Abstract
The United States has a long history of regulation of both private-sector activity and public resources in agriculture and food. Some regulation has been aimed at creating, encouraging, or controlling agricultural technology, mostly in pursuit of public health and safety, but in some cases best understood as a political response to interests supporting or opposing technological innovations. Other policy effects on agricultural technology are unintended consequences of price and income support programs. In recent years there have been recurrent efforts to harness farm commodity support programs in service of influencing the implemented technology in U.S. farming, particularly technology promoting conservation and environmental policy. The chapter uses historical examples of policy/technology interaction to examine the prospects for joint pursuit of technological and income support goals in the future. Both the likelihood of success and the desirability of results, from a welfare economic viewpoint, are questionable in light of political experience.
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Gardner, B. (2006). Regulation of Technology in the Context of U.S. Agricultural Policy. In: Just, R.E., Alston, J.M., Zilberman, D. (eds) Regulating Agricultural Biotechnology: Economics and Policy. Natural Resource Management and Policy, vol 30. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36953-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36953-2_4
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