Choices: Online Magazine – Analysis of the New Farm Bill – Ag Act of 2014 plus Economic and Policy Analysis of Advanced Biofuels and Higher Education’s Role in Supporting a Rural Renaissance

By: Barry Ward, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics; Ohio State University Extension Leader, Production Business Management

Choices is an online peer-reviewed magazine published by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) for readers interested in the policy and management of agriculture, the food industry, natural resources, rural communities, and the environment. Online subscriptions are free of charge through http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine

The latest issue of Choices highlights an analysis of the new Farm Bill (Ag Act of 2014), Economic and Policy Analysis of Advanced Biofuels, and Higher Education’s Role in Supporting a Rural Renaissance.

A list of articles is highlighted here:

Theme Overview: Deciphering Key Provisions of the Agricultural Act of 2014

The Agricultural Act of 2014 became law on February 7, 2014. The Act reforms the dairy program, includes changes to commodity programs, adds new supplemental crop insurance programs, consolidates conservation programs, expands programs for specialty crops, reauthorizes livestock disaster assistance programs, and reduces spending under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Agricultural Act of 2014: Commodity Programs

The Agricultural Act of 2014 offers new choices for commodity producers. In previous farm bills, commodity program and crop insurance decisions were not necessarily intertwined. However, with an ever-increasing focus on risk management and an emphasis on crop insurance, the Act introduces new interactions between commodity and crop insurance programs.

Theme Overview: Economic and Policy Analysis of Advanced Biofuels

The current theme presents economic and policy analysis on advanced biofuels. Its aim is to explain the various costs and benefits associated with the expansion and commercialization of advanced biofuels and their co-products.

Political Economy of Biofuel

We argue that biofuel policies in the United States and Brazil have been affected by macroeconomic considerations like balance of trade, government budget and, to a lesser extent, climate change. The oil sector aims to contain the expansion of first-generation biofuel while environmentalists are ambivalent and will only support second-generation biofuel.

Technology Forcing and Associated Costs and Benefits of Cellulosic Ethanol

The revised Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is technology forcing to commercialize biofuel production. This article reviews rationale, current cellulosic biofuel supply cost and implicit CO2 reduction costs. The RFS may induce significant biofuel technology improvements, but it may be costly if not phased-in efficiently.

The Potential for Aviation Biofuels-Technical, Economic, and Policy Analysis

Aviation may offer the brightest prospects for a cellulosic biofuel industry. This paper presents economic analysis of the corn stover to jet fuel pathway with fast pyrolysis technology. The focus is on the role of risk in inhibiting investment and policy options that might help attenuate private sector risk.

Are Bioenergy Crops Riskier than Corn? Implications for Biomass Price

Yield risks of growing miscanthus and switchgrass on cropland with moderate risk aversion result in a risk premium over the breakeven price under certainty of 8% and 16%, respectively, on average. Risk premiums and breakeven prices vary regionally and are substantially lower in the South and on marginal land.

Biofuels at a Crossroads

Biomass fuels in the United States may present a viable alternative to fossil-based fuels and address mounting concerns regarding the environment, population growth, and increasing fuel prices. This paper discusses the economic opportunities and challenges facing biomass, and concludes that energy production is but one of several uses for biomass.

Theme Overview: Higher Education’s Roles in Supporting a Rural Renaissance

Land-grant universities were instrumental in transforming American agriculture by unlocking the full potential of the nation’s natural resource base. What if these same institutions, and other higher education institutions, became equally committed to helping unlock the full potential of rural people and places? This special issue helps inform that vision.

Using Rural Innovation Principles for University Renaissance

Integrating the rural development mission of Cooperative Extension into the land grant university has long suffered from a clash of cultures. This article identifies design thinking as a potentially fertile common ground for the out-of-the-box thinking required to generate simultaneously both a rural renaissance and a higher education renaissance.

Extension Reconsidered

This article argues that dominant views of cooperative extension’s purposes and work need to be reconsidered in ways that include attention to extension’s human and community development roles. Previous examples of such reconsiderations are reviewed, followed by suggestions for how deliberations about extension’s future can be approached.

Opportunities for Rural Development in Cooperative Extension’s Second Century

This article lays out challenges for a healthy rural future and roles Cooperative Extension might play in achieving positive outcomes. Extension can build a stronger rural America through government efficiency, labor market information systems, health programs, and revitalized educational systems on targeted topics.

The New Rural-Urban Interface: Lessons for Higher Education

The urban-rural interface is a space of intense interaction that joins urban and rural communities, economies, and environments. We contend that Land Grant social scientists should increase their attention on issues at the urban-rural interface, that such studies are inherently multi-disciplinary, and that they should be translated into Cooperative Extension programming.

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