Biodiesel is a renewable, non-toxic, and biodegradable diesel fuel made from agricultural feedstocks. With a vibrant agricultural industry, Oregon is positioned to play an important role in the future of this energy source. Limiting factors to widespread biodiesel production include low value of biodiesel feedstock crops, lack of infrastructure, lagging...
Oregon is the number one producer of cool-season grass seed in the United
States. The center of the grass seed industry of Oregon is located in the Willamette
Valley, where about 470,000 acres of seed are grown. Innovative grass seed growers
of the area are beginning to implement precision agriculture...
A number of researchers view farmers’ markets as an appropriate vehicle for
re-embedding food markets into communities (O’Hara & Stagl, 2001, Feenstra, 2002,
Lyson, 2005). Amidst astounding growth in the number of farmers’ markets in the
United States in recent decades, many markets struggle and fail. Recent research
suggests that...
Thesis summarizes interviews with growers residing within the Groundwater Management Area (GWMA) in the Southern Willamette Valley of Oregon. Informal and semi-structured interviews were used to identify perceived impediments and incentives perceived by local farmers in following best management practices related to water quality. Results from the interviews were coded...
"Farmers' markets are valuable market channels for small farmers and important venues for the economic, nutritional, and social lives of communities. Efforts to make farmers' markets sustainable should focus on two influences on markets: external (related to public policy) and internal (related to market management). Well-crafted public policy is needed...
"The topic of market failure is rarely addressed in the literature. This report represents a starting point. It describes the dynamics of farmers' market startups, closures, and manager turnover. It focuses on two important resources--administrative revenue and labor--used by farmers' markets. Data for a sample of markets that failed are...
Most farmers’ markets lack information to make effective
changes and improvements. We have designed three
simple, low-cost methods to address the information gaps.
The first two—attendance counts and dot surveys—are
quantitative and can be used independently by markets.
The third method is the more complete Rapid Market
Assessment (RMA), which...
The first objective of this research is to develop primal and dual models of firm
behavior that incorporate firms' conjectures of their market power positions. The second
is to empirically test for the presence of market power in eastern Oregon's stumpage and
lumber markets. Eastern Oregon was chosen since it...
A study was conducted using data collected from a sample of mint and
vegetable farmers in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The study identifies the
influence of demographic differences, economic factors and irrigator attitudes on
irrigation efficiency.
Only two of the 19 characteristics theorized to influence irrigation
efficiency proved to...
This ethnographic study examined some of the ways that global markets and the infrastructure of agribusiness affect local smallholder farmers in the Ten Rivers region who are transitioning toward more sustainable and traditional agricultural methods. The purpose of this research was to discover what barriers smallholder farmers face in developing...