This report reviews recent trends in agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and discusses the impact of a wide range of policies on the creation and diffusion of innovation in the agricultural and agrifood sector. It suggests a framework for ...

The enactment of the America COMPETES Act in 2006 (and its reauthorization in 2010), the increase in research expenditures under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and President Obama's general emphasis on the contribution of science and technology to economic growth have all heightened interest in the role of scientific and engineering research in creating jobs, generating innovative technologies, spawning new industries, improving health, and producing other economic and societal benefits. Along with this interest has come a renewed emphasis on a question that has been asked for decades: Can the impacts and practical benefits of research to society be measured either quantitatively or qualitatively? On April 18-19, 2011, the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) and the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP) of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, held a workshop to examine this question. The workshop sought to assemble the range of work that has been done in measuring research outcomes and to provide a forum to discuss its method. The workshop was motivated by a 2009 letter from Congressman Rush Holt (D-New Jersey). He asked the National Academies to look into a variety of complex and interconnected issues, such as the short-term and long-term economic and non-economic impact of federal research funding, factors that determine whether federally funded research discoveries result in economic benefits, and quantification of the impacts of research on national security, the environment, health, education, public welfare, and decision making. Measuring the Impacts of Federal Investments in Research provides the key observations and suggestions made by the speakers at the workshop and during the discussions that followed the formal presentations.

This Non-timber Forest Products' assessment serves as a baseline science synthesis and provides information for managing non-timber forest resources in the United States. This report provides technical input to the 2017 National Climate Assessment and closely follows the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) process. You will find an overview of the findings and interrelated discussions covering aspects of biophysical, social, cultural, economic, and policy dimensions of non-timber forest products and the implications of the effects of climatic variabilities and change for them. Appendix information summarizes non-timber forest products relative to geographic regions across the country. Related products: Other products produced by the U.S. Forest Service (Department of Agriculture/USDA) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/us-forest-service Find more Federal documents relating to Climate & Weather resources here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/weather-climate

The Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, Three Volume Set covers the hottest topics in the science of food sustainability, providing a synopsis of the path society is on to secure food for a growing population. It investigates the focal issue of sustainable food production in relation to the effects of global change on food resources, biodiversity and global food security. This collection of methodological approaches and knowledge derived from expert authors around the world offers the research community, food industry, scientists and students with the knowledge to relate to, and report on, the novel challenges of food production and sustainability. This comprehensive encyclopedia will act as a platform to show how an interdisciplinary approach and closer collaboration between the scientific and industrial communities is necessary to strengthen our existing capacity to generate and share research data. Offers readers a ‘one-stop’ resource on the topic of food security and sustainability Contains articles split into sections based on the various dimensions of Food Security and Food Sustainability Written by academics and practitioners from various fields and regions with a “farm to fork understanding Includes concise and accessible chapters, providing an authoritative introduction for non-specialists and readers from undergraduate level upwards, as well as up-to-date foundational content for those familiar with the field

Genetic engineering is changing the terrain of development studies. Technologies with unprecedented potential - the capacity to move genes across species - have created widely politicized phenomena: ‘Frankenfoods’, ‘GMOs’, and ‘The Terminator’. En masse, the public has reacted with equanimity or appreciation to genetically engineered pharmaceuticals, beginning with insulin, but transgenics in food and agriculture have raised a globally contentious politics. This book begins with the needs of the poor - for income, nutrition, environmental integrity - and evaluates the theory and evidence for contributions from transgenic crops. Social scientists with expertise in regional studies, economics, sociology, agriculture and political science join biologists to bring specialized knowledge on genuinely new questions created by the genomics revolution; questions of: ecological integrity biodiversity international trade the costs and effectiveness of biosafety protocols. The authors collectively conclude that predictions of disaster for the poor from transgenic technology are uninformed by empirical results, rest on misunderstandings of biotechnology or the poor or both, or get the science wrong. Yet the triumphalism of pro-transgenic forces, however, must be tempered by serious unanswered questions: much is unknown, but the transgenic genie is out of the bottle. In this much-needed book, an emergent empirical literature allows scholars in disciplines ranging from micro-biology to economics and political science to assess the potential effects of transgenic organisms on poverty through multiple dynamics of property, yields, prices, biodiversity, environmental integrity and nutrition.

What do economists know about land-and how they know? The Oxford Handbook of Land Economics describes the latest developments in the fields of economics that examine land, including natural resource economics, environmental economics, regional science, and urban economics. The handbook argues, first, that land is a theme that integrates these fields and second, that productive integration increasingly occurs not just within economics but also across disciplines. Greater recognition and integration stimulates cross-fertilization among the fields of land economics research. By providing a comprehensive survey of land-related work in several economics fields, this handbook provides the basic tools needed for economists to redefine the scope and focus of their work to better incorporate the contemporary thinking from other fields and to push out the frontiers of land economics. The first section presents recent advances in the analysis of major drivers of land use change, focusing on economic development and various land-use markets. The second section presents economic research on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of land use and land use change. The third section addresses six cutting-edge approaches for land economics research, including spatial econometric, simulation, and experimental methods. The section also includes a synthetic chapter critically reviewing methodological advances. The fourth section covers policy issues. Four chapters disentangle the economics of land conservation and preservation, while three chapters examine the economic analysis of the legal institutions of land use. These chapters focus on law and economic problems of permissible government control of land in the U.S. context.