Newsroom

Previous Newsroom Items: September 2005

Features

	U.S. Tobacco Import Update (September 30, 2005) During the past decade, the imported share of leaf used to manufacture tobacco products in the United States trended upward. The relatively high price of U.S. tobacco has encouraged cigarette manufacturers to use an increasing share of imported leaf in domestically produced cigarettes.

	Livestock operations and the environment (September 26, 2005) Air and water pollution from animal waste can affect multiple natural resources, though environmental laws typically focus only on a single resource. The most recent ERS report assesses the economic and environmental tradeoffs between water quality policies and air quality policies. Get Report Summary (pdf)

	Designating base acres and yields under the Farm Act (September 26, 2005) The 2002 Farm Act allowed farmland owners to update commodity program base acres and payment yields for calculating selected program benefits. ERS examined owners’ decisions on designating base acreage and yield as they responded to economic incentives in choosing among the options. Get Report Summary (pdf)

	Poverty: resources roundup (September 21, 2005) ERS conducts a wide range of research on the economic, social, and demographic characteristics affecting income and poverty levels of rural residents. ERS reports and data products include comparison of metro and nonmetro poverty levels and the implications of population change.

	Mandatory reporting of livestock prices (September 16, 2005) ERS focused on fed cattle markets in comparing the mandatory price reporting system developed by USDA in 2001 with the previous voluntary reporting system. The study evaluates whether the mandatory system has improved the amount and quality of information available to the market. Get Report Summary (pdf)

	Summary of latest U.S. agricultural trade data (September 13, 2005) The latest summary of U.S. agricultural trade data is now available. Each month, it is released the day before the full U.S. Agricultural Trade Update. See our calendar of releases for the exact dates.

	Amber Waves, September 2005 (September 1, 2005) Featuring: • Asia-Pacific region—linking food sources to urban centers • farm poverty levels—lowest in history • recreation and tourism development for rural areas • addressing farm-generated pollutants.