. "Accounting for Natural Resources in Income and Productivity Measurements." Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1999.
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TABLE 3 Net Farm Income: Conventional versus Natural Resource Accounting (dollars per acre per year)
Item Accounting
Conventional Accounting
Natural Resource
Gross operating margin
75
75
Less soil depreciation
—
24
Net farm operating income
75
51
Plus government commodity subsidy
16
16
Net farm income
91
67
When a soil depreciation allowance is included, the gross operating margin is adjusted ($24) to obtain net farm income ($51). The depreciation allowance is an estimate of the present value of future income losses due to the impact of crop production on soil quality. The same government payment is added to determine net farm income ($67).
Net economic value (Table 4, column 3) subtracts $49 as an adjustment for off-site costs of soil erosion (such as sedimentation, impacts on recreation and fisheries, and effects on downstream water users).2 Net economic value also includes the on-site soil depreciation allowance, but excludes income support payments. Farmers do not bear the off-site costs directly, but these are real economic costs attributable to agricultural production and should be considered in calculating net economic value to society. Subsidy payments, by contrast, are a
TABLE 4 Net Economic Value: Conventional versus Natural Resource Accounting (dollars per acre per year)
