Modeling Agroecosystem Services for Policy Analysis *

* Paper for the Workshop and Policy Round Table on: California Agroecosystem Services: Assessment, Valuation and Policy Perspectives, University of California at Davis,September, 2007, sponsored by University of California Agricultural Issues Center and California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops ,California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. ** Antle is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University. Agriculture is a critically important managed ecosystem, and ecosystem services (ES) are the most important non-market goods provided by agriculture. ES are the benefits accrued from services naturally provided by the environment from which human beings and other organisms benefit. They are “the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life” (Daily, 1997) by “purifying air and water, detoxifying and decomposing waste, renewing soil fertility, regulating climate, mitigating droughts and floods, controlling pests, and pollinating plants” (Salzman, Thompson, and Daily, 2001).