Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm and Resource Issues articles from January 2001

Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm and Resource Issues archives from January 2001

UNDERSUPPLIED AMENITIES.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... "Agricultural lands provide amenities... that will tend to be undersupplied by private markets, and this provides the rationale for farmland preservation programs. In the U.S., preferential tax assessment programs... have been the most common...

THE FLAVOR COUNTS.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... "About 90 percent of the money that Americans now spend on food goes to buy processed food. The canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques used in processing destroy most of food's flavor -- and so a vast industry has arisen in the United...

950 MILLION CHICKENS!(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Pease, Pelltetier, and Kenyon say," The states surrounding the [Chesapeake] Bay produce 950 million broilers and 34 million turkeys for slaughter annually.... The manure and bedding (litter) generated as a byproduct of Chesapeake Bay poultry...

WHAT'S GOOD FOR EUROPE.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... "Subsidizing rural communities is a long tradition in Europe. There, open space is more rare and therefore more highly valued. Heritage is honored and economically valuable. Americans are growing into a similar attitude. For example,...

PUBLIC R&D.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... "The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 allowed universities to retain title to inventions that were created with Federal funds, in effect allowing universities to compete with private industry in R&D. Universities have not been reluctant to protect their...

WE JUST DON'T KNOW.(Biodiversity; Bio-complexity and the Economics of Genetic Similarity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... "...the sheer numbers of species (literally millions), most of which have not been identified, [pose a question]. Biodiversity means the diversity of all life forms and implies a concern with the entire range of species. Even if no species were...

ORGANIC FOODS.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Sylvander and Floc'h-Wadel say that, "Average consumption of organics in the EU and US is approximately 16 Euros ($15) per capita per year, which can be perceived as low except when considering that only 15% of consumers have changed their...

BIOENGINEERING AND MORE.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... In a new book, Richard Manning says, "It takes some stretch of the imagination to agree with the critics' charge that genetic modification could create an environmental catastrophe, but we know for sure that farming is already an environmental...

CHOICES APOLOGIZES.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2001... In the Third Quarter 2000 issue of the magazine, the order of authorship for the lead article, "China: Will They Buy or Sell?" was listed as Simeon Ehui, Thomas Hertel, Allan Rae, and Alejandro Nin. The correct order is Hertel, Rae, Nin, and...

The Labor Shortage Has Finally Arrived.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... In the early 1980s I attended a conference on "jobs and prosperity." I thought that the conference's title was a definite misnomer, since unemployment rates were uniformly high across the country, more than a few workers had been permanently...

The 107th Congress: What Can Agriculture Expect?
January 1, 2001... Much of the current law expires in 2002, so Congress is bound to take action. It can be said with certainty that the 107th Congress will adopt a number of bills important to farmers, agribusiness, and rural America. What will they be? One...

Farm Income and Farm Programs in the 1990s: Pre-FAIR, Post-FAIR...Fair Enough?(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Whatever FAIR accomplished, it did not reduce farm program payments. The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR) was a watershed policy event. In a sharp break from the farm policies initiated in the 1930s, it...

FQPA: Pouring Out (In?) The Risk Cup.(Food Quality Protection Act)
January 1, 2001... The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996 is the U.S. government's current law balancing potential consumer health risks from pesticide residues against potential farm income risks from reduced chemical crop protection. As reflected by the...

Marketing orders were supposed to raise the tide for the entire industry, but some producers say it's not what floats their boats.
January 1, 2001... Many agricultural industries promote their products with funds generated from mandatory contributions by producers and/or handlers. Studies have shown that these programs often yield an excellent rate of return. Nonetheless, these programs have...

A New Farm Typology For a Diverse Ag Sector.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Farms vary widely in size and other characteristics, ranging from the 1.1 million small-scale retirement and residential farms to industrial establishments with sales in the millions. Since the early 1900s, USDA analysts have identified...

WANTED: A Rural Public Policy.
January 1, 2001... Rural America is a complicated and interesting place. It deserves to be better understood. Perhaps because farming occupies about half of the land area of rural America and uses space, the words "rural" and "agriculture" are often used as...

"Multifunctionality" and Agriculture: Do Mixed Goals Distort Trade?
January 1, 2001... How do you place value on non-trade objectives as you reduce trade-distorting policies? Is multifunctionality of agriculture a reason for government intervention, or an excuse? This contentious question is high on the agenda for the next...

The GREENING of Capitol Hill.(donations from environmentalists)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... More money from environmental PACs can help candidates win, but too much can backfire. Environmental political action committees (env-PACs) contributed nearly $650,000 to Senate candidates during the 1996 and 1998 election cycles. The...

FAILING In Style.
January 1, 2001... Wheat sells for about $2 per bushel less than it costs to produce, yet some Montana farmers boast six-figure incomes -- all from government programs. For somebody who works the hard northern land that was first cut by homesteaders' plows...

The High Cost of Alternative Agricultural Advocates' Prescriptions.
January 1, 2001... My guest editorial, "Coexisting with Alternative Agriculture Advocates" (CHOICES, Second Quarter 2000. P. 3), stimulated numerous comments, five of which were published in the Third Quarter 2000 issue of CHOICES. My editorial contended that...

About CHOICES.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
January 1, 2001... In September 2000, CHOICES learned that Clear Window Multimedia, the St. Louis firm that had produced the magazine in 2000, had been sold to Meister Publishing Company in Willoughby, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland). Consolidations of this kind...

Rats In the Grain.
January 1, 2001... by James B. Lieber Published by Four Walls eight Windows, New York and London, 2000. 418 pagess. $26.00. As I write this, there are two items of interest on my desk. The first is a coupon for one free ride on the city bus. I am...