Recent changes in both the supply and demand for palm oil are rapidly changing the face of its world market. The underlying cause of this change is tension between conflicting desires: economic growth and environmental protection, which drive the choices of palm oil producers, consumers, and policy makers. The future of the palm oil industry, […]
Archive | May, 2015
“You Quit??” – Small Farmer Contracting and the Importance of Dropout
Over the past 20 years, international trade liberalization and various reforms have dismantled many government controls on agricultural markets in the developing world, opening new commercial spheres for farm products and new marketing choices for farmers in the Global South[1]. One class of these opportunities is linked to the modernization and expansion of agricultural value […]
Reviewing USDA’s Revised Conservation Compliance Regulation
On Friday, April 24, 2015, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) published its regulation for attaching conservation compliance to the portion of premium covered by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), known as premium subsidy. Section 2611 of the 2014 Farm Bill (Agricultural Act of 2014) made Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and Wetlands conservation compliance provisions […]