This Preliminary Assessment represents a response to an important and timely request for information from the Governor’s Strategic Planning Council. This report represents a limited response based on findings and principles from existing applied studies, academic literature, and input from a...

Many issues and some myths are drivers of change in the emerging transition to a bioeconomy.   This working paper focuses on two of the key drivers in much of the discussion and they are not likely to disappear from the agenda anytime soon. First is the broad based national priority for...

 There are many issues and some myths that are drivers of change in this transition. World hunger, biotechnology, food versus fuel, and indirect land use; organic, natural, local foods, obesity, nutrition, and food safety; housing, healthcare, credit institutions, and economic recovery; and...

 As the national debate over health care reform continues, consideration is increasingly being given to the use of consumer-focused health care cooperatives as a key strategy for providing access to affordable health care and insurance for the millions of consumers and small businesses not...

 This working paper employs an alternatives an consequences approach to evaluate some of the potential consequences of using computer simulation models to estimate indirect land use for the purposes of regulating production of biofuels. 

Comments to USDA Rural Development Agency regarding the development of administrative rules for the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill as submitted during USDA Listening MeetingRoom 107-A Whitten Building, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 12th and...

In recent weeks several Iowa policymakers, leaders, and citizens have become interested in proposals involving significant policy reforms and tax increment financing. Much of the discussion is based on the results of a single study based on aggregate approaches that were never designed for the...

abstract currently unavailable

abstract currently unavailable

Periodically, rural leaders and citizens face once-in-a-lifetime community decisions regarding whether to build a new jail or to pass a jail bond. The study described here identified frameworks, methods, and relative costs for a sample of 8 rural county jails with a capacity of less than 50 to...