The extent to which individual factors influence the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is estimated using a logit model and data from a 1990 survey of West Virginia producers. The results are, as expected, different than those for conventional agricultural technologies. For example, the effects of human capital characteristics are significant, while those for structural and institutional characteristics are not. However, the likelihood of adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is affected most by the environmental characteristic of whether or not the producer is aware that ground water contamination exists on his farm. This creates an important “awareness effect” upon which policies to promote sustainable agriculture adoption can be formulated. It also implies the existence of a derived demand for sustainable agriculture.

A recursive system of ordered self assessed health together with BRFSS data were used to investigate health and obesity in the Appalachian state of West Virginia. Implications of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity of lifestyle outcomes on health were investigated. Obesity was found to be an endogenous lifestyle outcome associated with impaired health status. Risk of obesity is found to increase at a decreasing rate with per capita income and age. Intervention measures which stimulate human capital development, diet-disease knowledge and careful land use planning may improve health and obesity outcomes in Appalachia in particular and rural America in general.

A new, post-industrial, paradigm for agriculture is emerging under the concept of sustainable agriculture. The sustainability paradigm has emerged to solve problems created by the industrial model, primarily environmental pollution and resource base degradation. The role of farm size in this transformation to a more sustainable agriculture is the issue addressed. Using a descriptive approach, and relying on a survey of the literature including emerging paradigms and observations, we conclude that, from a sustainability perspective, the smallest effective size will be the most competitive size for farms, as for other knowledge-based enterprises of the future.

Much hill land pasture in the Appalachians is brush infested. Reclannation procedures which are low cost and require low input are needed to provide hill land pasture owners with ways to maintain production on these lands. A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of grazing either sheep {Ovis sp.) or goats (Capra sp.) separately or in combination for brush clearing on hill land pasture. Cutting or herbicide followed by grazing with sheep or goats were also compared. The experiment was conducted on a 1.8 ha powerline right of way for five years (1986 to 1990). Goats reduced brush cover from 45 % to just over 15 % in one year. Sheep took 3 years to bring about the same result. Cutting and herbicide application increased animal effectiveness, primarily that of sheep, but increased costs. Three year variable costs for brush clearing with goats were estimated at $33 ha~', sheep cost was $262 ha~\ while cutting costs were S133 and herbicide $593 ha"'. Brush was cleared more cost effectively and rapidly by goats, but at the end of 5 years all treatments reduced brush cover to 2 %.

To understand the factors that influence farm direct marketing, a linear regression model is estimated to test the relationships between county-level direct market sales and socioeconomic, agricultural production, and location characteristics for West Virginia. The results show that higher median housing value, increased population density, a younger population, a greater number of direct market farms, more diversity of fruit and vegetable production and closer proximity to Washington, D.C., increase direct market sales. The results have implications for other states with a large proportion of small and part-time farmers, many of whom are located in close proximity to metropolitan areas.