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Evaluating the Environmental Effects of Agricultural Policy
Author(s) -
Ringquist Evan J.,
Lee Jeffrey A.,
Ervin R. Terry
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.1995.tb00527.x
Subject(s) - legislation , agriculture , agricultural pollution , environmental policy , environmental planning , environmental quality , function (biology) , air quality index , quality (philosophy) , air pollution , agricultural policy , business , natural resource economics , environmental resource management , public economics , political science , economics , geography , ecology , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , evolutionary biology , meteorology , law , biology
The fact that agricultural policy decisions can have important environmental consequences has become common knowledge among policy scholars and policy practitioners. This relationship is reflected in the increasingly prominent soil conservation and environmental protection components of the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bills. In debating the value of continuing these provisions in the upcoming reauthorization of this legislation, scholars and politicians alike focus almost exclusively on their water quality benefits. However, the soil conservation components of agricultural policy also may affect air quality significantly. Using multivariate transfer function analysis, we find that implementation of the 1985 Farm Bill's Conservation Reserve Program has improved air quality significantly in that area of the country most plagued by agricultural air pollution.