Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
An Approach to the Determinants
of the Agricultural Output Dynamics
in the USA
V ´ tor Jo ˜ o Pereira Domingues Martinho
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Introduction
The USA, indeed, has a different reality across its whole economy and in its
agricultural economics being different in several aspects to that of others countries,
namely in the European Union and in the BRICS.
For example, in some European Union countries the extension services for
agriculture were reduced or closed whereas for the USA, Schimmelpfennig
et al. ( 2006 ) found that the extension as well the social science research and
agricultural R&D have had a considerable impact on agricultural efficiency.
Nowadays, climate change in the USA and food security are the main concerns
in policy design (Mukherjee et al. 2013 ). Water quality is another preoccupation for
the USA, but, also, within the European Union. Water quality is affected by
economic factors, a lack of good water management systems, agricultural practices,
and urban expansion (Zia et al. 2013 ). Today, with precision agriculture it is
possible to manage several variables, using advanced technologies. Maintaining a
farm's economic viability while simultaneously preserving the environment,
namely the water quality, is a challenge for the USA (Ghebremichael et al. 2013 ).
The paradigm of agricultural practices changed from the twentieth to the twenty-
first century; now society is interested in sustainable economic activities that do not
damage health or quality of life (Bowman and Zilberman 2013 ). The interactions
between agriculture and the forest can help in the explanations of some environ-
mental problems, namely those related with the greenhouse gas effects in the USA
(Latta et al. 2013 ). The impact of agriculture on air quality is, also, a concern in the
USA, for policy makers (Zhang and Wu 2013 ).
The academy can aid in adjustments to the changes in society. In this way,
academics from several areas were mobilized in the 1930s by the Agricultural
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