What Price Cheap Food?

This paper is the report of a meetingthat gathered many of the UK's most senioranimal scientists with representatives of thefarming industry, consumer groups, animalwelfare groups, and environmentalists. Therewas strong consensus that the current economicstructure of agriculture cannot adequatelyaddress major issues of concern to society:farm incomes, food security and safety, theneeds of developing countries, animal welfare,and the environment. This economic structure isbased primarily on competition betweenproducers and between retailers, driving foodprices down, combined with externalization ofmany costs. These issues must be addressed by acombination of legislation, restructuring ofthe market, and use of public funds. Themeeting included workshops that made otherrecommendations for research and education. Themost urgent requirement is recognition thatchange is needed and development of a visionfor what that change must achieve.     

WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY-CONSCIOUS ERA1

The Sierra Club, which has long fought selected water resource projects that it believes would be environmentally damaging, has come to the conclusion in recent years that much more basic reforms are required in water resources development activities if the demands for environmental quality now evidenced by the American people are to be satisfied. These reforms should not be limited to those that would have a direct effect on the environmental aspects of proposed projects, but also many others long advocated by the economics profession that would have favorable indirect effects. Among the urgent reforms with indirect effects are those involving revision of the procedures used in evaluating proposed projects. These procedures should be revised so that future evaluations will much more accurately reflect the economic and environmental merits of proposed projects. Basic reforms of tax policies are also needed that will eliminate most of the private profit available to those who can persuade the government to increase the value of their land through the construction of water projects. Finally, some additional actions can be taken that will have a direct impact on lessening the adverse environmental impact of water projects beyond the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.     

IMPACT OF DROUGHT ON QUALITY IN A NEW JERSEY WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT. New Jersey, together with other states in the northeast, was stricken with drought during 1961-66. The effect of this drought was most severe in the northern part of the State. The water quality of the Passaic River, which drains the urban, industrialized northeast, perhaps deteriorated the most among the major drainage systems. This river system is used as a raw-water source by 10 water suppliers. The impact of the drought upon the water supply of the Passaic Valley Water Commission, the most downstream of the basin's suppliers, which supplies an average of about 90 million gallons a day to more than 650,000 persons, is evaluated herein. The drought's impact on the raw-water quality is appraised by the comparison of before-and-after qualities of dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biochemical-oxygen demand, turbidity, and hardness. For example, at the worst point during the drought, monthly average dissolved-solids content in the raw water were about 210 percent, hardness, about 167 percent, and biochemical-oxygen demand about 270 percent higher than antecedent values. In general, the study concludes that the drought produced a deterioration in both raw and finished water quality, and is estimated to have increased chemical-treatment costs during the drought by about $650,000.     

聊城市县域经济发展水平的空间差异及对策研究

聊城市各县(市)经济发展水平存在着较大的差异。选取了人均GDP、人均财政收入、城镇化率等9项指标,采用量图分析法,将聊城市8县(市、区)分为先进、中等和落后3个类型,确定了莘县和冠县2个重点扶贫县,对其空间差异的成因进行了分析,并提出了相应的对策。     

旅行成本法在我国应用中存在的几个问题

我国旅行成本法案例研究多数未分清旅行成本与旅游目的地本身价格的关系,推导的游憩需求曲线是旅行成本-旅游人次模型,而不是旅游目的地本身的价格-旅游人次需求曲线。文章具体说明了区域旅行成本法的基本原理及操作方法,并用乔光华文章数据重新对达里诺尔国家级自然保护区游憩价值进行计算,对旅行成本的构成等问题进行了讨论,得出其消费者剩余为0.9221×108元a/,比原研究中的0.0937×108元a/高出近10倍。认为乔光华等的研究在推断游憩需求曲线时存在方法上的问题,直接将旅行成本和时间价值作为游憩价值不符合旅行成本法的基本原理和公共物品无(或低)市场价格的经济理论。还对调整后的旅行成本数据进行了计算,得到保护区游憩价值为1.3581×108元a/。     

THE IMPACTS OF WATERWAY USER FEES ON GRAIN TRANSPORTATION ON THE SNAKE-COLUMBIA RIVER1

ABSTRACT: Grain transportation is a major economic activity on the multiple use Snake-Columbia River System. Congress is currently considering increased transportation user fees aimed at recapturing federal expenditures for waterway operations and maintenance. Three types of fee structure and four levels of cost recovery are evaluated using a network program model. In each case traffic is diverted away from the river to other Puget Sound ports via truck and rail transport modes. Grain shippers in the region will be adversely affected by a higher transport bill. The Lower Columbia River port economic activities will be negatively affected; however, competitive uses of the river, recreation, and hydroelectric generation will likely benefit modestly.     

A Transactions Cost Approach to the Theoretical Foundations of Water Markets1

Abstract: Water marketing is often cited as a means of alleviating the stresses attached to allocation of water use. Frequently, marketing is suggested in a context that implies substitution of competitive markets for the allocation based on the prior appropriation doctrine. This study examines water marketing from the perspective of a transactions cost approach to the private and broad social agreements (contracts) that support water allocation. It examines the major behavioral challenges faced by any contract, and the alternative approaches to those challenges, with respect to water allocation. It also examines the impact of market design on the existence of externalities, costs imposed by transactions on society and individuals not party to the transaction. It finds that the most robust water market designs will be found in systems with sufficient property rights protection to support investment, sufficient hydrologic information to provide accurate analysis of third party effects, conjunctive management of surface and groundwater, and a governance structure capable of administering the rules while not determining outcomes.