Farm Policy Reform and the Environment

Abstract

U.S. farm policy in the 1980s was marked by three significant developments: the international farm policy reform movement, the active participation by environment interests in the writing of the 1985 and 1990 farm bills, and the federal budget constraint. These developments raise new questions for farm policy. What are the environmental implications of domestic and international farm policy reform? Can both agricultural and environmental policy objectives be met in one piece of legislation? How does the federal budget constraint affect the feasible set of policy options? The goal of this paper is to outline an analytical framework that integrates technological, economic, and political factors for analysis of agricultural-environmental policy and to draw some preliminary conclusions about the environmental implications of the 1990 farm bill and trade liberalization