, the linkage between the agricultural and energy markets is evolving, and that has changed the market for agricultural commodities dramatically. These developments in agricultural markets consequently shifted the distribution of domestic grains and...

This paper provides a critical overview of the most striking problems in the 1994 version of the U.S. crops model. No model is ever perfect; however, as agricultural policies change and more data become available, the model can be improved. As we enter the 1995 Farm Bill debate, it becomes...

This report is divided into two sections. The first part reports the statewide results for each of five surveyed groups: Iowa grain marketers, Iowa grain handlers, Iowa corn processors, Iowa soybean processors, and Iowa biodiesel producers. The state-level results provide a general idea of the...

The strongest justification for government involvement in agricultural commodity markets is the instability in U.S. food and agricultural markets that affects both consumers and producers through food supply and price volatility (Tweetin 1993). This instability comes from many sources, including...

We examine four scenarios for the evolution of the biofuel sector using a partial equilibrium model of the world agricultural sector. The model includes the new Renewable Fuels Standard in the 2007 energy act, the two-way relationship between fossil energy and biofuel markets, and a new trend...

Projections of U.S. ethanol production and its impacts on planted acreage, crop prices, livestock production and prices, trade, and retail food costs are presented under the assumption that current tax credits and trade policies are maintained. The projections were made using a multi-product,...

The ongoing growth of corn-based ethanol production raises some fundamental questions about what impact continued growth will have on U.S. and world agriculture. Estimates of the long-run potential for ethanol production can be made by calculating the corn price at which the incentive to expand...

The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) provided a continuing mandate for progressive reforms to liberalize world agricultural markets. A new round of negotiation was put into motion in early 2000 and later formalized in what is now called the Doha Round. The Doha Round negotiation...