On how environmental stringency influences adoption of best management practices in agriculture

There are relatively few Federal environmental regulations that influence agricultural production in the US. However, many local and state environmental rules may influence the management practices on US farms as might interactions between urban population centers and agricultural producers. Detailed analysis of corn farms gives insight into these realtionships and suggests that stringent environmental regulations could increase the likelihood of adoption of certain conservation practices, all else being constant, but that the interaction between urban populations has less of an effect on the adoption decisions. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.