Browsing by Author "Bovay, John"
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- Animal Welfare Standards and MarketingJacobs, Leonie; Bovay, John; Pierce, Timothy (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2021)This handout provides an overview of animal welfare economics and the benefits to farmers from marketing their commitments to animal welfare.
- Assessing the Benefits of Virginia Tech Agricultural Programs: Studies in Feeder Cattle Certification and Small Grains BreedingGarber, Benjamin Fredrick (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-03)This thesis consists of two research papers, each of which studies the benefits from a different College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) program. These analyses provide necessary information to allocate resources efficiently among programs. The first paper studies the Virginia Quality Assured feeder cattle certification program and its effects on feeder cattle prices and profitability. No significant effect on price from VQA certification is found. However, enterprise budgets indicate that VQA cattle allow higher farm profits due to their lower sale weight, which allows for faster turnover and lower prices. The second paper studies the benefits to producers from wheat and barley breeding conducted by Virginia Tech researchers. Variety trial data are combined with acreage estimates constructed from royalty data to estimate gains from replacement of old varieties with new ones. The study finds that the program generated benefits to producers of over $119 million between 2000 and 2018.
- Battling bots: Experiences and strategies to mitigate fraudulent responses in online surveysGoodrich, Brittney; Fenton, Marieke; Penn, Jerrod; Bovay, John; Mountain, Travis (Wiley, 2023-06)Declining survey response rates have driven many researchers to seek out cost-effective methods of increasing participation, such as conducting surveys online, paying incentives, and using social media to engage hard-to-reach populations. Malicious actors can exploit the monetary incentives and anonymity of online surveys, threatening the integrity of survey data. We share two recent experiences conducting online surveys that were inundated with fraudulent responses. Our objective is to increase awareness of this emerging issue and offer guidance for others to mitigate the effects of fraudulent responders in their own research.
- Beef and the Bottom Line: The Effect of Value-Added Certification on Feeder Cattle ProfitabilityGarber, Ben; Alwang, Jeffrey R.; Norton, George W.; Bovay, John (Cambridge University Press, 2022-02-15)Data from 1,422 feeder cattle teleauction lots were used to assess the impacts on profitability of the Virginia quality assured (VQA) feeder cattle program. The analysis finds higher profits for VQA cattle due to their faster turnover and lower feed costs; however, certification does not have a significant effect on price received by producers. The analysis further suggests that the cost associated with production under VQA should be considered in addition to price effects studied in previous literature.
- Building Partnerships to Address Social and Technological Challenges to Enhance Farm Profitability and Improve Water Quality Through Better Grassland ManagementStafford, Carl; Clark, Robert; Ritchie, Liesel A.; Pent, Gabriel; Fike, John; Benner, John; Swanson, Carrie; Baker, Scott; Mize, Timothy; Temu, Vitalis; Payne, Kathryn; Gill, Duane A.; Mullins, D.; McGuire, R.; Teutsch, Chris; Thomason, Wade; Grev, Amanda; Blevins, Phil; Clarke, C.; Poore, Matt; Booher, Matt; Stanley, Tom; Halich, Greg; Bovay, John; Love, Kenner; Byington, amy A.; Baldwin, Elizabeth; Haugen, Inga (2023-05-15)With 2.1 million acres of pastureland and 1.25 million acres of hay land in Virginia, the rural Virginia landscape is predominately grassland. These lands form the base of the $3.96 billion-dollar livestock and dairy industry in Virginia. Managing these livestock in a profitable manner for farmers and beneficial to the environment is important. A cultural tradition with roots in colonial times has been to run animals in large fields year-round throughout Virginia. Livestock often graze from spring until fall (about 220 days), and farmers feed hay the remainder of the year. Spikes in the cost of fuel, fertilizer, and equipment are making traditional grazing/haying systems less profitable. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Farm Enterprise budgets show that that the cost of hay accounts for over 50% of the cost of sustaining livestock annually. University of Kentucky shows that most cow-calf producers maximize their profitability by shifting from grazing 220 days to grazing 275 to 300 days. Extension agents working with livestock producers found that they could improve their profitability by at least $75 per cow by extending their grazing season. The same phenomenon applies to other types of grazing livestock. If ten percent of the livestock producers in the state adopted better grazing management to extend their grazing season by 60 days, profitability is expected to for Virginia grazing livestock producers by over $5 million per year. Practices such as rotational grazing and stream exclusion are directly tied to National and State goals to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia’s Phase III WIP (Chesapeake Bay Watershed Improvement Plan) seeks the exclusion of livestock from all perennial streams and achieving good rotational grazing practices on 347,000 acres of pasture. A number of agencies and private sector groups have been providing cost share and technical guidance to incentivize livestock stream exclusion and the installation of pasture management infrastructure. Installation is only part of the challenge. Farmers also need to be taught how to how to manage the system in a profitable manner and have been slow to adopt good pasture management practices. Preliminary data show that 87% of Virginia’s cow-calf producers manage their grasslands using traditional methods. Only six percent have extended their grazing season beyond 265 days.
- A Century of Profligacy? The Measurement and Evolution of Food WasteBovay, John; Zhang, Wei (Cambridge University Press, 2019)Food waste has been recognized as an economic issue for at least a century and is gaining tremendous traction in academia as well as in discourse about public policy. The goal of our study is to examine the evolution of food waste over the last several decades at the United States and global levels. We first review the methodologies that have been used to estimate the magnitude of food waste so that the quality of the data can be evaluated. Though with limitations, existing data generally show that for many regions of the world, including the United States, preconsumer food loss and waste as a share of total supply has been stable in recent decades. However, the aggregate share wasted masks important changes over time. We provide some evidence that food waste has shifted downstream in recent decades, i.e., from producers and processors to retailers and consumers. Through a reflection on the trends in major socioeconomic factors, we hypothesize that this downstream shift has been driven by increases in household incomes, improvements in technology, and changes in culture and institutions.
- Corporate Social Responsibility as a Business StrategyBovay, John; Pierce, Timothy M. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2021-02-12)Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) dates back to the early 1900s and has become common in modern business models. As incomes have risen worldwide, consumers have begun to demand more products that are produced by firms that engage in CSR and market their commitments to it. This handout, which accompanies a webinar on 'Corporate Social Responsibility as a Business Strategy', provides an overview of the economics of CSR and why businesses may want to engage in it. The webinar and handout are part of the Virginia Sustainable Farms and Agribusiness Education Initiative offered by Virginia Tech's Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and Virginia Cooperative Extension. More information about the program is available at https://aaec.vt.edu/extension/va-sustainable-farms-agribusinesses.html
- COVID-19 Resources for Virginia Farmers, Agribusinesses, and Cooperative Extension Agents and SpecialistsBovay, John (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2020)List of online resources from federal and state government entities for help dealing with COVID-19
- Economics of Farm and Agribusiness SustainabilityBovay, John; Pierce, Timothy M. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2021-02-25)Consumer demand for food grown using sustainable farm practices is at an all-time high (Nielsen, 2018). This is compelling farmers to explore various options to improve sustainability. This handout, which accompanies a webinar on 'Business Goals and Sustainability', provides an overview of the economics of farm and agribusiness sustainability. The webinar and handout are part of the Virginia Sustainable Farms and Agribusiness Education Initiative offered by Virginia Tech's Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and Virginia Cooperative Extension. More information about the program is available at https://aaec.vt.edu/extension/va-sustainable-farms-agribusinesses.html
- Essays on Price Analysis of Livestock MarketWang, Yangchuan (Virginia Tech, 2022-09-07)This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter titled ``U.S. Grass-fed Beef Price Premiums" examined monthly retail-level price premiums for grass-fed beef (relative to conventional grain-fed beef) in the U.S. from 2014 through 2021. We found that premiums were heterogeneous, with premium cuts (such as sirloin steak, tenderloin, ribeye, and filet mignon) enjoying the highest premiums. Premiums were not consistent with price levels, as the lowest premiums were observed for short ribs, skirt steak, and flank steak. Our findings suggest that grass-fed beef price premiums were negatively affected by the consumption of food away from home. Changes in income, increased information about taste, protein and minerals, fat, revocation of the USDA grass-fed certification program in 2016 and COVID-19 pandemic, also affected premiums for several individual cuts. Premiums were not sensitive to changes in information about climate change. The second chapter, ``Impact of Animal Disease Outbreaks on The U.S. Meat Demand'', examined the impact of the mad cow (BSE) and bird flu (AI) outbreaks on the demand for beef, pork, and broilers in the U.S from 1997 to 2019. Using time-varying elasticities obtained from a Rotterdam model with animal disease cases, we found that BSE outbreaks reduced beef consumption by 0.64 percent and increased pork consumption by 2.34 percent, on average. While BSE outbreaks reduced beef demand, these effects were short lived and did not extend beyond one quarter. On the other hand, broiler consumption decreased during the HPAI outbreaks while beef and broiler consumption increased after such outbreaks. Our time-varying cross-price elasticities indicated that substitution between beef and broilers and beef and pork strengthened after Quarter 4 of 2003. The third chapter is titled ``Impact of North American Mad Cow Disease Outbreaks on The U.S. Cattle Futures". Our study developed a distributional event response model (DERM) framework to show the duration and magnitude of market responses of the U.S. cattle futures market during episodes of mad cow disease (BSE) in North America between 2010 and 2019. Our results indicated that the 2017 U.S. BSE outbreak reduced the returns of live cattle futures. Additionally, the average duration of the BSE event response was about 8.5 days.
- Food safety, reputation, and regulationBovay, John (Wiley, 2022-01-01)This article reviews the empirical economics literature on food safety, reputation, and regulation. Producers have strong private incentives to provide safe food, largely related to reputation, especially the negative demand effects seen in response to food-safety problems. Mandatory disclosure of information about food safety can change demand and improve safety outcomes. Private incentives led producers and marketers to adopt private and collective standards for produce safety prior to the implementation of similar government regulations in the United States. Private and collective standards and government regulations all have distributional effects. The article concludes with some policy suggestions informed by the literature.
- Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the U.S. and Virginia Farms and Businesses: May 2020Holt, Matthew T.; Bovay, John; Friedel, Jennifer S.; Isengildina-Massa, Olga; Kayser, Patrick; van Senten, Jonathan; Grant, Jason H.; Orden, David R.; Marchant, Mary A. (Virginia Tech. Agricultural and Applied Economics, 2020-05)This report addresses various aspects of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Virginia’s farm and agribusiness sector as of the beginning of May 2020. At the time of this writing (May 7, 2020) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports approximately 1.2 million cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States, and over 70,000 deaths.1 Virginia’s Department of Public Health reports over 21,000 cases and over 700 deaths.2 33.5 million people have filed for unemployment claims in the United States since mid-March.3 The economic impacts of the disease have been felt much more broadly, as businesses have been forced to close or operate under different conditions, and as consumer spending power declines. As we look ahead, there is tremendous uncertainty about how the pandemic will end and how it will affect the global economy and our individual lives and livelihoods both in the short term and permanently. This report includes a general economic outlook, by Matthew Holt; overviews of the pandemic’s disruptions to the U.S. food supply chain and several major agricultural industries in Virginia, by John Bovay; an overview of agricultural policy under the pandemic, by Jennifer Friedel; a detailed analysis of effects of the pandemic on Virginia grain markets, by Olga Isengildina Massa and Patrick Kayser; an overview of results of a national survey of the impacts of the pandemic on aquaculture producers, with a focus on Virginia’s main aquaculture products, by Jonathan van Senten; and analysis of the current state of affairs for U.S.-China agricultural trade, by Jason Grant, David Orden, and Mary Marchant.
- Overview of a Survey on the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Virginia Farms and Agribusinesses, Fall 2020Bovay, John; Haskins, Conaway B.; Larochelle, Catherine; Mountain, Travis P.; Price, E. French; Shuman, Nicole; van Senten, Jonathan (2021-01-04)This short report summarizes a survey conducted to gauge the impacts of COVID-19 on Virginia farms and agribusinesses.
- Overview of a Survey on the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Virginia Farms and Agribusinesses, Fall 2020Bovay, John; Haskins, Conaway B.; Larochelle, Catherine; Mountain, Travis; Price, E. French; Shuman, Nicole; van Senten, Jonathan (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2021-01-04)This short report summarizes a survey conducted to gauge the impacts of COVID-19 on Virginia farms and agribusinesses.
- Price and Welfare Effects of the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety RuleFerrier, Peyton M.; Zhen, Chen; Bovay, John (2023-01)We estimate the cost of compliance with the US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule by commodity and own- and cross-prices elasticities of demand for 18 fruits and 20 vegetables. These are used as inputs in an equilibrium displacement model that simulates the price and welfare effects of the rule. We find that consumer and farm prices increase by 0.55% and 1.69% for fruits and 0.15% and 0.59% for vegetables. Costs associated with implementation are estimated to reduce producer welfare by 0.63% for fruits and 0.51% for vegetables (as a share of revenue). If the rule’s provisions were enacted unilaterally by growers of individual commodities, producer welfare losses would be 0.93% of total revenue for fruits and 0.31% for vegetables.
- Producer Response to Public Disclosure of Food-Safety InformationOllinger, Michael; Bovay, John (2020-01)Beginning in 2003, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) put forth a series of Federal Register announcements regarding the public disclosure of results of tests for Salmonella in chicken carcasses. In particular, FSIS suggested in 2003 that it might disclose the identities of any slaughter or ground meat plant failing its Salmonella tests if test performance did not improve, and in 2004 the service increased regulatory scrutiny of plants not meeting FSIS Salmonella standards. In 2006, FSIS introduced a more easily-understood measure of food-safety quality and indicated that public disclosure would be forthcoming if results of tests for Salmonella did not improve; FSIS targeted the chicken-slaughter industry with a high degree of specificity. In 2008, FSIS began reporting the names of chicken-slaughter plants with poor performance on tests for Salmonella in chicken carcasses. This article examines the effects of these regulatory actions on Salmonella test outcomes. We find that (1) announcements in 2003 and 2004 were associated with improved performance by the poorest-performing chicken-slaughter plants; (2) the introduction of an easily-understood measure of food-safety quality and the threat of disclosure of the identities of poorly performing plants in 2006 were associated with improved performance by all chicken-slaughter plants; and (3) implementation of a public disclosure program in 2008 was associated with improvements among better-performing chicken-slaughter plants.
- Review and Evaluation of Grain Marketing and Hedging Strategies for Virginia Grain ProducersGill, Jayson Gregory (Virginia Tech, 2023-06-28)Virginia's regional grain prices exhibit high volatility due to the state's unique spatial variability and supply and demand fundamentals. This study explains Virginia's basis patterns for corn, soybeans, and wheat. Discussion of times when there were outstanding economic or fundamental market movers that affected basis in Virginia is also offered. The feasibility and process of hedging using futures is explained and evaluated in a case study. Possible marketing decisions based on the findings are presented in an easy and accessible manner, so that producers and extension agents can use this information to make real-time grain marketing decisions.
- Trends, Insights, and Future Prospects for Production in Controlled Environment Agriculture and Agrivoltaics SystemsDohlman, Erik; Maguire, Karen; Davis, Wilma V.; Husby, Megan; Bovay, John; Weber, Catharine; Lee, Yoonjung (2024-01-11)Investments in alternative food production systems by public and private entities have increased in recent years. Two systems, controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and agrivoltaics (AV), have been highlighted for their potential to provide socioeconomic benefits beyond food production. CEA is the use of enclosed structures—including hydroponic and vertical farming structures—for growing crops, primarily specialty crops. CEA may provide access to local production of nutritious food in communities that lack space for traditional outdoor production, improve access to local foods in urban areas, and serve as a potential tool for adapting to or mitigating climate change. The CEA sector is expanding in large part due to technological advancements. The number of CEA operations more than doubled between 2009 and 2019. Further, more than 60 percent of production for some prominent CEA crops (primarily vegetables) were grown using nontraditional technological systems in 2019. AV is the colocation of agricultural production and solar panels. AV may allow for expanded solar development to address climate change without land use conflicts associated with traditional large-scale solar developments. As of 2021, most AV sites were solar farms planted with pollinator-friendly vegetative cover that, in some cases, were grazed by sheep. Funding for research on a variety of AV systems with specialty crop and/or livestock production continues to increase.
- What Are the Overall Implications of Rising Demand for Organic Fruits and Vegetables? Evidence from Theory and SimulationsMcFadden, Brandon R.; Bovay, John; Mullally, Conner (2021-04-09)US consumers currently eat less fruits and vegetables (FV) than recommended by dietary guidelines. Inadequate FV consumption exists alongside rapid growth in demand for organic FV. Since the viable production area of FV is finite, organic and conventional FV are linked in production while serving as substitutes in consumption. Rising purchases of organic FV may have important implications for prices and quantities consumed in the conventional FV market. In this paper, we analyze the implications of rising demand for organic FV when organic and conventional FV are linked in supply and demand. More specifically, we use a multi-market equilibrium displacement model to examine the impact of rising demand for organic produce on prices and total quantities consumed of conventional and organic FV under two scenarios: product differentiation (i.e. organic versus conventional produce) while assuming that consumers have identical preferences that can be represented by a single market demand function for each good; and product differentiation with segmented markets, which allows for two types of consumers with unique demand functions. Both scenarios were simulated with and without an offsetting shift in demand for conventional FV. Our simulation results indicate that the increasing demand for organic FV may result in decreased consumption of combined conventional and organic FV, and that the direction of changes in FV consumption may vary by consumer segment. Under the most realistic assumptions, when one segment of consumers increases its demand for organic FV, this segment’s overall consumption of organic plus conventional FV falls; the other segment’s overall consumption rises. We provide sensitivity analyses and discuss caveats and directions for future research.
- Who responds to health, environmental, and economic information about local food? Evidence from Connecticut seafood consumersTian, Yixing; Croog, Rose; Bovay, John; Concepcion, Anoushka; Getchis, Tessa L.; Kelly, Miriah Russo (Informa, 2021-08-06)We designed and implemented a discrete choice experiment to assess how information about the health, environmental, and economic benefits of locally produced aquaculture products affect Connecticut consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for products produced in the state, as compared with products from another state or another country. We find that information about local economic benefits tended to increase WTP for Connecticut-grown and -raised products, whereas information about health, safety, and the environment tended to decrease WTP for products from other regions. We also explore heterogeneous effects of the information treatments by respondent gender, education, and income.