Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association最新文献

Genomic tests (GTs) provide information about the expected performance of cattle. Cattle producer survey results indicated that 56% of producers were interested in using GTs for marketing cattle and 74% would use GTs to select replacement heifers. If interested in using GTs to market cattle, on average, producers indicated they were willing to pay $21/head and test 55% of their animals. For replacement heifers, on average, they were willing to pay $23/head and test 77% of their heifers. A conditional mixed process regression framework found producer characteristics and risk preferences were associated with the decisions involved in using GTs.

The price of most food products is a function of attributes related to the product itself and signals associated with product features. Using a novel data source, online restaurant menus, this study examines the impact of various attributes on raw, half shell oyster prices in the United States. We find that oyster value is significantly affected by region, as well as the amount and type of information provided. West coast oysters, oysters sold in the Pacific region, and oysters sold on menus with additional information receive the highest price premiums. These findings suggest significant market segmentation exists within the United States.

As a cost-effective way to promote healthy eating habits and prevent obesity, nutrition labeling has drawn great public interest around the world. China implemented its first mandatory nutrition labeling regulation under the National Food Safety Standard for Nutrition Labeling of Pre-packaged Foods (GB28050-2011) in 2013. Focusing on the Chinese carbonated soft drinks market and using a mixed logit model based on 132,849 purchase records from over 40,000 households, this study investigates consumers' responses to nutrition labels. Empirical results show that nutrition labeling induces Chinese consumers to select relatively healthier products and could be a prominent policy tool for sugar reduction.

We designed a discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences for compensatory benefits among two sets of workers in the dairy sector: immigrants and US college students planning to work in the sector. We find that immigrants rank benefits as follows (highest to lowest): retirement plan, health insurance, milk quality incentive bonus, housing assistance, and a bonus meat allotment. Immigrant workers are willing to pay more for a retirement plan and health insurance than college students. Neither group prefers to work more than 48 h per week. Our findings inform ongoing debates on the role of immigrant and industry-trained dairy workers.

We analyze a detailed record of organic farm entry, exit, and growth for Washington State covering nearly all organic farms dating back to the beginning of the organic industry to better understand the relationship between farm characteristics, market conditions, and farm success. We find that organic farms are most likely to exit in the first 2 years after entering. Changes in industry scale and concentration are driven by exit and size adjustment decisions made by larger farms, whereas small farms are less sensitive to market conditions and have higher exit rates and lower growth rates.

We construct an agricultural policy uncertainty (APU) index from leading national and local newspapers in major agricultural states in the United States from January 1999 to September 2021. Our analysis shows that economic policy uncertainty Granger causes APU linearly in the short run, but the relationship is nonlinear and bidirectional in the long run. When economic policy uncertainty is considered, APU significantly reduces hedgers' net short positions and speculators' net long positions (except for corn hedgers) in the corn and soybean markets. APU also has a significant positive impact on the log returns of corn and soybean futures prices, consistent with the theory of storage where commodity returns and volatility are positively correlated.

Three successive administrations have supported the United States' 2015 goal to reduce food waste. Households waste more food than other supply chain segments, however, few data sources are available to track US households' progress toward this goal. We provide insights from the first four waves of a novel national survey designed to track such waste. We find a 280% year-over-year increase in self-reported waste between early 2021 and early 2022, which militates against national goal achievement. We find households wasted more food during weeks they dined out and that sample households dined out significantly more in 2022 than in 2021.

Federal and state governments are making major investments in expanded meat processor capacity and improved industry resilience. To improve decision-making, this research identifies characteristics related to the probability of meat processing plant survival using hazard analysis and establishment-level data on US meat processors (including beef, pork, goat, lamb and mutton, and large game processors) 1997–2020. We find plant survival is associated with both plant characteristics and local context, though specific factors related to survival vary with plant size and rurality. Smaller plants are less likely to survive than larger plants, and for smaller plants survival is most strongly related to business diversification. For larger plants, local context, including workforce variables, has the strongest relationship with survival. Our analysis shows little relationship between meat processing industry concentration and plant survival, though we find weak evidence of a positive relationship between industry concentration and large nonmetro plant survival.

Perennial bioenergy crops provide substantial carbon mitigation benefits but have risky returns. We couple economic analysis with a biogeochemical model (DayCent) to examine the effect of carbon mitigation payments on the spatially varying bioenergy crop returns and risk profiles relative to conventional crops across the rainfed United States. These payments increase the likelihood of positive profit in the Midwest for miscanthus and southern states for switchgrass. At low biomass prices, these payments make bioenergy crops appealing to risk-averse farmers. At moderate biomass prices, these payments make bioenergy crops appealing to all farmers regardless of risk preference.

This paper presents the results of a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a digital extension program in cashew-growing communities in Andhra Pradesh, India, which provided agricultural information using a combination of in-person video, SMS, and interactive voice recording messages. The study finds that the use of mobile channels significantly improved farmers’ recall, knowledge, and adoption of new techniques relative to farmers who only received videos. We do not find positive effects on farmer production or yield. We conclude that in our context, mobile-based services are a promising supplement that can improve farmer outcomes and boost the reach and inclusivity of agriculture extension.