My objective today is to put forth a call for each of you to rethink how we do applied policy analysis. I plan to justify the need for this rethinking using a variety of arguments. Some of my arguments will be familiar to most if not all of you, others may be unfamiliar to most if not all. I claim no originality for the basic theoretical arguments, they all appear in the literature. What 1 hope you find to be original and useful is the synthesis of these arguments. Furthermore, though in places 1 will point out the need for additional theoretical work, my primary goal is to convince practicing agricultural policy analysts to become more comprehensive in their analyses. In the grand tradition of presidential addresses, my remarks cover a rather broad range of issues at the expense of depth on any one issue. Nevertheless, I hope that my remarks will stimulate discussion and thought about how we as agricultural economists do applied policy analysis.

Industrialization is rapidly becoming a topic of great attention. Driven by fundamental economic forces, industrialization seems likely to advance more quickly in the coming decade to more industry segments. By changing the way agriculture does business, industrialization will also bring change to public policy and agricultural institutions. Commodity policy will increasingly be out of step with a product-oriented industry. And as industrialization blurs the lines between producers and processors, land grant universities and the extension service will face challenges assessing who their customers are.

Agricultural industrialization and sustainable development issues are important contemporary areas of debate. This paper argues that the two processes are a consequence of a set of forces operating in our global system. It outlines a number of conceptual interactions between the two phenomena and examines economic development and sustainable development policy implications that appear to be logical extensions of the arguments presented.

Drabenstott and Davis and Langham both present insightful discussions of the causes and consequences of industrialization in agriculture. Their discussions address industrialization as defined by the Council of Food, Agriculture, and Resource Economics (CFARE). According to CFARE, industrialization includes two components, increased consolidation of farms and increased vertical coordination within the marketing channels for food and fiber. Davis and Langham focus primarily on the causes and consequences of increasing consolidation of farms, while Drabenstott focuses on the causes and consequences of vertical coordination. This definition of industrialization should be expanded to include consolidation of firms that provide inputs and services to agriculture and consolidation of firms that handle and process agricultural products.

The authors in this session are to be commemorated on their attempt to integrate the bodies of knowledge of agricultural industrialization and sustainable development. Drs. Davis and Langham's broad based paper explores the domestic vrs. international markets, small vrs. large farmers, North vrs. South theory, and finishes with the unique issues of developing countries. Dr. Drabenstott's paper is primarily concerned with domestic industrialization. This paper is full of examples of how industrialization has taken place and explores the possibilities of the future. Drabenstott does not attempt to answer or to discuss the issue of sustainability. Instead he focuses on the new consumer demands being placed on firms for quick services and quality products.

The socioeconomic movement is an effort to better explain human behavior by combining insights of economists and sociologists. This paper contributes to the socioeconomic literature by including the influence of relationships, values, and social bonds in the neoclassical economic model by introducing social capital coefficients. The usefulness of the resulting social capital model is demonstrated theoretically in a two-firm cooperative model and tested empirically using data from a survey of students who allocate their time between individual and joint projects.

Experiments and studies were conducted to investigate the role of social capital. Social capital (relationship to others) is a productive asset which is a substitute for and complement to other productive assets. The productivity of social capital leads to the expectation that firms and individuals invest in relationships. Data were collected to answer the following questions: Does the identity (relationship) of trading partners affect selling and buying prices; the acceptance of catastrophic risk; the choice of share or cash leases in agriculture; loan approval; and banks investment to retain customers? The evidence is in the afffirmative.

The dualistic nature of humans has been recognized for centuries. The intriguing question is the extent to which the human being with her/his display of concern for others can simultaneously act as an egoist, the latter being descriptive of the homo oeconomicus rendition of the human. Multiple utility theory suggests a way to approach research on such issues. A test case of water conserving technology adoption behavior by Florida growers is examined. Empirical evidence supports moving toward an expanded version of the mono-utility or I-utility model to include a We-utility.

At a time when economists have been accused of being imperialistic for attempting to infiltrate other social sciences, we should not be too surprised by attempts to incorporate other social sciences into economics. The Lynne paper is clearly an effort in this direction. The other two attempt to reform or broaden the mainstream neoclassical model.

The potential use of computers and electronic technology have created considerable interest among educators in agricultural economics. This paper provides an overview of the use of electronic technology within agricultural economics curricula; examines areas in which technological development offers promise and examines issues associated with adoption of the technology.

Computers are becoming an affordable and effective tool for assisting with classroom instruction. This paper describes experiences utilizing a hypermedia presentation system for a farm management course. Some advantages as well as drawbacks and issues associated with using microcomputer-controlled hypermedia in the classroom are presented. Hopefully, readers will find some assistance in planning the design and implementation of such techniques for their own classes.

Four years of televising a university course for delivery to an audience of agricultural producers provides some reflections on the feasibility of combining traditional classroom instruction with in-depth extension educational programs. There are a sizable number of active agricultural producers who are eager to study academic topics in greater depth than could be obtained in traditional workshops or seminars. It seems possible to overcome many obstacles that earlier suggested distance education via television was not feasible from an administrative, budgetary or client acceptance point of view. The results seem worth the effort, with the providing institution benefiting from increased national recognition.

The Agricultural Economics profession has been using computer technology in their research, extension and teaching program for over three decades. However, commonly accepted nomenclature for the types and levels of computer skills required of students by agribusiness employers has not been developed. This paper provides a framework for agricultural economics and agribusiness instructors to both plan and evaluate the type and levels of computer skills being taught to graduates of their program.

A tobit econometric procedure was used to examine the effect of selected demand and supply factors on nonreal estate agricultural lending by commercial banks in Texas. Results show that banks have reduced their agricultural loan portfolios in response to increased use of interest sensitive deposits after deregulation. Moreover, almost half of this decrease came from banks that stopped making agricultural loans. Also, results show that banks affiliated with multi-bank holding companies lend less money to agriculture relative to their assets than do independent banks.

Alternative hypotheses of market integration in the U.S winter market for fresh tomatoes were evaluated using a dynamic model of spatial price adjustment. The results showed that while Florida and Mexico were integrated in the same market, a price change in one area was not instantaneously reflected in the other. Lagged effects were important with long-run integration being supported for both Florida and Mexico and short-run integration for Mexico. However, the information flow, while relatively efficient, was not symmetric. Florida was found to be dominant in the price formation process with Mexico responding to changes in the Florida price.

Hedonic price models are estimated to determine if there are incentives to supply higher quality tomatoes. Price premiums are associated with extra-large tomatoes originating from shipping points located closer to consumption points. Price differences between mature-green and vine-ripe tomatoes are not significant. Vine-ripe tomatoes are favored by consumers in the summer while mature-green tomatoes are favored the rest of the year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture should consider changing the present tomato grading system, which is based on shape and smoothness, to include a flavor indicator based on harvest maturity.