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Q. What is the U.S. per capita
use of vegetables and melons?
A. On a fresh-weight basis, per capita use of all vegetables and melons averaged 443 pounds during the first 7 years of this decade, with potatoes accounting for
nearly a third of the total. Tomatoes, all lettuce, all
sweet corn, and onions round out the top five vegetables.
For more data, see table 1 in the Vegetables
and Melons Yearbook.
Q. What does
ERS include in the category "vegetables and melons"?
A. The U.S. vegetable and melon industry is an
artificial aggregation of a wide variety of agricultural
products. Webster's Dictionary describes vegetables
as "any herbaceous plant whose fruit, roots, bulbs,
leaves, or flower parts are used for food." In ERS
analyses, vegetables include potatoes, sweet potatoes,
melons, dry beans, dry peas, lentils, mushrooms (technically
a fungus), herbs (such as garlic and parsley), and other
crops traditionally known as vegetables (tomatoes, leaf
crops, onions, sweet corn, broccoli, among others). ERS
groups avocados and olives, two vegetables, with fruit
and tree nuts.
Q. What
are the leading vegetables and melons in terms of U.S.
farm cash receipts?
A. Cash receipts for all vegetables and melons (including potatoes, pulse crops, and mushrooms) averaged $17.5 billion during 2000-07, 16 percent of all crop cash receipts. Potatoes, the top vegetable for decades in terms of cash receipts, averaged $2.6 billion. Lettuce (all types) is the second largest in farm receipts with $2.03 billion, followed by tomatoes (fresh and processing) with $2.01 billion. Mushrooms ($0.9 billion) and onions ($0.8 billion) round out the top five.
Q. What U.S. States
produce the most vegetables and melons?
A. Every State grows vegetables and melons. If
potato and pulse acreage is excluded, harvested area ranges
from a low of less than 100 acres in Wyoming to more than
1.2 million in California. California leads the nation
with about 30 percent of the harvested area and about
60 percent of fresh and processed production. Including
potatoes and pulses, the top five producing States are
California, Idaho, Washington, Wisconsin, and Florida.
Idaho and Washington are the top two potato-producing
States. Wisconsin, also a leading potato State, ranks
second as a producer of processed vegetables—primarily
canned.
Q. What data does ERS
have about vegetables and melons?
A. ERS receives vegetable and melon data from both Government and private sources. USDA agencies provide data such as acreage, yield, production, farm price, value, and stocks. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides limited retail prices and retail and wholesale price indexes. The Commerce Department's U.S. Census Bureau reports official U.S. import and export statistics. Private associations provide stocks for processing tomatoes and dry beans. States provide production and price data for commodities such as eggplant and Brussels sprouts through their State statistical offices, while ERS produces cash receipt and per capita disappearance estimates.
Q. Are growers
of vegetables and melons covered by Federal farm programs?
A. Producers of vegetables and melons do not
receive direct subsidies under Federal price and income support
programs.
A variety of general programs cover these crops, however.
Some of these include Federal production assistance
programs
(such as Federal crop insurance), disaster assistance,
and western irrigation subsidies. Also, several commodities
benefit from export programs like the Market
Access Program and Federal food purchases for various
domestic and international feeding programs. See the
Policy chapter for more
information.
Q. How important
are exports, and where do we export vegetables and melons?
A. About 9 percent of U.S. vegetable and melon
supply is exported (includes commercial sales and Federal
food aid). The majority of U.S. vegetables, melon, and
pulse exports are shipped to Canada, with Japan, Mexico,Taiwan,
and South Korea rounding out the top five destinations.
Q. How important
are imports and where do we get them?
A. Imports accounted for nearly 17 percent of domestic vegetable and melon consumption in 2007, up from 11 percent in 2000 and 7 percent in 1990. Despite the continued steady gain over the past decade, imports are not generally a direct threat to most vegetable and melon growers. The majority of imports arrive during the late fall to early spring when domestic output is limited.
However, there are several individual commodity markets facing heavy competition, including fresh and processed asparagus, frozen broccoli, garlic, canned mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, chile peppers, and others. For example, frozen broccoli imports now account for nearly 90 percent of U.S. domestic use, primarily from Mexico and Guatemala. Imports of fresh-market tomatoes account for 32 percent of domestic use—down from a high of 36 percent in 1998, but up from 19 percent in 1990. Tomato growers and shippers in Florida face heavy competition from imported field-grown and greenhouse-produced products each year.
Q. What does it
cost to grow vegetables and melons?
A. USDA does not estimate production costs for
vegetables and melons. Budgets are available from University
web sites such as the University
of Florida, Oregon
State University, and the University
of California-Davis.
Q. How large is the
U.S. vegetable and melon market?
A. Vegetables and melons brought in about $18.0 billion annually for growers over 2000-07. This was about 16 percent of U.S. crop cash receipts. According
to the 2002
Census of Agriculture, 54,391 farms produced vegetables
and melons (excluding potatoes and pulses) on 3.7 million
acres. The census data for vegetables and melons exclude
potatoes, sweet potatoes, pulses, and mushrooms. According
to the census, 9,408 farms grew potatoes, 2,366 sweet
potatoes, 8,647 dry beans, 1,547 dry peas, and 647 lentils.
Others include 462 mushroom farms, 3,416 operations with
greenhouse vegetables, and 249 farms producing dried herbs.
These farms may not be mutually exclusive.
Q. Where may I
find information about organic vegetables?
A. Although organic vegetable production is a
small part of the U.S. vegetable industry, it has been
expanding rapidly for many years. Visit the ERS
Organic Agriculture Briefing Room; USDA's
Agricultural Marketing Service, National
Organic Program; and Foreign Agricultural Service,
Organic
Products for more information.
Q. What information
is available about vegetables and pesticides?
A. USDA's National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS) publishes pesticide use by selected vegetable
crop every 2 years in Agricultural
Chemical Usage—Vegetables. Also, ERS has published several articles
about vegetables and pesticides. An article in Agricultural
Outlook highlighted the phaseout
of methyl bromide, while another in the
April
1998 Vegetables and Specialties Situation and Outlook
Report (txt) contrasted food safety for imported and
domestically produced fruits and vegetables.
Q.
Where may I find information about biotechnology and vegetables?
A. ERS has a briefing
room covering biotech issues but it has little
on vegetables. For general information on USDA's role in biotechnology, visit the USDA biotechnology web page. The Vegetable Research and Information Center at
the University
of California, Davis has a briefing area on Biotechnology
in Vegetable Production.
Q.
Does ERS have information on food safety and vegetables?
A. ERS has published several articles covering food safety and produce including articles on traceability, the 2006 outbreak of E. coli in spinach, and a case study of the 2003 outbreak of hepatitis in green onions.
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