Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether the mandatory fees imposed by the beef checkoff violates the First Amendment. As a precaution, many states began forming voluntary beef checkoffs, where funds would be raised through voluntary contributions. This study conducted a survey of...

Pesticide productivity is both important and difficult to measure. Typically, pesticide marginal products are estimated without information on the pest pressure. Three theoretical models are developed which suggest absence of such information may cause an underestimation of pesticide...

The impact of new manure management regulations depends on the willingness of crop producers to accept manure. A contingent valuation analysis of crop producers was used to estimate the willingness of crop producers to accept or pay for manure. Results indicate that producers will pay a positive...

Economists typically assume that more choice is better, and consumers are more likely to purchase from a larger choice set. However, marketing and psychological studies show this is not always the case. This paper reports results from experiments designed to further investigate the so-called...

Consumer demand for a ban on subtherapeutic antibiotic use in pork production is measured using non-hypothetical choice experiments in a grocery store setting. Consumers are asked to choose between a regular pork chop plus a grocery coupon and an antibiotic-friendly pork chop without a coupon....

With the possible elimination of the mandatory beef checkoff, some state are considering a voluntary beef checkoff. This study conducts a choice experiment to estimate the feasibility of a state and nationwide voluntary checkoff. Results indicate that a lower fee and a greater focus on...

The public is more interested in agricultural and food issues than ever before, as is evident in the many agricultural controversies debated in the media. Why is it that some people embrace new agricultural technologies while others steadfastly defend traditional farming methods? Why do some...

For much of human history, most of the population lived and worked on farms but today, information about livestock is more likely to come from children's books than hands-on experience. When romanticized notions of an agrarian lifestyle meet with the realities of the modern industrial farm, the...

This paper develops a valuation method which generates consistent and systematic estimates of people's preferences for complex multi-attribute goods by inextricably linking auction bids with conjoint ratings. The advantage of the valuation approach is that it permits the estimation of people's...