About the Atlas
Objectives of
the Atlas
This Atlas provides access to an array of public data on Federal
farm programs that will allow users to visually explore a core
component of U.S. agricultural policy. These programs assist
farmers in sustaining and promoting the viability of their farm
businesses or in protecting and enhancing the environment.
Agricultural producers have a number of programs available to them,
and because program designs and purposes vary, producers may
participate in multiple programs on the same farm. For example,
programs may be tied to specific commodities or to whole farm
revenues, they may provide support for current losses or be based
on historical production, or they may be in the form of multiyear
contracts for conservation practices. As a result, program
expenditures can vary depending on factors such as individual
producers' commodity choices, market conditions, weather patterns,
pest infestations, and environmental conditions.
Examining agricultural policies and programs is a core area of
ERS research, with the goal of providing decisionmakers with
essential information about the impacts and effectiveness of farm
programs. The objectives of the Atlas are:
- To provide a visual display of the geographic distribution of
participation and benefits from key Federal farm programs.
- To inform discussion about Federal farm programs.
- To highlight the value of public data on Federal farm
programs.
The Atlas currently displays data for program year 2009, the
latest year for which data are complete for all programs included
in the Atlas. It will be updated as full program data become
available for subsequent years.
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What
information is included in the Atlas?
The Atlas assembles data for seven key Federal farm
programs:
- Direct and Countercyclical Program (DCP)-Data from the USDA
Farm Service Agency (FSA) on historical base acres and payments
under the DCP program
- Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program-Data from FSA on
historical base acres and payments under the ACRE program
- Marketing Assistance Loan Program-Data from FSA on marketing
loan benefits (MLBs) and the value of marketing assistance loans
made
- Supplemental Revenue Assistance (SURE) Program-Data from FSA on
SURE payments
- Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program-Data from FSA on MILC
payments
- Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)-Data from FSA on enrolled
and expiring acres and payments
- Crop Insurance Program-Data from the USDA Risk Management
Agency (RMA) on net acres, premiums, premium subsidies, and net
indemnities associated with crop revenue and crop yield and other
insurance plans
The Atlas allows users to explore these programs through
multiple maps displaying data:
- By county
- By total program or by selected program commodity for certain
programs
- As a share of all programs
The Atlas displays county-level data for selected commodities
only for DCP and ACRE base acres, value of marketing assistance
loans made, and all crop insurance variables. Commodity-specific
data are not available for other variables.
In some cases, a county may display in a map as having "no
data." This indication is used when there are no data for that
program in the county, data are available for fewer than four farms
in the county (disclosure concerns), or there are discrepancies in
the data for that county that cannot be resolved.
The Atlas does not display program data for Alaska and Hawaii.
Producers in these States do not participate widely in most of the
programs mapped in this Atlas, making data for these States
difficult to display effectively in this format. The downloadable
spreadsheet accompanying the Atlas includes county-level data for
both States where the data are available.
There are several ways to analyze and display data on Federal
farm programs. Three key definitions used in this Atlas may differ
from those used elsewhere in other maps and data on farm
programs.
- Year:The data in this Atlas are expressed in terms of "program
year," which can differ from farm program data expressed in terms
of calendar or fiscal year. Program year data reflect payments made
during the 12-month period covered by a program. That year
corresponds in most cases to the year in which the commodity
eligible for coverage is produced. For a few programs, like CRP and
MILC, the program year corresponds to the fiscal year during which
payments are made.
- Payment/participation location:The geographical location used
for displaying payment and participation data in the Atlas is the
location of the participating farm unit, not the address of the
individual who receives the payment. Some individuals may operate
more than one farm unit, operating a farm they own as well as
several farms rented from others, for example. Using the farm unit
as the basis for displaying program participation and payments
focuses the visual information on the place where production
occurs, rather than on the place where operators and/or landowners
reside.
- Farms included:The data in this Atlas focus specifically on
farms that participate in Federal farm programs. Some of the
indicators that express payment and participation data in terms of
cropland acres or production volumes are comparing acreage or
payments for participating farms with all cropland acres or
production. This comparison helps to show whether payment levels
are high or low relative to the area available for farming or the
level of production in a particular county. Users should bear in
mind that these indicators are not measures of payments or
participation per farmland acre or per unit of production. Not all
acres designated as cropland by the Census of Agriculture produce
commodities eligible for farm programs and not all producers
reporting production to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics
Service participate in farm programs.
Descriptions and detailed source information for all the
programs mapped are provided in the Documentation section of the Atlas.
Further details on the Federal farm programs included in the Atlas
are available on the ERS Farm and Commodity
Policy and Conservation
Programs Topics.
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Acknowledgments
ERS would like to thank FSA and RMA for their assistance in
preparing this Atlas, particularly Terry Hickenbotham, Cathie
Feather, Phil Sronce, Brad Karmen, and Joy Harwood of FSA, who very
generously shared their data and expertise with the Atlas team.
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What can users do with
the Atlas?
Users can choose from an array of maps displaying county-level
data for nearly 100 variables. Each map may be viewed for the
entire country or users can use a zoom tool to focus on a single
region, State, or county. When viewing a program map, users may
also click on a single county to view a table of data on all the
variables associated with the program for that particular
county.
With these tools, users can:
- View maps showing levels of participation and benefits from key
farm programs
- View maps comparing participation and benefits from selected
programs
- View all data for any county on a selected farm program
- Print a version of the map or save the image in a graphics-file
format for use in other documents or presentations
- Download
a spreadsheet containing all the data for a selected county or
for all U.S. counties included in the Atlas
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