We investigate the role of technology in the decision of dairy farmers to convert to organic production methods. We measure the characteristics of the production technology using data from the USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey and a recently developed functional form that allows for a global approximation to the unknown distance function without compromising approximation at the data boundaries. Conventional dairies with lower technical efficiency, higher returns to scale, and the ability to easily substitute away from restricted inputs are more likely to convert to organic production. Findings suggest further consolidation in the conventional industry as low‐performing farms exits for the organic industry.

中文翻译：

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农场级产品转化的决定因素：有机奶产量

我们调查了技术在决定奶农转变为有机生产方法方面的作用。我们使用来自美国农业部农业资源管理调查的数据和最近开发的函数形式（不考虑数据边界的近似值，就可以对未知距离函数进行全局近似）来测量生产技术的特征。具有较低技术效率，较高规模收益以及能够轻松替代受限投入品的常规奶牛场更可能转换为有机生产。研究结果表明，随着低绩效农场退出有机产业，传统产业将进一步整合。