Staff Biographical Page: Mitch Morehart

Briefly

Mitch Morehart is a Senior Agricultural Economist within the Farm and Rural Business Branch. He is responsible for establishing USDA's annual perspective about the financial status and activities of farms including their degree of indebtedness and vulnerability to changes in income, input costs, and interest rates. He conducts research that identifies economic, policy, demographic, and other factors that explain differences in the management and financial structure of farms and ranches. He is actively engaged in the development and management of the annual Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). As an acknowledged expert on the Agricultural Resource Management Survey, he is responsible for dissemination activities that expand data users' awareness of the survey scope and content.

Current Projects

• Financial Status and Performance of Farm Businesses
• Economics of Agricultural Land Use and Valuation
• Farm and Rural Business Performance and Information Management
• Government Payments, Land Values and Barriers to Entry and Exit in Farming
• Farm Sector National Accounts and Forecasts
• Credit Use and Access
• ARMS Dissemination
• Household Impacts of Farm Policy
• Approaches to Management, Farm Organization, and Farm Performance

Education

Mitch has been an employee of the Economic Research Service since 1986. He is the product of three Northeast Land Grant Colleges: Penn State University, Rutgers University, and the University of Delaware. He received a M.S. from Rutgers University in 1983 and a B.S. from the University of Delaware in 1981.

Professional Affiliations

Mitch is a member of the American Agricultural Economics Association and Southern Agricultural Economics Association. He has also served as economics editor of USDA's Agricultural Income and Finance Situation and Outlook Report and as a reviewer for professional journals such as Agricultural Finance Review, Review of Agricultural Economics, and American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Publications

ERS publications by this author

Mitch has authored or co-authored of more than 80 ERS bulletins and journal articles that report research results in agricultural finance and farm management. Some recent examples include:

Briggeman, B., A. Gray, and M. Morehart. "A New U.S. Farm Household Typology: Implications for Agricultural Policy." Review of Agricultural Economics. Forthcoming.

Mitch Morehart and Charles Towe. Lessons learned from Internet dissemination of confidential farm survey results: USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey. 2007 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES-III). Montreal, Canada. September 2007. [CD-ROM]

Mitch Morehart and James Johnson. 2006 Farm Net Cash Income Expected to Decline Slightly. Amber Waves, February 2007.

Stenberg, P., Morehart, M., "The Internet in U.S. Farm and Rural Businesses", Uddevalla Symposium 2006, Ed. Irene Johansson. University West, Trollhattan, Sweden. December 2006.

Peter Stenberg and Mitchell Morehart. Internet on the Range. Amber Waves. February 2006.

Ted Covey, Robert Green, James Johnson, Carol Jones, Mitchell Morehart, Roger Strickland, Larry Traub, Ashok Mishra, Christopher McGath, Robert Williams, Kenneth Erickson, Dennis Brown, Stephen Vogel, Faqir Bagi, Richard Reeder. Agricultural Income and Finance Report, 2006, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Jeffrey Hopkins, Mitchell Morehart, and James Johnson. Policy Reform and Adjustment in the Agricultural Sectors of Developed Countries, chapter What Affects Farmers Ability to Adjust: Evidence from the United States. Eds. David Blanford and Berkeley Hill. CABI Publishing, Oxfordshire, England, February 2006.

Hisham El-Osta, Ashok Mishra, and Mitchell Morehart. Composite Measures of Economic Well-Being. Amber Waves, September 2005.

Mitch Morehart and James Johnson. Farm Profit Recedes from Record High While Cash Margins Improve. Amber Waves, February 2005. James Johnson and Mitchell Morehart. Forecast of Income and Wealth for the Farm Sector. In Agriculture Outlook Forum 2005 Proceedings, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington DC, February 2005.

Susan Offutt, Betsey Kuhn, and Mitchell Morehart. Devolution of Farm Programs Could Broaden States Role in Ag Policy. Amber Waves, November 2004.

Mary Ahearn, Robert Collender, Mitchell Morehart, and Michael Roberts. How Do Decoupled Payments Affect Resource Allocation Within the Farm Sector? Amber Waves, November 2004.

Jeffrey Hopkins and Mitchell Morehart. Assessing Farm Household Well-Being, Beyond Farmers and Farm Income. Amber Waves, February 2004.

Craig Gundersen, Betsey Kuhn, Susan Offutt, and Mitchell Morehart. A Consideration of the Devolution of Federal Agricultural Policy. Agricultural Economic Report 836, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, November 2004.

Robert Collender and Mitchell Morehart. Decoupled Payments in a Changing Policy Setting, chapter Decoupled Payments to Farmers, Capital Markets, and Supply Effects. Agricultural Economic Report 838, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, October 2004. Eds. Mary E. Burfisher and Jeffrey Hopkins.

Roger Claasen, Mitchell Morehart, et. al. Environmental Compliance in U.S. Agricultural Policy: Past Performance and Future Potential. Agricultural Economic Report 832, Economic Research Service, May 2004.

Mitchell Morehart, Jeffrey Hopkins, and James Johnson. Forecast of Income and Wealth for the Farm Sector, Households, and the Farms They Operate. In MEXSAI, Third International Conference on Agricultural Statistics, pages 1-11, Cancun, Mexico, November 2004.