Data Sources
The best source of data on corporate farming is the Census of
Agriculture, because it covers all farms and because it provides
a long time span. USDA administers a census every 5 years. The most
recent available census data cover 1997 (while a census was administered
in 2003 for 2002 data, that information is still being processed).
For more recent developments, we can use the annual Agricultural
Resource and Management Survey (ARMS). Because it has a much smaller
sample size than the Census of Agriculture, ARMS provides less reliable
coverage of large farms (that is, it has a larger sampling error).
Congress has provided expanded ARMS funding for future surveys,
which will help narrow the sampling error, but for now Census provides
the best available information.
We cannot divulge the identities of individual owners from Census
or ARMS information, but news articles and financial filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission do provide information on
individual corporations involved in farming.
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