Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials

USDA conservation efforts rely mainly on voluntary incentive programs to address natural resource issues. The Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to remove environmentally sensitive land from production and encourages partial field practices including grass waterways and riparian buffers. Working-land programs provide technical and financial assistance to farmers who install or maintain conservation practices on land in production (e.g., nutrient management, conservation tillage, and field-edge filter strips). Agricultural easements provide long-term protection for agricultural land and wetlands. The Regional Conservation Partners Program coordinates conservation program assistance with partners to solve problems on a regional or watershed scale.

Gross farm income reflects the total value of agricultural output plus Government farm program payments. Net farm income (NFI)—which reflects income from production in the current year—is calculated by subtracting farm expenses from gross farm income. NFI considers both cash and noncash income and expenses. Inflation-adjusted net farm income is forecast to stabilize in 2017 and decline 8 percent in 2018, to $59.5 billion, after declining in 2014 through 2016. Inflation-adjusted expenses are projected to be relatively unchanged in 2017 and 2018 after declining in 2015 and 2016.

Nonmetro population continued to decline slightly for a sixth straight year in 2015-16, according to the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates. Nonmetro counties in some parts of the country have experienced population loss for decades. However, the 2010-16 period marks the first time with an estimated population loss for nonmetro America as a whole. Historically, nonmetro population grew because natural increase (more births than deaths) always offset net migration loss (more people moving out than moving in). But falling birth rates and an aging population have steadily reduced natural increase in nonmetro areas over time. The recent recession has also dampened migration to nonmetro locations, contributing to the overall drop in nonmetro population levels.

The United States produces and sells a wide variety of agricultural products across the Nation. In terms of sales value, California leads the country as the largest producer of agricultural products (crops and livestock), accounting for almost 11 percent of the national total, based on the 2012 Census of Agriculture. Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota round out the top five agricultural-producing States, with those five representing more than a third of U.S. agricultural-output value.

After 5 years of steady growth, U.S. agricultural exports declined in 2015 to $133 billion due to slower world economic growth, a strong U.S. dollar, lower exports of high-value products, and falling prices for bulk commodities. U.S. imports continued to grow at 2 percent in 2015 as the real exchange rate has made foreign goods cheaper in the U.S. domestic market. However, import gains were well below the 7-percent average for 2000-15, reflecting slower growth in global trade volume last year. These shifts in U.S. agricultural trade produced a trade surplus in 2015 about half of its 2014 value at $19.5 billion.

While Americans are consuming more vegetables and fruit than in 1970, the average U.S. diet still falls short of the recommendations in the <i>2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans</i> for these major food groups. Americans, on average, consumed more than the recommended amounts of meat, eggs, and nuts and grains in 2015.

The food-at-home CPI rose 0.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter 2017. Grocery store prices increased for many at-home food categories, with the largest increases for eggs, pork, and fresh vegetables. The 6.7-percent rise in egg prices reflects the industry’s price recovery from lows in late 2016 and early 2017 due to increased production. Two categories did continue to decline in price during this time period—prices for cereals and bakery products fell 0.7 percent and dairy prices dipped 0.3 percent.

In 2016, 87.7 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year. The remaining 12.3 percent of households were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 4.9 percent (6.1 million households) that had very low food security. Both food insecurity and very low food security were essentially unchanged from 2015. Food insecurity increased from 10.5 percent in 2000 to nearly 12 percent in 2004, declined to 11 percent in 2005-07, then increased to 14.6 in 2008.