USDA Certification of Food as Organic: An Investigation of Consumer Beliefs about the Health Benefits of Organic Food

Back in 2002, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented the final national standards and began certifying foods as having met the criterion in the production, handling, and processing of organically grown agricultural products. Consumers began seeing the USDA seal displayed as well as, the word “certified” and various levels of organic content on the front display panel of the product. The USDA stresses that the organic standard and label requirements do not imply organic foods are healthier. This research analyzes possible implications of consumers incorrectly inferring that food products with the USDA-organic certification label are healthier than food products without that certification.     

Pre-Harvest Price Expectations for Corn: The Information Content of USDA Reports and New Crop Futures

This article examines the puzzle of why futures prices continue to react to USDA crop reports despite the fact that reports appear to be no longer newsworthy, that is, provide no better production estimates than private forecasts. The information value of reports is measured in terms of their influence on rational agents' harvest-time corn price expectations, which are uncovered using a Hamilton-type modeling approach. Results show that reports are still newsworthy, as they would contribute to agents' price expectations if released a day early. Thus futures price reactions, which closely reflect price expectations, are rational and consistent with efficient markets hypothesis.     

Are USDA reports still news to changing crop markets?

This study investigates whether major USDA reports still provide important news to changing crop markets. The news component of each report, or market “surprise,” is measured as a difference between the USDA estimate and its private expectation in corn, soybeans, and wheat markets. Changes in the relevance of USDA information are assessed by examining changes in the magnitude of market surprises and shifts in the futures price reaction to these surprises, which isolates the impact of each report. The stable size of market surprises over time suggests that competition from alternative data sources has not reduced the news component of USDA crop reports. Increasing price reaction to most reports, including those facing competition from alternative information sources, suggests that value of public information may be enhanced in uncertain markets affected by structural changes.     

The reluctant regulator: The Rural Utilities Service and American broadband policy

Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis we examine the way in which the Rural Utilities Service has shaped rural broadband policy in the United States over the last three decades. The implications for this research are wide, as it brings another policy actor into the policy making melee, and pushes communication policy scholars to consider the role that non-traditional communication regulators play in the communication policy making process.     

Natural Resource Agencies and Their Motivations to Partner: The Public Lands Partnership Model

Public land management agencies, such as the USDA Forest Service (USFS), utilize partnerships to accomplish a variety of tasks and meet specific targets. However, public agency personnel invest considerable time and energy to develop and maintain partnerships. Research on partnering motivations typically focuses on volunteers, nonprofit organizations and corporations, leaving the motivations of public agency personnel relatively unknown. This paper presents findings from a multiple partnership case study design on six national forests. The Public Lands Partnership Model (PLPM) is presented as a conceptualization of 13 motivations, classified into 3 distinct motivation types (i.e., interpersonal, intrapersonal, and institutional), that influence the propensity of agency personnel to partner. Additional influences, such as national forests’ external environment and internal commitment, need further exploration to confirm the PLPM and generalize results to the USFS and other agencies engaged in public land management partnerships.     

The impact of public and semi-public information on cotton futures market

This study estimated the impact of all major public and semi-public reports on the cotton futures market from 1995 through 2012. The estimation was based on the event study approach with the events measured by the release of five major reports: Export Sales, Crop Progress, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) and Prospective Plantings (public reports from US Department of Agriculture) and Cotton This Month (semi-public report from International Cotton Advisory Committee). The best-fitting IGARCH(1,1)-t model that accounted for the day-of-week, seasonality and stock levels was used to measure the report effects on daily nearby cotton close-to-close futures returns. Prospective Plantings and WASDE reports appeared to be the most important sources of information in the cotton markets moving the conditional standard deviation of returns by an average of 14.4 and 9.6 percentage points, respectively. However, significant market reaction was not found for the other three reports. Our analysis revealed that, in the presence of clustering, ignoring the impact of other reports would have resulted in about 18% overestimation of WASDE impact.     

Retail price responses to changes in wholesale prices in the US beef industry: differences among quality grades and primal cuts

This study examines the transmission of wholesale prices to retail prices for differentiated beef products. Specifically, we study vertical price movement for products differentiated by quality grades and primal cuts in the US beef industry. Our study considers two quality grades– United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Choice and USDA Select, and three primal cuts– chuck, round and sirloin. Using threshold-based autoregressive and error correction models, and non-linear impulse response functions, we explore if characteristics of price adjustment differ by quality attributes of the products. Results show that there exists the ‘rocket and feather’ effect in the adjustment of retail prices of most beef grades and cuts in response to changes in wholesale prices, and such asymmetric adjustment effect is more pronounced for higher quality grade (Choice) than lower quality grade (Select). Evidence of similar price adjustment is found from the high-quality cut (sirloin). Our results underscore the differences in price adjustment by product quality in the US beef industry.     

Changing Trends in Seafood Markets

The rapid growth of aquaculture has significantly impacted the development of global seafood markets by providing year-round supplies of consistent quality seafood products. Production of cultured salmon, however, has resulted in both a rapid increase in supplies and substantial decreases in prices for both farmed and wild product. Producers are now searching for new marketing and production strategies and debating the relative merits of wild and cultured product. To date, however, there are few studies which explore consumer preferences for wild and cultured salmon. This paper addresses this issue by reviewing general trends in global seafood markets and focusing on market development and consumer preferences for farmed and wild salmon. A consumer survey was developed to elicit preferences for the characteristics of salmon. Results showed that quality was the most important salmon attribute followed by state (fresh/frozen), flesh color, and price. Source of production (wild or farmed) was the least important attribute and species and product form were of intermediate importance. However, preferences for specific characteristics depended on the socioeconomic profile of the respondents. Results indicate potential opportunities for niche marketing of certain types of wild salmon, conditional on resource conservation and management.