Literature reports that small and medium firms face greater difficulty in obtaining the necessary export market information and in obtaining financing than do larger firms. Accordingly, the United States has many export promotion and enhancement services, but there is little documentation on the...

New Generation Cooperatives (NGCs) or value-added agricultural cooperatives are undergoing several structural changes with the acceptance of outside (non-farmer) investor equity and demutualization or transformation into investor-oriented ownership firms (e.g., Limited Liabilities Cooperatives...

Malt barley is an important specialty crop in the Northern Plains and growers mitigate risk with federally subsidized crop insurance and production contracts. However, growers face considerable risk due to "coverage gaps" in crop insurance that result in uncertain indemnity payments due to...

The U.S. biofuel industry is striving to produce ethanol from cellulosic feedstock sources in an effort to augment its existing corn grain-based ethanol production infrastructure. Technology to commercially produce cellulosic ethanol is rapidly advancing due in large part to the availability of...

Rabobankâs offer to purchase Farm Credit Services of America (FCSA) for $600 million was a surprise because few people ever envisioned 1) fragmentation of the Farm Credit System and/or 2) a foreign lender gaining large market share of U.S. agricultural financial markets. Although FCSA has...

Off-farm financial investments, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and certificates of deposit, can offer farmers significant opportunities for diversification. Moreover, deregulation of financial markets in the 1980s enhanced the ability of farmers to invest in these financial assets. This...

The U.S. biofuel industry is striving to produce ethanol from cellulosic feedstock sources in an effort to augment its existing corn grain-based ethanol production infrastructure. Technology to commercially produce cellulosic ethanol is rapidly advancing due in large part to the availability of...