Questions tagged [agriculture]

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When countries industrialise, why do jobs from agriculture shift to manufacturing?

This is a historical trend whether it may 18th century Britain or 19th century America or what's currently happening in China. What I am confused is by the fact that manufacturing jobs such as ...
Kiran Yallabandi's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
574 views

Why is Algeria the #2 milk powder importer in the world?

Can anyone explain to me why Algeria, a country of 40 million people is importing almost half as much milk powder as China? Turkey has 80 million people yet it apparently doesn't import milk powder, ...
Lassie Fair's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
220 views

Is there a proven, quantitative link between food wastage and food prices?

Reducing food wastage should in theory reduce demand for food, thereby driving food prices down. However, there are a lot more factors involved here (for example, the reduction in price of a product x ...
WorldGov's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
758 views

What arguments are there in favor of national food self-sufficiency?

National food self-sufficiency is an idea that appeals to many non-economists. For example, George W. Bush (2001): It’s important for our Nation to be able to grow foodstuffs to feed our people. Can ...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
149 views

Futures Market Books

Are there any recommendation for futures market or commodity trading books? I am not interested in trading myself, but would like to have a better understanding of it for my research.
Nox's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
31 views

Why do co-ops dominate in certain markets rather than more-conventional enterprises?

Why do co-ops dominate in certain markets rather than more-conventional enterprises? For example, the US dairy processing market seems to be dominated co-ops like Land'O Lakes and Dairy Farmers of ...
user809695's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
323 views

Can biotechnology be a bad thing?

My textbook (Economic Issues and Policy by Jacqueline Murray Brux) says: In addition to health and environmental concerns about biotechnology, the most likely economic effects will be large ...
Siddhartha's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
57 views

Why are there so many small farm operations in the US?

Due to the economies of scale that I would expect a large farm operation could provide, I would think the US would be dominated by only a few farming companies. But in reality it's populated by a ...
Jonah's user avatar
  • 333
5 votes
1 answer
95 views

Calculating the cost of a year without land-tilling

The motivation to this question is the Biblical commandment of Sabbatical year, in which the land should be allowed to rest and should not be cultivated. I am trying to estimate how much would it cost ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
148 views

Is soil exhaustion rational?

I was talking with friends about soil exhaustion in agriculture. They tell me that it is very frequent because of the methods employed in modern agriculture. They suggest that this amount of ...
user11629's user avatar
  • 170
4 votes
1 answer
150 views

Why is the term structure curve of agricultural commodities often downward sloping?

I have retrieved the below term structure curve for livestock (lean hogs) from Bloomberg and noticed that it is inverted. I have a vague intuition that this has to do with the storage costs and ...
Constantin's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
89 views

Was factory beef farming (in the USA) the result of government-subsidized corn?

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan writes that industrial beef farming, in the form of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), is dependent on low corn prices for its cost-effectiveness....
shadowtalker's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
207 views

Analyzing Farm Bureau's claim that milk prices would double at the retail level if all the illegals were deported

A 2015 article on the Farm Bureau's website states: Half of all workers on U.S. dairy farms are immigrants, and the damage from losing those workers would extend far beyond the farms, nearly ...
CWill's user avatar
  • 177
3 votes
1 answer
78 views

How does one interpret the usda wholesale market price reports?

For example: http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/nx_fv010.txt The data for mangos is : MANGOES: MARKET STEADY. flats 1 layer HT Francis (Francine) 9s 11.00 10s 12.00 12s 10.00-12.00 MX Keitt 7s 5.00-...
Alex's user avatar
  • 71
3 votes
2 answers
118 views

Effect of Strengthening US Dollar on Commodities

Many commodities are prices in US dollars. If the Dollar strengthens, then commodities (in non-US countries) will become more expensive. From the consumers' (suppliers') point of view, this should be ...
Nox's user avatar
  • 449
3 votes
1 answer
147 views

Could price floors improve worker safety in the meat cutting industry?

Could price floors improve worker safety in the meat cutting industry? My question is inspired by the Future Perfect podcast https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21502225/chicken-meatpacking-plant-...
Hal J's user avatar
  • 53
3 votes
3 answers
76 views

Why is it that poverty incidence is high in the agricultural sector?

I read this article earlier, and the "experts" there say: "The incidence of poverty is very high in agriculture because of its low productivity." "The incidence of poverty is very high in ...
IReallyWantToStayAnonymous's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
117 views

How do I calculate the impact of an independent variable on a dependent var. when the independent var. changes from 0 to some positive value?

I will try to explain my question using two production functions here. Let $Y$ = Yield of a certain crop (tons/hectare) Assume yield (output) is a function of two inputs, $Y = f(N,I)$, where $N$ = ...
Jj S's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
1 answer
41 views

Do property values capture producer choice in agriculture?

I am interested in conducting research into how climate change impacts the social welfare of a country, particularly how it affects producers of agricultural product. My immediate thought was that as ...
Brennan's user avatar
  • 620
2 votes
2 answers
224 views

Why does the European Union give subsidies to farmers?

According to neoclassical economics, subsidies are a solution to correct for the existence of externalities in consumption or production. What is the economic rationale/justification for such ...
luchonacho's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
144 views

Is there any index which relates population growth rate with food production growth rate?

I would like to know if there is an index which shows if food production growth is keeping pace with population growth worldwide. I know there are population growth rates available, for example for ...
Pablo's user avatar
  • 545
2 votes
2 answers
54 views

Comparative data on agricultural subsidies

Where can I find data on the agricultural subsidies of each country, ideally in a comparable fashion? I've googled without success. I hope there are some experts on this forum that can direct me to ...
Danny_R's user avatar
  • 73
2 votes
1 answer
63 views

Why does China spend so much on agricultural/farming subsidies?

I use the OECD's Total Support Estimates (TSE), which I think is a proper measure of total agricultural subsidies (but correct me if I'm wrong). China's TSE is by far the largest at \$239B in 2017 ...
user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
8 views

Geolocalised data on agriculture - harvested land, type of crop

I am looking for data on agricultural land use, in particular for Southeast Asia, in particular for harvested land and type of (main crop) at a local level. Ideally the data would be presented as a ...
Antoine's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
0 answers
15 views

Data source for the relative frequency of different kinds of expiration date by retailers? (use by, sell by, best by)

I'm not sure if this is the correct Stackexchange site for this question, but I am interested in the economic and environmental effects of food waste reduction. A common policy proposal to reduce food ...
qdread's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
0 answers
45 views

Understanding Options Quotes

Below is a picture of today's Rough Rice Options Quote. I would like to understand how to interpret the information in the table below. Firstly, with regards to the future contract we see that it ...
Nox's user avatar
  • 449
1 vote
0 answers
18 views

Are agricultural products and crops measured and compared by monetary value, mass, volume or calorie content?

This may seem a weird or stupid question (my first one Economics SE), but.... Most of the time in the media I see, hear or read about percentages, such as, "X-percent of food consumed worldwide ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
13 views

Adoption of agricultural technologies empirical research

At the moment I am working on my bachelor thesis about the adoption of agricultural technologies. More specifically, I want to study the effect of improved market access (infrastructure) and access to ...
Arnold's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
1 answer
80 views

Categorisation of Harmonised System codes for economic analysis

I work a lot with Harmonised System Codes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonized_System). In a nutshell, the Harmonised System (HS) provides a way to record all goods based trade in and out of a ...
Kah's user avatar
  • 121
0 votes
1 answer
139 views

Is it more costly to raise cattle for beef or raise fish in aquacultures?

I can't find any sources comparing the cost of the two methods. Specifically, I want to know if its more economically efficient to raise fish as a food source rather than beef - not counting ...
Taako's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
1 answer
32 views

Why agricultural subsidies were targeted in 1991 Indian Economic Liberalization

In the book Half - Lion: How P.V Narasimha Rao Transformed India, the author mentions that one of the contentious reforms for 1992 were agricultural subsidy reforms. I don't understand how is this ...
Kutsit's user avatar
  • 163
0 votes
1 answer
40 views

Where can I find a complete list of goods affected by NAFTA?

I am looking for the list of goods that NAFTA, preferably in the format of what is subject to tariff reduction. I have found a few potential leads, but none seem to be exhaustive: https://www....
user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
20 views

How does breaking away from a larger nation effect the economy

I am working on making a fictional world, and I really want to make the economics realistic, so I decided to come here to ask questions. The context is that a large nation went through a large civil ...
DanceroftheStars's user avatar