AER: Agricultural Economic Report Catalog
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AER-815, April 28, 2005
Investigates the relative importance of preserving different amenities conserved by farmland protection programs. Examines farmland protection program enabling legislation in the 48 contiguous States, and implementation of these programs in five Northeastern States.
AER-840, February 01, 2005
This report examines global food trade patterns and the role of WTO market access rules in shaping the composition of global food trade.
AER-835, November 08, 2004
This study addresses changes in the organization of the U.S. pork industry, most notably marketing contracts between packers and producers, by exploring their function in addressing pork quality concerns. A number of developments brought quality concerns to the forefront. These include health concer...
AER-836, November 01, 2004
Diverse needs and preferences across the United States provide justification for the devolution, or decentralization, of many Federal Government programs to the State or local level. The move toward devolution, however, has not been evidenced in U.S. agricultural policy, despite significant differen...
AER-837, November 01, 2004
Production and marketing contracts govern 36 percent of the value of U.S. agricultural production, up from 12 percent in 1969. Contracts are now the primary method of handling sales of many livestock commodities, including milk, hogs, and broilers, and of major crops such as sugar beets, fruit, and ...
AER-838, October 29, 2004
This report analyzes the U.S. experience with decoupled payments in the Production Flexibility Contracts program from 1996 to 2002. The studies in this report consider the effects of decoupled payments on recipient households, and assess land, labor, risk management, and capital market conditions th...
AER-834, October 08, 2004
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 discernib...
AER-832, May 28, 2004
Since 1985, U.S. agricultural producers have been required to practice soil conservation on highly erodible cropland and conserve wetlands as a condition of farm program eligibility. This report discusses the general characteristics of compliance incentives, evaluates their effectiveness in reducing...
AER-833, May 24, 2004
This report analyzes fruit and vegetable expenditures by low-income households and higher income households, and compares the sensitivity of both groups' purchases to changes in income. On average, low-income households spent $3.59 per capita per week on fruits and vegetables in 2000 while higher in...
AER-831, April 01, 2004
Recent industry innovations improving the safety of the Nation's meat supply range from new pathogen tests, high-tech equipment, and supply chain management systems, to new surveillance networks. Despite these and other improvements, the market incentives that motivate private firms to invest in inn...
AER-830, March 18, 2004
This investigation into the traceability baseline in the United States finds that private sector food firms have developed a substantial capacity to trace.
AER-829, January 23, 2004
This publication examines how population trends and rising incomes will affect spending on food away from home, and estimates the expected growth rates in spending for food at full-service and fast food restaurants.
AER-828, November 07, 2003
This report examines the conceptual relationships between food safety and international trade and analyzes empirical examples from the meat and poultry, produce, food and animal feed crop, and seafood sectors.
AER-825, September 23, 2003
Retail consolidation, technological change in production and marketing, and growing consumer demand for produce have altered the traditional market relationships between producers, wholesalers, and retailers. Increasingly, produce suppliers are asked to provide additional marketing services and ince...
AER-823, June 20, 2003
As rising populations and incomes increase pressure on land and other resources around the world, agricultural productivity plays an increasingly important role in improving food supplies and food security. This report explores the extent to which land quality and land degradation affect agricultura...
AER-824, June 19, 2003
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 when a...
AER-817, April 08, 2003
This study evaluates the costs of sanitation and process control in producing meat and poultry. The study shows that the costs of sanitation and process control as required by the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) rule of 1996 raised wholesale meat and poultry ...
AER-820, February 03, 2003
This report analyzes how U.S. consumption of food commodities is projected to rise through 2020. The study uses date from USDA's food intake survey to project the consumption, through 2020, of 25 food groups and 22 commodity groups.
AER-818, February 01, 2003
Rapid change in the size and ownership structure of U.S. hog production has created new and varied challenges for the industry. This report describes an industry becoming increasingly concentrated among fewer and larger farms, and becoming more economically efficient. These changes have not come wit...
AER-822, February 01, 2003
Decoupled payments are lump-sum income transfers to farm operators that do not depend on current production, factor use, or commodity prices. Such payments are not currently constrained by global trade rules, but many countries argue that they distort production and trade and that their use should b...
AER-811, August 01, 2002
The U.S. Food Marketing System, 2002 provides a detailed overview of the structure, performance, information systems, new technology, and foreign direct investment of the food manufacturing, wholesaling, grocery retailing, and food service sectors, including a comprehensive set of appendix tables co...
AER-812, July 01, 2002
Agricultural policy is rooted in the 1930's notion that providing transfers of money to the farm sector translates into increased economic well-being of farm families. This report shows that neither change in income for the farm sector nor for any particular group of farm business can be presumed to...
AER-813, July 01, 2002
The purpose of the report is to determine the potential for increased grain exports from Russia and Ukraine. The report reviews the evidence on the productivity of agricultural production, and explores some of the causes of inefficient practices. Results of the analyses show that implementing instit...
AER-804, May 17, 2002
This report examines changes in hamburger preparation behavior, the reasons for the changes, the medical costs saved as a result of the changes, and the implications for future food safety education.
AER-807, May 02, 2002
The report examines the role of contracts and vertical integration in reducing transaction costs. The report further explores benefits from new methods of vertical coordination and the implications for future research.
AER-810, May 01, 2002
This report uses USDA survey data to examine the extent to which US farmers have adopted bioengineered crops, factors affecting adoption of these crops, and the impacts of bioengineered crops on input use and farm-level net returns.
AER-809, April 18, 2002
The economic development of South Korea is often considered a model for developing countries. We use 1975 and 1990 data in a general equilibrium framework with a highly disaggregated sector specification to evaluate the opportunity cost of its agricultural protection. We show that although agricultu...
AER-806, March 01, 2002
The report examines how economic reform in the transition countries of the former Soviet bloc has transformed the volume and mix of these countries' agricultural production, consumption, and trade. The report concludes that output decline has been an inevitable part of market reform and that the mai...
AER-805, November 06, 2001
This report provides original estimates of private sector agricultural research and development efforts in Asia during the 1990s. The report examines seven Asia countries (India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and China). The examination provides an assessment of the trend...
AER-803, June 30, 2001
Land development in the United States is following two routes: expansion of urban areas and large-lot development (greater than 1 acre per house) in rural areas. Urban expansion claimed more than 1 million acres per year between 1960 and 1990, yet is not seen as a threat to most farming, although it...
AER-802, May 15, 2001
Agricultural trade barriers and producer subsidies inflict real costs, both on the countries that use these policies and on their trade partners. This report quantifies the costs of global agricultural distortions and the potential benefits of their full elimination. The report concludes that elimin...
AER-800, April 16, 2001
This report analyzes the effects of the current Federal tax code on farming. It is the first study that applies the ERS farm typology to tax data. The study was initiated by the USDA National Commission on Small Farms and also evaluates tax proposals to assist beginning farmers. Investment, manageme...
AER-801, April 02, 2001
Over the next several years, crop prices are projected to be below to slightly above commodity loan rates. As a result, marketing loan benefits to farmers, in the form of loan deficiency payments and marketing loan gains from the commodity loan program, are likely to continue to be sizeable. The lev...
AER-799, April 01, 2001
This report examines how product liability law treats personal injuries attributed to microbially contaminated foods. The risk of lawsuits stemming from microbial foodborne illness and the resulting court-awarded compensation may create economic incentives for firms to produce safer food. It is not ...
AER-793, January 25, 2001
Federal intervention in food labeling is often proposed with the aim of achieving a social goal such as improving human health and safety, mitigating environmental hazards, averting international trade disputes, or supporting domestic agricultural and food manufacturing industries. Economic theory s...
AER-794, January 25, 2001
Agri-environmental policy is at a crossroads. Over the past 20 years, a wide range of policies addressing the environmental implications of agricultural production have been implemented at the Federal level. Those policies have played an important role in reducing soil erosion, protecting and restor...
AER-795, January 25, 2001
In the past year, trade practices between fresh produce shippers and food retailers gained national attention. Shippers are concerned that recent retail consolidation has led to market power and the growing incidence of fees and services. Retailers argue that these new trade practices reflect their ...
AER-796, January 25, 2001
High protection for agricultural commodities in the form of tariffs continues to be the major factor restricting world trade. The large differences in average tariffs across countries make it possible for farmers in one country to benefit from tariff protection while farmers in other countries lose ...
AER-797, January 25, 2001
Agricultural trade barriers and producer subsidies inflict real costs, both on the countries that use these policies and on their trade partners. Trade barriers lower demand for trade partners’ products, domestic subsidies can induce an oversupply of agricultural products which depresses world price...
AER-792, January 01, 2001
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Area Studies Project was designed to characterize the extent of adoption of nutrient, pest, soil, and water management practices and to assess the factors that affect adoption for a wide range of management strategies across different natural resource regions. The ...
AER-790, November 28, 2000
An average of 875,000 persons 15 years of age and older did hired farmwork each week as their primary job in 1998. An additional 63,000 people did hired farmwork each week as their secondary job. Hired farmworkers were more likely than the typical U.S. wage and salary worker to be male, Hispanic, yo...
AER-791, November 16, 2000
The level and distribution of the costs and benefits of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulatory program for meat and poultry change dramatically once economywide effects are included in the analysis. Using a Social Accounting Matrix Model, we find that reduced premature dea...
AER-789, November 03, 2000
Public health policies intended to reduce the incidence of smoking-related disease adversely affect thousands of tobacco farmers, manufacturers, and other businesses that produce, distribute, and sell tobacco products. This report assesses the likely impacts of declining tobacco demand, and identifi...
AER-787, November 02, 2000
Cost function analyses using data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census reveal substantial scale economies in chicken and turkey slaughter. These economies show no evidence of diminishing as plant size increases, are much greater than those realized in cattle and hog slaughter, and have resulted in a h...
AER-788, October 02, 2000
Discussions in the public arena have raised fundamental questions about the ultimate goals of farm policy and the need for establishing a safety net for farm households. This report examines four scenarios for government assistance to agriculture based on the concept of ensuring some minimum standar...
AER-786, May 01, 2000
Adoption of genetically engineered crops with traits for pest management has risen dramatically since their commercial introduction in the mid-1990's. The farm-level impacts of such crops on pesticide use, yields, and net returns vary with the crop and technology examined. Adoption of herbicide-tole...
AER-781, October 01, 1999
Climate, topography, and water area are highly related to rural county population change over the past 25 years. A natural amenities index, derived and discussed here, captures much of this relationship. Average 1970-96 population change in nonmetropolitan counties was 1 percent among counties low o...
AER-780, June 01, 1999
Food prices, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased 2.6 percent in 1997. This increase was greater than the overall increase in the CPI (which rose 2.3 percent) for the third consecutive year. Higher charges for processing and distributing food, as measured by the farm-to-retail pr...
AER-778, May 13, 1999
The range of environmental problems confronting agriculture has expanded in recent years. As the largest program designed to mitigate the negative environmental effects of agriculture, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has broadened its initial focus on reductions in soil erosion to consider ot...
AER-777, April 01, 1999
This report compares current changes in vertical coordination in the U.S. pork industry with past changes in the U.S. broiler industry. Recent changes in the structure of the U.S. pork industry reflect, in many ways, past changes in the broiler industry. Production contracts and vertical integration...
AER-776, March 01, 1999
Establishments in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations are surprisingly similar in their adoption of new technologies, worker skill requirements, use of government programs and technical assistance, exports, and sources of financing, according to the results of a nationwide survey of 3,909 man...
AER-785, March 01, 1999
Meatpacking consolidated rapidly in the last two decades: slaughter plants became much larger, and concentration increased as smaller firms left the industry. We use establishment-based data from the U.S. Census Bureau to describe consolidation and to identify the roles of scale economies and techno...
AER-771, November 02, 1998
Regional trade agreements (RTA's) have become a fixture in the global trade arena. Their advocates contend that RTA's can serve as building blocks for multilateral trade liberalization. Their opponents argue that these trade pacts will divert trade from more efficient nonmember producing countries. ...
AER-765, September 01, 1998
Society has recently increased the value it places on the services that wetlands provide, including water quality improvements, flood control, wildlife habitat, and recreation. However, owners of wetlands are often unable to profit from these services because the benefits created are freely enjoyed ...
AER-770, September 01, 1998
With environmental and energy source concerns on the rise, using agricultural fats and oils as fuel in diesel engines has captured increasing attention. Substituting petroleum diesel with biodiesel may reduce air emissions, increase the domestic supply of fuel, and create new markets for farmers. U....
AER-767, August 01, 1998
This report provides baseline projections for international supply, demand, and trade for major agricultural commodities to 2007. It is a companion report to USDA Agricultural Baseline Projections, providing the foreign country details supporting those projections. Projections of strong global econo...
AER-764, July 31, 1998
Under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, most farmers will pay less Federal income tax, and farm families will find it easier to transfer the family farm across generations. The new law--the tax portion of 1997 legislation to balance the Federal budget by 2002--emerges from years of debate on proposal...
AER-760, March 01, 1998
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become the leading means for U.S. processed food companies to participate in international markets. Affiliates of U.S.-owned food processing companies had $30 billion in sales throughout the Western Hemisphere in 1995, nearly 4 times the level of processed food ex...
AER-758, January 01, 1998
Growth of U.S. agriculture is dependent on increases in productivity, three-fourths of which is accounted for by public investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) and infrastructure, according to this research. Productivity growth in U.S. agriculture benefits consumers by putting down...
AER-759, December 01, 1997
Low-income households may face higher food prices for three reasons: (1) on average, low-income households may spend less in supermarkets--which typically offer the lowest prices and greatest range of brands, package sizes, and quality choices; (2) low-income households are less likely to live in su...
AER-757, September 01, 1997
The U.S. dairy industry, many segments of which supported dairy policy changes in the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act, is much different than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. This report provides a historical overview of the industry, more detailed examinations of the fluid milk m...
AER-755, July 01, 1997
USDA is now requiring all Federally inspected meat and poultry processing and slaughter plants to implement a new system called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) to reduce potentially harmful microbial pathogens in the food supply. This report finds that the benefits of the new reg...
AER-756, July 01, 1997
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune reaction that can cause acute neuro-muscular paralysis. Of an estimated 2,628 to 9,575 new U.S. cases with GBS annually, 526 to 3,830 are triggered by infection with Campylobacter, the most frequently isolated cause of foodborne diarrhea. Estimated tota...
AER-752, June 01, 1997
Nitrates in drinking water, which may come from nitrogen fertilizers applied to crops, are a
potential health risk. This report evaluates the potential benefits of reducing human exposure to
nitrates in the drinking water supply. In a survey, respondents were asked a series of questions
about the...
AER-750, May 01, 1997
This report provides baseline projections for international supply, demand, and trade for major agricultural commodities to 2005. It is a companion report to Agricultural Baseline Projections to 2005, Reflecting the 1996 Farm Act (WAOB-97-1), providing the foreign country detail supporting those pro...
AER-749, April 01, 1997
In response to a mandate in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, this report provides information on the major financial institutions and Federal programs active in rural America, the performance of rural financial markets, and the costs and benefits of proposals to expand the...
AER-746, December 31, 1996
Recent USDA surveys point out several shortcomings in children's diets. The share of calories from total and saturated fat averaged 4 and 3 percentage points above the recommendations. The sodium intake averaged 23 percent above the 2,400 milligrams recommended by some authorities. These dietary pro...
AER-747, December 01, 1996
Contracts are an integral part of the production and marketing of selected livestock commodities, such as broilers, turkeys, eggs, and milk. Such crops as fruit, vegetables, and sugar beets and cane are mostly produced under contracts. In the past, farm receipts were assumed to be distributed across...
AER-744, November 29, 1996
Property rights arise out of law, custom, and the operation of private markets, with important implications for how land and other natural resources are used and conserved. Over the past several years, debate about the nature and scope of property rights has combined with budget concerns and reautho...
AER-741, August 01, 1996
Microbial pathogens in food cause an estimated 6.5-33 million cases of human illness and up to 9,000 deaths in the United States each year. Over 40 different foodborne microbial pathogens, including fungi, viruses, parasites, and bacteria, are believed to cause human illnesses. For six bacterial pat...
AER-739, July 01, 1996
The United States produces nearly 20 percent of the world's cotton and ranks second to China as the largest producing country. While over 80 countries produce cotton, the United States, China, India, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan (former Soviet republic) produce about 74 percent of the total world cotton...
AER-740, June 01, 1996
Early evaluations of the effects of climate change on agriculture, which did not account for economic adjustments or consider the broader economic and environmental implications of such changes, overestimated the negative effects of climate change. This report, which highlights ERS research, focuses...
AER-735, May 01, 1996
Empirical studies indicate high economic returns from the public's investment in agricultural research. Yet, even as society is placing broader demands on the research system, taxpayer support for public agricultural research is unlikely to increase. Stronger ownership rights for intellectual proper...
AER-738, May 01, 1996
Many trade and environment issues will confront agriculture over the next several years. This report provides an economic framework to better understand these issues and discusses prior empirical inquiries and findings. Four primary issues are addressed: (1) how will environmental policies affect ag...
AER-721, July 01, 1995
Studies conducted since the late 1970's have estimated the net energy value of corn ethanol. However, variations in data and assumptions used among the studies have resulted in a wide range of estimates. This study identifies the factors causing this wide variation and develops a more consistent est...
AER-703, June 01, 1995
Recent studies suggest that possible global increases in temperature and changes in precipitation patterns during the next century will affect world agriculture. Because of the ability of farmers to adapt , however, these changes are not likely to imperil world food production. Nevertheless, world p...
AER-716, June 01, 1995
Since 1985, the United States has heavily supported agricultural exports with an array of programs. A central issue related to those programs is how best to support farm exports, and farm income, with lower price subsidies under the Uruguay Round Agreement of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Tra...
AER-701, January 02, 1995
Concerns about the impact of farm production on the quality of the Nation's drinking and recreational water resources have risen over the past 10 years. Because point sources of pollution were controlled first, agricultural nonpoint sources have become the Nation's largest remaining single water-qua...