To overcome the limitations of starch-based and sugar-based ethanol, scientists propose to expand the use of cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grasses, or the non-edible parts of plants. As the U.S. has a large cellulosic biomass production base (Perlack et al., 2006), production of ethanol from cellulosic feedstock and use of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline could help promote rural development, reduce green house gases emissions, and increase energy independence. This study focuses on the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol along with the amount of carbon sequestered and emitted using switchgrass as a feedstock. In the first part of this study, willingness to adopt (WTA) switchgrass is evaluated. The amount of farmland available for growing switchgrass was estimated using Probit and Tobit models of switchgrass production survey data developed in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. The estimated results from these two models show that when switchgrass prices increase, the probability of farmers to grow switchgrass and land acreages used for switchgrass production will increase. In the second part of this study, based on the results of estimated, farmland availability within an optimal draw area of 50 miles of a biorefinery and a switchgrass delivery schedule could be determined from the biorefinery’s perspective considering different bale types and storage methods. A cost minimization programming model was developed to estimate the year-round switchgrass delivery schedule within fifty miles of three selected biorefinery locations in the southeastern U.S. Also in this study, the carbon credit effect was considered in the model. The results from the programming model suggest that with the carbon credit paid to biorefineries, more marginal land will be used for growing switchgrass, and carbon will be sequestered in the soil at a level that exceeds emitted carbon by at least 1.5 times. Lower feedstock costs would be available to the biorefineries if a carbon payment was available to producers for net carbon sequestered.

Marine Protected Area (MPA), as a fisheries management tool has been promoted by both national and local conservationists and has provided de facto illustrations of integrated coastal management (ICM) in the Philippines. However, conflict is inevitable in the implementation of public policy such as the MPA because of contrasting objectives and expectations from various stakeholders. Coupled with non-human (e.g. MPA size) and human (e.g. mismanagement) threats, conflict becomes a hindrance to MPA effectivity. In the Philippines alone, only 10-20% of the 500 MPAs are attaining their objectives. This study presents an overview of MPA management and examines the interaction between the civil society and market forces of institutional arrangements in the case of North-Eastern Iloilo (NI) in the Philippines. It discusses overall scenarios that resemble conflict between various national, local and international sectors, assessing MPA success factors and the expected implications from such implementation. Results from key informant, focus-group discussion and social survey show that there are problems on MPA management in the region. Using data and strategic analyses, it presents that minimisation of conflicts amongst actors should be the primary goal of the NI municipalities. In addition, MPA size and membership to organisations are also significant factors of success. Moreover, the analysis from a simple correlation to complex Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) conclude that information on MPA regulation does not directly contribute to the improvement in MPA management. It implies that a focus on informing stakeholders about the benefits of having an MPA and its regulations is ineffective. The focus should be on the reduction of conflict between economic actors - for free riding problems are currently occurring, thus minimising conflict by conflict resolution and proper incentives. However, there are still remaining challenges on MPA management, for not all factors are incorporated on this study. The challenge now is on how to identify the remaining factors and integrate them into policies and implementations to improve the overall condition of coastal communities.

Water trading and water markets have been listed by leading climate change organizations as a possible tool for climate change adaptation. Experience with water trading exists in many places in the world, and three of the most well-known and widely-studied markets for water rights are found in the Western United States, Chile, and Australia's Murray-Darling Basin. While the body of literature on the performance of these markets is extensive, few papers relate the experiences of these three countries to adaptation as of yet. This thesis seeks to report on the outcomes of water markets in three cases with special attention to the following adaptation questions: Can water markets be a tool to address increasing variability in water supply; and what are the necessary environmental, political, and historic conditions for a market to be successful in allocating water resources under situations of scarcity? The experiences of these three cases yield the following conclusions about the use of water markets in climate change adaptation: the degree of existing infrastructure for water storage and transportation must be considered in the implementation of markets; water markets must be continually revised to internalize local third party effects; transaction costs must be minimized if markets are to serve increased short-term variability in water supply; sustainable outcomes are most readily met when markets approximate “cap-and-trade” programs; and the involvement of local institutions in market design will support market activity and the achievement of localized adaptation goals.

This dissertation studies agricultural input intensification, defined as the increased use of modern inputs such as hybrid seeds, mineral fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide in African agriculture. It also analyses the potential of this intensification to accelerate productivity growth and tests the effectiveness of two policies, input subsidies and land reforms, in promoting it and consequently in increasing crop yield. In the first essay, we argue that to create the conditions for the emergence of a green revolution in Africa, modern agricultural technologies have to be adopted as a package, not in a piecemeal fashion. This argument is consistent with a conceptual framework that we develop to illustrate the importance of harnessing strategic complementarities among agricultural technologies by adopting them simultaneously rather than sequentially. Based on this framework, we propose a methodology to estimate an index to measure agricultural input intensification in its many dimensions. The index provides a simple and intuitive measure to quantify joint adoption of several inputs and compare it across plots, crops, farmers, and regions. Applying this methodology to maize producers in Burkina Faso and Tanzania, we show that our estimated index is a valid measure of joint input adoption and effectively captures the relative importance of each input as well as the number of different inputs adopted. Using the estimated index, we find that simultaneous adoption of modern inputs in Burkina Faso and Tanzania is limited but not rare. Most importantly, we find that the impact of the adoption of individual modern input on yield is increasing with the level of intensification for others. In the subsequent two essays, we assess the effectiveness of government’s direct intervention through input subsidies and indirect intervention through land reforms in promoting agricultural input intensification and increasing productivity. Our empirical analyses focus on Burkina Faso, a country that has recently implemented a fertilizer subsidy program and is undertaking profound land reforms to improve land tenure security and land transferability among households. The second essay tests the hypothesis that subsidizing only one input might promote or discourage the use of other inputs. We find that fertilizer subsidy for maize farmers in Burkina Faso crowds in the use of hybrid seeds and crop protection chemicals, but discourages the use of manure. The last essay assesses whether the development of rural land rental markets can facilitate land transferability among farmers and increase input intensification and productivity. The findings suggest that land rental transfers land from less talented or committed farmers to the more able but have minimal impact on input intensification. However, our results show that land renters are more productive and better farm managers. These results suggest that the short-term gains from policies that foster the development of land rental markets in Burkina Faso, and more generally Africa, will likely be in term of efficiency rather than widespread adoption of modern agricultural technologies.

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of the US in the worldwide production and trade of pistachios, identify and estimate the major factors affecting export demand for US pistachios in 21 major markets, accounting for 78 percent of total US pistachio exports. The study estimated the impacts of US pistachio own price, cross price, importing markets’ GDP, real exchange rates and effect of food safety shocks. A panel data analysis was conducted using data from 1989 to 2009. A Houseman test indicated that the random effects estimator was the chosen estimator. Elasticity analysis indicated that US pistachio demand showed own price elastic, income elastic and real exchange rate elastic, while cross price and food safety shock inelastic. The paper also investigated effects of marketing orders in different industries to reinforce the findings by Alston et al. in 2005 on the Pistachio Order. The review concluded with a general positive effect. Consequently, to maintain international market share, US pistachio producers need to take advantage of their advanced technology and reputation for higher food safety standards, comply with regulations under the marketing order, focus on product diversification and find solutions to improve current food safety issues.

This thesis includes two main parts: I. Evaluation of techniques for oil (total lipid) quantification of chia and soybean seeds. This study evaluated ten different methods of seed oil quantification, including some methods that have not been applied to oilseeds before. The main aim of this study was to find one or more techniques that are easy, inexpensive, safe and fast with a small amount of ground seeds. The Soxhlet method was used as a standard to compared between techniques of oil quantification. The oil extraction by the Soxhlet method was evaluated with two solvents petroleum ether and acetone. There is not a statistically significant difference between petroleum ether and acetone solvents. No significant differences for the amount of oil recovered via the Soxhlet method were found between Medium Moisture Content (MMC > 10%) and Low Moisture Content (LMC < 4.0 %). The Folch technique provided higher percentages of oil extraction than Bligh and Dyer and hexane-isopropanol techniques. There is not a statistically significant difference (P =0.0844) between Soxhlet method and Folch method but less than the Soxhlet method. A supercritical fluid extraction (HCH) method provided a lower yield of oil extraction compared with the Soxhlet method for three varieties of bias samples. A Direct Transesterification (DT) method with LMC and MMC provided a statistically significant difference than the Soxhlet method. The DT with LMC produced higher yield than DT with MMC between samples but lower than the Soxhlet method. A Double Direct Transesterification (DDT) following Griffiths protocol provided more accurate results with the stir bar technique than sonication technique. 11 oilseeds bias samples (10 bias samples of soybean and one of chia) covering an oil content range of 15.4 to 32.6% showed, there is a significant difference between the Soxhlet and DDTG method and high oil quantification found with DDTG. A Double Direct Transesterification following Qiao et al. (2015) provided similar oil extraction to the Griffiths et al. (2010) method and also there is a significant difference between the Soxhlet and DDTQ method and higher oil recovered with DDTQ. The Bead Beating Extraction (BBE) protocol showed, there is a statistically significant difference ( P< 0.001) than the Soxhlet method. The BBE provided high oil quantification comparing with the Soxhlet method. The BBE provided the best results since it is the easiest, cheapest and fastest oil quantification method. A Nile red fluorescence technique yield no clear results. II. Characterization of oil and protein in mutant chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seeds. The objectives of this study were to (1) measure heritability in chia plants of levels of oil and protein content and seed yield and (2) Compare differences between two locations over two years for oil and protein percentages in chia and seeds yield. A population of 180 M3 mutant individual chia plants was harvested and for which forty M4 chia seeds were planted based on seed composition characteristics, with six plants representing each characteristic (high and lower oil, protein, and density and high yield). The forty M4 chia seeds were planted, with two replications for two locations, have been chosen in Kentucky one on Spindletop farm and the other in Quicksand farm. The M5 progeny seeds from plants grown in Spindletop and Quicksand contained significantly (P < 0.05) more protein than did seeds from the M4 parents. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) between locations where Quicksand obtain higher oil content than Spindletop. There was no significant difference between M5 parents seeds and M4 progeny seeds and higher yield kg/ha at Quicksand than Spindletop.

Contingent Valuation (CV) methods are a primary tool in environmental economics to ascertain non-use or other values not observable through existing market mechanisms. Because common CV approaches typically rely on hypothetical answers from surveys in order to generate welfare estimates, these are often labelled stated preferences. Results from stated preference methods often diverge from those obtained when actual preference or behavior are involved. This divergence is commonly known as Hypothetical Bias (HB). This dissertation addresses HB as it applies to environmental applications. To begin, a meta-analysis using a sample of studies many times larger than previous works was performed. Its results identify which study protocols exacerbate HB, and which may mitigate it. Furthermore, the meta-analysis establishes the efficacy of some popular techniques to mitigate HB. The second essay focuses on understanding and addressing two important topics to environmental economics, distance decay and charismatic species conservation. These effects have not been investigated with respect to HB. We implement a field survey of monarch and viceroy butterfly conservation, creating survey treatment conditions involving both real payment and hypothetical scenarios in order to establish the extent of HB. The key finding is that while HB is present for both butterflies, HB in distance decay exists for monarchs. There is also additional HB for monarchs compared to viceroys, which we attribute to the former’s charisma. The final endeavor studies the usefulness of consequentiality, a relatively new tactic to reduce HB. Consequentiality is the degree to which respondents believe their answers may affect policy outcomes. Relying on the monarch field survey, we find that using a technique known as ex ante consequentiality may exacerbate HB. Another approach known as ex post consequentiality is more effective at reducing the extent of HB in the data. Lastly, some elements of the studies’ results showcase that HB is not always present and can also explain some of the mixed results found on the efficacy of HB mitigating methods reported in previous studies.

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) represents a major change to U.S. food policy. Because several FSMA rules require that covered businesses comply with standards by 2019 at the latest, the legislation is expected to have considerable effects on the U.S. food system in the near future. This research examines potential challenges associated with two different FSMA rules. The first essay uses farm-level data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture to estimate the number of farms and acres covered by the FSMA Final Rule on Produce Safety in the California, the Northeast, and the entire U.S. Industry information and interviews with stakeholders are assessed in conjunction with the Census data to hypothesize how farms in two distinct U.S. production regions, California and the Northeast, will fare under the rule. For the second essay, we developed unique datasets containing information on 425 food certification standards and 581 certification bodies. The certification data is used to develop a descriptive analysis of patterns in the international food certification industry. We show how offices of certification bodies that offer food safety certification services are distributed geographically, which serves as a basis for assessing international auditing capacity under the FSMA Final Rule on Accredited Third-Party Certification.

Wildtierökonomik- ist eine Kunst des Denkens. In dieser Tradition analysiert man Interessenkonflikte um die Bewirtschaftung von Wildtierpopulationen als zwischenmenschliche Probleme auf rationaler Grundlage. Die Basis bilden theoretisch akzeptierte und empirisch fundierte Zusammenhänge mit deren Anwendung das Problem des Wald Wild Konflikts in ein Mensch Mensch Konflikt übersetzt und analysiert werden kann. Da von allgemeingültigen Zusammenhängen kommend, argumentiert wird, beinhaltet die Forschungskonzeption Wildtierökonomik alle Wildtierpopulationen mit den daraus abzuleitenden Problemfeldern. Diese Vorgehensweise ist an Modellbedingungen geknüpft. Unter der Akzeptanz der Modellbedingungen können Aussagesysteme zur Wildschadenregulierung, Gestaltung von Jagdpachtverträgen oder Novellierung von Jagdgesetzen formuliert werden, die der Spezifikation von Wilddichten nicht bedürfen.

In this analysis, we plan on developing vegetable mixes with high nutritional qualities and instant fuel consumption. These are to be used as a nutritional supplement in the feeding of children from 6 months of age. Initially, I selected the raw material, due to its high protein content and low cost (soy, tarhui, Cuban corn, rice, wheat, barley). They formed mixes with nutritional characteristics similar to the control for reference (15.5% of protein, 419 kcal of energy). From these formulas, different tests of completed production of mixtures, going so far as to obtain eight mixes with good nutritional and organoleptic characteristics. The eight mixes and the control for reference were subjected to sensory analysis tests (sensory quality test and acceptability and preference test), Of these mixes, 4 were selected (WA1, WA2, WA5 and the control for reference WA7) such as finished women mixtures. The same groups were subjected to a bromatologic analysis and biological tests with animals from the laboratory. Finally, the study of industrial viability of a small processing plant of instant vegetable mixtures was conducted.