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This study analyzed the competitiveness of peanuts for the U.S. and China over the 1988-93 period. Economic cost, cost components, yield, and net returns were examined using the Mann-Whitney test. Results indicate that net returns to farm management and risk in peanut production were substantially lower in both the domestic and world markets for American peanut producers than for Chinese peanut producers due to higher economic cost in American peanut production. American peanuts were less competitive than Chinese peanuts in terms of costs and net returns. Findings suggest that reducing costs and improving economic efficiency of production should be the most important priority for the U.S. peanut industry as the world moves toward freer trade. The future competitiveness of U.S. peanuts not only depends on its high quality, but also depends on its relative price in the domestic and international markets.

The factors which influence consumer usage of food labels are investigated by a qualitative response model using the 1987–1988 Nationwide Food Consumption Survey data. Econometric results show that economic, sociodemographic, and consumer health awareness variables are determinants of food label usage. The implications of these findings include formulating government food labeling regulations and consumer educational programs and evaluating consumer health benefits of using food labels.

Price transmission asymmetry for peanuts used in peanut butter was examined using monthly data from 1984 to 1992. Results show an incomplete price passthrough from the wholesale to the retail level. Furthermore, the results indicate that the initial price response of peanut butter price to a reduction in peanut prices occurs later than the response to an increase in peanut prices. The price transmission is asymmetric in the short-run but symmetric in the long-run. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Japan's import demand for both raw peanuts and processed peanut products was estimated using the Rotterdam model in order to determine the impact of an increase in the Japanese raw peanut quota on peanut imports from the USA and its competitors. The results indicate that if a larger import budget were allocated to raw peanut imports by Japan, most of the increase would be allocated to imports of Chinese raw peanuts. Furthermore, U.S. exports of peanut products could be affected if Japanese expenditures on peanut product imports change as a result of an increase in the quota for raw peanut imports. Thus, this study concludes that an increase in the Japanese import quota for raw peanuts provides only limited market opportunity for U.S. peanut exports, and China appears to benefit more than the USA from an increase in the Japanese raw peanut import quota. In contrast, the value added trade of peanut products could provide a better market opportunity for the U.S. peanut industry.

Attitudes of producers and buyers of farmers' stock peanuts toward different market alternatives were analyzed assuming the absence of the government support program. A multivariate probit model was used to ascertain profiles of producers favoring the private treaty market and the proposed organized markets. Results indicate that computerization of the private treaty market might serve as a basis for implementation of an organized market for farmers' stock peanuts.

Considerable controversy exists with regard to pricing agricultural commodities, especially when pricing departs from classical market concepts dependent on equating supply and demand. In a recent study of alternative Class I pricing systems, it was suggested that “pricing of milk and dairy products is one of the major policy issues to be resolved in the 1970s”. A different pricing system in federal milk orders was considered urgent enough that a concentrated study of pricing alternatives was pursued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dairy farmers in the South have become increasingly interested in gaining a stronger bargaining position in the market arena for the purpose of obtaining a more favorable price for their milk. They have implemented this objective by organizing cooperative associations. Cooperative bargaining relationships have been of three types (1) bargaining between seller and buyer (bilateral competition), (2) bargaining between sellers or bargaining between buyers (interfirm competition), and (3) bargaining in or through the political economy.

Recycling can recover the value of solid waste materials. Recycling reduces solid wastes, conserves virgin materials, and preserves and improves environmental quality. Ideally, it has been stated that “what we must aim for essentially is a steady-state world, one in which per capita consumption has virtually leveled off and the goods used are for the most part produced from recycled materials” [6]. Trends in recycling, however, are not encouraging, and, in fact, resource recovery is losing ground [3, 7].Currently, recycling is largely that of relatively homogeneous waste materials. The Council on Environmental Quality has identified over 50 systems in various stages of development aimed primarily at the technology of recovering materials from mixed wastes [7].