The decade of the 1980s saw a resurgence of concern over the environmental and health effects of agricultural production that exceeded even the concern in the sixties generated by the publication of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring. Consumers worried about the health effects of pesticide residues on foods; conversion of wetlands to crop production was blamed for the decreased population of migratory waterfowl; rural residents worried about the effects of nitrates and pesticides found in their groundwater supplies; and sediment, nutrients, and pesticides in surface waters were blamed for the decline of estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay and contributed to problems in freshwater and coastal fisheries.

Without a doubt, climate change will be one of the most important environmental topics of the 1990s and will be high on the research agendas of many scientific disciplines in years ahead. While not yet universally accepted, it is now widely believed that anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gases have the potential to substantially warm climates worldwide. Although there is no consensus on the timing and magnitude of global warming, current climate models predict an average increase of 2.8°C to 5.2°C in the earth's temperature over the next century (Karl, Diaz, and Barnett). Changes in regional temperature and precipitation will likely accompany the global warming, but there is even less scientific agreement on the magnitude of these changes.

The U.S. is nearing the end of its ninth recession since the Second World War. This recession was caused by events outside of the agricultural sector, and the recovery will be due to factors outside the sector. Yet agricultural production, costs, and income will be affected by general economic conditions. This paper reviews current general economic conditions and examines their implications for the agricultural sector.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce produces long-term regional projections of income, population, per capita income and earnings, and employment by industry for regions, states, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and BEA Economic Areas on a regular basis. The projections are prepared every five years and were last published in 1990.

This study examines the notion that fresh-fruit prices follow a time trend separate from the effect of seasonal supply changes over the marketing season. In particular, quality changes and a limited marketing season are hypothesized to contribute to the seasonal changes in demand. The empirical results support these hypotheses for the Boston fresh-blueberry market.

This paper estimates single-index model (SIM) beta coefficients for the major cash crops of Ontario's agricultural-producing counties. Beta coefficients are estimated using per acre gross revenues weighted by (1) the proportion of each crop planted in each county and (2) equal weights. The results show that sometimes substantial differences arise from these procedures. Implications for government policy and farm-level risk-management strategies are discussed. A practical approach for using SIM for farm management purposes is presented and the effects of systematic and nonsystematic risk are discussed.

A national beekeeping-industry model, assuming rational expectations, is presented.

Consistent and asymptotically efficient estimates are obtained by a modified two-step two-stage least squares method. Based on parameter estimates, elasticities, and likelihood functions, a previously estimated modified adaptive expectations model explains industry behavior better than the rational expectations model. Simulation analyses of the models suggest the direction of the impacts of an ineffective federal honey support program from 1982 through 1985 is similar but the magnitudes are varied. The rational expectations model indicates the decrease in beekeepers’ revenue in this period is larger than the decrease identified by the modified adaptive expectations model.

A telephone survey of all of the surviving families of people killed in farm accidents in New York between 1985 and 1987 (52 of 87 families interviewed, 60% response rate) found the average total annual present value of expected income foregone because of fatal farm accidents in New York is over $8.6 million (in 1987 dollars). Less than five years after the accidents, 67% of the families who operated the farms where the accidents occurred no longer operate them and 44% no longer live on the farms.

The United States is facing a seemingly overwhelming problem of how to dispose of its solid waste. For disposal solutions to be viable, they must be environmentally sound and economically viable. Processing waste newspapers for farm-animal bedding offers a successful partial solution that meets both criteria. Centralized newspaper chopping is found to cost less than on-farm chopping. Both chopped and unchopped waste newspapers can be economically transported considerable distances. The use of waste newspapers for animal bedding is economically attractive at the farm level and can provide a partial solution to the solid-waste disposal problem.