A Statement from the Editors

• Choices is a good communication vehicle, reaching a large number of readers. Importantly for academics, all articles appearing in Choices are peer reviewed. During the period January 1, 2005 to March 31, 2005, our Choices website has had 256,732 total hits, representing the total number of requests made to our server. There were 116,033 hits during the 4^th Quarter of 2004. Consequently, awareness of Choices seems to be on the rise. Most of these hits came from the United States, but many also are from countries around the world.
• We need outreach partners. Please help us reach more people with mailing lists who can join in our outreach partner campaign. See our plea and forms to nominate or agree to be a partner on our outreach page. In this regard, we are pleased to welcome several new outreach partners, including CattleNetwork.com, which will consider redistributing our web page and email announcements to their 15,000 subscribers. Outreach partners are important, not only in helping us increase readership, but also in helping us maintain relevance.
• We are trying to get issues out on time. After this issue, we will strive to publish at the end of each quarter of the year. Please note that our thematic coverage in this issue centers on economic incentives, public policies, and private strategies to control foodborne pathogens, as well as on forces shaping trade—specifically, the WTO, trade agreements, and market integration. Future themes will focus on supply chains, nonmarket valuation, biofuels, GMOs, checkoff programs, the Farm Bill, and tilling Latin American soils.
• Please send us content. We would like to see the profession begin to participate in developing thematic and grab bag submissions. For submission requirements, see our submissions page. We also would like any contributions centered on the Washington Scene—that is, hot issues involving public policy.