With increased pressures on today’s Federal Budget, there may be funding cuts on agriculture programs. These cuts would certainly bring about increased concern as to which programs and which crops take the biggest cut. A straight cut across the board will likely affect each commodity group uniquely, thus creating a need to evaluate the current distribution of funding and the relative benefits associated with this distribution. The equitable distribution of farm program payments has been an ongoing concern and publications have been written attempting to answer the question of which commodity is receiving more than their “fair share.” This thesis will use the measures used in prior publications that have been updated to reflect current farm bill visions. Additionally, this research uses a consistent data set over a long enough time period so that comparisons between program crops can be made. Equitability in relation to farm program payments is extremely difficult to measure as there are so many different factors to take into consideration. Thus, it would be expected that the answer does not resolve itself with one ratio. Ultimately, the results of this research show that depending upon which tool you choose, the relative levels of support may change. For example, rice receives the most support per pound of program production on average, relative to the other eight crops, yet receives the second lowest level of target price relative to total variable costs. The underlying causes for this variability of results are described in the research though investigation of trends in the market prices for these specific crops and the understanding of what each ratio is actually measuring. By reviewing the results, a clearer picture of which crops are getting greatest support begins to emerge, yet the outcome is still subject to much debate as there is no single “tell-all” ratio. The whole picture needs to be taken into consideration. This research provides a reference and attempts to present the whole picture, providing a consistent and complete reference for policy makers to refer to as this debate increases.

Congress passed a revised Farm Bill in 2014 that amended the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) to, hopefully, increase the speed with which natural resource issues could be addressed. Federal land management has often been condemned for being time-consuming and burdensome, chiefly in situations that require rapid response, such as insect disease and fire. The amendment in the 2014 Farm Bill is meant to address this concern. The amendment would allow for the insect and disease restoration projects on U.S.D.A. Forest Service land to fall under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as categorical exclusions, provided that collaboration occurs while creating and implementing the projects. This new provision could allow for the U.S.D.A. Forest service to create and implement restoration projects at a faster rate than ever before. Each state's Governor was required to nominate restoration lands in their National Forests. These Nominations ranged from very comprehensive to extremely ambiguous and from just a few acres to entire national forests. This research documents why there was variation in designation nominations and what potential benefit this new amendment could bring to future natural resource management.

The purpose of this study was to determine perceptions of organizational communication methods used by selected commodity-specific, general agricultural and, conservation or natural resources organizations to disseminate information about the Farm Security and Rural Investment (FSRI) Act of 2002 within their organizations. A secondary purpose was to evaluate if preferred organizational communication methods related to organization leaders?? perceptions of the FSRI Act of 2002. Previous studies have assessed organizational communication methods and members?? perceptions, but little research has been completed on the combination of these variables. The instrument used in this study was derived from modified versions of Sulak??s (2000) 1996 Farm Bill survey, a similar instrument by Catchings and Wingenbach (2003), and Franklin??s (1975) organizational communication survey. The target population (N=300) was all selected Texas organizations?? board members. The accessible population (n=160) were selected Texas organizations (commodity-specific, general agriculture, and conservation or natural resources) board members. There were 70 respondents with a response rate of 44%. iv The respondents from this study were mostly board members from a commodity-specific organization and were 46 to 55 years old. They had attended college or completed an undergraduate degree, were raised on a rural farm or ranch, and currently live on rural farm or ranch. The respondents from selected Texas organizations indicated that they had some knowledge about 17 of the 18 primary issues or programs in the 2002 Farm Bill. Selected Texas organizations board members strongly agreed that their respective organizations wanted to meet their primary objectives and information about important events or situations were shared within their organizations. The respondents strongly agreed with the statement ??farm organization coalitions were essential for enacting the 2002 Farm Bill,?? and ??farm organizations strongly influenced the 2002 Farm Bill.?? This study summated and correlated the perceptions of organizational communication methods and perceptions of influencers affecting the outcome of the 2002 Farm Bill. Through that correlation, this study can conclude there was a moderately significant and positive relationship between perceived organizational communication methods and perceived levels of influencers affecting the outcome of the 2002 Farm Bill.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru Hanawa Peterson / This thesis focuses on the question of the effect of commodity pricing and Federal programs on the cost of food in the United States. For many decades the debate around subsidy payments has been argued in the halls of Congress and in farm fields across the country. Corn, wheat, and soybeans are the three largest crops subsidized in the United States today; arguably, the prices of these crops are influenced by subsidy payments. The goal of this thesis is to determine the effects of the prices of the top three subsidized crops on the thrifty market basket for families for four published by the USDA, factoring in transportation costs, market spread, agricultural technology advancements, and market value share. Previous studies have focused on direct subsidy payments as a whole and their aggregate influence on the price of food. This paper builds on the past studies by evaluating the effects of crop-specific programs on the cost of food. Econometric regression analysis was used to analyze the data gathered to support or refute the hypothesis that commodity prices and Federal payments do influence the cost of food. Initially data were gathered from January 1960 to December 2012. The data were adjusted for inflation using the Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index where appropriate. After multiple attempts of modeling it was discovered that data from 1960 to 1970 needed to be discarded due to the difference in the market basket price calculations from the rest of the series. Furthermore, the model was adjusted based on the presence of multicollinearity, and the Hildreth-Lu Method was utilized to correct for the autocorrelation in error. The regression results illustrated that the only commodity of the three considered in the study that had a positive and statistically significant impact on the cost of food over the sample period was corn (p-value = 0.005). The coefficients on wheat and soybean prices were statistically insignificant. The historical fuel price had the expected positive sign and was statistically significant. The agricultural technology factor was not significant. The results also suggested that the cereal grains supply chain has significantly increased the cost of food. Both the cereal grain farm value share and the retail-to-farm spread for cereal grains were statistically significant (p-value < 0.000) with positive coefficients. The price spread of fruit was statistically significant, (p-value = 0.000), but the farm value was not. The regression results were initially surprising for the crop price variables. The overall analysis supports previous studies that crop subsidies alone may not have impacted food prices per se, but biofuel policies may have had unintended consequences. Crop-specific results provide more information to consider when discussing The Farm Bill and the implications of such a complicated and omnibus piece of legislation.

abstract: Unrestricted Mexican exports of sugar into the U.S. is considered the most pressing issue facing the U.S. sugar industry. The goal of this dissertation is to analyze the trade of sugar between Mexico and the U.S. as well as analyze additional primary issues confronting the U.S. sugar industry. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an introduction to the U.S. sugar industry. Chapters 3 through 6 develop trade models which analyze sugar trade between Mexico and the U.S. The trade models estimate how NAFTA, USDA sugar forecast errors and Mexican ownership of twenty percent of the Mexican sugar industry each impact U.S. producer surplus and Mexican welfare. Results validate that U.S. producer surplus and in some instances Mexican welfare were decreased by full implementation of NAFTA. U.S. producer surplus and Mexican welfare were decreased due to USDA sugar production forecasting errors. U.S. producer surplus would be increased if the Mexican government did not own twenty percent of Mexican sugar production. Using an online choice experiment, Chapter 7 assesses U.S. consumers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for imported and genetically modified (GM) labeled sugar and sugar in soft drinks. Results indicate that consumers prefer bags of sugar and soft drinks labeled as "Not GM". Furthermore, consumers prefer sugar from Canada and the U.S. over sugar from Mexico, Brazil and the Philippines. Evidence is also provided that participants are more likely to choose actual products in the choice set rather than the "none of these" options when controlling for hypothetical bias by using consequentiality techniques. A non-hypothetical experimental auction was used in Chapter 8 to determine consumers' WTP for soft drinks labeled with sweetener and calorie information and analyzed the role of taste panels in an experimental auction. Results indicate that sugar is consumers' most preferred sweetener and calorie labeling is ineffective at influencing consumers to choose healthier soft drinks. Including taste in an experimental auction caused significant reductions in consumers' WTP for all soft drinks. Chapter 9 concludes by summarizing the results of this dissertation and discussing the future challenges facing the U.S. sugar industry. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2014

No description available.

The United States Farm Bill is a multi-billion-dollar federal legislation reenacted every five years to provide funding towards crop protection, nutrition, environmental protection, and other important focuses. The largest conservation program within the Farm Bill is the Conservation Reserve Program, which encompasses many conservation practices such as CP-33: habitat buffers for upland birds. Conservation implementation through the Farm Bill relies on voluntary producer enrollment in exchange for a rental fee to not farm enrolled land for a set time. I used yield data collected across six years from 36 agricultural fields in Humphreys and Holmes counties, Mississippi, USA, and a range of commodity prices to compare the change in economic and environmental opportunities available through economically targeted conservation enrollment between the 2014 Farm Bill and the 2018 Farm Bill. I found the 2014 Farm Bill was consistently higher in economic revenue and conservation opportunity compared to the 2018 Farm Bill

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This report addresses the consequences of the Iraqi Public Distribution System (PDS), a food rationing system managed by the Iraqi Ministry of Trade (MoT), administered by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), and supported with U.S. food aid. The Saddam Hussein administration created the PDS as emergency food aid in 1991 when United Sanctions (UN) sanctions made food imports to Iraq difficult. After more than two decades in operation, the PDS has developed long-term negative effects on Iraq’s most vulnerable populations. Specific vulnerable populations include Iraqi War Widows, Iraqi farmers, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). This report introduces the current Public Distribution System following a thorough background on the development of government-citizen relations, Sunni-Shi’i dynamics, and urban-rural economies throughout the twentieth Century in Iraq. The PDS harms the most food vulnerable Iraqis more than it assists them in the long run because of the unreliable delivery times, poor quality of the PDS goods, and depreciation of the local food market; therefore, the WFP and Iraqi MoT should limit the PDS recipients, improve the efficiency and quality of fewer goods in the PDS basket, and strengthen Iraq’s agriculture sector to provide for the current market and wheat exports. Based on an analysis of the U.S. farm bill, this paper recommends a shift in U.S. food aid from distributing American surplus crops as food aid. The U.S. government should focus on building capacity in the Iraqi agriculture sector with a model similar to the Obama Administration’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative. / text