Feature: International Markets & Trade
The U.S has embarked on negotiations to create a Trans-Pacific Partnership and a comprehensive trans-Atlantic agreement with the EU that will liberalize and promote trade. The U.S. horticulture industry has an interest in the outcome of both negotiations, as fruit and vegetable trade continues to be influenced by a range of trade-distorting policies.
Feature: Farm Economy
Farm households that also operate nonfarm businesses have accounted for roughly 18 percent of U.S. farm households since the 1990s. In 2007, farmer-owned nonfarm businesses employed over 800,000 nonfarm workers and contributed an estimated $55 billion to their local communities’ gross county product.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
ERS analyzed cost data from 2005 for nearly 400 schools to better understand the potential effects of 2012-13 nutrition standards on school food costs. Schools serving lunches in 2005 that would have met the new fruit, vegetable, and milk standards had higher food costs than schools whose menus would not have met these standards.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Policy changes have severely constrained the profitability of cotton spinning in China and are expected to lower China’s cotton consumption and import demand, while boosting imports and mill use by other countries.
Finding: Farm Economy
In 2011, 11 percent of beginning farm operators under age 35 had gross farm sales of $250,000 or more, compared with 6 percent of beginning operators age 35-49 and 1 percent of those age 50 and older. As a result, young beginning farm households tend to earn more on their farm and less off their farm than other beginning farm households.
Statistic: Farm Economy
Over the last 20 years, farm income has represented a small share of total farm household income--as little as 4.6 percent and never more than 17.5 percent. This pattern supports the counterintuitive notion that farming matters little to the financial well-being of U.S. farm households. However, the share of farm income to total farm household income can be misleading.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
ERS recently updated several national measures of food access, providing estimates of the number of individuals and geographic areas with limited access to healthful and affordable food. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of low-income individuals living more than 1 mile from a supermarket increased, but more individuals had access to vehicles in 2010.
Finding: Animal Products
Commercial pork production in the United States increased 174 percent from 1977 to 2012 from slaughtering more and bigger hogs. Public and private research and development during the period led to efficiency gains that have altered the structure of the pork industry.
Finding: Crops
While 82-94 percent of most U.S. crops are grown in some sort of rotation, conservation crop rotations that incorporate cover crops remain rare. Only about 3 to 7 percent of farms use cover crops in rotations, and, since they do not put all of their land into cover crops, only 1 percent of cropland acreage uses cover crops.
Finding: Farm Economy
Net farm income in 2013 is forecast to be $128.2 billion, which would be nearly 14 percent higher than forecast in 2012. Adjusting for inflation, this would be the highest net farm income since 1973.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
Grocery store purchase data reveal that Americans underspend on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and overspend on refined grains, fats, and sugars/sweets, compared with USDA's dietary recommendations, a pattern that showed little change from 1998 to 2006. Food choices when eating out are even more of a nutritional concern.
Feature: Crops
Southeast Asia's rice surplus of exports over imports has grown steadily over the past decade. Despite slower production growth in the region, USDA projects that the surplus will remain large over the next decade because rice consumption in Southeast Asia is expected to increase at a slower rate.
Feature: Crops
While the impact that climate change will have on future growing conditions in specific areas of the country remains uncertain, the ability of farmers to adapt to climate change—through planting decisions, farming practices, and use of technology—can reduce its impact on production, farm commodity prices, and farmer returns.
Feature: Farm Economy
The complexity of the current tax code, together with perceptions that it distorts economically efficient decisions and is inequitable, has led to calls for fundamental tax reform.
Finding: Crops
In calendar year 2011, protected culture tomatoes made up 40 percent of U.S. tomato shipments, up from less than 10 percent in 2004; they now dominate the retail industry and are becoming more common in foodservice.
Finding: Crops
In the U.S, cotton is a major field crop that generates significant cash receipts for producers, exceeded only by corn, soybeans, wheat, and greenhouse products. Data from the 2007 cotton version of USDA’s ARMS reveal the extent to which cotton farm operators have different characteristics and use different production practices.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
A recent ERS analysis compares the food security status of current SNAP recipients with that of households that recently left the program. The difference of 8.9 percentage points in prevalence of very low food security between households that continued to receive SNAP benefits (14.2 percent) and households that left the program (23.1 percent) provides an estimate of SNAP’s effectiveness in improving the food security of participating households.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
With many Americans consuming too much fat and added sugars and not enough fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products, public health advocates have called for taxes or subsidies on particular foods as a way to improve Americans’ diets. To capture the total impact of hypothetical price policies on dietary quality requires a model that includes consumer responsiveness to complementary and substitute foods.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
A recent study measured the effects of wind power development on county-level income and employment in 12 States of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. Findings reveal an aggregate increase in county-level personal income and employment of approximately $11,000 and 0.5 jobs per megawatt of wind power capacity installed over the study period 2000 to 2008.
Finding: Crops
Genetically engineered varieties of corn with enhanced pest management traits have been widely adopted by U.S. farmers. Researchers confirm that Bt corn adoption was positively associated with increased variable profits and yields in 2005. More specifically, a 10.0-percent increase in Bt adoption was associated with a 1.7-percent increase in corn yields and a 1.65-percent increase in variable profits.
Statistic: Food Choices & Health
ERS’s recently updated Commodity Consumption by Population Characteristics data product links national estimates of food supplies, or food available for consumption, with information from consumer food intake surveys.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Feature: Rural Economy & Population
Concentrated poverty has increased in the U.S. over the last decade, particularly in nonmetropolitan areas and in areas with distinct racial/ethnic minority populations. Deteriorating economic conditions, namely rising unemployment, have driven the increase in nonmetro concentrated poverty.
Feature: Farm Economy
The emergence of developing countries as markets for exports, strong farm balance sheets, healthy financial institutions supporting agriculture, and a favorable trade-weighted dollar exchange rate all support relatively strong growth in the U.S. farm sector. These factors suggest a positive outlook for U.S. agriculture as the U.S. and global economies continue their recovery.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
Children today are consuming about 200 more calories a day from snacks than they did in the 1970s. Replacing calorie-dense snack foods with fruits and vegetables can be one step in addressing childhood obesity and does not have to compromise a family’s food budget.
Feature: Farm Economy
The leading agricultural input firms are multinational companies with R&D facilities located around the world. These global research networks allow large firms to develop and adapt new technologies to local conditions, meet national regulatory requirements for new product introductions, and achieve cost economies in some of their R&D activities.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Many observers speculate that agricultural policies contribute to increased U.S. obesity rates by making certain commodities more abundant and therefore cheaper. However, a recent study finds that the effects of farm subsidies, when combined with the effects of other agricultural policies that restrict supply such as acreage set-asides or import barriers, have little impact on average calorie consumption.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
There is little evidence that overall diet quality in the U.S. has improved in response to updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans issued every 5 years. However, a recent study by ERS finds that, for whole grains, the 2005 Guidelines were able to nudge consumption patterns in the direction desired by the public health community—at least for some consumers.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
China has become a key importer of U.S. distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), the main co-product from ethanol production. About a fourth of U.S. DDGS output is exported, and China accounted for nearly 20 percent of those exports in 2010/11.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
Rising fuel prices and the public’s desire for new sources of renewable energy and reduced carbon emissions have led to government policies that support the adoption of anaerobic digesters by livestock producers. ERS research finds that the design of such policies can affect farmer adoption rates of digesters, farm incomes, and environmental benefits from use of the technology.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
An ERS study of nitrogen management on U.S. corn cropland over 2001-10 indicates that corn producers may be adjusting to changing economic conditions and environmental concerns. U.S. corn acreage treated with nitrogen increased 18 percent during the period as corn prices rose by 70 percent in response to increased demand for grain for export and ethanol production.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
ERS analysis of the effects of natural gas extraction on local counties captures increases in local employment and income and median household income occurring primarily in the gas development phase when infrastructure is laid and wells are drilled. The long-term local economic effects are likely smaller.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
Efforts to attract and assist return migrants can reap benefits for rural communities, especially in geographically isolated areas that otherwise tend to attract few new migrants. However, for returnees to overcome employment challenges in these communities often requires a combination of sacrifice, risk taking, creativity, and patience.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
One need for delineating remote “frontier” areas comes from recent legislative mandates to improve access to public services in such areas. ERS’s newly developed Frontier and Remote (FAR) area codes are both geographically detailed and adjustable within reasonable ranges to facilitate their use in diverse research and policy contexts.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
For many decades, most U.S. nonmetro counties experienced significant population loss among young adults, especially in the years immediately following high school graduation.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
The 143 U.S. counties with more than 10 farmers' markets account for almost 40 percent of the Nation's farmers' markets. All but 10 are metro-designated counties where higher population concentrations provide a larger customer base.
Feature: Farm Economy
Total factor productivity in agriculture is showing rapid growth at the global level led by improved performance in China and Brazil, although the global rate of growth in harvested yield for major grains and oilseeds has slowed. Agricultural productivity growth may be slowing in some countries and regions and remains very low in food-insecure Sub-Saharan Africa.
Feature: Farm Economy
Farmland values have been rising but so have farm earnings. Historically low interest rates contribute to sustained high farmland prices and have helped improve the affordability of farmland. Strong farm earnings have dampened the impact of a significant downturn in residential land markets.
Feature: Farm Economy
Creating and maintaining a broad portfolio of wealth may be central to sustainable rural prosperity. However, the impacts that rural development strategies have on wealth and the impacts of existing wealth on those strategies are generally not well understood.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
While food imports have increased in most SSA countries, the region relies mainly on domestic production for the bulk of its food consumption. Grain production in SSA grew at an average rate of 4.1 percent per year between 2000 and 2010, but yield growth is lagging, and investments to raise productivity will be needed to maintain this rate of growth in the future.
Feature: Animal Products
Growing food demand in developing countries, rising biofuel demand, and slowing agricultural productivity gains have put upward pressure on farm-commodity prices over the past decade. According to USDA’s annual baseline projections, these and other factors will continue to influence prospects for U.S. and world agriculture over the next decade.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
Food preferences, nutrition knowledge, and access to stores and restaurants all share a role with food prices in consumers’ food purchasing decisions and related health outcomes. Price changes have limited effects on food choices and health outcomes, but the effects may be larger when paired with information and other reinforcing policies and programs.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
The Federal Government has taken two policy approaches to help Americans reduce trans fats in their diets: publicizing the health risks and requiring food manufacturers to label the trans fat content of foods. ERS found that food manufacturers responded to the labeling requirements, nutritional advice from health officials, and national media coverage by reducing the trans fats in their products.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
In 2010, about 35 cents from each dollar that U.S. consumers spent on food at grocery and other retail foodstores went to food processing establishments like flour mills, meatpacking plants, and dairy processors. This equates to an increase of around 14 percent since 2007, when the share was about 31 cents per dollar spent.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Healthy foods are perceived to be more expensive than less healthy foods, a belief perhaps fueled by studies showing that healthy foods are more expensive per calorie. ERS measured the prices of over 4,000 foods using three price metrics and found that prices for each food category varied depending on the metric used.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
According to ERS’s food availability data, 58 pounds of chicken per person on a boneless, edible basis were available for Americans to eat in 2010, and for the first time, chicken surpassed beef as the most consumed meat in the U.S. Chicken consumption began its upward climb in the 1940s and has doubled since 1970.
Finding: Farm Economy
ERS analysis finds that direct payments have little effect on agricultural production decisions. A more rigorous analysis accounting for farm and regional characteristics also found no evidence of direct payments having economically significant effects on production.
Finding: Farm Economy
Farm households purchasing individual health insurance directly from private vendors are likely to spend more on health care than those with other sources of health insurance. Other things being equal, among all farm households, those without any insurance coverage have the lowest health care expenditures.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Mexico has historically been a top export market for U.S. beef, but in 2003, it emerged as an important source of beef imports for the United States. U.S. beef imports from Mexico at least doubled in 2010 and 2011.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Over the last 25 years, Brazil emerged as a major agricultural producer and exporter, with agricultural production rising 77 percent between 1985 and 2006. Government investments in infrastructure and agricultural research, led to increases in agricultural productivity and expansion of cultivated area.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Wheat production in Afghanistan is extremely sensitive to variations in precipitation. During the main growing months, rainfall is scarce and farmers depend on irrigation. And decades of war and conflict have left much of the country’s irrigation system in a state of disrepair.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS model results show that farm milk price shocks are not transmitted instantaneously to retail for whole milk or Cheddar cheese. The nature of price transmission is also very different for whole milk and Cheddar cheese.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
While it is relatively easy to track the amount of meat and the number of livestock imported by the U.S., it is more difficult to estimate the amount of meat produced in the U.S. from animals originating abroad. ERS estimates show the share of domestic meat production attributed to foreign-born animals is significant and trending upward.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
In 2007, irrigated agriculture accounted for 55 percent of the total value of U.S. crop sales, while also supporting the livestock and poultry sectors. The economic health and sustainability of irrigated agriculture will depend on the ability of producers to adapt to growing constraints on water, particularly through improved water-use efficiency.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Recently, markets have been developed that could allow farmers to generate and sell environmental credits when they adopt farming practices that improve the environment. Environmental markets use baselines to determine whether proposed improvements qualify for marketable credits, and setting baseline emissions levels is often a contentious element of market design.
Statistic: International Markets & Trade
In 2011, the U.S. shipped nearly half of its total agricultural exports to upper middle-income countries. Steadily rising incomes, population growth, and increased urbanization have helped position these countries as important and destinations for U.S. goods.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Farm Practices & Management
Expanding water demands to support population and economic growth, environmental flows, and energy-sector growth will present new challenges for agricultural water and conservation, particularly for the 17 Western States that account for nearly three-quarters of U.S. irrigated agriculture.
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
In 2010, families and individuals accounted for 82.8 percent of the $1.2 trillion in total U.S. food spending.
Feature: Farm Economy
In 2010, global private-sector investments R&D to improve agricultural inputs reached $11.0 billion, up from $5.6 billion in 1994. Factors driving the growth in research spending include the emergence of biotechnology and other scientific developments and the strengthening of intellectual property rights over agricultural innovations.
Feature: Farm Economy
Although USDA’s WASDE report is viewed by commodity market observers as an important benchmark, the rise of private forecasting services has led some to question the usefulness of USDA’s role in commodity market reporting. ERS model results show that markets place substantial value on the situation and outlook information published in WASDE.
Feature: Farm Economy
Policymakers are considering changes to U.S. immigration law that would affect the market for hired farm labor--including mandatory use of an Internet-based employment eligibility verification system and an expanded guestworker program for nonimmigrant, foreign-born agricultural workers.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Adding SNAP benefits to family income reduces the poverty rate and leads to even greater reductions in depth and severity of poverty, particularly among children. The antipoverty effect of SNAP was especially strong in 2009, when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased SNAP benefits levels.
Statistic: Food Choices & Health
Foods prepared in restaurants, school cafeterias, and other away-from-home eating places accounted for 42 percent of American households food budgets and 32 percent of calorie intake during 2005-08. How the nutritional quality of these foods differs from that of foods eaten at home is a critical factor affecting the quality of Americans diets.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
Increases in the poverty rate between 2000 and 2006-10 were often highest in regions that suffered the largest increases in unemployment rates during the 2007-09 recession, such as the Great Lakes and Southern Highland regions.
Statistic: Farm Economy
In recent years, private-sector research expenditures directed at crop production inputs have been 3.5 to 5.5 times higher than those directed at livestock production inputs.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
If approved, the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) is expected to increase domestic commodity prices in the developing countries where the policy is implemented. The SSM is also expected to increase the volatility of world commodity prices if the measure is widely used by developing countries.
Finding: Crops
The growing role of the ethanol industry as a supplier to the U.S. motor fuels market has reshaped the relationship between agriculture and energy markets. Price relationships between the U.S. corn and gasoline markets strengthened after March 2008 and continue to be highly correlated.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Price increases for some high-calorie foods and beverages were found to have small but statistically significant effects on children's BMI, and in the direction expected. Comparing the effects with the expected average growth in children's BMI over a year reveals a possibly large effect over time.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Data on time spent by Americans age 20 and older on 24 major activities reveal that the biggest differences between normal-weight people and obese people were in time spent watching television, participating in sports and exercise, and engaging in paid work.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
In 2010, food insecurity was higher for U.S. households with members in nonstandard work arrangements than for those with members in full-time jobs. Findings suggest that employment relates to food insecurity in ways beyond the effects of earned income, such as through instability in income and work schedules.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
ERS researchers explored whether U.S. consumers adjusted their purchases of shrimp in response to the 2005 country-of origin labeling requirements for seafood. Findings show that consumers were not responsive to the new country-of-origin labels.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS examined geographic variation in retail prices for two foods that differ in handling requirements and perishability, as well as in nutritional profiles--fresh vegetables and salty snacks. Findings show that households are likely to face higher prices for each of these foods when certain economic and demographic conditions exist in their community.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Federal farm program payments help encourage good stewardship of natural resources through environmental compliance requirements. But the future effectiveness of environmental compliance requirements may be affected by the evolution of farm programs in the next farm bill.
Finding: Farm Economy
R&D expenditures by the global food manufacturing industry reached $11.5 billion in 2007, with the U.S. accounting for $3.1 billion of the total. However, research spending relative to the value of production in U.S. food manufacturing is relatively low, at about 1.5 percent, compared with 10 percent for total U.S. manufacturing.
Finding: Animal Products
An important and unchanging feature of the Clean Water Act is that livestock operations confining more than a specific number of livestock face more stringent rules. However, some farmers are avoiding the regulations by adjusting the size of their operations to just below the cutoff point.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
In the coming years, anticipated deficit reduction legislation could affect rural America. It is too early to know with any certainty which Federal programs will be affected, or by how much, but the current composition of rural Federal funding receipts can reveal insights about rural America's potential vulnerability to budget cuts.
Feature: Natural Resources & Environment
Growth in per capita income averaged about $600 higher in DRA-funded nonmetro counties in 2002-07 than in similarly distressed counties outside the region, mainly due to increased health and social services sector earnings and increased medical transfer payments.
Feature: Farm Economy
As agricultural production has shifted to farms with larger sales, so, too, has the distribution of commodity-related program payments. Unless the design of commodity programs changes substantially, current payment trends are likely to continue.
Feature: Farm Economy
Because farm program designs and purposes vary, producers may participate in, and receive benefits from, multiple programs on the same farm, increasing the potential for overlap.
Feature: Farm Economy
The ACRE program relies on State- and farm-level revenue payment triggers to provide producers with an alternative to price-based and direct payment commodity programs. Switching from a State-level trigger to one closer to the farm level would generally increase expected payments, but the impact would vary by crop, region, and market prices.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Declining and persistently weak economic conditions have played a major role in the SNAP's growth over the past decade, as have policy changes to SNAP that improved accessibility, expanded eligibility, and raised benefit levels.
Finding: Farm Economy
The base 10 provision of the 2008 Farm Act prohibits farms with 10 or fewer base acres from receiving direct and countercyclical payments (DCP) or ACRE program payments. In 2009, payments prohibited under the provision totaled $29.1 million, compared with over $5 billion total DCP and ACRE payments.
Finding: Animal Products
High pork prices in the Chinese market have created opportunities for the U.S. pork industy. However, U.S. pork sales to China have not risen at a steady rate.They tend to rise and fall in rhythm with cyclical changes in China's hog sector.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
USDA has a long history of subsidizing school meals through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. Increasingly, USDA is also involved in feeding children after school, especially low-income children.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Research has suggested that Americans view their diets too optimistically, underestimating the amount of calories in their diets, for example, or overestimating the nutritional value. Recent work by ERS suggests that, in recent years, such "optimistic bias" may be on the wane.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS researchers examined nonsale prices of both private-label (store brand) foods and national brands in two periods: May 2008 to June 2009 and July 2009 to August 2010. Private label prices fluctuated more than prices of national brands between the recessionary period and post-recession period.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Existing conservation and commodity programs have very little in common, and attempting to meld them into a single program raises questions about to whom and under what conditions payments would be extended.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Over time, the CRP's goals have changed from an early emphasis on limiting soil erosion to include wildlife, water and air quality, and other conservation goals. Driven by changes in legislative mandates, commodity markets, and environmental concerns, the CRP continues to evolve.
Finding: Farm Economy
The main driver of agricultural productivity growth over the last 50 years has been the application of new technologies to farming. Robust productivity growth has allowed U.S. agriculture to hold down the cost and environmental consequences of growing more food and fiber.
Finding: Animal Products
A comparison of prices received by independent hog producers in regions of growing contract production with prices in regions of shrinking contract production reveals no strong relationship between contract prevalence and spot market prices.
Finding: Farm Economy
After 2 straight years of rapid growth, U.S. net farm income is forecast to decline by 6.5 percent in 2012 to $91.7 billion.
Statistic: Farm Economy
ERS's Farm Program Atlas provides access to an array of public data that enable users to visually explore the geographic distribution of participation and benefits from seven key Federal farm programs at national, State, and county levels.
Statistic: Farm Economy
The ERS Major Land Uses series provides over 50 years of estimates of land in various uses, including cropland, pasture and range, and forest. These State and national estimates provide insights into changes in land use over time.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Natural Resources & Environment
In many areas where crop production is risky, crop insurance could provide a conservation incentive that is equal to or even larger than direct payments. In other areas, compliance incentives could decline.
Statistic: Farm Economy
Since 1980, the variation in cropland used for crops has been relatively small, despite significant variation in real (adjusted for inflation) commodity prices.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
The NAFTA governments are seeking more open trading relationships with non-NAFTA countries, such as China, Colombia, Panama, Japan, and South Korea, as well as increased commerce within the North American free-trade area.
Feature: Food Markets & Prices
Local food marketing channels vary with farm size, with smaller farms dominating direct-to-consumer sales and larger farms dominating sales through grocers and other intermediaries.
Feature: Food Safety
ERS research conducted over the past two decades provides a number of lessons that can help identify efficient and effective means of implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010.
Feature: Farm Practices & Management
Changing production practices, including adoption of labor-saving innovations, have contributed to and been affected by increases in both agricultural productivity and the concentration of production.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
Brazil's ethanol industry has been aided by increased capacity to produce sugarcane as an ethanol feedstock, supportive government policies, and efficiency improvements. Other factors, however, may affect its ability to fill growing world demand for ethanol.
Finding: Farm Economy
The U.S. is the world’s largest ethanol producer and currently holds a 57-percent share of global ethanol production. A one-time 5-percent increase in U.S. ethanol use will lower the crude oil price by an estimated 8 cents per barrel over 12 months.
Finding: Animal Products
U.S. production of distillers’ grains (DGs) has quadrupled since 2004/05. For the foreseeable future, however, potential feed use of DGs in the U.S. will significantly exceed projected supply.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
According to the most recent USDA global food-security assessment (based on estimates of national food availability), India accounted for the single largest share of the world's food-insecure population in 2010--about 28 percent.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
ERS analysis of the effects of the 2004 outbreak of avian influenza in Japan showed evidence of a willingness of Japanese consumers to substitute processed dried egg products for fresh shell eggs. These changes in preference affect U.S. exports of shell eggs and egg products.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Recent ERS research suggests that low-income Americans can meet the Dietary Guidelines for fruit and vegetable consumption with a wide selection of fresh and processed products and stay within a limited budget.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
Findings suggest that low adoption rates of precision technologies by farmers may be due to uncertainty about economic returns to large initial investments, the complexity of the technologies, and the need to make integrated use of several precision technologies to obtain cost savings.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
U.S. hog producers altered their manure management decisions between 1998 and 2009, suggesting an increased focus on applying nutrients at agronomic rates--that is, at levels that do not exceed what can be absorbed by crops.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
During a decade of diminished population growth across rural and small-town America, Hispanic population growth and geographic dispersion during 2000-2010 was a strong driver of demographic change, as it has been for at least two decades.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
After declining for much of the previous decade, the employment of hired farm laborers, supervisors, and managers stabilized in 2008 and rose somewhat in 2009 and 2010.
Statistic: Food & Nutrition Assistance
ERS's Food Desert Locator is a mapping tool that presents a spatial overview of where food deserts are located and provides selected characteristics of the populations that live in them.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America.
Statistic:
Research Areas charts from the December 2012 issue of Amber Waves.
Statistic: Animal Products
U.S. pork byproduct exports totaled $700 million in 2010, almost 15 percent of the total value of U.S. pork exports.
Statistic: Food & Nutrition Assistance
After a sharp increase from 2007 to 2008, the prevalence of food insecurity remained essentially unchanged in 2009 and 2010 at 14.5 percent.
Feature: Food Markets & Prices
Faced with falling incomes and economic uncertainty, many Americans economized on their food purchases during the 2007-09 recession, particularly on food away from home.
Feature: Farm Economy
Food prices jumped in 2010-11, the second price spike within 3 years. Longer term financial, agricultural, and demographic trends, exacerbated by short-term production shortfalls, set up conditions for the increases.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to food and fuel price shocks, which, in 2007/08, led to an increase in household food insecurity.
Feature: Farm Practices & Management
Agriculture is the single largest source of nitrogen compounds that can help or harm ecosystems. A range of policy instruments could be used to address different facets of nitrogen management and specific environmental problems.
Feature: Natural Resources & Environment
Federal farm programs, crop prices, and new technology may encourage farmers to extend crop production into native grasslands. A recent ERS study found that farm programs had a minor effect on conversions of grasslands to crop production.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
In exchange for exclusive sales arrangements, manufacturers provide large rebates to States for formula purchased through the program. Winning a WIC contract significantly increases a manufacturer's market share.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
In general, income elasticities for food are highest among low-income countries. In other words, consumers in low-income countries will spend a larger share of an increase in income on food than consumers in high-income countries.
Finding: Animal Products
Byproducts include virtually all parts of the live animal that are not part of the dressed carcasses. Byproducts account for more than 10 percent of the value of cattle and more than 6 percent of the value of hogs.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS researchers find that convenience is one food characteristic for which recession-constrained consumers will reduce expenditures. Specifically, sales of bagged leafy greens decrease relative to sales of unpackaged leafy greens when income levels fall.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
ERS contracted with an independent, nonprofit research organization to develop new consumer-level loss estimates to update those ERS has used since the mid-1990s. If the new food loss estimates are adopted, changes to ERS’s current Loss-Adjusted Food Availability data would vary for individual foods.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Findings from a 2011 ERS study show that due to geographical food-price variation, the new fruit and vegetable voucher for WIC buys substantially smaller amounts in some U.S. areas than in others.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
The period of transitioning off SNAP can be a financially challenging time for some households despite their improved economic circumstances. Very low food security—characterized by disrupted eating patterns and reduced intake—is more prevalent among households that recently left SNAP than among households still receiving assistance.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
In 2007, USDA conducted the first comprehensive survey of the production and marketing practices used by organic and conventional apple growers. The survey results indicate that organic and conventional apple growers make many similar production and marketing decisions.
Finding: Farm Economy
Despite their limited use, tax-deferred exchanges can be important for some farmland owners. Over a 5-year period, landowners making like-kind exchanges of farmland for farmland deferred $43,300, on average, in capital gains taxes.
Statistic: Crops
Between 2000 and 2009, U.S. ethanol production increased from 1.6 billion gallons to 10.8 billion gallons, almost all of which was produced from corn. Some of the corn came from increased yields and some was diverted from other uses, but much of the corn needed to produce ethanol came from expanding planted acreage.
Statistic:
Amber Waves presents the broad scope of ERS's research and analysis. The magazine covers the economics of agriculture, food and nutrition, the food industry, trade, rural America, and farm-related environmental topics. Available on the Internet and in print, Amber Waves is issued in print four times a year (March, June, September, and December). The Internet edition, or
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September 2011 Research Areas
Statistic: Food & Nutrition Assistance
In 813 counties, average per store SNAP redemptions rose more than 50 percent in 2008-09. Two-thirds of the 813 counties were nonmetro counties.
Statistic:
USDA provides technical and financial assistance to help farmers implement conservation practices on working agricultural lands or on lands temporarily retired from production. As measured in constant (2009) dollars, Federal conservation assistance has fluctuated widely during the past 60 years.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
Findings show FTAs increased trade among member countries, suggesting the large number of FTAs that do not include the U.S. may be eroding the U.S. presence in foreign markets.
Feature: Farm Economy
Though standard economic approaches may be difficult to apply to evaluations of some benefits of public investments in agricultural research, economic reasoning can provide qualitative analysis even when benefits are difficult to quantify.
Feature: Farm Economy
Increased use of the tax code for policy goals has boosted incomes of rural taxpayers, who tend to have lower incomes and higher poverty than urban taxpayers.
Feature: Food Safety
Irradiation is an alternative treatment for foodborne pests on imported fruit and vegetables, but it requires labeling and large investments in facilities and some consumers remain wary of the process.
Finding: Crops
Very large commercial farms (with $1 million or more of agricultural sales per year) accounted for about 8 percent of all U.S. specialized vegetable and melon farms during 2005-07.
Finding: Animal Products
The beef cow-calf industry is characterized by a large number of small farms on which beef cattle production is a secondary source of farm household income. This suggests that beef cow-calf production as a lifestyle choice is at least as important as earning a profit on many farms.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
A significant portion of farm price changes typically shows up in wholesale wheat flour and beef prices. Retail beef and bread prices, in contrast, have a more complicated and often times less direct response to wholesale price changes.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
An ERS analysis of school meal costs from a large, nationally representative sample reveals that the location of a school can affect its meal costs. Urban locations, for example, had lower per meal costs than rural and suburban locations.
Finding: Farm Economy
Most studies estimate significant increases in land-use requirements for agricultural production resulting from scaled-up biofuel production. Additional research on variables, such as projected crop yields, will be instrumental in narrowing the bands of uncertainty associated with such projections.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
The 2007-09 recession was particularly severe in the depth of poverty it engendered. Relative to previous recessions, those residing in nonmetro areas, particularly children, were among the most affected by deepening poverty.
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
In February 2011, ERS introduced a new data product called the food dollar series that uses BLS annual input-output tables to provide a more complete accounting of U.S. food spending at both grocery stores and eating places.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America.
Statistic:
Research Areas charts from the June 2011 issue of Amber Waves.
Statistic: Crops
California accounts for about half of U.S. bearing fruit acreage, Florida almost one-fourth, and Washington around one-tenth.
Statistic: Animal Products
After a 4-year increase during 2005-08, milk cow numbers fell in 2009 and 2010 and are projected to continue year-to-year declines in 2012-20.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Food spending by low-income households increased and their food security improved as a result of the increase in SNAP benefit levels authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
A 2010 Federal law will require U.S. chain restaurants to display calorie information on their menus and menu boards. Will consumers use this information to make healthier food choices?
Feature: Farm Economy
According to USDA long-term projections, continued income growth will make developing countries the main source of the projected increases in global food demand and trade.
Feature: Farm Practices & Management
Currently, methane digesters’ costs often exceed their benefits to livestock producers, but higher prices in voluntary, regional, or national carbon markets could make them profitable for many operations.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
A combination of government, foreign, and private investment began building a juice processing industry in China in the early 1990s. China is now the world's largest supplier of apple juice concentrate.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
An increased presence of U.S. beef in Japan could bring higher returns for U.S. producers and lower prices for Japanese consumers.
Finding: Farm Economy
ERS estimates that 10,000 acres were planted under PTPP in 2009--about 14 percent of the total allowable acres by statute and 2 percent of total processing vegetable acreage in the seven States participating in the program.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Caloric increases from food away from home and foods from school for 13-18 year olds likely reflect an increased availability of many types of foods in middle and high schools, including a la carte side dishes and desserts.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
In 2008, Americans on a 2,000-calorie diet could purchase the Dietary Guidelines-recommended quantity and variety of both fruit and vegetables for between $2.00 and $2.50 per day, or roughly 50 cents per edible cup equivalent.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
Between 2002 and 2008, fuel and fertilizer prices rose sharply, contributing to higher total farm energy-intensive input costs. The increase prompted farmers to employ energy-saving strategies and to use energy more efficiently.
Finding: Farm Economy
Contracts cover a growing share of U.S. corn, soybean, and wheat production. Rising use likely reflects increased price variability, a wider availability of risk management tools, and structural change in agriculture.
Finding: Farm Economy
Net value added, net farm income, and net cash income—the three key U.S. farm sector financial indicators—are expected to improve in 2011.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
The ERS Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America helps shed light on the overall scope and diversity of demographic, economic, and social trends across the United States by providing county-level mapping of over 60 statistical indicators.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America.
Statistic:
Research Areas charts from the March 2011 issue of Amber Waves.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
The share of county farms engaged in agritourism is high in the West, where agricultural lands tend to have lower yields due to low rainfall and mountainous terrain.
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
U.S. expenditures on food at home and away from home grew over the past 50 years, but food-away-from-home expenditures increased more rapidly. During the recent recession, however, inflation-adjusted spending on both food at home and away from home fell.
Feature: Rural Economy & Population
Hispanics increasingly meet labor demand arising from
industry restructuring.