SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Biogas recovery systems that use methane from manure to generate electricity have not been widely adopted in U.S. mainly because the costs of constructing and maintaining these systems have exceeded the value of the benefits provided. Climate change mitigation and renewable energy policies could increase profits for the operators of such systems thereby making digester adoption more widespread. For the U.S. Dairy sector, we examine digester adoption rates, emissions reductions, net returns, electricity generation, and program costs under different policy scenarios. We find that 3% or fewer dairies would need to adopt digesters to meet the policy goals of reducing 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from dairy manure or generating one million megawatt hours...

Carbon Markets and Methane Digesters: Potential Implications for the Dairy Sector

Palavras-chave: Anaerobic digester; Methane; Dairy; Renewable electricity; Subsidy; Carbon offsets; Climate change; Environmental Economics and Policy; Livestock Production/Industries; Q5.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103440

Climate Change Policy and the Adoption of Methane Digesters on Livestock Operations

Anaerobic digesters that capture and burn manure methane can provide a renewable source of energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Paying producers for these emission reductions—either directly or through a carbon offset market—could substantially increase digester adoption. However, there is likely to be wide variation in the scale, location, and characteristics of adopters, so these policies could have long run structural implications for the livestock sector. Using a model of digester profits and data from a nationally-representative survey of dairy operations we estimate the likely distribution of digester adoption and profits under different carbon price scenarios.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Anaerobic digester; Carbon offsets; Climate change; Distribution; Livestock; Methane; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q12; Q16; Q42; Q54; Q58.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/117952

Effects of Clean Water Act Regulations on Firm-Level Decisions in Agriculture

Methane digesters—biogas recovery systems that use methane from manure to generate electricity—have not been widely adopted in the United States because costs have exceeded benefits to operators. Burning methane in a digester reduces greenhouse gas emissions from manure management. A policy or program that pays producers for these emission reductions—through a carbon offset market or directly with payments—could increase the number of livestock producers who would profit from adopting a methane digester. We developed an economic model that illustrates how dairy and hog operation size, location, and manure management methods, along with electricity and carbon prices, could influence methane digester profits. The model shows that a relatively moderate...

Tipo: Report

Palavras-chave: Methane; Methane digesters; Manure; Livestock; Climate change; Greenhouse gases; Carbon offset; Environmental Economics and Policy; Financial Economics; Livestock Production/Industries; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/102758

Sneeringer, Stacy E.; Key, Nigel D..

U.S. environmental regulations often vary by the size of the operation, with larger operations facing more regulatory stringency. When the size distribution of firms is heavily skewed, regulation size thresholds can reduce transaction costs for regulatory agencies while bringing most production within a regulatory framework. However, size-based regulation may have unintended consequences if operations downsize, slow their growth, or enter at a smaller size in order to avoid regulation. These unintended consequences from regulation may include less pollution abatement and diminished economic efficiency. In this study we examine recently revised Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations targeting large-scale livestock operations to identify and quantify farm...

Effects of Environmental Regulation and Urban Encroachment on California’s Dairy Structure

Palavras-chave: Livestock; Clean Water Act; Growth; Regulation; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61461

Effects of Environmental Regulation on Economic Activity and Pollution in Commercial Agriculture

Sneeringer, Stacy E..

Environmental regulatory compliance costs are often cited as a factor in dairy location decisions, but few studies estimate the impacts of regulation in this sector. This article uses California dairy regulations to examine the pollution haven hypothesis in agriculture. Dairy industry regulation has varied regionally within the state, with the more strictly regulated Southern California region losing production and the more environmentally lenient Central Valley gaining production. Results show that even after controlling for population density and property values, regulation had significant negative effects on dairying in Southern California.

Tipo: Article

Palavras-chave: Dairy; Differences-in-differences; Environment; Livestock; Regulation; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Land Economics/Use; Livestock Production/Industries.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/119182

Sneeringer, Stacy E..

Research on environmental regulation’s effects on economic activity has largely focused on manufacturing, ignoring one of the major polluters in the U.S. – commercial agriculture. As livestock production has become increasingly mobile, regulation has become an important criterion in firm location. This article extends the literature on environmental regulation’s economic effects to commercial agriculture by exploiting a series of regulations adopted in North Carolina in the 1990s. During this time, the state’s hog production more than tripled as a consequence of welcoming state legislation. This sudden growth creates an opportunity to study how environmental regulation affects the location of economic activity, the externality costs of legislation...

Higher Carbon Prices Could Spur Adoption of Methane Digesters

Palavras-chave: Livestock; Externality; Regulation; Public health; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; Health Economics and Policy; Livestock Production/Industries; Q5.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46591

Local Effects of Hog Production on Farm and Non-Farm Economic Outcomes

A market price for carbon emission reductions would allow livestock producers with methane digesters to earn additional revenue from trapping and burning methane from manure. Greater income from reducing methane emissions could substantially increase the number of livestock producers who would find it profitable to install methane digesters. Large-scale hog and dairy operations with lagoon manure management systems are likely to benefit most from a higher carbon price, which could have longrun structural implications for the livestock sector.

Tipo: Article

Palavras-chave: Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121241

Sneeringer, Stacy E.; Hertz, Thomas.

In the past 20 years the average scale of hog operations has expanded more than fourfold, and some of the new large-scale hog feeding operations have been opposed by residents in some communities. While the environmental effects of such production have been relatively well studied, less examined are its potential positive effects on local labor markets and economies. Existing estimates based on production-function and input-output analysis imply that each additional 1000 hogs in inventory in a county generates between 3 and 7 local jobs. In this paper we adopt an econometric approach instead, to estimate the effects of changes in hog production on changes in both farm and non-farm outcomes. We find that total county employment increases by less than...

The Potential Effects of Climate Change on the Productivity, Costs, and Returns of U.S. Dairy Production

Palavras-chave: Employment; Income; Hogs; Labor and Human Capital; Livestock Production/Industries; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61463

Climate change could affect the costs and returns of livestock production by altering the thermal environment of animals thereby affecting animal health, reproduction, and the efficiency by which livestock convert feed into retained products (especially meat and milk). In the United States, concentrated livestock operations are located in a variety of climatic regions, suggesting that the industry could adapt to future changes in temperature and weather patterns resulting from global warming. However, this adaption could be costly. We use nationally representative data on dairy producers coupled with finely-scaled climate data to empirically examine how producers’ costs, returns, and production systems vary across U.S. regions as a function of the...

Variation in Environmental Regulations in California and Effects on Dairy Location

Palavras-chave: Climate change; Dairy; Temperature humidity index; Economics; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Livestock Production/Industries; Production Economics; Q5.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103461