This report provides information that can help align agricultural legislation with emerging needs and trends. Current policies do not ameliorate conflicts between agricultural production and environmental quality, between trade and the environment, and between agriculture and competitive trade.

This report analyzes what OTA identifies as four pressing challenges for the research system i-n the 1990s: setting priorities in tiding, understanding trends in research expenditures, preparing human resources for the future research work force, and supplying appropriate data for ongoing research decision making. Managing the Federal research system requires more than funding; it means devising ways to retain the diversity and creativity that have distinguished U.S. contributions to scientific knowledge.

Part I of the report discusses how the meaning of “the press” has expanded from printed material to include a wide range of broadcast and electronic media. Satellites, computers, electronic bulletin boards, teletex, videotext, and other new ways of gathering, editing, and delivering news are blurring legal and regulatory distinctions between common carriers and “the press, ” thus changing arguments about the constitutional rights that they have each enjoyed. Part II addresses freedom of speech and press as they apply to scientific communications and technological know-how. As science and technology become ever more important to our economy and our military strength, the delicate balance between individual rights and the national interest becomes both more important and more difficult to maintain.

This report examines two problems facing small communities surrounded by large-scale agriculture: 1) the emerging opposition of the social and economic interests dividing agribusiness and the rural community, and 2) the lack of articulation of social programs to rural areas.

The paper has six major purposes, in order to analyze the uses of tests used in vocational programs, particularly those designed to measure broad technical skills, identify trends in vocational assessment, and identify policy issues relevant to improving test development and quality.

This report examines the environmental and human health impacts from wastes dumped into the Arctic and North Pacific regions, from nuclear contaminants discharged into these environments, and from radioactive releases from both past and future nuclear activities in the region. The report presents what is known and unknown about this waste and contamination and how it may affect public health.

This report includes these topics: Potential environmental impact of widespread releases of non-ice nucleating bacteria in agriculture / D.A. Andow, S.S. Snapp, and P.S. Teng -- An assessment of the impact of large-scale applications of ice-minus bacteria and other procedures designed to decrease population sizes of ice-nucleative-active bacteria on crops / Christen D. Upper, Susan S. Hirano, Gabor Vali.

This report discusses the power of new tools for teaching and learning

This report is one of two that the Office of Technology Assessment completed in an assessment of the issues in grain quality for Congress. The first, Enhancing the Quality of U.S. Grain in International Trade, focuses on the U.S. grain system and possible changes within that system to enhance grain quality. To consider this issue fully, it is important to understand the grain systems of major competitors, a subject covered in this report.

This report represents a significant cooperative effort on the part of Canadian and U.S. Government agencies, railroads, and labor groups in creating mutual understanding of railroad safety policy and programs.

This report is intended as an introduction to and overview of the issues that affect multinational firms and the U.S. technology base.

This report examines the technological and institutional aspects of biological data relevant to maintaining biological diversity in the United States focusing primarily on Federal data collection efforts.

A study by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "assesses the technical alternatives to continued reliance on southern Africa and the U.S.S.R. for strategic metals" (p. iii).

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that addresses issues of "the roles of the research participants, long-range research priority planning, funding for research, and the organizational structure of the food and agricultural research organizations" as they relate to increasing demands on agricultural resources (p. iii).

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "evaluates changes and modifications in the present grading system which would facilitate consumer choices, examines the major issues associated with these changes, and outlines alternative approaches to implementing these changes" (p. ii).

An assessment by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "surveys the contribution of the forest products industry to the U.S. economy, the ability of the industry and the U.S. forest resource to satisfy expected domestic demands for wood, the competitiveness of U.S. Forest products on world markets, and the role of technology in stretching the U.S. forest resource and providing products that satisfy domestic needs as well as international markets" (p. iii).

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that focuses on analyzing the "materials problems related to sudden discontinuities in the long-range supply/demand of a given material, resulting in complete or partial disruptions and abrupt price changes" (p. vii).

This report responds to a request from the Technology Assessment Board—the congressional oversight body for the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)–prompted by the balance-of-trade and other economic implications of these events. The report describes the conditions the domestic and world copper industry faced during the early 1980s. It documents the steps U.S. copper companies took to improve their position so dramatically in the mid-980s, and evaluates the industry’s present and possible future status, including relative costs of production and the elements of those costs.

A collection of papers prepared by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "presents a broad range of papers on specific technologies that could benefit both agricultural production and wildlife habitat requirements on private lands" (p. iii).

This report examines how the economic environment of the United States can be made more conducive to improving manufacturing performance. It considers how Federal institutions, in cooperation with industry, can develop competitiveness strategies for high-tech, fast growing industries; and how trade, financial, and technology policies could be combined into a strategic competitiveness policy.

This special report analyzes the causes of the deterioration in America’s trade performance and examines the importance of U.S. manufacturing in helping the nation improve its position in international trade. The report was requested by Senator John Heinz as part of an assessment of technology, innovation and U.S. trade requested by the Senate Committee on Finance; the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs. A final report will be published in 1989.

This special report is the fourth in a series of OTA studies being carried out under an assessment of “New Developments in Biotechnology, ” requested by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. This fourth report in the series describes the levels and types of investment currently being made by the Federal, State, and private sectors. Ten major issues that affect investment were identified.

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) on the "possible effects on society of coal slurry pipeline development, a comparison of pipeline and unit train costs, and an analysis of relevant legal and regulatory issues" (Foreword).

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "examines the record of assistance to nine nations of the Sahel in West Africa, explores the lessons learned in a decade of efforts, and suggests policy implications for more effective U.S. assistance there and elsewhere in Africa" (p. iii).