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This paper provides estimates of the cost associated with inducing substantial conversion of land from production of traditional crops to switchgrass and its potential environmental consequences. Higher traditional crop prices due to increased demand for corn from the ethanol industry has increased the relative advantage that row crops have over switchgrass. Results indicate that farmers will convert to switchgrass production only with significant conversion subsidies. Potential environmental consequences of this conversion were analyzed using three stylized landscape usage scenarios, one with an entire conversion of a watershed to switchgrass production, a second with the entire watershed planted to continuous...
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Nonpoint source pollution in intensively managed agricultural landscapes is of great concern to the general population, farmers and policymakers, as it impacts local water quality and can have large downstream effects, as in the case of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. In this study, we outline a methodology to simultaneously assess economic costs and water quality benefits associated with the hypothetical placement of a broad set of conservation practices. The study, performed for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, assesses thirteen major subbasins in Iowa by interfacing economic models with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model. The conservation practices analyzed include land set-aside, terraces, grassed...
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Nonpoint source pollution in intensively managed agricultural landscapes is of great concern to the general population, farmers and policymakers, as it impacts local water quality and can have large downstream effects, as in the case of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. In this study, we outline a methodology to simultaneously assess economic costs and water quality benefits associated with the hypothetical placement of a broad set of conservation practices. The study, performed for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, assesses thirteen major subbasins in Iowa by interfacing economic models with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model. The conservation practices analyzed include land set-aside, terraces, grassed...
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