Member nations of the World Trade Organization are permitted to develop regulations that might restrict trade if they do so for the purpose of protecting human, animal or plant life or health. The regulations, under both the Sanitary/Phytosanitary and Technical Barriers to Trade agreements, must...

It is argued that while considerable development of animal health economics has occurred in recent decades, it has not yet achieved its potential coverage. It has been mostly applied to livestock, particularly livestock used for commerce, and its application to a range of other animals has been...

Since the late 1980s, the concept of precaution has been incorporated into numerous international agreements and laws, as well as in domestic statutes and policies in many countries. This paper examines the international emergence of the concept and its application in Australia. Despite rapid...

The precautionary principle was included in 1992 in the Rio Declaration on Environmental and Development and is a part of important international agreements and documents, for example, the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yet the interpretation of this principle is not straightforward as a...

Critically reviews the following core issues in the economics of biodiversity conservation: reliance on the stated preferences of individuals as a guide to biodiversity conservation, the relevance of the phylogenetic similarity principle (and other attributes of organisms) for the survival of...

There is a great deal of concern today to ensure that economic development, including agricultural development, is sustainable. It is being increasingly emphasized that this sustainability requires care to be taken of the natural environment. This is because the natural environment is both the...

The precautionary principle has been proposed as a basis making decisions about environmental health under conditions of uncertainty, but remains controversial. This paper shows how the precautionary principle may be interpreted as a guide to decision making in complex systems characterised by...

The precautionary principle, presented as a guide to environmental policy decisions in the presence of uncertainty, has been the subject of vigorous debate. However, the has generally not been discussed in relation to formal theories of choice under uncertainty developed as generalizations of...

Previous studies have identified regulatory preemption and differentiation as two main motives for participation in voluntary environmental programs (VEPs). This research examines the motivations of livestock farmers to participate in the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program...

Louisiana farmers were surveyed to determine their adoption of information and record-keeping technologies, including the internet, DHIA, use of financial measures, and frequency of use of computerized records. Factors influencing adoption included having a family successor, overall technology...