Agriculture in the United States is in the midst of a major transition motivated by economic and environmental factors. These include water quality and quantity, soil erosion, and the compatibility of agricultural production practices and the quality of the environment. Within the context of this change, US agricultural policy seeks to balance several objectives including an abundance of food and fibre at reasonable prices, economic security for agricultural producers, and conservation of natural resources. Agricultural chemical use and soil and water quality degradation associated with agricultural production are significant among the environmental problems confronting the United States. In fact, these are now perceived as environmental problems comparable to other environmental problems such as air quality deterioration and the release of toxic pollutants from industrial sources. While the growth of agricultural chemical use is an integral part of the technological revolution in agriculture that has generated major changes in production techniques, uncertainties about the health effects of agricultural chemicals are very important concerns. Severe soil degradation from erosion, compaction, or salinisation can destroy the productive capacity of the soil. It can also impair water quality from sediment and agricultural chemicals. This important new book looks at both of these significant issues - the relationship between agricultural chemical use and the environment and the relationship between soil and water quality degradation associated with agricultural production and the environment.

The process of formulating and implementing telecommunications policy in the United States often seems chaotic and disorganised, with overlapping responsibility and frequent conflicts among federal and state regulators, Congress, the Administration, and the Federal judiciary. There has never been a consensus on what should change and what should remain unaltered. Telecommunications policy has evolved gradually over a relatively long period of time, resulting in a cumulative major transformation. It is still tied, however, to the Communications Act of 1934. Actions have been taken that have gradually moved policy from traditional public utility regulation of a monopoly to greater reliance on market forces and encouragement of competition. The policies are an amalgam incorporating elements from a wide range of political and economic views. There is nothing endemic in this transformation process to guarantee that the resulting policies have led to greater economic efficiency or that they are better in some subjective sense than alternatives that are available. This being the case, what is very useful is an ex post assessment of the policies that have been implemented in order to evaluate their impact. An objective evaluation of the impact of a policy affords an opportunity to make adjustments to it based on the realised economic consequences. This approach to policy making can be looked upon as a learning-by-doing exercise. In this book a number of objective studies based on data from various telecommunications systems are presented. These studies discuss and evaluate policies that have been implemented. In a number of instances, the policies have been misguided. Recommendations to correct the most egregious problems are offered.