An Economist’s Take on the Plastic Straw Debate
Three controversial bills were recently introduced in the Montana legislature to prohibit restaurants from providing…
Author Diane Charlton
Diane Charlton
Diane Charlton is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. She received her Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of California, Davis. She has done research on agricultural labor markets in Mexico and the United States along with researching the determinants of migration. She never tires of talking about agriculture with her sister and brother-in-law from their almond orchard in the Central Valley of California, and she is looking forward to learning more about and researching agricultural production in Montana and the northern Great Plains.
New Report Shows Evidence of Tightening Farm Labor Supply
The government shutdown continues into its second week, and one of the primary issues is contention over…
Farm Workers and Health Care
I recently visited two Ag Worker Health & Services clinics to learn about health…
The Produce Safety Rule: Implications Differ for Small Producers
Shortly after I moved to Bozeman I toured Root Cellar Foods, a processing and distribution…
The Give and Take of Trade Renegotiations
This month I attended a discussion on the effects of the North American Free Trade…
Raising Sheep for Meat, Wool, or Both
A couple weeks ago I visited a friend’s sheep ranch in western Idaho for Fourth…
Brexit: Implications and Parallels
The Department of Agricultural Economics & Economics at MSU led a class of students to…
Traceability: When Is It Worth It?
In a previous post, I described some of the potential gains to improving traceability in…
Finding the Role for Smaller Family Farms in an Era of Rapid Consolidation
U.S. agriculture is trending towards greater consolidation. The number of U.S. farms in operation has…
Local Meat Processing Plant or Improved Beef Traceability System
In his recent post on the trade agreement between Montana Stockgrowers Association and the…