The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants,
and Children (WIC) is the Nation's third largest food assistance
program, with almost half of all infants and about a quarter of
all children age 1-4 participating. The
WIC Program: Background, Trends, and Issues (FANRR-27) presents
a comprehensive background on the program-how it works, its history,
program trends, and the characteristics of the population it serves.
Vic Oliveira
Adoption
of Bioengineered Crops (AER-810), showed that the rapid
rise in adoption rates for Bt (insect-resistant) crop varieties
will likely slow, but adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops will
continue to grow over the next few years. Bt corn use and profits
depend on infestations of pests like the European corn borer, which
have subsided recently. Adoption of herbicide-tolerant varieties
may be motivated more by convenience than by profits. Adopting genetically
engineered (GE) crops results in an overall reduction in pesticide
use, a plus for the environment. Jorge
Fernandez-Cornejo
Weighing In on Obesity
The Winter
2002 issue of FoodReview, ERS' recently retired magazine
of food economics, features ERS researchers "weighing in"
on a critical public health issue—the growing epidemic of overweight
or obesity among Americans. The lead article takes a look at the
American diet—typically too high in added sugars, refined grains,
fats, and calories. Other articles look at the relationship between
caloric intake and obesity, individuals' misperceptions about their
weight status, the link between fruit and vegetable consumption
and body weight, and the issues of cost effectiveness raised by
Federal interventions to reduce obesity. Rosanna
Morrison
Production Costs and Returns Updated with ARMS
Surveys
The ERS series of reports, Characteristics
and Production Costs (SB-974), uses data from USDA's annual
Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) to examine how production
costs vary among producers, while providing details on production
practices and input levels, as well as farm operator and structural
characteristics. Reports for corn, cotton, cow-calf, soybean, and
wheat farms are available, with milk, sugarbeets, and rice on the
way in 2003. William McBride
Examining Exchange Rates
Cited as a key influence on agricultural trade, exchange rates
are the subject of a new book, Exchange Rate Volatility and International
Trade (Captus Press), sponsored by ERS and with contributions
from several ERS researchers. The book examines the effects of exchange
rate volatility on a wide array of products like beef, poultry,
and soybeans and finds that the impacts depend on the level of protection
and competition in markets. The underlying research, unlike most
studies in either developed or developing countries, takes exchange
rate risk into account. Suchada
Langley
Computer Use and Earnings
A new report, Wage
Premiums for On-the-Job Computer Use: A Metro and Nonmetro Analysis
(RDRR-95), shows that the wages of rural workers who use
a computer on the job are about 6 percent higher than those who
do not, after other job and worker characteristics are taken into
account. This suggests only a limited role for computer literacy
skills in enhancing the earnings of low-wage workers within their
current occupations in rural areas. Lorin
Kusmin
The State of Hired Farmworkers
A new book, The Dynamics of Hired Farm Labour: Constraints and
Community Response (CABI Publishing), includes 18 chapters discussing
technical change and adjustment in agriculture, hired farm labor
and community response, and farmworker health and safety. This work
is an outgrowth of a conference on hired farm labor and rural communities
held in October 1999 and co-sponsored by ERS and The Pennsylvania
State University. Jack
Runyan
Rural America, Briefly
A new report, Rural
America at a Glance (RDRR-94-1), provides the most current
indicators of social and economic conditions in rural areas for
use in developing policies and programs to assist rural people and
their communities. The six-page report includes information on population
trends from the recently released 2000 Census, the employment and
earnings situation in 2001, and the latest poverty and food insecurity
statistics. Karen Hamrick
Commodity Markets and Trade
ERS Outlook reports provide timely analysis of major commodity
markets and trade, including special reports on hot topics. All
reports are available electronically and can be found at www.ers.usda.gov/publications/OutlookReports.htm
along with a calendar of future releases. Joy
Harwood
