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1 Introduction
Pages 15-30

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From page 15...
... It contributes to employment and economic development, traditionally in small towns and rural areas where farming serves as a nexus for related sectors from farm machinery manufacturing to food processing. And it contributes to the nation's economic growth overall, providing crucial raw inputs for the production of a wide range of goods and services, including many that generate substantial export value.1 In 2015, farms directly contributed $136.7 billion to the U.S.
From page 16...
... In addition to agriculture's direct effect on these natural assets through land conversion, agricultural activities use more than 25 percent of all the surface water and 85 percent of all the groundwater withdrawn for human use in the United States.5 Agricultural activities also contribute about 25 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the country.6 Finally, agricultural activities are significant sources of water pollution. For example, agriculture is responsible for more than 90 percent of the loads in nearly 70 percent of nitrogen-impaired watersheds in the country, contributing to drinking water concerns, lost recreational opportunities, and aesthetic losses.
From page 17...
... government has provided income and conservation support to agricultural enterprises since the Great Depression, which motivated the Agricultural Act of 1933. A major objective of federal farm policy then was to increase and stabilize farm household incomes through price and income supports for selected program-covered crops and dairy.
From page 18...
... has projected that crop insurance subsidy program costs will rise to about $8.8 billion annually over the 2015–2024 period. The CBO further projects that farm commodity program costs will rise to about $4.2 billion annually for the same period.7 In addition to farm support payments, the federal government provides substantial financial resources to support conservation and environmental programs on farmland.
From page 19...
... , farm credit, rural economic development, agricultural research, State and private forestry, bioenergy, and horticulture and organic agriculture.9 Publicly available agricultural statistics are an essential element of good governance and are also essential to enhance competitiveness. Sound administration of government agricultural programs requires information on the uptake of support provided to farmers to guide the development and monitoring of farm business and farm household assistance packages.
From page 20...
... There are also reporting requirements that must be submitted to international regulatory bodies charged with monitoring global food stocks, chemical residues in food and feed commodities, and other food quality controls in order to maintain access to international markets. Statistics on export values and volumes may be used by governments to prioritize products and market access activities.
From page 21...
... SOURCE: Presentation by James MacDonald and Kathleen Ott; using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Resource Management Survey, 2014.
From page 22...
... Because of the skewness in production, simple means and medians focused on average farm size present only a superficial and in some ways misleading portrait of American agriculture. This becomes evident, for example, in statistics on cropland acres: The number of midsize crop farms has declined sharply, while the number of farms at the large and small extremes has grown.
From page 23...
... See https:// www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/ farming-and-farm-income. the average farm, but relatively few cropland acres reside on average-size farms.13 Likewise, given the wide array of statistical measures of mean and standard deviation, some measures are more appropriate than others for reporting farm household income and wealth and communicating trends effectively.
From page 24...
... In California's Salinas Valley, Taylor Farms uses water knives operated by artificial intelligence and, at Hahn Family Wines, a sophisticated water monitoring system is in place. Almond farms are using moisture sensors to monitor soil conditions, with the resulting data passed back as inputs into the automated 14  See https://www.forbes.com/sites/currentaccounts/2017/03/02/with-farm-labor-gettingscarcer-big-u-s-farms-are-preparing-to-turn-to-robots/#64571b9c7bb6.
From page 25...
... Specifically, off-farm income has been rising sharply as a portion of total household income, which naturally means that on-farm income has declined.16 Data collection and statistical programs must account for these changes in farm businesses and households if agricultural statistics are to remain accurate and useful for the broad range of purposes to which they are put. Sorting out the measurement complexities created by modern agriculture is important even for generating the most basic summary statistics for the sector.
From page 26...
... 2,000–4,999 6,570 16,692 26,404 17.7 46.4 75.3 5,000–9,999 513 1,267 3,323 3.3 8.0 20.8 10,000–24,999 99 173 496 1.3 2.3 6.8 25,000 or more 11 18 26 0.6 0.8 1.1 All 7,193 18,420 30,249 22.9 57.5 104.0 SOURCE: Presentation by James MacDonald and Kathleen Ott; using data from Economic Research Service summaries of farm-level records in the National Agricultural Statistics Service's Census of Agriculture. 1.2.  STUDY OBJECTIVES AND STATEMENT OF TASK The goal of this study is to review and assess current methods for collecting data and reporting information about American agriculture, to help identify those that are most effective, and to make recommendations on the same to USDA's NASS and ERS.
From page 27...
... addressing the implications of more complex farming operations for estimating farm household financial indicators. In all three areas, maintaining coverage and statistical reliability of farm financial and production statistics are key considerations.
From page 28...
... Specifically, the panel will •  eview existing information about the structure of U.S. farms, and how the r information is collected, reported, and used for policy, research, and other purposes; •  eek to identify best practices for accounting for multiunit operations and s operations that are vertically integrated, both on the farm register and in data collection and estimation, while ensuring sufficient coverage and reli able estimates; •  eek to identify best practices for identifying and collecting information s about ancillary or value-added economic activities that may be associated with a farm; and •  xamine the concept of the "farm operator" under different business struc e tures (particularly the practice of attempting to identify one primary operator of a farm household)
From page 29...
... Identifying best practices for measuring the activities of complex farm businesses -- such as multi-unit operations and operations that are vertically integrated -- and their associated households requires appropriately specifying the Farm Register, due to its central role in collecting data to ensure sufficient population coverage. Chapter 5 further addresses a series of methodological questions: (i)
From page 30...
... For example, any survey methodology reform that delinks household information from farm information would preclude much current reporting and analysis by ERS, such as the reporting on the distribution of farm payments, which bases household income information on farm operations commodity payments.


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