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The purpose of this article is to investigate how land tenure correlates with measures of profitability among young farmers and ranchers in the United States. The authors hypothesize that young producers who own a larger proportion of their operation face different incentives between short- and long-run returns than young producers who primarily rent their land. The authors analyze whether these differing incentives result in observable differences in various measures of profitability.

The authors use state-level data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) from 2003 to 2018 to estimate fixed-effects panel models correlating land tenure with the value of farm production, expenditures on repairs and maintenance, net farm income, total operator household income from farming, rate of return on assets (ROA) and rate of return on equity (ROE).

The authors find different correlations for crop farms and livestock farms, as well as different correlations for farms with the lowest and highest gross sales. For crop farms, renting land is associated with higher production, higher income, higher ROA and higher ROE. For livestock farms, renting land is associated with lower production.

This study rigorously investigates the role of land tenure specifically among young farmers and ranchers in the United States. By better understanding how land ownership affects profitability among beginning farmers and ranchers, policymakers will be able to better target public resources to support the next generation of producers.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an emergent supply chain management system that supports a sustainable values based organization (VBO) using a structuration theory‐based framework.

A case study of a sustainable beef cooperative employing a structuration theory framework provides insights into sustainable supply chain management models.

The supply chain design and management afford the key to the VBO's success. In order to attain the necessary price premium, the unique product attributes acquired through the natural beef production process must be sustained along the entire supply chain and communicated to the end customer. Structuration theory is useful in understanding supply chain management in VBOs.

The paper has implications for studying VBOs, particularly those prioritizing sustainability values. The descriptive model presented is useful in settings where organizational structure and the supply chain are needed to support sustainable products and processes and whose success is facilitated by establishing strategic partners, especially those that make possible economies of scale. The study is limited to one, privately owned firm, operating in a specialty industry sector.

The paper has implications for those entities with an identified values set that endows the product with unique characteristics that must be conveyed to their end consumer in order to command a price premium and/or differentiate the product from a commodity. The case study provides an example of how a unique product as well as a facilitating organizational structure and supply chain emerge out of the application of a set of core values.

Little previous research focuses on implications of supply chain management in VBOs. In addition, the paper contributes to both the supply chain management and sustainability literature by relating supply chain management to a more comprehensive sustainability agenda including social, environmental, and long‐term economic sustainability and by a theoretically based structuring.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the US Secretary of Agriculture to report on the profitability and viability of beginning farmers and ranchers. Many beginning operations use local food markets as they provide more control, or a premium over commodity prices, and beginning operations cannot yet take advantage of economies of scale and subsequently have higher costs of production. Little research assesses the relationship between beginning farmer profitability and sales through local food markets. In this paper, the profitability implications of sales through local food markets for beginning farmers and ranchers are explored.

The authors utilize 2013–2016 USDA agricultural resource management survey data to assess the financial performance of US beginning farmers and ranchers who generate sales through local food markets.

The results point to four important takeaways to support beginning operations. (1) Local food channels can be viable marketing opportunities for beginning operations. (2) There are differences when using short- and long-term financial performance indicators, which may indicate that there is benefit to promoting lean management strategies to support beginning operations. (3) Beginning operations with intermediated local food sales, on average, perform better than those operations with direct-to-consumer sales. (4) Diversification across local food market channel types does not appear to be an indicator of improved financial performance.

This article is the first to focus on the relationship beginning local food sales and beginning farmer financial performance. It incorporates short-term and long-term measures of financial performance and differentiates sales by four local food market type classifications: direct-to-consumer sales at farmers markets, other direct-to-consumer sales, direct-to-retail sales and direct-to-regional distributor or institution sales.

Beginning farmers have unique challenges securing credit because they are less likely to have established sales and collateral for secured loans. This article explores US beginning farmers’ financing strategies relative to those of established operations, with a focus on the source of financing and debt structure (short- vs long-term usage). Agricultural operations commonly use nontraditional financing tools and strategies to start, build and/or sustain their businesses. This article provides a comparative overview of financing strategies comparing established operators to operations with only beginning operators, as well as those multigenerational operations with at least one beginning operator.

The study uses 2013–2016 USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to explore how various financing patterns vary across US beginning farmers and ranchers with a particular focus on understanding differences where (1) all operators are beginning, (2) there is a mix of beginning and established operators and (3) all operators are established.

This article explores how the nature of beginning farmer status, human capital resources and alternative marketing strategies may influence financial management strategies and lead to differential use of nontraditional financing sources for beginning farmers and ranchers.

Though exploratory, the authors hope that attention to patterns among US beginning farmers and ranchers of reliance on human capital resources including off-farm income and type of beginning farm operation, nontraditional government support programs and alternative marketing strategies can provide important information as to the role of nontraditional credit in the US farm economy.

On the evening of 22 December 1988 the world lost one of its most dedicated environmental leaders. Chico Mendes, born Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, was shot down by ranchers as he walked out of the back door of his home in Xapuri, Brazil. Although Mendes achieved worldwide recognition for his efforts to protect the Amazonian rain forest and, in fact, has been proclaimed an “eco‐martyr,” his original and foremost concern was securing workers' rights for the indigenous people of the forest and preserving the land they lived on.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the viability of free market environmentalism. This is the philosophy that has as its basic premise the view that laissez faire capitalism and concomitant private property rights, far from being an impediment to the well-functioning of the environment, are actually the last best hope for this desiderata.

The prairie dog and the ferret are not the species usually associated with concern over endangerment. Typically, it is the whale, the elephant and the rhino that are subjected to such an analysis. The authors approach this issue through the “eyeglasses” of the economist who sees value in our free enterprise institutions.

The authors found that the tragedy of the commons works in this case as it does in all other relevant venues: if land is not privately held, but rather open to all, a tragedy occurs: there is economics misallocation and a too swift use of resources compared to the optimal situation.

The authors know of no other examination of the prairie dog and the ferret in the Conata Basin. This is an important case in point in amassing evidence of the workings of the private property system vis-à-vis the environment.

In recent years, socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers have increased their usage of nontraditional lending nearly converging to levels of usage observed for nonsocially disadvantaged groups. The purpose of this research is to explore explanations for this trend in lending utilization by socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers by examining factors that influence credit usage and credit choice.

A multinomial logit is used to estimate the probability of loan choice given characteristics of the producer and farm.

While not a causal analysis, the results suggest that farm characteristics, which differ between socially disadvantaged and nonsocially disadvantaged producers, are associated with a lower likelihood of credit usage by an average socially disadvantaged farmer. For those that have loans, socially disadvantaged producers exhibit higher debt-to-asset ratios and lower current ratios, characteristics that are typically associated with higher than observed probability of usage of loans other than nontraditional. Socially disadvantaged producers also have lower value of assets which is associated with a higher probability of nontraditional loan usage.

This research is among the first to examine loan usage of socially disadvantaged producers using nationally representative data.

Beginning farmers and ranchers (BFRs) are more likely to access land through an unrelated landowner than through family. Thus, farm and ranch owners who might transfer their land or businesses out of family are potential sources of land access for BFRs and are the most frequent participants in incentive programs to facilitate land transfer to BFRs. To assist in identifying landowners who might transfer out of family, the paper aims to explore similarities and differences between landowners according to their expectations for intra-familial versus extra-familial farm transfer.

Pairwise and regression analysis of USA Midwestern and Plains landowners' responses to an online survey (n = 322).

Landowners who might transfer out of family were likely to need the proceeds from a land sale to finance their retirement. Landowners' financial needs interacted with their widespread interest in transferring to a BFR such that 97% of owners who expected extra-familial transfer wanted to transfer to a BFR. There were also statistical patterns around the size of owners' landholdings in relation to their transfer plans.

This exploratory inquiry suggests patterns for future research to examine, especially around landowners' juxtaposition of their retirement income and their interest in transferring to a BFR and how to align these priorities and values.

By exploring the characteristics of landowners who are the most likely to provide land access to BFRs, the authors begin to examine how to target these owners in program outreach. Patterns for further exploration point to landowners' financial needs in relation to their interest in helping a BFR to get started in agriculture.

The purpose of this paper is to examine credit usage by beginning farmers and ranchers (BFR). BFR credit usage is stratified by location (state) and by socially disadvantaged farmer and rancher (SDFR, also known as historically underserved) status. SDFR groups are defined to include women; individuals with Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin; individuals who identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Non-SDFR is defined as individuals who identify as non-Hispanic, White men.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture, Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) is linked with Farm Service Agency (FSA) loan program administrative data to estimate shares of BFR operations using FSA credit. Census data provided information on population changes in total farms and BFR operations from 2012 to 2017 which are compared by SDFR status.

Results reveal differences among BFR operations active in agricultural credit markets by SDFR status and state. BFR were more common among SDFR groups as well as in regions where farms tend to be smaller, such as the Northeast, compared to a more highly agricultural upper Midwest. Among BFR, non-SDFR are more likely to utilize credit than SDFR, however, FSA appeared to be crucial in enabling BFR and especially beginning SDFR groups to access loans.

The results are timely and of keen interest to researchers, industry and policymakers and are expected to assist in developing and adjusting policies to effectively promote and improve BFR success in general and for beginning SDFR groups.