Maria Bowman

Maria Bowman

Agricultural Economist
maria.bowman@usda.gov

Google Scholar profile

Briefly

Maria is an agricultural economist in the Conservation and Environment Branch of the Resource and Rural Economics Division. She studies the economic and environmental impacts of conservation and soil health management in U.S. agriculture, and co-leads a USDA Inflation Reduction Act Greenhouse Gas Quantification Action Area charged with improving the spatial and temporal coverage of national conservation activity data.

Maria’s previous research focused on the economics of antibiotic use in U.S. livestock operations, economic issues related to process-based/sustainability labeling, agricultural drivers of deforestation in Brazil, and the economics of smallholder agriculture and natural resource use in Brazil and Mozambique.    

Background

Maria worked at USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) from 2014 to 2018 and rejoined USDA, ERS in 2021. From 2018 to 2021, she served as lead scientist for the Soil Health Partnership, a program of the National Corn Growers Association that partnered with farmers to trial soil health management practices and collect on-farm data to evaluate economic and environmental risks and benefits. Maria has also held research and project management roles at the Natural Resources Defense Council (2013–14) and the Woodwell Climate Research Center (2006–08).

Education

Maria earned a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She also earned an M.S. in forestry from Virginia Tech and a B.S. in environmental science from Juniata College.

Selected Publications

Selected Journal Articles

Bowman, M., Poley, K., & McFarland, E. (2022). Farmers employ diverse cover crop management strategies to meet soil health goals. Agricultural and Environmental Letters, 7(1).

Wood, S., & Bowman, M. (2021). Large-scale farmer-led experiment demonstrates positive impact of cover crops on multiple soil health indicators. Nature Food, 2(2), 97–103.

Kuchler, F., Bowman, M., Sweitzer, M., & Greene, C. (2020). Evidence from retail food markets that consumers are confused by natural and organic food labels. Journal of Consumer Policy, 43(2), 379–395.

Sneeringer, S., Short, G., MacLachlan, M., & Bowman, M. (2020). Impacts on livestock producers and veterinarians of FDA policies on use of medically important antibiotics in food animal production. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 42(4), 674–694.

Bowman, M., & Lynch, L. (2019). Government programs that support farmer adoption of soil health practices: a focus on Maryland’s agricultural water quality cost-share program. Choices, 34(2).

Bowman, M., Marshall, K., Kuchler, F., & Lynch, L. (2016). Raised without antibiotics: Lessons from voluntary labeling of antibiotic use practices in the broiler industry. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 98(2), 622–642.

Bowman, M. (2016). Impact of foot-and-mouth disease status on deforestation in Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado municipalities between 2000 and 2010. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 75, 25–40.

Bowman, M., & Zilberman, D. (2013). Economic factors affecting diversified farming systems. Ecology and Society, 18(1).

Bowman, M., Soares-Filho, B., Merry, F., Nepstad, D., Rodrigues, H., & Almeida, O. (2012). Persistence of cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon: a spatial analysis of the rationale for beef production. Land Use Policy, 29(3), 558–568.

Nepstad, D., Soares-Filho, B., Merry, F., Lima, A., Moutinho, P., Carter, J., Bowman, M., Cattaneo, A., Rodrigues, H., Schwartzman, S., McGrath, D. G., Stickler, C. M., Lubowski, R., Piris-Cabezas, P., Rivero, S., Alencar, A., Almeida, O., & Stella, O. (2009). The end of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Science, 326, 1350–1351.