A Closer Look at Agriculture and the Environment
Long-time readers may
recall that when ERS launched Amber Waves
in 2003, one of our goals was to capture the full
breadth of the ERS research program—the economics
of food, farming, natural resources, and rural America—under
a single cover. By combining accessible coverage
of a broad range of issues with links to indepth
analysis on the ERS website, we hoped to offer our
readers the best thing since sliced bread, and we’ve
been pleased with readers’ responses to date.
This issue slices the loaf a different way. Rather
than focusing broadly, we have reprinted and updated
a selection of articles from our first 18 issues
on a single topic: the relationship between agriculture
and the Nation’s land, air, water, and biological
resources. Recent years have seen important changes
in policy approaches to addressing the environmental
impacts of agriculture, as well as in our understanding
of those impacts. With farm policy again under discussion,
it is timely to take stock of lessons learned from
experience to date and consider emerging issues
and options for the future.
Selected articles in this issue examine, among
other things, the increasing policy emphasis on
conservation on “working lands” (which
remain in agricultural production), design options
for enhancing program cost-effectiveness, characteristics
of farmers who adopt conservation practices and
participate in conservation programs, challenges
in measuring program impacts, and the potential
to address emerging environmental concerns through
market-oriented solutions—within agriculture
as well as between agriculture and other sectors
of the economy. Such a review not only sheds light
on the links between agriculture and the environment
but also illustrates the opportunities and hurdles
involved in balancing public goals and private choices
more generally.
Any way you slice it, we hope you find this special
issue both informative and enjoyable. We will return
to the broader focus of our regular format in September.
Keith Wiebe
Deputy Director
Resource and Rural Economics Division
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