Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Does temporary land retirement promote organic adoption? Evidence from expiring conservation reserve program contracts(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2022) Wing, Hannah Rose; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Kate Fuller and Daniel P. BigelowThe Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a temporary land retirement program that allows producers to remove environmentally sensitive farmland from agricultural production in exchange for a yearly rental payment. While enrolled in the CRP, land is, by definition, not being used for production and therefore typically complies with standards for organic certification. In order for an operation to become certified organic, producers must comply with organic practices for 36 months prior to when production can be labeled organic. Among other requirements, operators transitioning to organic production cannot apply synthetic pesticides or fertilizers to the land. However, some of the costly three-year transition period can be avoided through participation in the CRP as land enrolled in the program may be eligible to become certified organic in the year that it exits the program. In this paper, we study the extent to which CRP enrollment promotes organic certification. We find that CRP contract expiration leads to increases in organic adoption, and estimate a 0.157 percent increase in new organic operations in response to a 10 percent increase in expiring CRP contracts.Item The effect of organic certification on farmland value(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2017) Boldbaatar, Munkhnasan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joseph JanzenThis research considers the relationship between organic certification and farmland values. We employ the ARMS survey data from 2003 to 2011. We construct three models with different organic status classifications. We control for differences in farm type, NASS crop district, urbanization, and year fixed effects. We find that organic certification has a significant (statistically and economically) effect on farmland value. Our model suggests that a 1 percentage point increase in a farm's organic land would result a 0.23 percentage point increase in the farmland rental rate.Item Organic produce demand estimation utilizing retail scanner data(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1999) Trost, Daniel Roland.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David E. Buschena; Gary Brester (co-chair)Retail demand relationships for organic and non-organic bananas, garlic, onions, and potatoes are examined using scanner data from a retail co-operative food store located in Bozeman, Montana. A level version Rotterdam demand specification is used in a six-equation system to estimate Hicksian demand elasticities. The own-price elasticity for organic onions is negative and significant. All other own-price elasticities are not significantly different from zero. This indicates consumers may not be very price sensitive for the goods in question. With few exceptions, the cross-price elasticities which are significant are also positive. Income elasticities are mostly significant and positive. Elasticity measurement may be somewhat imprecise due to a lack of variability in prices and an ambiguous error structure. Key factors influencing the quantities of the produce items purchased include the number of children in a household, the average age of adults in a household, and employment status of the primary grocery shopper. Educational status did not have any significant impact on quantities purchased.