U.S. farmers and ranchers produce a wide variety of commodities for food, fuel, and fiber in response to market signals. Farms also contain significant amounts of natural resources that can provide a host of environmental services, including cleaner air and water, flood control, and improved...

USDA spends over $5 billion per year on conservation activities, mostly through voluntary programs that pay farmers and landowners to provide environmental services. USDA can reduce expenditures and encourage landowners to provide greater environmental services by making use of available data....

In this chapter we took a broad look at American participation in on-farm recreation. While further analysis is in order, it does seem that visiting farms, either as a primary purpose of a trip or as part of a rural sightseeing outing, is a popular activity. We estimate that over 60 million...

This article examines the importance and value of attending the annual summer conference of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) by U.S. Federal government economists. A choice-based conjoint analysis of government funding of five research-facilitating resources, including...

Farmers in the United States produce a wide variety of commodities for food and fiber. Farmers can also produce a variety of non-commodity ecosystem services for which markets do not exist or are imperfectly formed. Such services may be valued by society, but due to their nature or institutional...