Should states be in the agricultural promotion business?

Departments of Agriculture in virtually every state have initiated market promotion programs aimed at enhancing their states' farm sales. However, a reasoned assessment of several possible market scenarios suggests that the prospects for such programs to be successful are limited. Problems associated with free riders, intercommodity impacts, and measurement of promotional effectiveness all must be addressed in planning and implementing these programs. This analysis supports the argument that multi‐state efforts may have better prospects for significant payoff. As currently structured state level agricultural promotional programs may be justified more for political reasons than for economic ones.