An economic analysis of the policies that affect agriculture, agribusiness, and trade in both Canada and the United States. The authors emphasize the role of farmers and business in the formation of policy.

The second edition of the groundbreaking Agricultural Policy, Agribusiness, and Rent-Seeking Behaviour expands upon its original analysis of the economic policies that affect agriculture and agribusiness. Widening their lens to include information on the European Union, the authors continue to emphasize the role of farmers and agribusiness in the formation of policy, exploring the issues from both economic and historical perspectives. More theoretical than the first volume in its discussions of welfare economics and the theory of public choice, the second edition also addresses the broad significance of agricultural policies such as biofuels, nutrition, multifunctionality, genetically modified organisms, and multinational firms. The authors maintain and expand the empirical content to provide more practical examples suited to teaching and analyse specific problems including price and income stabilization, science policy, environmental policy, and food quality and safety.

This textbook integrates three related fields in economics, namely agricultural/forestry economics, environmental economics, and international trade, by foregrounding cost-benefit analysis as a significant policy tool. Exploring how welfare measures can be used in the analysis of agricultural, trade, and other economic policies, Applied Welfare Economics, Trade, and Agricultural Policy Analysis fills a gap in the literature on agricultural policy analysis by explaining the economic efficiency improvements and income transfers of various agricultural policy reforms in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. G. Cornelis van Kooten addresses methods of identifying and measuring economic surpluses (costs and benefits), the precautionary principle, identification of an appropriate discount rate, the importance of nonmarket values, and the role of agriculture in trade negotiations and climate change. Applied Welfare Economics, Trade, and Agricultural Policy Analysis draws on new research, brings attention to the existing literature, and includes review questions at the end of each chapter. The techniques developed in this text can be applied to the development and reform of agricultural policies in various regions.

Costing billions of dollars annually, international trade in agricultural products is impactful and influenced by several factors, including climate change, food policy, and government legislation. The third edition of Agricultural Policy, Agribusiness, and Rent-Seeking Behaviour provides comprehensive economic analyses of the policies that affect agriculture and agribusiness in Canada and the United States. Looking at current agricultural policies, the third edition includes new chapters on food pyramids, climate change, and GMOs, while also highlighting the effect of international policies on Canadian trade, including the problematic US ethanol policy. The new edition addresses current issues, including how the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected agricultural value chains and played a hand in the ongoing growth in opioid use. Including a number of key findings, and discussing current debates on topics including foreign ownership of Canadian farmland, Agricultural Policy, Agribusiness, and Rent-Seeking Behaviour will appeal to students in agricultural economics and policy, as well as policymakers, agricultural firms, energy companies, and readers wishing to reduce their nation’s carbon footprint.

This Handbook offers an up-to-date collection of research on agricultural economics. Drawing together scholarship from experts at the top of their profession and from around the world, this collection provides new insights into the area of agricultural economics. The Routledge Handbook of Agricultural Economics explores a broad variety of topics including welfare economics, econometrics, agribusiness, and consumer economics. This wide range reflects the way in which agricultural economics encompasses a large sector of any economy, and the chapters present both an introduction to the subjects as well as the methodology, statistical background, and operations research techniques needed to solve practical economic problems. In addition, food economics is given a special focus in the Handbook due to the recent emphasis on health and feeding the world population a quality diet. Furthermore, through examining these diverse topics, the authors seek to provide some indication of the direction of research in these areas and where future research endeavors may be productive. Acting as a comprehensive, up-to-date, and definitive work of reference, this Handbook will be of use to researchers, faculty, and graduate students looking to deepen their understanding of agricultural economics, agribusiness, and applied economics, and the interrelationship of those areas.

In the era of globalization, foreign trade has an immense impact upon modern economies. To succeed in the global marketplace, sustainable development in trade practices is an imperative goal for countries to reach. Global Perspectives on Trade Integration and Economies in Transition is an authoritative reference source for the latest research on the dynamics of transitional economies and how certain obstacles can disrupt the effectiveness of the transition process. Highlighting the value of trade incorporation at the national and international levels, this book is ideally designed for researchers, professionals, government officials, policy makers, and upper-level students interested in the intersection of globalization, trade, and international economics.

The process of food production and distribution has grown into a global corporate system in recent years. This has caused significant impacts on sustainability on an international scale, particularly for developing nations. Establishing Food Security and Alternatives to International Trade in Emerging Economies is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on agricultural trade relations and trade liberalization in the context of developing countries. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as crop productivity, rural development, and value-added agriculture, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners interested in the current state of global food markets.

Designed to empower readers to advocate for themselves and others, this wide-ranging encyclopedia reveals a surprising range of resources and options that consumers have at their disposal. The only book of its kind, this two-volume, alphabetically arranged reference covers a broad array of topics related to consumer rights, including those of interest to often-overlooked populations such as older adults, veterans, and the homeless. Specific entries address critical areas including food and product safety, housing, health care, the financial industry, the automobile industry, and telecommunications. The encyclopedia reviews the historical development of the consumer movement, examines beliefs and values that drive the movement, and identifies agencies and laws intended to safeguard consumers. Expert contributors discuss key current issues as well as those likely to arise in the future. Vignettes and case studies are used throughout, and various, sometimes contrasting viewpoints are shared to help readers better understand the content. Related topics are easily discovered through a "see also" list, and additional readings are provided at the end of each entry.

Due to new production areas and persistent productivity gains, Brazil has consolidated its position as a global leader and even as a ‘model’ of commercial, integrated crop production. The country is now seen as an agricultural powerhouse that has a lot to offer in terms of reducing the prospect of a looming, increasingly global, food crisis. Agribusiness and the Neoliberal Food System in Brazil focuses on the intensification of Brazilian agribusiness as a privileged entry point into the politicised geography of globalised agri-food. Drawing on rich empirical analysis based around three fieldwork campaigns in the state of Mato Grosso, the book examines the connections between farming, markets and the apparatus of the state. The importance of agribusiness expansion within the wider politico-economic context of Brazilian neoliberalism is demonstrated, thus drawing broader conclusions about the main trends of agribusiness in the world today and providing recommendations for future research. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agribusiness, neoliberalism and global food production, as well as those interested in Brazil and Latin America more generally.

After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” Franklin’s response: “A Republic—if you can keep it.” This book argues: we couldn’t keep it. A true republic privileges the common interest above the special interests. To do this, our Constitution established an elaborate system of checks and balances that disperses power among the branches of government, which it places in conflict with one another. The Framers believed that this would keep grasping, covetous factions from acquiring enough power to dominate government. Instead, only the people would rule. Proper institutional design is essential to this system. Each branch must manage responsibly the powers it is granted, as well as rebuke the other branches when they go astray. This is where subsequent generations have run into trouble: we have overloaded our government with more power than it can handle. The Constitution’s checks and balances have broken down because the institutions created in 1787 cannot exercise responsibly the powers of our sprawling, immense twenty-first-century government. The result is the triumph of special interests over the common interest. James Madison called this factionalism. We know it as political corruption. Corruption today is so widespread that our government is not really a republic, but rather a special interest democracy. Everybody may participate, yes, but the contours of public policy depend not so much on the common good, as on the push-and-pull of the various interest groups encamped in Washington, DC.