Feature: Food Choices & Health
Grocery store purchase data reveal that Americans underspend on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and overspend on refined grains, fats, and sugars/sweets, compared with USDA's dietary recommendations, a pattern that showed little change from 1998 to 2006. Food choices when eating out are even more of a nutritional concern.
Feature: Crops
Southeast Asia is the leading source for rice exports and the second-largest importing region in the world. This region’s rice surplus of exports over imports has grown steadily over the past decade. Despite slower production growth, USDA projects that the surplus will remain large over the next decade because rice consumption in the region is expected to increase at a slower rate.
Feature: Crops
While the impact that climate change will have on future growing conditions in specific areas of the country remains uncertain, the ability of farmers to adapt to climate change—through planting decisions, farming practices, and use of technology—can reduce its impact on production, farm commodity prices, and farmer returns.
Feature: Farm Economy
The complexity of the current tax code, together with perceptions that it distorts economically efficient decisions and is inequitable, has led to calls for fundamental tax reform.
Finding: Crops
In calendar year 2011, protected culture tomatoes made up 40 percent of U.S. tomato shipments, up from less than 10 percent in 2004; they now dominate the retail industry and are becoming more common in foodservice. The transition to protected culture tomatoes is likely to accelerate if growers can meet foodservice demand, particularly from fast food buyers.
Finding: Crops
In the U.S, cotton is a major field crop that generates significant cash receipts for producers, exceeded only by corn, soybeans, wheat, and greenhouse products. Data from the most recent (2007) cotton version of USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey reveal the extent to which cotton farm operators have different characteristics and use different production practices.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
A recent ERS analysis compares the food security status of current SNAP recipients with that of households that had recently left the program. The difference of 8.9 percentage points in prevalence of very low food security between households that continued to receive SNAP benefits (14.2 percent) and households that had recently left the program (23.1 percent) provides an estimate of SNAP’s effectiveness in improving the food security of participating households.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
With many Americans consuming too much fat and added sugars and not enough fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products, some public health advocates have called for taxes or subsidies on particular foods as a way to improve Americans’ diets. To capture the total impact of hypothetical price policies on dietary quality requires a model that includes consumer responsiveness to complementary and substitute foods.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
ERS, in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, recently completed a study of the effects of wind power development on county-level income and employment in 12 States of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. Findings reveal an aggregate increase in county-level personal income and employment of approximately $11,000 and 0.5 jobs per megawatt of wind power capacity installed over the study period 2000 to 2008.
Finding: Crops
Genetically engineered varieties of corn with enhanced pest management traits have been widely adopted by U.S. farmers. ERS examined data from USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey to determine the reasons farmers planted Bt corn and the resulting impact on corn yields, profits, and insecticide use.
Statistic: Food Choices & Health
ERS’s recently updated Commodity Consumption by Population Characteristics data product links national estimates of food supplies, or food available for consumption, with information from consumer food intake surveys.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Feature: Rural Economy & Population
Though generally perceived to be an urban problem, concentrated poverty is on the rise in rural areas.
Feature: Farm Economy
U.S. agriculture entered the most recent recession better positioned than most U.S. industries, was less affected by the recession than most other U.S. industries, and is likely to continue to do well in the years ahead.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
Replacing calorie-dense snack foods with fruits and vegetables can be one step in addressing childhood obesity and does not have to compromise a family’s food budget.
Feature: Farm Economy
Multinational companies are strengthened by global research networks that facilitate the development of new technologies.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Many observers speculate that agricultural policies contribute to increased U.S. obesity rates by making certain commodities more abundant and therefore cheaper. However, a recent study finds that the effects of farm subsidies, when combined with the effects of other agricultural policies that restrict supply such as acreage set-asides or import barriers, have little impact on average calorie consumption.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
There is little evidence that overall diet quality in the U.S. has improved in response to updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans issued every 5 years. However, a recent study by ERS finds that, for whole grains, the 2005 Guidelines were able to nudge consumption patterns in the direction desired by the public health community—at least for some consumers.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
China has become a key importer of U.S. distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), the main co-product from ethanol production. About a fourth of U.S. DDGS output is exported, and China accounted for nearly 20 percent of those exports in 2010/11.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
Rising fuel prices and the public’s desire for new sources of renewable energy and reduced carbon emissions have led to government policies that support the adoption of anaerobic digesters by livestock producers. ERS research finds that the design of such policies can affect farmer adoption rates of digesters, farm incomes, and environmental benefits from use of the technology.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
An ERS study of nitrogen management on U.S. corn cropland over 2001-10 indicates that corn producers may be adjusting to changing economic conditions and environmental concerns. U.S. corn acreage treated with nitrogen increased 18 percent during the period as corn prices rose by 70 percent in response to increased demand for grain for export and ethanol production.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Several studies have projected the potential economic effects of increasing natural gas drilling for local and State economies. Recent ERS analysis finds that the projections of job creation in areas where drilling has already occurred tend to be overstated.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
There is growing evidence that efforts to attract and assist return migrants can reap benefits for rural communities, especially in geographically isolated areas that otherwise tend to attract few new migrants. However, for returnees to overcome employment challenges in these communities often requires a combination of sacrifice, risk taking, creativity, and patience.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
One need for delineating remote “frontier” areas comes from recent legislative mandates to improve access to public services in such areas. ERS’s newly developed Frontier and Remote (FAR) area codes are both geographically detailed and adjustable within reasonable ranges to facilitate their use in diverse research and policy contexts.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
For many decades, most U.S. nonmetro counties experienced significant population loss among young adults, especially in the years immediately following high school graduation.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
According to USDA’s National Farmers’ Market Directory, 7,828 farmers’ markets were operating in the United States in August 2012.
Feature: Farm Economy
Policies driving agricultural productivity growth include economic reforms that strengthen incentives for farmers, investments in R&D, and improved infrastructure.
Feature: Farm Economy
Farm real estate values increased considerably in recent years, with some States experiencing double-digit growth.
Feature: Farm Economy
Rural development efforts that create and maintain a broad portfolio of wealth may be central to sustainable rural prosperity.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
For many countries in the region, low yields and lagging labor productivity in agriculture present opportunities for improvement.
Feature: Animal Products
Economic growth and population gains in developing countries and production of biofuels will continue to be a leading source of demand in the agricultural sector.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
Prices have an effect on people’s food choices, and related health outcomes, but they are not the only factor.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
The Federal Government has taken two policy approaches to help Americans reduce trans fats in their diets: publicizing the health risks and requiring food manufacturers to label the trans fat content of foods. ERS found that food manufacturers responded to the labeling requirements, nutritional advice from health officials, and national media coverage by reducing the trans fats in their products.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
In 2010, about 35 cents from each dollar that U.S. consumers spent on food at grocery and other retail foodstores went to food processing establishments like flour mills, meatpacking plants, and dairy processors. This equates to an increase of around 14 percent since 2007, when the share was about 31 cents per dollar spent.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Healthy foods are perceived to be more expensive than less healthy foods, a belief perhaps fueled by studies showing that healthy foods are more expensive per calorie. This is not surprising, as less healthy foods tend to be higher in calories than healthy foods, and the price-per-calorie metric does not account for total calories consumed. ERS measured the prices of over 4,000 foods using three price metrics and found that prices for each food category varied depending on the metric used.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
According to ERS’s food availability data, 58 pounds of chicken per person on a boneless, edible basis were available for Americans to eat in 2010, and for the first time, chicken surpassed beef as the most consumed meat in the U.S. Chicken consumption began its upward climb in the 1940s and has doubled since 1970.
Finding: Farm Economy
The extent to which direct payments encourage agricultural production has been a point of dispute in WTO negotiations and legal cases. Recent ERS analysis, however, finds that direct payments have little effect on production decisions. A more rigorous ERS analysis accounting for farm and regional characteristics also found no evidence of direct payments having economically significant effects on production.
Finding: Farm Economy
ERS research findings suggest that farm households purchasing individual health insurance directly from private vendors are likely to spend more on health care than those with other sources of health insurance. Other things being equal, among all farm households, those without any insurance coverage had the lowest health care expenditures.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Mexico has historically been a top export market for U.S. beef, but in 2003, it emerged as an important source of beef imports for the United States. U.S. beef imports from Mexico at least doubled in 2010 and 2011.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Over the last 25 years, Brazil emerged as a major agricultural producer and exporter, with agricultural production rising 77 percent between 1985 and 2006. Domestic reforms helped the country achieve economic and financial stability. That stability, as well as government investments in infrastructure and agricultural research, led to increases in agricultural productivity and expansion of cultivated area.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Although wheat yields over the last 20 years reached record highs under favorable weather conditions, wheat production in Afghanistan is extremely sensitive to variations in precipitation. During the main growing months, rainfall is scarce and farmers depend on irrigation. And decades of war and conflict have left much of the country’s irrigation system in a state of disrepair. These conditions limit growth in wheat area, which, in turn, limits growth in output.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS derived the farm value of whole milk and Cheddar cheese and then estimated models to measure the response of retail prices to changes in these farm values. Model results revealed that farm milk price shocks are not transmitted instantaneously to retail for either dairy product. The nature of price transmission is also very different for whole milk and Cheddar cheese.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
While it is relatively easy to track the amount of meat imported by the U.S. and the number of livestock that enter the U.S., it is more difficult to estimate the amount of meat produced in the United States from animals that originated abroad. ERS estimates show the share of domestic production attributed to foreign-born animals is significant and trending upward.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
In 2007, irrigated agriculture accounted for 55 percent of the total value of U.S. crop sales (including fruit and vegetable production) while also supporting the livestock and poultry sectors. The economic health and sustainability of irrigated agriculture will depend on the ability of producers to adapt to growing constraints on water, particularly through improved water-use efficiency.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Recently, markets have been developed that could allow farmers to generate and sell environmental credits when they adopt farming practices that improve the environment. Environmental markets use baselines to determine whether proposed improvements qualify for marketable credits, and setting baseline emissions levels is often a contentious element of market design.
Statistic: International Markets & Trade
Middle-income countries, including Mexico and China, continue to grow as key partners in U.S. agricultural trade. In 2011, the United States shipped nearly half of its total agricultural exports to upper middle-income countries.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Farm Practices & Management
Nearly 57 million acres were irrigated across the United States in 2007, about 7.5 percent of all agricultural cropland and pastureland.
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
In 2010, families and individuals accounted for 82.8 percent of the $1.2 trillion in total U.S. food spending.
Feature: Farm Economy
Private sector firms becoming leaders in developing new innovations in agriculture.
Feature: Farm Economy
Agricultural markets value the situation and outlook information published in WASDE.
Feature: Farm Economy
Changes being considered would affect the market for hired farm labor.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
SNAP is particularly effective in lessening poverty among children.
Statistic: Food Choices & Health
Foods prepared in restaurants, school cafeterias, and other away-from-home eating places accounted for 42 percent of American households food budgets and 32 percent of calorie intake during 2005-08. How the nutritional quality of these foods differs from that of foods eaten at home is one of the critical factors affecting the quality of Americans diets.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
Nationally, the share of Americans living below the poverty threshold increased from 12.4 percent in 2000 to 13.8 percent in 2006-10. But in nearly one-quarter (762) of U.S. counties, the poverty rate increased by 30 percent or more, while another 878 counties saw no change or experienced declining poverty.
Statistic:
In recent years, the gross value of global crop production has been about 70 percent higher than the gross value of global livestock production.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
ERS examined trade in seven developing countries to determine what would have been the frequency and intensity for price- and quantity-based special safeguard mechanisms (SSM) for cereal grains between 1995 and 2009. Findings suggest that if approved for use, both the quantity- and price-based SSM have the potential to be triggered in major grain markets in developing countries, thereby affecting agricultural trade with these countries.
Finding: Crops
The growing role of the ethanol industry as a supplier to the U.S. motor fuels market has reshaped the relationship between agriculture and energy markets. A recent ERS study found that price relationships between the U.S. corn and gasoline markets strengthened significantly after March 2008 and continue to be highly correlated.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Price increases for some high-calorie foods and beverages were found to have small but statistically significant effects on children's BMI, and in the direction expected. While the effects of the price increases are small, comparing them with the expected average growth in children's BMI over a year reveals a possibly large effect over time
Finding: Food Choices & Health
ERS researchers used data from the Eating & Health Module of the American Time Use Survey to analyze associations between time spent on various activities and BMI. Data on time spent by Americans age 20 and older on 24 major activity categories reveal that the biggest differences between normal-weight people and obese people were in time spent watching television, participating in sports and exercise, and engaging in paid work.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
In 2010, food insecurity rates were higher for U.S. households with members in nonstandard work arrangements than for those with members in full-time jobs. Findings suggest that employment relates to food insecurity in ways beyond the effects of earned income, such as through instability in income and work schedules that cut down on time available for preparing meals.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
ERS researchers explored whether U.S. consumers adjusted their purchases of shrimp in response to the 2005 country-of origin labeling requirements for seafood. Findings show that consumers were not responsive to the new country-of-origin labels.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
Recent ERS research examined geographic variation in retail prices for two foods that differ in their retail handling requirements and perishability, as well as in their nutritional profiles--fresh vegetables and salty snacks. Findings show that households are likely to face higher prices for each of these foods when certain economic and demographic conditions exist in their community.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Federal farm program payments help encourage good stewardship of natural resources through environmental compliance requirements. But the future effectiveness of environmental compliance requirements may be affected by the evolution of farm programs in the next farm bill.
Finding: Farm Economy
R&D expenditures by the global food manufacturing industry reached $11.5 billion in 2007, with the U.S. accounting for $3.1 billion of the total. However, research intensity (research spending relative to the value of production) in U.S. food manufacturing is relatively low, at about 1.5 percent, compared with 10 percent for total U.S. manufacturing.
Finding: Animal Products
An important and unchanging feature of Clean Water Act is that livestock operations confining more than a specific number of livestock face more stringent rules. However, findings show that some farmers are avoiding the regulations by adjusting the size of their operations to just below the cutoff point.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
In the coming years, anticipated deficit reduction legislation could affect rural America. It is too early to know with any certainty which Federal programs will be affected, or by how much, but the current composition of rural Federal funding receipts can reveal insights about rural America's potential vulnerability to budget cuts.
Feature: Natural Resources & Environment
Rise in incomes in counties receiving funding from the Delta Regional Authority stemmed largely from investments in the health and social services sector.
Feature: Farm Economy
Unless the design of commodity programs changes substantially, current payment trends favoring larger farms are likely to continue.
Feature: Farm Economy
Because farm program designs and purposes vary, producers may participate in, and receive benefits from, multiple programs on the same farm, increasing the potential for overlap.
Feature: Farm Economy
Changing from a State-level trigger to a farm-level trigger could potentially result in higher payments and a higher ACRE signup rate.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
The weak economy played a major role but other factors also contributed to the increase in program participation over the last decade.
Finding: Farm Economy
The base 10 provision of the 2008 Farm Act prohibits farms with 10 or fewer base acres from receiving direct and countercyclical payments (DCP) or Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program payments. In 2009, payments prohibited under the provision totaled $29.1 million, compared with over $5 billion total DCP and ACRE payments.
Finding: Animal Products
High pork prices in the Chinese market have created opportunities for the U.S. pork industy. However, U.S. pork sales to China have not risen at a steady rate.They tend to rise and fall in rhythm with cyclical changes in China's hog sector.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
USDA has a long history of subsidizing school meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program. Increasingly, USDA is also involved in feeding children after school, especially low-income children.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Research has suggested that Americans view their diets too optimistically, underestimating the amount of calories in their diets, for example, or overestimating the nutritional value. Recent work by ERS suggests that, in recent years, such optimistic bias may be on the wane.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS researchers examined nonsale prices of both private-label (store brand) foods and national brands in two periods: May 2008 to June 2009 and July 2009 to August 2010. Private label prices fluctuated more than prices of national brands between the recessionary period and post-recession period.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
A single program that provides income support to U.S. farmers and leverages improved environmental performance on their farms has intuitive appeal. However, existing conservation and commodity programs have very little in common, and attempting to meld them into a single program raises questions about to whom and under what conditions payments would be extended.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
Over time, the Conservation Reserve Program's (CRP) size and goals have changed from its early emphasis on limiting soil erosion to include wildlife, water and air quality, and other conservation goals.
Finding: Farm Economy
The main driver of agricultural productivity growth over the last 50 years has been the application of new technologies to farming. Robust productivity growth has allowed U.S. agriculture to hold down the cost and environmental consequences of growing more food and fiber.
Finding: Animal Products
ERS researchers used farm-level data from the 2002 and 2007 Censuses of Agriculture to examine the effect of increasing use of hog production contracts on spot market prices.
Finding: Farm Economy
After 2 straight years of rapid growth, U.S. net farm income is forecast to decline by 6.5 percent in 2012 to $91.7 billion.
Statistic: Farm Economy
ERS's Farm Program Atlas provides access to an array of public data that enable users to visually explore the geographic distribution of participation and benefits from seven key Federal farm programs at national, State, and county levels. By making the Atlas mapping tool available, ERS hopes to inform discussion about Federal farm programs in the context of the 2012 farm bill debate and to highlight the value of public data on these programs.
Statistic: Farm Economy
How land is used and changes in land use have implications for commodity production and trade, soil and water conservation, bioenergy supply, climate change adaptation, and many other policy issues. A complex set of factors, including commodity prices; production technology; demand for land for residential, commercial, and industrial development; and agricultural and bioenergy policies can induce land-use change as landowners respond to market conditions and try to maximize the returns to their land.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America
Statistic:
Environmental compliance requires farm program participants to conserve soil on highly erodible cropland and refrain from draining wetlands or risk losing all or part of most farm program payments. Since 2008, “direct payments” have accounted for a large share of payments subject to withholding.
Statistic:
Commodity Prices Vary More than U.S. Cropland Acreage
Feature: International Markets & Trade
The NAFTA governments are seeking more open trading relationships with non-NAFTA countries, such as China, Colombia, Panama, Japan, and South Korea, as well as increased commerce within the North American free-trade area.
Feature: Food Markets & Prices
Local food marketing channels vary with farm size, with smaller farms dominating direct-to-consumer sales and larger farms dominating sales through grocers and other intermediaries.
Feature: Food Safety
ERS research conducted over the past two decades provides a number of lessons that can help identify efficient and effective means of implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010.
Feature: Farm Practices & Management
Changing production practices, including adoption of labor-saving innovations, have contributed to and been affected by increases in both agricultural productivity and the concentration of production.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
Brazil's ethanol industry has been aided by increased capacity to produce sugarcane as an ethanol feedstock, supportive government policies, and improved efficiency in sugarcane production and ethanol conversion.
Finding: Farm Economy
A recent ERS study found that increasing ethanol in the U.S. gasoline supply would lead to lower crude oil prices than would otherwise have been the case. A one-time 5-percent increase in U.S. ethanol use will lower the crude oil price by an estimated 8 cents per barrel over 12 months.
Finding: Animal Products
U.S. production of distillers’ grains (DGs), which include a range of animal feed co-products derived from corn-based dry-mill ethanol production, has quadrupled since 2004/05, paralleling the rapid growth of U.S. ethanol production.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
The most recent USDA global food-security assessment (based on estimates of national food availability) indicates that India accounted for the single largest share of the world's food-insecure population in 2010-about 28 percent.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Animal disease outbreaks can have major trade impacts. ERS analysis of the effects of the 2004 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1-virus in Japan showed evidence of a willingness of Japanese consumers to substitute-for food safety reasons- processed dried egg products for fresh shell eggs. These changes in preference affect U.S. exports of shell eggs and egg products.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Recent ERS research suggests that low-income Americans can meet the Dietary Guidelines for fruit and vegetable consumption with a wide selection of fresh and processed products and stay within a limited budget.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
Precision agriculture comprises a range of information technologies—such as yield monitors, global positioning systems (GPS), variable rate technology, and guidance systems—that farmers can use to better manage their agricultural production practices.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
U.S. hog producers altered their manure management decisions between 1998 and 2009, suggesting an increased focus on applying nutrients at agronomic rates-that is, at levels that do not exceed what can be absorbed by crops.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
During a decade of diminished population growth across rural and small-town America, Hispanic population growth and geographic dispersion during 2000-2010 was a strong driver of demographic change, as it has been for at least two decades.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
After declining for much of the previous decade, the employment of hired farm laborers, supervisors, and managers stabilized in 2008 and rose somewhat in 2009 and 2010, according to data from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Farm Labor Survey.
Statistic: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Some low-income communities in the United States lack stores that sell healthy and affordable food. The lack of store access in these communities—sometimes called food deserts—may contribute to poor diet, obesity, and other diet-related illness.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America.
Statistic:
Research Areas charts from the December 2012 issue of Amber Waves.
Statistic: Animal Products
U.S. pork byproduct exports totaled $700 million in 2010, almost 15 percent of the total value of U.S. pork exports.
Statistic: Food & Nutrition Assistance
After a sharp increase from 2007 to 2008, the prevalence of food insecurity remained essentially unchanged in 2009 and 2010 at 14.5 percent.
Feature: Food Markets & Prices
Faced with falling incomes and economic uncertainty, many Americans economized on their food purchases during the 2007-09 recession, particularly on food away from home.
Feature: Farm Economy
Food prices jumped in 2010-11, the second price spike within 3 years. Longer term financial, agricultural, and demographic trends, exacerbated by short-term production shortfalls, set up conditions for the increases.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to food and fuel price shocks, which, in 2007/08, led to an increase in household food insecurity.
Feature: Farm Practices & Management
Agriculture is the single largest source of nitrogen compounds that can help or harm ecosystems. A range of policy instruments could be used to address different facets of nitrogen management and specific environmental problems.
Feature: Natural Resources & Environment
Federal farm programs, crop prices, and new technology may encourage farmers to extend crop production into native grasslands. A recent ERS study found that farm programs had a minor effect on conversions of grasslands to crop production.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
In exchange for exclusive sales arrangements, manufacturers provide large rebates to States for formula purchased through the program. Winning a WIC contract significantly increases a manufacturer's market share.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
As they react to income and price changes, consumers in low-income countries respond with larger adjustments to their food consumption patterns. These adjustments are not uniform across food categories—consumption of higher value food items, such as meats and dairy products, changes more than staple foods, which includes wheat and rice.
Finding: Animal Products
Byproducts -- edible offal, inedible offal, blood, hides, and rendered products -- include virtually all parts of the live animal that are not part of the dressed carcasses. Byproducts account for more than 10 percent of the value of cattle and more than 6 percent of the value of hogs.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
ERS researchers have found that convenience is one food characteristic for which recession-constrained consumers will reduce expenditures. Specifically, sales of bagged leafy greens decrease relative to sales of unpackaged leafy greens when income levels fall.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
ERS contracted with an independent, nonprofit research organization to develop new consumer-level loss estimates to update those ERS has used since the mid-1990s. If the new food loss estimates are adopted, changes to ERS’s current Loss-Adjusted Food Availability data would vary for individual foods.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Findings from a 2011 ERS study show that due to geographical food-price variation, the new fruit and vegetable voucher for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) buys substantially smaller amounts in some U.S. areas than in others.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
The period of transitioning off SNAP can be a financially challenging time for some households despite their improved economic circumstances. Very low food security—characterized by disrupted eating patterns and reduced intake—is more prevalent among households that recently left SNAP than among households still receiving assistance.
Finding: Natural Resources & Environment
In 2007, USDA conducted the first comprehensive survey of the production and marketing practices used by organic and conventional apple growers. The survey results indicate that organic and conventional apple growers make many similar production and marketing decisions.
Finding: Farm Economy
ERS researchers found that farmland exchanges represent a relatively small share of all tax-deferred exchanges—about 2 percent between 1999 and 2003. Exchanges involving farmland accounted for roughly 6 percent of all farmland dispositions reported to the IRS in 1999-2003.
Statistic:
Between 2000 and 2009, U.S. ethanol production increased from 1.6 billion gallons to 10.8 billion gallons, almost all of which was produced from corn. Some of the corn came from increased yields and some was diverted from other uses, but much of the corn needed to produce ethanol came from expanding planted acreage.
Statistic:
Amber Waves presents the broad scope of ERS's research and analysis. The magazine covers the economics of agriculture, food and nutrition, the food industry, trade, rural America, and farm-related environmental topics. Available on the Internet and in print, Amber Waves is issued in print four times a year (March, June, September, and December). The Internet edition, or
Statistic:
September 2011 Research Areas
Statistic: Food & Nutrition Assistance
The economic hardships of the recent recession increased the number of Americans needing food assistance.
Statistic:
USDA provides technical and financial assistance to help farmers implement conservation practices on working agricultural lands or on lands temporarily retired from production. As measured in constant (2009) dollars, Federal conservation assistance has fluctuated widely during the past 60 years.
Feature: International Markets & Trade
Evidence shows FTAs increased trade among members, suggesting the large number of FTAs that do not include the U.S. may be eroding the U.S. presence in foreign markets.
Feature: Farm Economy
Though standard economic approaches may be difficult to apply to evaluations of some benefits of public investments in ag. research, economic reasoning can provide qualitative analysis even when benefits are difficult to quantify.
Feature: Farm Economy
Increased use of the tax code for policy goals has boosted incomes of rural taxpayers, who tend to have lower incomes and higher poverty than urban taxpayers.
Feature: Food Safety
Irradiation is an alternative treatment for foodborne pests on imported fruit and vegetables, but it requires labeling and large investments in facilities and some consumers remain wary of the process.
Finding: Crops
Very large commercial farms (with $1 million or more of agricultural sales per year) accounted for about 8 percent of all U.S. specialized vegetable and melon farms during 2005-07.
Finding: Animal Products
Beef cow-calf production, the first stage of the beef production process, occurs in every State and is economically important in most of the United States.
Finding: Food Markets & Prices
Prices for wheat, corn, and other major field crops and for agricultural products like cattle and fluid milk have spiked several times during the past decade.
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Across America, over 42 million meals—31 million lunches and 11 million breakfasts—are served on a typical schoolday through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
Finding: Farm Economy
Biofuels have been promoted as a low-carbon alternative to petroleum with a range of other possible benefits, including the potential to support the farm sector and revitalize rural communities.
Finding: Rural Economy & Population
Economic recessions invariably reduce incomes as employment levels fall, but there is strong and consistent evidence that the weight of recession falls most heavily on those at the bottom of the income distribution—the deep poor—who find it hardest to afford basic necessities and ensure their well-being.
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
The ERS marketing bill has been a popular statistical series for food market observers interested in knowing the costs of getting food from farm to table.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America.
Statistic:
Research Areas charts from the June 2011 issue of Amber Waves.
Statistic: Crops
California accounts for about half of U.S. bearing fruit acreage, Florida almost one-fourth, and Washington around one-tenth.
Statistic: Animal Products
After a 4-year increase during 2005-08, milk cow numbers fell in 2009 and 2010 and are projected to continue year-to-year declines in 2012-20.
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance
Food spending by low-income households increased and their food security improved as a result of the increase in SNAP benefit levels authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Feature: Food Choices & Health
A 2010 Federal law will require U.S. chain restaurants to display calorie information on their menus and menu boards. Will consumers use this information to make healthier food choices?
Feature: Farm Economy
According to USDA long-term projections, continued income growth will make developing countries the main source of the projected increases in global food demand and trade.
Feature: Farm Practices & Management
Currently, methane digesters’ costs often exceed their benefits to livestock producers, but higher prices in voluntary, regional, or national carbon markets could make them profitable for many operations.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
China is by far the world’s largest supplier of apple juice concentrate, a key ingredient in consumer juice products and other beverages in the United States and other countries.
Finding: International Markets & Trade
Japan was once the largest export market for U.S. beef, importing as much as $1.6 billion worth of U.S. beef a year.
Finding: Farm Economy
The 2008 Farm Act’s Planting Transferability Pilot Program (PTPP) allows program crop producers who participate in Federal commodity programs in seven Upper Midwestern States to plant selected vegetables destined for processing without violating Government payment contracts.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Childhood obesity is a public concern, and consumption of caloric sweetened beverages, the frequency of eating fast food, and an array of unhealthy options at schools have been named as possible culprits.
Finding: Food Choices & Health
Federal dietary guidance advises Americans to increase their consumption of vegetables and fruit to meet recommended quantities and variety.
Finding: Farm Practices & Management
Between 2002 and 2008, fuel and fertilizer prices rose sharply, thereby contributing to substantially higher total farm energy-intensive input costs.
Finding: Farm Economy
Most U.S. corn, soybean, and wheat production is sold through cash markets, where the producer receives the market price prevailing at the time of sale.
Finding: Farm Economy
Net value added, net farm income, and net cash income—the three key U.S. farm sector financial indicators—are expected to improve in 2011.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
Economic and social challenges facing rural areas and small towns differ greatly from those affecting larger U.S. cities, and the opportunities for rural population growth and economic expansion vary substantially from one nonmetro county to the next.
Statistic:
Selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, and rural America.
Statistic:
Research Areas charts from the March 2011 issue of Amber Waves.
Statistic: Rural Economy & Population
The share of county farms engaged in agritourism is high in the West, where agricultural lands tend to have lower yields due to low rainfall and mountainous terrain.
Statistic: Food Markets & Prices
U.S. expenditures on food at home and away from home grew over the past 50 years, but food-away-from-home expenditures increased more rapidly. During the recent recession, however, inflation-adjusted spending on both food at home and away from home fell.
Feature: Rural Economy & Population
Hispanics increasingly meet labor demand arising from
industry restructuring.