Key features of U.S. agri-environmental programs are reviewed and analyzed using literature review and program data. We focus, in particular, on several key questions: Has benefit-cost targeting increased the environmental benefit obtained from program budgets? Has competitive bidding reduced...

Nutrients from livestock and poultry manure are key sources of water pollution. Ever-growing numbers of animals per farm and per acre have increased the risk of water pollution. New Clean Water Act regulations compel the largest confined animal producers to meet nutrient application standards...

This report estimates the impact that high levels of enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) have had on economic trends in rural counties since the program's inception in 1985 until today. The results of a growth model and quasi-experimental control group analysis indicate no...

The discharge of manure nutrients into area waters from confined animal feeding operations is considered a leading contributor to U.S. water quality impairments. An option to mitigate these impairments is to constrain land application of manure. When these constraints are particularly binding,...