This book showcases the power of economic principles to explain and predict issues and current events in the food, agricultural, agribusiness, international trade, natural resources and other sectors. The result is an agricultural economics textbook that provides students and instructors with a clear, up-to-date, and straightforward approach to learning how a market-based economy functions, and how to use simple economic principles for improved decision making. While the primary focus of the book is on microeconomic aspects, agricultural economics has expanded over recent decades to include issues of macroeconomics, international trade, agribusiness, environmental economics, natural resources, and international development. Hence, these topics are also provided with significant coverage.

As the last quarter of 2015 begins, production data show that total red meat and poultry production, aggregated over the first three quarters of 2015, increased by less than 1 percent over the same period of 2014. In the first three quarters of 2015, beef production is about 3 percent below production in the same period last year. Cattle prices so far in 2015 have averaged almost 3 percent above prices in the same period of 2014. Production effects of disease outbreaks link the pork and poultry sectors, but in divergent directions: the pork sector continues to recover from the effects of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PEDv) outbreaks last year, with total production in the first three quarters of 2015 almost 8 percent ahead of the same period in 2014. The poultry sector is recovering from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the effects of which has fallen so far on the turkey sector (2 percent lower production) and the egg sector (5 percent lower production). Turkey prices have averaged almost 6 percent above the same period last year; average egg prices are almost 36 percent above the same period of 2014. Broiler production is up in 2015 by 4 percent.