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Feature
A recent ERS study found that during 2008-09, each dollar of SNAP assistance raised participants’ at-home food spending by an average of 53 cents—a higher portion than in previous studies.
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Feature
Three common precision agricultural information technologies are global positioning system (GPS) guidance systems, GPS yield and soil monitors/maps, and variable-rate input application technologies (VRT). Research shows these technologies had similar positive, but small, impacts on corn profits of between 1 and 3 percent in 2010.
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Finding
According to ERS’s loss-adjusted food availability data, total calories per person decreased by 2 percent between 2000 and 2010. In both years, grains were the primary contributor to daily calories per capita.
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Finding
Between 1992 and 2012, the number of U.S. midsize farms declined by about 5 percent—or just over 6,100 farms. In the same period, midsize farm households have seen their finances improve, with household income doubling and off-farm income tripling in real terms.
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Statistic
New public-use files on the ERS website contain data on food and beverage purchases from food retailers and eating-out places, along with foods acquired for free from schools, family, friends, home gardens, and food pantries.
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Statistic
ERS’s County Typology Codes allow for the analysis of recent rural demographic and economic trends across economic specializations.
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Feature
U.S. private sector funding in food and agricultural R&D has risen rapidly over the last decade, surpassing public sector funding. Falling public sector funding for agricultural R&D in the U.S. and greater spending by some other nations have reduced the U.S. share in public agricultural R&D worldwide.
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Feature
Linking administrative data—the official records of a government program—with data from large Federal surveys leverages the strengths of the two data sources, allowing analyses of public programs and policies not possible using either source separately.
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Finding
In 2015, 16.6 percent of households with children were food insecure, down from 19.2 percent in 2014, meaning that 2.2 million fewer children in 2015 lived in households that had trouble putting adequate food on the table for all their members.
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Finding
Between 2007 and 2010, the share of the average U.S. household’s food budget spent in grocery stores—on ingredients as well as ready-to-eat foods—rose as Americans cut back on eating out, especially at fast-food places.
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Finding
Many farmers in the U.S. use crop insurance to manage the risk of crop failure or low prices. ERS finds that, when examined over multiple years, farmers’ demand for crop insurance is driven more by a farmer’s wealth and the available financial options than by a farmer’s attitude toward risk.
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Finding
In 2012, 35 percent of active farm and ranch land was in counties overlaying a shale play (shale counties). In 2014, about 6 percent of U.S. farm businesses averaged $56,000 in lease and royalty payments from energy production.
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Statistic
The average time spent in meal prep—preparing, serving, and cleaning up afterward—varies by gender, age, and employment status. Households with children and those participating in food assistance programs spend more time in meal prep than other households.
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Finding
Throughout much of the 1990s and early 2000s, food price inflation was lower than economy-wide inflation. However in 7 of the last 9 years, food prices have posted bigger increases than overall inflation.
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Finding
During the 2 years following the December 2003 discovery of a BSE-positive cow in the United States, consumers’ purchases of ground beef fell by an average of 0.26 pounds per person following each of the 12 ground beef recalls issued by the Government.
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Finding
Holding other factors constant, such as assistance from traditional disaster relief programs, findings show significant differences in income and employment growth between counties that suffered relatively small losses from Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Opportunity Zone and similar counties outside of that zone.
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Statistic
According to ERS’s loss-adjusted food availability data, U.S. seafood consumption in 2014 averaged 2.7 ounces per week, about one-third of the recommended minimum of 8 ounces per week.
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Statistic
To monitor the U.S. farm sector’s performance, ERS develops total factor productivity (TFP) statistics measured as total agricultural output per unit of aggregate input, with each adjusted for price changes. Total factor productivity measures changes in the efficiency with which inputs are transformed into output.
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Finding
Beginning farmers—those who have managed a farm or ranch for 10 years or less—generally have lower rates of business survival than more established farm operators. According to Census of Agriculture data, only 48.1 percent of beginning farmers having positive sales in 2007 also reported positive sales in 2012, compared with 55.7 percent of all farms.
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Finding
Many consumers want information about how their food is produced, including how farmers raise the animals they eat. Challenges may arise for firms as well as consumers when firms introduce label claims about farm practices (for example, how animals were raised) in the absence of universally accepted definitions or requirements for such claims.
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Finding
Beef production and pork production are projected to grow by 11.7 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, from 2016 to 2015. As a result, beef and pork prices are projected to drop over the period, driving up demand for beef and pork and reversing a multiyear decline in U.S. meat consumption.
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Finding
Over the past two and a half decades, U.S. households in the lowest income quintile spent between 29 and 43 percent of their annual before-tax income on food, compared with 7 to 9 percent spent by households in the highest income quintile.
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Feature
Soil health builds upon soil conservation by encouraging farmers to manage soil as a living ecosystem, in addition to reducing soil erosion. Healthy soils can have benefits to society and to farmers. USDA incentivizes farmers to adopt soil health practices through programs such as EQIP and CSP.
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Feature
The 2014 Farm Act revised the maximum income limitations (the income caps) that determine eligibility for most commodity and conservation programs and payments by replacing the separate limits on farm and nonfarm income specified in the 2008 Farm Act with a single total adjusted gross income cap of $900,000.
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Feature
Despite volatile farm-level milk prices over the last decade, fluctuations in retail prices for whole milk and Cheddar cheese have been comparatively moderate, with farm prices and retail prices tracking more closely for whole milk than for Cheddar cheese.