In March 2004, with ERS support, the Committee
on National Statistics of the National Research Council
(the operating
arm of the National
Academy of Sciences) convened an expert panel to review
USDA’s
methods for measuring food insecurity and hunger in the U.S.
population. It has been 10 years since the USDA’s measures
were developed. A substantial body of survey data has been
collected
and used to conduct research on food security and hunger. The
panel will review current methods and procedures and consider
recommendations to enhance these methods for monitoring, evaluation,
and related research purposes. Staff from ERS, USDA’s
Food and Nutrition Service, and the Office of Management
and
Budget provided background information to the panel at
its initial meeting in Washington, DC.
The
Role of Homeownership in Wealth Accumulation by Rural Households
As part of ERS’s research program on the economics of
rural housing, ERS and Kansas State University are examining
rural-urban differences in household mortgage affordability,
home equity, and net wealth accumulation over time. Homeownership
is an important means to generate wealth. The extent to which
owning a home generates accumulated wealth depends on the
home’s value, holding period, rate of appreciation,
and the household’s consumption of accumulated home
equity. Preliminary results show that, compared with urban
households, rural households have on average about 25 percent
less net worth, their homes are worth half as much, and equity
in those homes is 40 percent lower. These and other findings
will be useful to USDA’s Rural Housing Service in
their efforts to develop effective single-family housing
assistance
programs for low-income rural residents.
How
Do Households, Sectors, and Countries Adjust to Policy Change?
In the United States and other countries,
adjustment and change in the farm sector and rural economy
is an ongoing process,
with farm households, markets, and rural communities continually
adapting to agricultural policy reform and changing market
conditions. Because each segment of the farm and rural
community
faces unique conditions, ERS economists are engaged in
a broad-ranging set of studies focusing on the diverse
responses of countries,
regions, commodity sectors, and farm households to fundamental
policy adjustments. Research is intended to inform decisionmakers
about the broader impacts of policy reform, and offer insights
on developing mechanisms to facilitate adjustment among
groups
affected by policy change. Research in this area is available
in a new Briefing Room on the ERS website, “Farm
Policy, Farm Households, and the Rural Economy.”
