Overview
Agricultural production uses land, fertilizers, pesticides, water, and other inputs that can have an impact on the environment and potentially harm human and ecosystem health. This Briefing Room describes agriculture's interactions with environmental quality, and the policy responses for improving environmental performance.
Features
The Use Of Markets To Increase Private Investment in Environmental Stewardship—U.S. farmers and ranchers control significant amounts of natural resources that can provide a host of environmental services, including cleaner air and water, flood control, and wildlife. Creating markets for environmental services could increase private investment in environmental stewardship and increase the flow of environmental services. See also the related Amber
Waves article.
 Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2006 Edition—The
chapters in this report describe trends in resources
used in and affected by agricultural production, as
well as the economic conditions and policies that influence
agricultural resource use and its environmental impacts.
Specific analysis looks at
policy measures used to address agriculture's impact on the
environment, including land retirement and working-lands programs; compliance
provisions, and farmland protection.
 Managing Manure to Improve Air and Water Quality— Pollution
from animal waste poses challenges to farmers and to
resource managers because it can affect multiple resources
while environmental laws typically focus only on a single
resource. This report assesses the economic and environmental
tradeoffs between water quality policies and air quality
policies that could require the animal sector to take
potentially costly measures to abate pollution, based
on a farm-level analysis of hog farms, a national analysis
including all sectors, and a regional assessment in an
area with high animal numbers.
 Amber
Waves Special Issue: Agriculture and the Environment—Feature
articles in the July 2006 Special Issue include
Emphasis Shifts in U.S. Conservation
Policy, Measuring the Success of Conservation Programs,
Land Retirement and Working-land Conservation Structures:
A Look at Farmers' Choices, Farmland Retirement's
Impact on Rural Growth, Improving Air and Water Quality
Can Be Two Sides of the Same Coin, and Environmental
Credit Trading: Can Farming Benefit? Other articles
cover such topics as conservation program
design, rural amenities, purchase of development
rights, conservation compliance, soil erosion, organic
farming, global warming, carbon sequestration, hypoxia,
cropping practices, ARMS data, cropland area, and
wetland losses.
Recommended Readings
Major Uses of Land in
the United States, 2002—This publication presents
the results of the latest (2002) inventory of U.S.
major land uses, drawing on data from the census,
public land management and conservation agencies, and
other sources. The data are synthesized by State to
calculate the use of several broad classes and subclasses
of agricultural and nonagricultural land over time.
Manure Management for
Water Quality: Costs to Animal Feeding Operations of
Applying Manure Nutrients to Land—Nutrients
from livestock and poultry manure are key sources of
water pollution. Ever-growing numbers of animals per
farm and per acre have increased the risk of water
pollution. New Clean Water Act regulations compel the
largest confined animal producers to meet nutrient
application standards when applying manure to the land.
This report examines the costs to producers and consumers
of meeting nutrient management requirements.
Economics of Sequestering Carbon in the U.S. Agricultural Sector—Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases can be reduced by withdrawing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it in soils and biomass. This report analyzes the performance of alternative incentive designs and payment levels if farmers were paid to adopt land uses and management practices that raise soil carbon levels.
See all recommended readings...
Recommended Data Products
Confined Animal and Manure Nutrient
Data System—This system provides State and
national data about confined animal numbers (feedlot
beef, dairy cows, swine, poultry, and other cattle)
and associated manure nutrients. Data are accessible
as a series of downloadable Excel files by year and
animal type with each file providing all available
data for each state, or as customized reports using
seven formats allowing selection of the desired years,
geographic areas, animal types, confinement status,
and data items. These data are based on analysis of
the data collected for the 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997
Censuses of Agriculture done by USDA's Economic Research
Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service
in conjunction with the National Agricultural Statistics
Service.
Major Land Uses—This data series contains estimates for major land uses in the United States, by State, for 1945-2002. The series is the only consistent historical accounting of major land uses, public and private, in all 50 States.
Related Briefing Rooms
Related Links
|
