Dr. Michael Farmer

Research Interests

I have a dual appointment in the Departments of Agricultural and Applied Economics and Natural Resource Management. I am an environmental and natural resource economist who works primarily on the relationship between water allocation and land use.
I use a variety of techniques to predict how humans will make land use choices based on markets, environmental policies and ecological conditions. I also work with scientists and engineers to evaluate how human land use choices will affect ecological and environmental outcomes. The most recently focus has been to sharpen numerical and statistical approaches appropriate to evaluating ecological and environmental impacts.
I currently work with small agricultural producers in Malaysian Borneo. This requires a large interdisciplinary effort. We are examining ecologically responsible uses of the Montane tropical "cloud" forests at 900m and above. We hope to identify ways to generate high incomes out of a diverse multi-cropped system which can compete with alternative uses, such as logging or mono-cultured palm oil plantations.

Service

I currently serve as an advisor on the largest inter-state water use dispute in the nation and have just completed work in China on water allocation planning.

Courses Taught

NRM 4320 Natural Resource Policy

Recent Publications

Farmer, MC, Benson, A., Liu, X., Capareda, S., Middleton, M. 2013. "Feasibility of an Adaptable Biorefinery Platform: Addressing the Delivery Scale Dilemma under Drought Risk." Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. 45.4: 1–15.

Farmer, M.C. 2013. "Setting up an Ethics of Ecosystem Research Structure from the Precautionary Principle" ILAR Journal. 54.1:58-62.

Farmer, M.C., Wallace, M., and Shiroya, M. 2012. "Bird Diversity indicates ecological value in home prices." Urban Ecosystems. 16.3. 131-144.

Ramesh, R., K. Griffis-Kyle, G. Perry, and M. Farmer. 2012. "Urban amphibians of the Texas Panhandle: Baseline inventory and habitat associations in a drought year." Reptiles & Amphibians 19.4: 243–253.

Belasco, E., Farmer, M.C., Lipscomb, C. 2012. "Using a Finite Mixture Model of Heterogeneous Households to Delineate Housing Submarkets." Journal of Real Estate Research. 34:4. 577-594.

Liu, X., Farmer, M., & Capareda, S. 2012. "Supply variation of agricultural residues and its effects on regional bioenergy development." AgBioForum, 15.3: 315-327.

Farmer, M.C. and Shiroya, M.S. 2012. "Using Housing Market Information to Improve Evaluation of Physical Activity." International Journal of Exercise Science 6.2: 32.