Because of the potential malleability of stated and revealed preferences for new food technologies and attributes, this research sought to determine consumers' food value systems by utilizing recent advances in best-worst scaling. Based on previous literature related to human values and food preferences, a list of eleven food values was compiled. Results reveal that on average the values of safety, nutrition, taste, and price were among the most important to consumers, whereas the values of fairness, tradition, and origin were among the least important; however, there was significant heterogeneity in the relative importance placed on food values. Results indicate that food values are significantly related to consumers' stated and revealed preferences for organic food. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of credit constraints on production for farm and nonfarm sole proprietorships. A propensity score-matching estimator is employed to provide unbiased estimates of the production impacts of being denied credit. The empirical results demonstrate that the value of production is significantly lower for credit-constrained sole proprietorships. If this drop in the value of production is aggregated to a national level, it constitutes only 3% and 13% of total value of production for farm and nonfarm sole proprietorships, respectively. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.

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Rural broadband infrastructure and service has received a significant amount of funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds should increase broadband availability, but will broadband be used in rural areas and in particular by farmers? This paper uses Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to investigate why the majority of U.S. farmers choose not to use the Internet in their farm business. Although frequently cited by policymakers, concerns about inadequate Internet service or security actually account for a small percentage of responses. This research identifies targeted educational programs that focus on alleviating perceived barriers to Internet use.