<p> The current landscape of small farms is approaching a major shift as more and more small farms are poised to come onto open marketplace around urban areas. A different farming business model called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has been utilized as new way for farmers to potentially earn above average revenue. However, small farmers still feel dissatisfied with their overall farm income, but when implementing the CSA business model the producers do feel that the CSA enhances their overall income satisfaction. Three essays were developed to examine this predicament. The first essay examined possible economic pricing models that a CSA is espoused to operating under, a multiproduct club good and monopoly. Utilizing these theories and data collected from prior research, I postulate that the CSA business model is not operating at the Pareto equilibrium because producers seem worse off and the shareholders are better off. The solution to this equilibrium problem seems to be two fold. One is that the producer is acting inefficiently and needs better control of their production and distribution. Second, the true cost of the product is not being communicate as espoused by CSA business model concept. Increasing efficiencies and fully communicating all costs to the shareholders are needed so that the correct consumers&rsquo; willingness to pay can be revealed and the Pareto optimal be achieved.</p><p> The second essay constructs and illustrates a mathematical model implemented by the gardening by the square foot method and expands it so that it can be applied by the CSA farmer. Comparing this planting method to other CSA row cropping models, the needed square footage for growing the need harvest can be reduced by 80%. Although the land needed is drastically decreased using this cropping method, labor costs have not been evaluated and field studies still need to be conducted. Also, this technique now segregates the shareholders production area from other production areas on the farm. This not only allows a CSA producer to better detail their specific production cost per shareholder but also has the advantage of allowing for more exclusion required to exert more monopoly or club good power, thus possibly correcting the dissatisfaction of producers&rsquo; personal income as described in essay one.</p><p> The third essay discusses the results of a survey, e-mailed to 673 producers listed on the USDA CSA website. The results of this survey were compared to previous CSA producer surveys and shows that not much has changed in the demographics of the CSA operations across the U.S. Using survey and census data, a linear regression econometric model was developed to explain full share pricing at CSAs. Five variable coefficients were found to have large impacts on full share prices. The variable of CSA farmers participating in other marketplaces had a negative impact of $294.62. When farmers used prices of other CSAs in their pricing, share prices were $120.82 higher. The preparation of the CSA harvest for distribution was found to have a negative effect on the price with a coefficient of $232.83. The factor of the management and labor of the family and shared risk coefficients were positive $226.45 and $169.65, respectively. Finally the weeks of harvest was positive with a coefficient of $12.38. All these variables were found to be significant at the 1% or 5% significance level. However, many other non-monetary attributes espoused in the literature as reasons for a producer choosing the CSA business model, did not have any discernable impact on pricing. More research is needed to clarify the value of these non-market items.</p>

<p> Carry in/ Carry out (CICO) policies have been used in front-country parks for a long time. According to the National Park Service (2013), &ldquo;trash free parks&rdquo; are ones that implement carry in and carry out policies; the manager of a park removes all or most of the garbage cans in hope of having park patrons carry out the refuse that they generate and dispose of it at home. Managers use this policy as a way to reduce the costs associated with hauling trash out of the park, and to deter patrons from leaving garbage in the park. Reducing the amount of trash clean up also gives the park staff the ability to focus on other operational needs and park projects. This study looks at the effectiveness of carry in/ carry out policies in federal parks, state parks, and NGO-managed lands by interviewing sixteen managers (n=16) of these areas in the Northeast. This exploratory study used grounded theory. Two strategies were used to collect data (online survey and phone interviews). Data was analyzed by coding. Results suggest that the number one barrier for getting visitors to comply with CICO policies is a lack of awareness about littering. The most common benefit for using a CICO system is to save money, followed by creating public awareness about the items brought into parks. This study found that 67% of NGO managers and 75% of federal managers think that CICO is an effective policy; state park managers were mixed on whether CICO policies are in fact effective. The one thing that federal, state, and NGO agencies agree on is that there is always litter to be picked up by staff or volunteers. The amount of that litter varied from park to park, and there does not seem to be one strategy that works for everyone.</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jason S. Bergtold / This dissertation examines advances in applied discrete choice econometrics in applied settings and conservation practice adoptions by Kansas farmers. The research contributes to the literature by examining the use of discrete choice models to more deeply examine adoption of conservation practices and the choice of crop rotations in Kansas. In addition, a method for examining the proper functional specification of logistic regression models is explored. The first essay aims to examine landscape, climatic, socio-economic and farm factors affecting choice of crop rotations by farm managers in dryland cropping systems. A particular emphasis is place on the role, insurance products (such as RA-CRC (Revenue Assurance/Crop Revenue Coverage) and ACRE (Average Crop Revenue Election)), as well as marketing options, and characteristics of farming operations. This paper models the joint adoption of crop rotations using a multinomial modeling framework which is used to estimate the probabilities of adopting different crop rotations. The data used for this paper was obtained from a mail survey in 2011 examining Kansas farmers’ land use decisions and consisted of an eight-page survey with 46 questions, leading to more than 400 distinct variables. The purpose of the second essay is to examine and analyze the adoption of conservation practices, no-till, cover crops and use of crediting of nutrients from manure, by Kansas farmers from both a joint and conditional perspective. This study develops a modeling framework that can analyze conditional adoption and examine farmers’ joint and conditional adoption decisions. Estimates calculated from the model will allow for an assessment of the linkages between the adoption of different conservation practices, as well as the socio-economic factors that affect the likelihood of adopting conservation practices given other conservation practices have already been adopted on-farm. The third essay aims to develop a robust test to examine the functional form of predictor/ index function in the logistic regression models as misspecified models can lead to biased and inconsistent estimates, and consequently inappropriate inferences. An Orthogonal Polynomial RESET test is developed to assess proper functional form for different functional form assumptions of the predictor/ index function, as well as provide guidance on the use of the test in applied logistic regression modeling. Monte Carlo Simulations are used to assess the viability of the test and compare it to similar tests found in the literature.

<p> Texas white-tailed deer (<i>Odocoileus virginianus</i>) breeding operations frequently release captive-reared deer in anticipation of increasing the genetic quality of their deer herd. There is little understanding of how well captive-reared deer acclimate following release. My goal was to determine survival, distribution, and fawn survival of captive-reared white-tailed deer following spring and fall releases. Thus, 223 deer (120 F, 103 M) were released in spring and fall liberations from fall 2013&ndash;spring 2015 into a 2,631-ha high-fenced pasture. Deer were released by age cohorts ranging from 1.5&ndash;&ge;3.5 years of age for does and 1.5&ndash;3.5 years of age for bucks. During spring 2014 (<i>n</i> = 18) and 2015 (<i>n</i> = 18) 36 does were fitted with Vaginal Implant Transmitters, which resulted in the capture of 29 fawns. In 2014, fawn survival was estimated 60%, whereas 2015 fawn survival was 21%. Adult survival was measured for 127 (70 F, 57 M) radio-collared deer for 1-year following liberation. Survival of does and bucks across all releases was 90% and 75%, respectively. A selection index was used to determine the preferred distance of 54 (29 F, 25 M) captive-reared white-tailed deer distributed following release. Does stayed close to the corresponding breeding pen (75% of locations &le; 1 km from pens), while bucks (40% of locations &le; 1 km from pens) of all age cohorts covered a larger expanse of area compared to does. In conclusion, captive-reared white-tailed deer were capable of surviving liberation from pens, but accommodations such as maintaining a high density of water and supplemental feed will aid in survival. Philopatric nature of does was evident in the lack of distribution following release. High density of does around the breeding pens during fawning may explain the decrease in fawn survival. Distributing release sites across the property could promote a more even distribution of does.</p><p>

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