Newsroom

New from ERS

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  Cooperative Extension in Transition: Trends Through 2024

  The U.S. Cooperative Extension Service provides non-formal education through land-grant universities. Since the 1970s, Extension funding has diversified and professional staff and Federal funding have declined, with notable regional differences.

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  Food-animal Veterinarians and the Persistence of Rural Shortage Areas

  Veterinarian services are an important input into food-animal agriculture. However, veterinarian shortages in food‑animal and mixed‑animal practices have persisted across many U.S. rural areas for more than a decade, despite ongoing Federal and State efforts to address service gaps.

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  Agricultural Income and Finance Situation and Outlook: 2021–23 Edition

  This report presents economic studies of the farm sector during the period of high inflation (2021-23) and interest rates, which could have been detrimental to the financial health of farm operations and households. The findings provide insight into the vulnerability of the farm and agricultural banking sectors.

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  Local Food Procurement Pathways: Key Drivers of Farm to School Participating Authorities Buying Directly From Farmers

  Farm to School (F2S) programs are widely adopted in U.S. school food systems: in 2022–2023, 74 percent of U.S. schools participated in F2S activities, and their local food purchases totaled $1.8 billion. This report analyzes how these schools source local products and the factors shaping their procurement choices.

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  Signaling Food Safety: Pathogen Rates of Raw Poultry With Food Safety Certifications

  This study examines the relationship between private sector-led food safety certifications and pathogen detection rates in raw poultry products. The analysis utilizes pathogen surveillance data, detecting Campylobacter and Salmonella from raw poultry products, from 592 raw poultry processing establishments.

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  Tile Drainage Systems Management and Conservation

  This report details trends in tile drainage usage, as well as the joint adoption of tile drainage and other management practices. This report also reviews the past 15 years of Federal financial assistance for conservation modifications to tile drainage systems.

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  Migration and Aging Across the Rural-Urban Continuum

  This report studies migration and aging patterns across U.S. counties from 1990 to 2020. This report finds that population aging in the 2010s was driven almost entirely by aging in place, rather than migration, like in previous decades. Counties to which older people moved tended to have better economic and health indicators than counties where younger people migrated away.

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  Measuring the Agricultural Supply Chain: Output, Value Added, Employment, and Payroll From Firms Upstream of Farms

  Measuring U.S. agricultural production relies on several factors. Identifying the industries that contribute to this production informs several areas, providing a more comprehensive accounting of the total contribution of the agriculture supply chain to the U.S. economy.

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  Documentation for the USDA, Economic Research Service Agricultural Resource Management Survey-Based Forecast Models for Farm-Level and Farm Household Income

  This report documents the methods used to produce farm-level average net cash farm income and farm household level median and average income forecasts. These forecasts, released three times per year by USDA, ERS, provide insights into the financial well-being of farms and the households that operate them.

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  Food and Health: Time Spent Eating, Acquiring Food, Preparing Meals, and Being Physically Active Among U.S. Adults, 2022–2023

  This report examines how U.S. adults spend time eating, for food acquisition, meal preparation, and physical activity, using data from the 2022-2023 Eating and Health Module of the American Time Use Survey. Areas examined include the way food was obtained, grocery shopping and meal preparation, and physical activity.