ABSTRACT
The research agenda for public agricultural research is currently the subject of considerable debate. Changes in the structure of American agriculture have brought with them the need for public sector scientists and administrators to reconsider the mission of public research. In the philosophical literature on the subject, values are variously characterized as attitudes, beliefs about good things, preferred states of affairs, motivating ideals, and so forth. Part of the difficulty in assessing the proper course for public agricultural research at the present time is that there are a number of new client groups or potential client groups who might be benefitted or harmed by specific projects and programs. The crucial factor in discount value cost-benefit analysis is that all projectible costs and benefits must be decided upon in advance so that the complex "program" can be run. In this regard, the utilitarian criterion operative in decisions about courses of action in agricultural research is not precisely cost-benefit.
