D. Lynn Forster

Returns to Farm Real Estate Revisited

Barrys research on farm real estate returns suggests that when farm assets are viewed as a part of the nations wealth portfolio, returns are not persistently low, as is commonly asserted in policy debates. This paper extends Barrys research by explicitly accounting for the effects of uncertain inflation, using a broader market proxy, and lengthening the sample period. The results suggest farm real estate offers only slight (not substantial) premiums above those for systematic risk, contributes little systematic risk to a well-diversified portfolio, and exhibits substantial risk due to uncertain inflation.

An Assessment of Student Acceptance and Performance in Distance Education with Two-Way Interactive Compressed Video

This paper summarizes the debate concerning the value of distance education, reports distance education experiences in agricultural economics courses at The Ohio State University, and analyzes the effects of “distance” on student performance in and acceptance of the distance course. Results suggest that distance and “live” students performed equally in the same course, and they evaluated the course experience in a similar manner. These results provide some assurance that distance education, at least using the two-way interactive synchronous learning model of the courses in this study, does not place the distant student in jeopardy. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Landspreading: An Alternative for Sludge Disposal

One characteristic of the 1970s is an increased awareness of the finiteness of our natural resources and their ability to assimilate the by-products of an industrial society. A result of this increased awareness has been the passage of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (P.L. 92-500, 18 Oct. 1972) with the expressed goal that the national waterways will receive zero discharge of pollutants by 1985. One source of such pollutants has been the discharge of effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants. As municipalities improve the environment quality of their effluent they are faced with another problem: how to dispose of sludge which is produced from providing cleaner effluent in an environmentally acceptable manner. In 1970, four million tons of sludge were produced, with a projected production of eight million tons by 1985 (Council for Agr. Sci. and Tech.). Spreading sludge on cropland has received renewed emphasis not only as a low cost disposal method but also as a source of fertilizer nutrients. The objectives of this study are to (a) develop a model which optimally allocates treated sewage sludge to cropland and (b) apply the model to several communities in order to analyze the benefits and costs of using sewage sludge as a fertilizer resource under a variety of settings.

Optimal Use of Smokestack Scrubber By-Product

Federal legislation mandates substantial reduction of air pollution emissions from electric utilities. Utilities in Appalachia that use locally mined high-sulfur coal must choose among abatement options such as fuel mixing and smokestack scrubbing technologies. Wet scrubbers are the most frequently adopted abatement technology in Ohio. This paper investigates beneficial reuses of by-product from wet scrubbers. By-product is most often disposed of in landfills, resulting in large external costs. We combine social cost and benefit transfers with a linear optimization model to investigate potential benefits of by-product recycling. Results suggest that significant incentives exist to find beneficial uses for by-product.