SERA30: Southern Natural Resource Economics Committee
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
SERA30: Southern Natural Resource Economics Committee
Duration: 10/01/2011 to 09/30/2012
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
Project's Primary Website is at http://agecon.lsu.edu/%7Ekpaudel/Sera_IEG%2030_Proceedings.htm (direct link can be found under LINKS)
In the Southern region, several environmental and resource problems exist such as agricultural related pollution, water quantity shortage, watershed impairment from point and nonpoint source pollution, and coastal area land loss. Agricultural pollution emitted by animal feeding operations (AFOs) and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and the South's intensive agricultural cropping systems threaten water quality and the very health of sensitive ecosystem in the region. These problems will continue to grow as the region's dependence on row crop production and animal husbandry continues. While all states must meet federal AFO and CAFO regulations, enforcement varies greatly. Some state environmental regulations of AFOs and CAFOs are stricter than federal regulations, resulting in a movement of operations across state lines. The structural shift of animal industry has brought increased health and resource concerns to those areas of the region with weaker regulations or less stringent enforcement. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the impact of structural change in the region considering ecosystem health and economy as joint products. Federal and state policies can be implemented to control pollution in the region, but balancing pollution and economic goal should be considered together. This requires cost benefit analysis to determine the benefit of having livestock and poultry industries in region and cost of having these to water pollution and overall environmental quality in the region. It is the objective of this group to provide needed information to federal and state agencies so that prudent decisions can be made that enhance the economy and protect the environmental quality in the region.
The Southern region is known for its recreational opportunities. From the Smoky Mountains to Florida coast and Louisiana coastal wetland, visitors are provided with an array of opportunities for recreation. It has been realized by the members of this group that necessary policies need to be in place so that these resources can be transferred to future generations in a usable form while at the same time ensuring that the present generation can use these resources in a consumptive or nonconsumptive manner. The major justification for this regional exchange group is to reduce the duplication of similar research and extension efforts and to adjust to scare financial resources at member institutions. Collaboration among researchers and extension specialists in the region helps to solve this resource-scarcity problem more efficiently. The continuation of the exchange group allows for active future collaboration among members in addressing the resource problems in the region so as to determine the economically feasible and environmentally sound solutions and to disseminate that information to other research and extension professionals, state and federal agency personnel and policymakers in the region.
Objectives
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Micro-level modeling of natural resource and environmental risk issues, including ground- and surface-water pollution, and increased emphasis on agricultural sustainability, and increased conflicts in resource demands between agricultural and competing users.
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Firm level risk management modeling, including the production, financial, marketing and environmental impacts and risks associated with new technology and the potential benefits resulting from improved access to information.
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Economic theory and the behavioral foundations of decision making under uncertainty, in risk assessment, asymmetric risk attitudes, and state-dependent utility.
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The impact of public policy on the risk environment of individuals, firms, and sectors within exogenous trade shocks, food safety regulations, changes in financial and farm insurance institutions, and resource pricing policies.
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Educate stakeholders on economic, environmental and social tradeoffs associated with different resource allocation decisions.
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Improve agriculture and natural resource stakeholders understanding of the sources of conflicts over resource allocation decisions and provide training on how to more effectively manage natural resource conflicts.
Procedures and Activities
As part of our annual process, we develop an annual report which is posted to the NIMSS soon after the annual meeting has taken place. From this annual meeting, held in early summer, proceedings (extended abstracts) and electronic versions of the selected presentations will be posted on the SERA 30 website and the website of the Farm Foundation, our sponsoring agency. At the annual meeting, members of SERA 30 develop a theme and assign individuals to submit a principal paper proposal for the annual meeting of the regional agricultural economics association for the following winter. The SERA 30 group has been very successful at having these principal paper proposals accepted for the meeting and published in their peer-reviewed journal.
The website for SERA 30 is in the process of being developed by cooperators at Louisiana State University. The website is scheduled to be on-line and accessible by the fall of 2006. Proceedings from annual meetings, electronic versions of presentations, and annual reports for the past several years, for which there exist electronic files, will be posted to the website first. Older, paper annual reports and proceedings will be scanned and posted later in 2006. Links to institutions participating in SERA 30 as well as the Farm Foundation will be provided on the SERA 30 website.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Publish proceedings and journal articles of the major issues in the southern region each year based on topics covered at the annual meeting.
- Post extended abstracts and copies of presentations delivered during the annual meeting on a website dedicated to this multistate research project (SERA 30) as well as on the website of a supporting agency such as Farm Foundation so that other researchers can access them for review the materials.
- Develop a set of models for reducing point and nonpoint sources of pollution that can provided to and adopted by state and federal agencies to help them develop pollution control policies and meet the TMDL goal in the southern region in a more economically efficient manner.
- Develop a set of water and forest based recreation models that can delivered to and used by state and federal agencies to manage these resources in a manner that is economically and environmentally beneficial to society.
- Develop extension educational materials on the agro-environmental issues, such as economic and environmental trade-offs of specific agricultural systems or impacts of conservation programs, and post them to the SERA 30 website for extension specialists in the Southern region to use in their extension programs.
- Develop training programs in the management of natural resource conflicts and provide online resources and tools for natural resource conflict management that can be applied by extension specialists and stakeholders in the Southern region.
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
The annual meeting provides opportunity for researchers to share their research results with the other members in the group as well as to USDA and other funding agencies. Members in the group have been encouraging the presentation of on-going research projects by the members and by graduate students working on natural resource and environmental economics issues. This has greatly attracted presenters from all the member universities in each annual meeting. In addition, the group has recently invited participants from 1890 land grant universities from the region. For the first time, the meeting will be hosted by an 1890 school in 2005. This demonstrates the commitment of the group to involve minority researchers and students from the under served universities in the region.
Organization/Governance
This group follows the recommended standard governance for research and extension information exchange groups. This includes the election of a president, a vice-president, and a secretary. All officers are elected for one year term. Administrative guidance will be provided by assigned administrative advisors and a NIFA representative.