Luis A. Ribera

Economics of sugar-based ethanol production and related policy issues.

The feasibility of integrating ethanol production into an existing sugar mill was analyzed by a stochastic spreadsheet model. As the price of corn continues to rise, ethanol producers will eventually need to look at other feedstock alternatives. Sugarcane has been proven to work well in the production of ethanol in Brazil. The results indicated existing U.S. sugar mills could economically switch to ethanol production. As imports into the United States threaten to undermine the U.S. sugar program, sugarcane producers have a viable alternative. At the very least, the alternative exists to diversify their income streams with ethanol production.

Domestic and Trade Implications of Leafy Green Marketing Agreement Type Policies and the Food Safety Modernization Act for the Southern Produce Industry

Protecting the safety of the U.S. food supply is a shared responsibility. Accomplishing that task requires the efforts of multiple government agencies combined with private sector participation. Despite the best efforts of the public–private partnership, the presence of microbial contamination incidents continues to raise questions regarding the safety of the U.S. food supply. As a result, there have been increased efforts to take measures to enhance food safety by the government and industry groups. The passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act establishes an increasing role for government in establishing and enforcing food safety standards. This new initiative is designed to address food from domestic and foreign origins. These U.S. government initiatives combined with the labyrinth of food safety standards promoted by international organizations, foreign governments, private-sector retail food sales, food processors, and producers have a common foundation. All of these standards generally apply to four basic biohazards areas: soil, water, animals, and people. However, they all have an effect on the costs that producers and other members of the industry face as they attempt to implement and/or document the multitude of activities required for compliance. This article provides an overview of the evolution of food safety standards related to the fresh produce industry. An example of their potential consequences on the profitability of southern region vegetable producers is provided and the potential impact on import suppliers is discussed.

Implications of U.S. Trade Agreements and U.S. Nutrition Policies for Produce Production, Demand, and Trade

This study used aggregated data for fresh vegetables and fresh fruits to analyze how trade flows in the fresh produce industry have changed under trade agreements and to assess the potential implications to nutrition policies in the United States. The first part of the analysis uses a Bai-Perron test to endogenously determine any structural break points in vegetable and fruit trade movements and prices. Directed acyclic graphs and historical decompositions are used to establish causal patterns on innovations from vector autoregression models fitted to annual observations of trade flows, prices, and income. The results showed that trade agreements have had significant impacts to the produce industry. Income was a major determinant of domestic fruit production and imports.

Potential Impacts of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) on the Fresh Vegetable and Beef Trade

ABSTRACT The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations influence the global economic position of both the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.). Agricultural issues are an important part of the negotiation. There have been several analyses of the aggregate impacts of a T-TIP agreement. This report analyzes the commodity impacts on trade for fresh vegetables and beef. Vegetables represent the situation where the U.S. is a growing net importer and the EU has substantial potential for expanding exports to the U.S. in this highly competitive marketplace. Beef represents the situation where sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions on hormone use in production have prohibited consumer choices from being revealed in the marketplace for both the EU and the U.S. The authors provide insight into where the comparative advantages lie in freer trade situations.

The Era of the Functional Consumer

ABSTRACT A discrete choice experiment was conducted to analyze consumer preferences for fruit and vegetable attributes in the context of the 2010 MyPlate Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations and to consider the role of health benefits and potential tradeoffs among fruit and vegetable quantity and quality attributes. Higher willingness to pay for fruit and vegetable attributes by the medium-high income respondents compared to low-income respondents may reflect the reality of a greater ability to pay. The magnitude of WTP toward satisfying MyPlate recommendations is substantially below the cost; therefore, it is not surprising that current consumption levels are well below the recommendation. Organic products had a stigmatizing effect for low-income respondents.

Water Use Efficiency and Net Return of Two Bioenergy Crops

Abstract. The growing concern for possible climate change from carbon dioxide produced by burning fuels and the continuous depletion of the world supply of petroleum, has produced an important opportunity to use cellulosic biofuels as an important mix of alternative renewable energy. Biomass yield is a critical trait for the successful implementation and economy of biofuel feedstock production. However, there are no reported studies that relate the amount of resources used such as water, and the potential yields and genetic traits of cellulosic materials, which is essential information to develop economic studies about the viability of large scale biofuel projects. The development of economic budgets which consider amount of resources used may help farmers select his preferred appropriate cropping pattern and the biofuel crops among a portfolio of feedstocks. The objective of this study was to 1) Establish field experiments to determine yield response to different water amounts for energy sorghum and energy cane in South Texas. 2. Determine the production costs and economic feasibility of these feedstocks. This study reports the yields, water use efficiencies, and net returns of an experiment conducted during 2012 for energy sorghum and energy cane. Five water treatments were applied to this experiment: dry-land, 50% ET, 75% ET, 100% ET and 150% ET. The two energy crops were compared for its potential to produce biomass per unit of water and its net return. There are several factors that increase the net return of the main crops among the main factors are yields and, prices of the crop. Energy sorghum and energy cane produced similar net returns. One of the sugarcane varieties produced higher net returns with the same amount of water applied. It is not recommended to produce energy sorghum or energy canes under dry-land conditions in this area due to negative or low net returns. It was possible to reduce the water applications in sorghum to 75%ET without affecting sorghum yields.