While the workshop is now over, we will be posting the presentations, the workshop summary and report, and information on follow-up activities on this site in the coming days and weeks. Please check back soon or contact us directly. Thank you.

UPDATE 7/15: To download the Executive Summary, click here (Word) or here (PDF).

UPDATE 3/31: Some presentations have been linked on the Schedule page.

To download the input/evaluation form, please click here (Word) or here (PDF).

March 20-21, 2003 in Washington, DC

Purpose
This national workshop will explore potential approaches and practical challenges to the use of performance-based environmental policies for U.S. agriculture. We will draw on the experience and knowledge of a wide array of people, including farmers, watershed stakeholders, environmental scientists, economists, policy makers, regulators, and others.

The Need
Agriculture remains the leading contributor to nonpoint source water pollution in the U.S. Scholars, government officials, and practitioners have identified potential economic and environmental benefits of using performance-based policy approaches to control agricultural pollution. These approaches emphasize flexibility and innovation by farm operators in the pursuit of least-cost solutions. Performance-based policy approaches offer the potential to maintain U.S. agriculture’s competitiveness and are consistent with WTO (green box) rules.

If the theoretical advantages of performance-based environmental approaches are to be fully realized, several practical issues must be resolved. These include the selection of appropriate performance measures, cost-effective performance monitoring, transaction cost reduction, and design of incentive mechanisms.

Workshop Objectives

• Define factors influencing development and implementation of performance-based policies.
• Identify practical strategies to achieve policy design and implementation.
• Design policy approaches for five specific watersheds to use in future pilot testing and analysis.

Project Partners
This workshop is sponsored by Farm Foundation and organized by the Henry A. Wallace Center for Agricultural & Environmental Policy at Winrock International, in collaboration with USDA’s Economic Research Service, the Center for Sustainable Development at the University of California-Berkley, and Defenders of Wildlife.

Sponsored by Farm Foundation.