Agricultural data systems remain based upon now obsolete concepts. In particular, the "full-time, family farm" is still organizing concepts for much of the farm data system, and for agricultural policies. Yet farming has clearly bifurcated into: a relatively small number of large farms that...

The majority of farm households in OECD countries earn more off-farm income than farm income, even including government payments. While this is a well recognized fact its implications for risk management have not been well recognized. Current efforts to reform farm support have focused on the...

Why did US farmers fare poorly even as most other segments of the US economy prospered during the 1990s? I develop three arguments to explain why US agriculture was prospered in the 1970s but has underperformed relative to the rest of the US economy in most of the 1980s and 1990s. Measures of...

The expansion of the EU biofuel sector in recent years has led to speculation that the linkages between the oil and agricultural markets has strengthened and resulted in increased transmission of price volatility. This study uses the FAPRI European modelling system, which includes a UK model, to...

Remarks on the future structure of agriculture presented at a departmental seminar, 1974

Remarks on Public Policy decision making presented at a departmental seminar, September, 1974

Aggregate farm income is the standard measure of farm household economic well-being. In Canada farm groups have used a multi-year decline in one measure of farm income - realized net income, to press for increased financial transfers. In the first part of the paper income data is reviewed to...