Will Voluntary and Educational Programs Meet Environmental Objectives? Evidence from a Survey of New York Dairy Farms

Authors

Gregory L. Poe, Cornell University
Nelson L. Bills, Cornell University
B. C. Bellows, Cornell University
Patricia Crosscombe, Cornell University
Richard K. Koelsch, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Michael J. Kreher, Cornell University
Peter Wright, Cornell UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

December 2001

Comments

Published in Review of Agricultural Economics 23:2 (December 2001), pp. 473–491. Published on behalf of the American Agricultural Economics Association by Blackwell Publishing. Used by permission. http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1058-7195

Abstract

This paper presents the results from a survey of New York dairy farms that links manure management practices and farmer willingness to participate in voluntary environmental programs, focusing on those operations that are not automatically designated as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. A wide divergence is found between actual and recommended manure management practices on individual dairy farms (high), the apparent ability of farms to divert financial resources to environmental practices (mixed), and the willingness to participate in voluntary programs at various annual costs per cow (low). These findings have policy implications for the USDA/USEPA National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations.