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This page contains recommended readings on the following topics:
Conservation Policy—General
2002
Farm Bill: Provisions and Implications—This
website describes the provisions of the Farm Security
and Rural Investment Act of 2002.
Beyond Environmental Compliance: Stewardship as Good Business—Both crop and animal production generate pollutants that enter the air as well as surface and ground waters. However, growing evidence suggests that good economic performance by producers is compatible with good environmental performance.
Working Lands
Balancing Conservation Costs and Benefits—The growing role of natural resource conservation in U.S. farm policy is evident in the fivefold increase in funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) in the 2002 Farm Act. Recognizing the dearth of data concerning the installation of conservation practices on U.S. farms, ERS has constructed a database using EQIP conservation practice data. The database offers a unique opportunity to better understand the demand for conservation practices across regions, the conservation practices being funded and implemented, and the unit costs (dollars per acre, dollars per foot, etc.) of implementing these practices.
Flexible Conservation Measures on Working Land—This report examines the potential environmental gains and economic adjustments with different working-land payment program designs.
Land Retirement
The Conservation Reserve
Program: Economic Implications for Rural America—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.
Economic Valuation of Environmental Benefits and the Targeting of Conservation Programs: The Case of the CRP—This report demonstrates how nonmarket valuation models can be used in targeting conservation programs such as the CRP.
Compliance
Environmental Compliance in U.S. Agriculture: Past Performance and Future Potential—This report discusses the general characteristics of compliance incentives, evaluates their effectiveness in reducing erosion in the program's current form, and explores the potential for expanding the compliance approach to address nutrient runoff from crop production.
Farmland Preservation
Farmland Protection: the Role of Public Preferences for Rural Amenities—This report examines farmland protection program enabling legislation in the 48 contiguous States, and implementation of these programs in five Northeastern States.
Development at the Urban Fringe and Beyond: Impacts on Agriculture and Rural Land—This report describes the forces driving development, its character and impacts on agriculture and rural communities, the means available to channel and control growth, and the pros and cons of potential Federal roles.
See the complete
catalog of related readings.
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