Listed chronologically.

Minimum Quality Standards, Industry Self Regulation, and Economic Welfare.  (February 2008 pdf, 2MB) Tina L. Saitone and Richard J. Sexton. This paper address the impact of producers collectively imposing minimum quality standards (MQS) on their own industry. One benefit of an imposed MQS is that it enhances quality in production, however with a voluntary program, consumers actually lose and it may create a net loss to the economy as a whole.

Market Power in the Corn Sector: How Does It Affect the Impacts of the Ethanol Subsidy? (Feb. 2008, pdf, 190KB) University of California Agricultural Issues Center. Market power is discussed frequently in debates about subsidies for ethanol production. The structural conditions in the corn industry create a case for concerns about market power. This paper by Tina L. Saitone, Richard J. Sexton and Steven E. Sexton develops an analytical model for determining the production and price impacts and the distribution of benefits from the U.S. ethanol subsidy when upstream sellers in the seed sector and downstream buyers in the processing sector may exercise market power. Results demonstrate that the impacts on prices and output are limited for modest departures from competition. Distributional impacts are much greater. Seed producers and corn processors with market power are able to capture relatively large shares of the benefits of the subsidy.

Agricultural Exports for California (April 2007)
This link provides information on the history, methods and resulting data from the AIC effort to develop methods that result in more accurate statistics for international exports of California agricultural products.

Statistical Review of California Organic Agriculture 2000-2005 (May 2007, pdf, 1Mb). Karen Klonsky and Kurt Richter. This publication quantifies the current size and growth of the organic industry in California in terms of acres, farm gate sales and number of growers statewide and by commodity, commodity group, county, and region, based on California Department of Agriculture registration data from 1999-2005.

See also:	Statistical Review of California's Organic Agriculture 1998-2003 (December 2005) (pdf, 572kb) K. Klonsky and K. Richter.
	A Statistical Picture of California's Organic Agriculture 1995-1998 Karen Klonsky, Laura J. Tourte, Robin Kozloff, and Benjamin

Effects of Price Premiums for Multiple Product Attributes on Product Quality: California Processing Tomatoes (Nov. 2006, pdf, 81 kb) Corinne Alexander, Rachael E. Goodhue, Sandeep Mohapatra, and Gordon C. Rausser examine how growers respond to price incentives and how these incentives interact for two important processing tomato quality attributes: limited use tomatoes and material other than tomatoes.

Agriculture's Role in the Economy. November 2006 preprint draft chapter five in "The Measure of California Agriculture, 2006." This chapter summarizes the direct and multiplier effects of agriculture in the California economy and regions of the State. It also discusses California agriculture in the global context.

Aggregate Costs and Benefits of Government Invasive Species Control Activities Daniel A. Sumner, Henrich Brunke and Marcia Kreith. (pdf, 163kb, September 2006. Forthcoming in the Proceedings of The International Conference on the Future of Agriculture: Science, Stewardship, and Sustainability, August 7-9, 2006.)

The Measure of California Agriculture, Highlights. July 2006. (pdf, brochure format, print on legal size paper)

EU Support Reductions Would Benefit California Tomato Growers and Processors (pdf, 5.8mb)
Bradley J.Rickard and Daniel A. Sumner. Article in October - December 2006 issue of California Agriculture, which presents simulation model results from a 50 percent reduction in European Union trade barriers and subsidies.

Supply and Demand for Commodity Components: Implications of Free Trade versus the AUSFTA for the U.S. Dairy Industry
Julian M. Alston, Joseph V. Balagtas, Daniel A. Sumner, and Henrich Brunke
This paper presents a simulation model of world dairy markets, represented by supply and demand equations for fat and nonfat components of milk and manufactured dairy products. We use the model to analyze the effects on U.S. milk markets of both a hypothetical agreement, allowing free bilateral trade in dairy products, and the actual Australian-US Free Trade Agreement.

Alpaca Lies? Do Alpacas Represent the Latest Speculative Bubble in Agriculture? (pdf)
T.L. Saitone and R.J. Sexton, September 2005.

Economic Data and Projections for Analysis of Dairy Trade on a Component Basis.
Henrich Brunke, Daniel A. Sumner, Julian M. Alston, and Joseph V. Balagtas. Data appendix to paper on "Supply and Demand for Commodity Components: Implications of Free Trade versus the AUSFTA for the U.S. Dairy Industry."

The Measure of California Agriculture Summary card facts
Updated 2005 (.pdf file)

Economics of Strawberry Productions with Alternative Fumigants
Rachael Goodhue, Karen Klonsky and Steve Fennimore. A summary presentation on results of Oxnard and Watsonville field trials with alternatives to methy bromide fumigation.

Marketing Profiles of Important California Commodities
This website contains short industry profiles on important California commodities with an emphasis on
production, marketing, consumption, value added, trade and price trends for these commodities in the last one to two decades.

How Serious is the Threat of Mad Cow Disease?
A video seminar held February 5, 2004 at UC Davis
On December 23, 2003 the U.S. was shocked by the news of a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or more commonly mad cow disease) found in a dairy farm in Washington state. To provide information about the implication of this event, AIC's Daniel Sumner and José Bervejillo and Dean Cliver of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine participated in a seminar discussion sponsored by the UC Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs. Cliver reviewed the basics of the BSE and provided an assessment of human and animal health consequences. Sumner and Bervejillo assessed the economic impact of this first case of mad cow disease in the U.S. and the implications of the new federal regulations on the livestock industry.

Play video. http://media.ucdavis.edu:8080/ramgen/MadCow/IGAMadCow02-05-04.rm
(requires RealPlayer http://www.real.com/)

Compensating Landowners for Conserving Agricultural Land
Compensating landowners is an increasingly important approach for maintaining working landscapes, especially in the face of urban expansion. As an alternative or supplement to government land use planning and regulation, landowner payments recognize the multiple public benefits of keeping farmland in the hands of farmers. The papers included in this collection (products of an April, 2003, conference in Sacramento) describe, evaluate, and suggest variations in a range of compensatory techniques, including: (1) property tax preferences for farmland allowed by state governments; (2) federal cost-share conservation payments administered by USDA; (3) federal payments for the temporary retirement of cropland; and (4) agricultural easements created through the acquisition of development rights from landowners.

261 pages, 8.5 x 11, softcover edition, Download book in .pdf format (large file size)

Assessing the Role of NAFTA in California Agriculture: A Review of Trends and Economic Relationships
Henrich Brunke and Daniel A. Sumner investigate the impacts the North American Free Trade Agreement on California agriculture. This is a study the Agricultural Issues Center conducted in collaboration with the California Farm Bureau Federation thirteen years after an agreement for free trade with Canada and eight years after Mexico was added to create the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trade-Weighted Exchange Rates
This site provides links to the trade-weighted exchange rate indices for major traded California commodities.

The Measure of California Agriculture Summary card facts
Updated May 2003 (.pdf file)
See also: The Measure of California Agriculture Summary card facts
Updated 2005 (.pdf file) and The Measure of California Agriculture, Highlights, July 2006 (pdf, brochure format, print on legal size paper)

China agricultural production, trade, and cost of production data.
This site contains China agricultural data on production, cost of production, and trade. The information was created by Scott Rozelle, Hengyun Ma, and Lan Li from the department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis.

Private Investment in Exotic Pest Control Technology: The Case of Silverleaf Whitefly in California (pdf)
Karen M. Jetter, Julian M. Alston, and Robert J. Farquharson examine the economic benefits from the development and adoption of the new pest management technology by several vegetable industries that are susceptible to the silverleaf whitefly. Specifically, broccoli, cauliflower, cantaloupe, head lettuce and leaf lettuce, and fresh tomatoes are analyzed.

Economic Consequences of European Union Processing Tomato Subsidies (pdf)
Daniel A. Sumner, Bradley J. Rickard, and David S. Hart analyze the impacts of EU processed tomato industry export subsidies, import barriers, and domestic subsidies on EU producers, consumers and taxpayers and on processed tomato market participants outside the EU.

Potential Impact of Foot and Mouth Disease in California: The role and contribution of animal health surveillance and monitoring services (pdf)
Javier M. Ekboir investigates the economic consequences for California's livestock industry of the sudden appearance of foot-and-mouth disease.

The Measure of California Agriculture, 2000
This publication documents California agriculture and its relationships to the rest of the economy by providing statistical details and an overview of unifying forces and trends. Selected key facts from this publication are listed in bullet form in The Measure of California Agriculture, 2000, Summary Cards (pdf).
See also updated June 2003 Summary Cards

California Farmers and Conservation Easements: Motivations, Experiences, and Perceptions in Three Counties (pdf)
By Ellen Rilla and Alvin D. Sokolow, with the assistance of Robin Kozloff and Cathy Lemp. Research Paper #4 in AIC's California Farmland & Open Space Policy Series, December 2000. (

Agriculture in the Sacramento Region, Trends and Prospects
This link provides a detailed portrait of agriculture in the lower Sacramento Valley, and of the economic and policy trends that are shaping its future.

Web Survey Results
In 1998 AIC conducted a survey of internet use in California agriculture. The more than 250 completed responses that we received provide useful information on the adoption and diffusion of Internet applications.