Strong coverage of macroeconomics, the role of government, and international agricultural trade: New! Restructured chapter on macroeconomics of agriculture where the decade-by-decade history review has been replaced by a graphical presentation of how changes in macroeconomic policy affect farm revenue, profit, land prices, and producer net worth. New! Redesign of chapters dealing with international agricultural trade where four chapters have been reduced to three chapters with no loss in coverage of key concepts. Examines how macroeconomic policy, government regulations and international trade agreements impact farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, financial institutions, and consumers of food and fiber products. Coverage of macroeconomics and agricultural programs and policies allows students to further understand the domestic market economy. Coverage of international trade helps students understand events in today's global economy. Building block approach: New! Updated tables and figures from the fifth edition address changes in the economy in recent years. New! Updated chapter on the role of government in agriculture offers coverage of farm policy and particularly insights into the new Farm Bill. Provides students with a systematic introduction to the basic concepts and issues in economics as they relate to both the food and fiber industry. Focuses first on individual consumer and producer decision making, then market equilibrium and economic conditions, then government intervention in agriculture, then macroeconomic policy, and finally international trade. Covers natural resource issues and government programs indigenous to the agricultural sector. Addresses Policy implications in the respective chapters. Includes extensive treatment of the important concept of demand and elasticity and its relevance to understanding revenue and economic welfare implications. Introduces the notion of production and the supply curve for the firm, along with market equilibrium. Covers perfect and imperfect competition to complete the picture of microeconomics. Extensive chapter review: New! Expanded TEQ (Testing Your Economic Quotient) questions at the end of each chapter help students test their understanding of material in each chapter and give them an idea of what potential test questions may look like. Each chapter contains an extensive list of questions designed to test student comprehension of the material covered. These questions are labeled EQs (economic quotients). An instructor's manual is provided with answers to the EQ questions, and a test bank is provided with answers.