Economic, Social, and Environmental Benefits Associated With U.S. Organic Agriculture

This case study reviews the economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with organic agriculture in the United States. Measurable impacts are quantified by comparing indicators of benefits in counties with organic farms and counties without. Statistical differences across counties with and without organic farms provide preliminary evidence that organic farms may generate a variety of direct and indirect benefits. Of 36 indicators tested across a range of economic, social, and environmental benefits, 26 favor organic systems, three favor conventional systems, and seven are neutral. Even though organic farmers are not a large percentage of the total number of U.S. farmers, they may be influencing mainstream agriculture to shift toward greater sustainability

WELFARE EFFECTS OF ECO-LABEL PROLIFERATION: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

Given that existing food eco-labels are still not well defined in consumers' experience, there is potential for new labels to generate more confusion. Consumers incur fixed costs to learn about a label's meaning. Market shares for existing certifications may be eroded by perceptions that new products are good substitutes for them. The eco-label certifier must respond with information that reduces these costs or lose consumer and producer confidence in the label. Using a model of spatial competition in attribute space, the effect of search costs and educational expenditures on market share and price for competing certifiers is simulated. The results show that educational spending and/or improvements in efficiency of educational spending increase market share when consumer search costs are positive. Underspending on consumer education reduces the price a firm is able to charge within its market niche. The consumer and producer surplus effects of new certifier entry are calculated using a simulation model of market segmentation. Under the assumptions made, segmentation reduces producer surplus while keeping consumer surplus about the same. Market prices decline due to associated search costs as share is captured from the conventional segment by eco-labels. Within segments, consumers gain at the expense of producers, even if market share is maintained by existing eco-labelers after entry of new labels, and even if consumer search costs decline.eco-labeling, market segmentation, organic agriculture, product differentiation, search costs, simulation, spatial competition, Environmental Economics and Policy, Marketing,

Benefits of U.S. organic agriculture

This case study reviews the economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with organic agriculture in the U.S. These benefits include measurable impacts and unmeasurable impacts that affect both agricultural and consumer systems in fundamental ways. Both are discussed in this study. Measurable impacts are quantified in two ways – by comparing characteristics of organic and conventional farmers and by comparing indicators of benefits in counties with organic farms and counties without. Statistical differences in counties with and without organic farms are strong evidence that organic farms need not be numerous to generate benefits. There were 1,208 counties containing 4,868 organic farms in the U.S. in 1997, the last year for which location data are available. Findings of measurable impacts include: • Organic farmers are more likely to be female, hold a college degree, and be full-time farmers. The average organic farmer is 7 years younger than the average U.S. farmer. • Retail price premiums for organic foods average 10% to 30% higher than conventional. Farm price premiums are 70% to 250% more than what conventional farmers receive. • Counties with organic farms have stronger farm economies and contribute more to local economies through total sales, net revenue, farm value, taxes paid, payroll, and purchases of fertilizer, seed, and repair and maintenance services. • Counties with organic farms have more committed farmers and give more support to rural development with higher percentages of resident full-time farmers, greater direct to consumer sales, more workers hired, and higher worker pay. • Counties with organic farms provide more bird and wildlife habitat and have lower insecticide and nematicide use. • Watersheds with organic farms and have reduced agricultural impact and lower runoff risk from nitrogen and sediment. Findings of unmeasurable impacts include: • Organic farming under current standards avoids social and economic costs such as pesticide poisonings and costs of testing for genetically engineered foods. • The market in organic foods is more efficient than for conventional foods, because prices reflect more of the cost of producing socially desirable outputs, such as clean water, as a byproduct of food production activities. This reduces the need for government intervention through taxes or subsidies to obtain these benefits. • Innovation and openness to new ideas are necessary for growth in knowledge-based organic systems, and result in rapid development and dissemination of information on nonchemical production methods that benefit all farmers. Overall, the findings of this study are surprising in the strength of support for the hypothesis that organic farming produces more benefits than conventional farming. Nearly every indicator tested across the range of economic, social, and environmental benefits favors organic systems. Even though organic farmers are not a large percentage of the total number of U.S. farmers, their influence is felt through their innovation of management techniques and leadership in meeting the organic standards.organic farming; water quality; employment; tax base; farm value; input purchase; t-test

Experimental designs for multiple-level responses, with application to a large-scale educational intervention

Educational research often studies subjects that are in naturally clustered groups of classrooms or schools. When designing a randomized experiment to evaluate an intervention directed at teachers, but with effects on teachers and their students, the power or anticipated variance for the treatment effect needs to be examined at both levels. If the treatment is applied to clusters, power is usually reduced. At the same time, a cluster design decreases the probability of contamination, and contamination can also reduce power to detect a treatment effect. Designs that are optimal at one level may be inefficient for estimating the treatment effect at another level. In this paper we study the efficiency of three designs and their ability to detect a treatment effect: randomize schools to treatment, randomize teachers within schools to treatment, and completely randomize teachers to treatment. The three designs are compared for both the teacher and student level within the mixed model framework, and a simulation study is conducted to compare expected treatment variances for the three designs with various levels of correlation within and between clusters. We present a computer program that study designers can use to explore the anticipated variances of treatment effects under proposed experimental designs and settings.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-AOAS216 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

RECONCILING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIC FOOD RETAILING

For organic food to reach the average consumer will require greater penetration into conventional supermarkets. Product placement can be expanded into more stores by altering attitudes that lower the probability of selling organic foods. This study identified significant factors in the retail decision to sell organic foods and quantifies the effects of retailer attitudes on behavior. We used a probit model to quantify the effect of customer demographics, store characteristics, manager characteristics, and profitability of organic retailing on the decision to sell organic foods. The model was based on interview data collected in Atlanta, Georgia from 66 retailers who sell organic foods and 21 who do not. Our research indicates that organic education programs can be a cost-effective way to expand market penetration without requiring changes in price or cost premiums. If properly composed and targeted, such programs can alter underlying attitudes and increase the probability of selling organic foods.Marketing,

Variable stiffness polymeric damper

Shock and vibration damping device using temperature sensitive solid amorphous polymer

Factors Influencing Oviposition in \u3ci\u3eAedes Triseriatus\u3c/i\u3e (Diptera: Culicidae)

Five factors associated with natural oviposition sites were tested for their attractancy to ovipositing Aedes triseriatus, including dyed oviposition water, presence of decaying organic matter, a dark oviposition container, water in which conspecific larvae have been reared to the 4th instar and the presence of eggs on the balsa wood oviposition substrate. A replicated fractional factorial design was used to examine the effects of the above factors on oviposition behavior in laboratory experiments. Regression analysis showed dyed oviposition water and eggs on the oviposition substrate to be statistically significant attractants for ovipositing A. triseriatus females. The attraction to dyed oviposition water indicated that dyed water in oviposition traps may greatly increase their competiveness with naturally occurring oviposition sites

Technical Efficiency of U.S. Organic Farmers: The Complementary Roles of Soil Management Techniques and Farm Experience

Agricultural policymakers place increasing emphasis on developing efficiency measures for organic producers in order to evaluate regulatory strategies and evolving organic market conditions. We develop technical efficiency measures for U.S. organic farmers using a stochastic production frontier. Farm decisions about acquiring and managing organic soil materials from on-farm and local sources are incorporated into the technical efficiency measure. Productivity differences between newer entrants to organic farming and more experienced producers are estimated in order to isolate the impact of learning and management expertise on farm-level technical efficiency.organic farming, frontier production function, soil organic matter, performance measurement, technical efficiency, Farm Management,