Government programs promoting locally produced foods have risen dramatically. But are these programs actually convincing consumers to pay more for locally produced food? Studies to date, which have mostly relied on hypothetical stated preference surveys, suggest that consumers will pay premiums for various local foods and that the premiums vary with the product and presence of any geographic identity. This study reports results from a large field experiment involving 1,050 adult consumers to reveal consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) premiums for “locally produced” foods – mushrooms and oysters. Despite strong statistical power, this study reveals no positive effect of the locally produced label on consumer WTP. These null results are contrary to most of the existing literature on this topic. The finding that consumers are not willing to pay more for local foods has important implications for state and federal agencies that promote labeling campaigns that seek to increase demand and generate premiums for locally produced foods.

Consumer misperception and misinterpretation of food labels can lead to consumers not buying a product or purchasing products that do not align with their environmental or sustainability interests. Consumer purchasing behavior can be explained by looking at consumer food values or food quality attributes. This study aimed to (a) determine the effect label information has on consumer preference shares for selected sustainability-related food labels and (b) if correlations exist between food labels and food values. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the comprehension of 12 different labels and identify how food labels relate to food value preferences. Responses from the best-worst scaling experiment of food value and environmental food label choice sets were analyzed using the random parameter logit model. Results reveal preference shares changed for each label as more information was provided to the respondents about the various labels included in the study. These findings should support food policy efforts requiring strict, clear label standards. Food labels should represent the food’s core food values to increase consumer preference for the product. These findings also further support the need for efforts to increase consumer knowledge and understanding of the labels on food packaging.

Fed dairy cattle represent an important and growing component of the U.S. fed cattle market. However, little is known about factors affecting fed dairy cattle transaction prices. This study analyzes confidential transaction-level data collected by United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural (USDA) Marketing Service (AMS) under Livestock Mandatory Reporting to determine how data collected for price reporting explains price variation. Hedonic models are developed to illustrate potential use to enhance fed dairy cattle price reporting. However, important price variation remains unexplained suggesting factors not available in AMS data are associated with fed dairy cattle price variation. We suggest AMS collect and utilize additional data to enhance price reporting.

We develop a theoretical framework and present a corresponding empirical analysis of the Food and Drug Administration’s irrigation water quality regulatory standard under the Food Safety Modernization Act using lettuce as a case study. We develop a stochastic price endogenous partial equilibrium model with recourse to examine the standard’s efficacy under various scenarios of foodborne illness severity, standard implementation, demand response to foodborne outbreaks, and irrigation costs. The stringency of regulation is evaluated with endogenous producer response to regulatory requirements and corresponding implications for economic surplus. The baseline results show that in the case of the lettuce market, the proposed microbial irrigation water quality regulation in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is not cost effective relative to the existing Leafy-Greens Marketing Agreements relying on water treatment for mitigation of microbial contamination. However, FSMA can be cost effective if water treatment is sufficiently expensive.

In response to survival challenges, small farms in the United States undertake decisions to minimize downside risk or maximize gross revenue. Using primary survey data of small farms in Tennessee, we examined farmers’ strategic decisions on specialization or other forms of diversification and estimated the impacts of these decisions on farm financial performance. We found that farmer’s age, farmland holdings, use of a smartphone in farm-related activities, and off-farm work significantly influenced these strategic decisions. Our multinomial endogenous switching regression estimates suggested that small farms could attain significantly higher performance, around 45% higher gross farm income and a 30% higher return on assets, by adding alternative on-farm enterprises.

This study develops and uses a survey to gather information on demographics, production and management practices, and perceptions on using cover crops as a conservation practice from citrus growers and utilizes the double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method to measure their willingness to pay (WTP) for adopting cover crops in citrus production. The survey is conducted for citrus producers in Florida and Texas. The study finds that, on average, growers from Florida are willing to pay $509.48/acre per year for adopting cover crops. This is substantially less than the WTP for growers in Texas, who are willing to pay more than $1,000/acre per year for cover crops. The study analyzes the factors that have significant impacts on growers’ WTP for cover crops and discusses the heterogeneity in the grower perceptions on the benefits and drawbacks of using this conservation practice by state. Although using cover crops has not been a popular conservation practice in perennial fruit production systems, its potential to improve soil quality is particularly important for citrus production in Florida where soils are sandy and have low organic matter.

Efficiencies of Agricultural Credit Associations of the US Farm Credit System are measured quarterly from 2005 through 2020. A slacks-based measure based on the directional distance function is used with non-performing loans included as an undesirable output. This permitted efficiency scores to be measured by type of defined input or output. Generally, most Associations were highly efficient, but there was deterioration in mean efficiency over the years 2008–2018, a period of financial difficulties in the US agriculture. Efficiencies of Associations that merged or consolidated were tracked before and after these activities. Mergers and consolidations often led to increased efficiencies.

The H-2A temporary agricultural workers visa program is a federal program allowing agricultural employers to bring in foreign workers on a seasonal basis. The extent to which H-2A workers earn more compared to their domestic unauthorized counterparts is of interest for both producers and workers. Using novel data on citrus harvest workers in the state of Florida, we estimate hourly earnings differentials by legal status using Classical and Bayesian inference. Findings suggest that participation in the H-2A program is associated with 18–23% higher hourly earnings for migrant harvesters in Florida after controlling for observable demographic and work-related variables.

Effective irrigation management is critical for future food supplies and the prosperity of producers engaged in irrigation production. Through a deficit irrigation field experiment, we determine the financial impact on producers caused by changing irrigation costs, corn prices, extreme weather events, and restricting irrigation levels. Results suggest that the optimal economic strategy within our constrained optimization model is to fully irrigate, with the economic impact highly dependent on commodity prices, restriction level, and irrigation costs. The greatest economic losses caused by irrigation restrictions come from decreases in yield. Some simulations resulted in negative profits, indicating that a switch to alternative crops requiring less irrigation may be warranted.

We estimate the relationship between farm animal welfare (FAW) efforts taken by beef farmers and the economic performance of beef farms by using farm accounting data from the Swedish Farm Economic Survey matched with survey data on farm management practices. To this end, we perform a two-step analysis. First, an item response theory (IRT) model estimates the latent FAW effort on farms. FAW effort likely depends on a host of complementary FAW-improving strategies, and the IRT model combines the considered strategies into a unidimensional scale. We take this to represent on-farm FAW effort. Second, we use instrumental variable regressions to estimate the relationship between FAW effort and multiple measures of farm economic performance. We find that higher FAW effort scores have no effect on margins and costs. However, higher FAW effort scores are associated with lower farm sales. Findings suggest that policies (such as targeted label for high FAW) that increase farm revenue as well as incentivize the uptake of FAW-improvement practices may be able to compensate farmers for their FAW effort.

This paper shows how econometric identification can be improved in studies making use of crop insurance participation as either an independent or dependent variable. The paper provides the reader with a succinct overview of how crop insurance contracts are priced and how to use publicly available data to derive a novel composite crop insurance design parameter that emulates existing crop insurance rating parameters using a procedure that is based on current actuarial practices. The derived design parameter performs well at predicting historic crop insurance loss-cost ratios and satisfies the requirements for an instrumental variable for a variety of empirical applications related to crop insurance. Representative empirical examples are presented where it is shown that the proposed instrument has favorable two-staged least squares diagnostic tests and is effective at eliminating endogeneity bias.

This study examines the factors influencing women farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and the effects of these strategies on household income and food insecurity. A field survey was conducted among 426 women farmers in the Center-North region, which covers 7% of Burkina Faso territory. Descriptive statistics, a multinomial logit model, and a propensity score matching model were used to analyze the data collected. The results of the econometric analysis show that high domestic tasks, type of climate shocks experienced, membership in women’s group, and financial constraints are important determinants of adaptation decisions. Adaptation strategies are also found to have a positive impact on income and a negative impact on household food insecurity. These different findings highlight the need to prioritize flexible adaptation options to improve women farmers’ resilience to climate change, rather than generic solutions.