Timely livestock, dairy, and poultry information, focusing on current and forecast production, price, and trade statistics for each of the sectors.

This data set provides monthly average price values, and the differences among those values, at the farm, wholesale, and retail stages of the production and marketing chain for selected cuts of beef, pork, and broilers. In addition, retail prices are provided for beef and pork cuts, turkey, whole chickens, eggs, and dairy products.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for feed grains, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Focuses on corn; also contains information on sorghum, barley, oats, and hay.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for wheat, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Contains data and information on U.S. wheat by class.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for cotton and wool, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Includes data on raw fibers and textiles.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for oil crops (primarily soybeans and products), including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Includes information on cottonseed, peanuts, sunflowerseed, tropical oils, corn oil, and animal fats.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for rice, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Contains information on U.S. rough, milled, and long-, medium-, and short-grain rice.

Provides a monthly update of year-to-date quantities and values of U.S. agricultural exports and imports. Also provides data on leading destination countries for exports and import source countries.

The Livestock and Meat Trade Data Set contains monthly and annual data for imports and exports of live cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats, as well as beef and veal, pork, lamb and mutton, chicken meat, turkey meat, and eggs. The tables report physical quantities, not dollar values or unit prices. Data on beef and veal, pork, and lamb and mutton are on a carcass-weight-equivalent basis. Breakdowns by country are included.

The latest U.S. agricultural trade data are now available from ERS. This new data product announces USDA's monthly release of calendar year, fiscal year, year-to-date, and monthly value of U.S. agricultural exports, imports, and trade balance.

A futures-price forecasting model is used to provide season-average price forecasts for corn, soybeans, and wheat. In addition to the monthly forecasts for prices received, the model computes a forecast for the counter-cyclical payment rate for each commodity. The 2002 Farm Act provides for counter-cyclical payments when prices are below specified levels.

Issued monthly, WASDE provides the most current USDA forecasts of U.S. and world supply-use balances for major grains, soybeans and products, and cotton, and U.S. supply and use data for sugar and livestock products.

This data product identifies which countries, under phytosanitary rules issued by USDA's Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service, are eligible to export to the United States the fresh fruits and vegetables that are most important in the American diet. Data on the absolute and relative importance of these countries in international fruit and vegetable production and trade, individually and in aggregate, are included. Exporting countries are also classified according to income level.

This report examines changes in consumers' use of nutrition labels on food packages between 1995-96 and 2005-06. The analysis finds that, although a majority of consumers report using nutrition labels when buying food, use has declined for most label components, including the Nutrition Facts panel and information about calories, fats, cholesterol, and sodium. By contrast, use of fiber information has increased. The decline in label use is particularly marked for the cohort of adults less than 30 years old.

Listen to a podcast based on this report.

Poor diets and rising obesity rates among Americans persist despite increased public awareness of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. This report presents a consumer demand model to illustrate how both long-term health objectives and immediate visceral influences—long intervals between meals and eating away from home—can drive individuals’ food choices. The model predicts that cognitive dietary information will have less influence on food choices in the face of immediate visceral factors. Using data from the 1994-96 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals and the companion Diet Health and Knowledge Survey, the analysis finds that when individuals extend the period between meals or consume more of their food away from home, they are significantly more likely to consume more calories and lower diet quality.

The U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module was translated into Spanish and adapted for use in the Dominican Republic. Qualitative assessment in a focus group was conducted to confirm the relevance of the concepts and to refine the questions. A pilot survey of 110 households in a rural, economically vulnerable community was conducted, and the data were analyzed to assess the validity of the questions as a multiple-item measure of household food insecurity. Both internal and construct validity appear to be acceptable, although further assessment of two items is recommended. The Dominican survey module complements work in several other countries in Central and South American and the Caribbean to develop a common set of food security questions for use in diverse cultural and linguistic settings.

Disclaimer: This report was prepared by Clark Atlanta University and the Instituto Dominicano De Investigaciones Agropecuarias Y Forestales under a cooperative agreement with the Economic Research Service. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

Statistical Indicators previously published in Agricultural Outlook addressing a broad spectrum of agriculture-related issues. Includes commodity and food prices, general economic indicators, government program expenditures, farm income estimates, and trade and export statistics.

This report summarizes research findings from the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics Program (RIDGE), formerly known as the Small Grants Program. The Economic Research Service created the program in 1998 to stimulate new and innovative research on food and nutrition assistance issues and to broaden the network of social scientists that collaborate in investigating the food and nutrition challenges that exist across communities, regions, and States. The report includes summaries of the research findings of projects that were awarded 1-year grants in summer and fall 2006. The results of these research projects were presented at the RIDGE conference in October 2007. The projects include analyses of the influence of WIC on children’s health at birth, impacts of Food Stamp Program participation on weight gained by expectant mothers, community influence on food assistance and dietary choices, and economic effects of a policy to provide government-subsidized price discounts for the purchase of fruits and vegetables by food stamp recipients. Several of the projects focus on specific populations such as immigrants, Native Americans, or people living in the rural South.

Disclaimer: The studies summarized herein were conducted under research grants originating with the Economic Research Service. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

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For more information, see the RIDGE Program Briefing Room.

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Lower Production for Most Stone Fruit in 2008

U.S. stone fruit production in 2008 is forecast down from a year ago, particularly for peaches, sweet and tart cherries, and apricots. A mid-April freeze caused widespread damage to stone fruit crops in major producing States. The lower production this year is putting upward pressure on most stone fruit prices.

Monthly milk cost of production estimates are available by State from January 2003 to the previous month.

The Regional Agricultural Profiles System is a retrieval, aggregation, and presentation tool for 2002 Census of Agriculture data. The system allows users to query selected variables from the Census and view the results in maps, charts, and tables. Broad variable categories include basic farm characteristics, agricultural land use, crop and livestock production, sales of farm products, and government payments. The system also allows two common regional aggregations: USDA Farm Production Regions and ERS Farm Resource Regions.

The DatelinERS newsletter offers concise summaries of ERS reports and events with links to areas within our website. You can find it in our newsroom at www.ers.usda.gov/News/.

Interactive database that contains statistics on four feed grains (corn, grain sorghum, barley, and oats), foreign coarse grains (feed grains plus rye, millet, and mixed grains), hay, and related items. Tables previously published annually in the Feed Yearbook are available and updated continuously as data are added to the database. Custom queries also allow users to retrieve historical data.

This data product contains statistics on wheat - including the five classes of wheat: hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, white, and durum - and rye. Includes data published in the monthly Wheat Outlook and previously annual Wheat Yearbook. Data are monthly, quarterly, and/or annual depending upon the data series.

This data product allows you to download and map county-level farm program and planted acreage data. Users can manipulate the data to illustrate the share of commodity base acreage planted to nine major program crops (corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, wheat, rice, cotton, peanuts, and oilseeds).

A futures-price forecasting model is used to provide season-average price forecasts for corn, soybeans, and wheat. In addition to the monthly forecasts for prices received, the model computes a forecast for the counter-cyclical payment rate for each commodity. The 2002 Farm Act provides for counter-cyclical payments when prices are below specified levels.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation’s second largest food and nutrition assistance program. In 2006, it operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools and provided over 28 million low-cost or free lunches to children on a typical school day at a Federal cost of $8 billion for the year. This report provides background information on the NSLP, including historical trends and participant characteristics. It also addresses steps being taken to meet challenges facing administrators of the program, including tradeoffs between nutritional quality of foods served, costs, and participation, as well as between program access and program integrity.

Timely livestock, dairy, and poultry information, focusing on current and forecast production, price, and trade statistics for each of the sectors.

Contains annual and monthly data for exchange rates important to U.S. agriculture. Includes both nominal and real exchange rates for 80 countries (plus the European Union), as well as real trade-weighted exchange rate indexes for many commodities and aggregations.

This data product contains Excel spreadsheets covering the economics of the U.S. fresh and processing sweet corn industry. Time series data covers State and U.S. area, yield, production, prices, value as well as U.S. trade by country, per capita use, and recent cost of production budgets for selected states. Data series for world area, production, and trade are also included.

The Diet Quality and Food Consumption briefing room provides a central point for obtaining information about economic analyses of the Nation’s food consumption trends, consumer reactions to changes in food prices and income, dietary patterns, and the relationship between food intake and nutritional/health outcomes such as obesity. The briefing room also highlights ERS-developed data systems to study the determinants of food consumption trends and to inform policymakers and the public about these trends.

This data set provides monthly average price values, and the differences among those values, at the farm, wholesale, and retail stages of the production and marketing chain for selected cuts of beef, pork, and broilers. In addition, retail prices are provided for beef and pork cuts, turkey, whole chickens, eggs, and dairy products.

The European Union’s sugar policy, in place since 1968, underwent its first major reform in 2005 in response to mounting and unsustainable imbalances in supply and demand. The reform, however, targeted only a few policy instruments (intervention price cut, voluntary production quota buyout, and restrictions on nonquota sugar exports), while leaving other key policies unchanged (interstate quota trading, sugar-substitute competition, and import barriers). Consequently, the extent of the reform’s impact is limited, compared with more far-reaching alternatives, particularly when the oligopolistic nature of the industry and its noncompetitive pricing behavior are taken into account. A model-based analysis suggests that the reforms by themselves are unlikely to induce price adjustments sufficient to reduce overproduction unless quotas and/or high tariffs are reduced.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for feed grains, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Focuses on corn; also contains information on sorghum, barley, oats, and hay.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for wheat, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Contains data and information on U.S. wheat by class.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for cotton and wool, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Includes data on raw fibers and textiles.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for oil crops (primarily soybeans and products), including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Includes information on cottonseed, peanuts, sunflowerseed, tropical oils, corn oil, and animal fats.

Examines supply, use, prices, and trade for rice, including supply and demand prospects in major importing and exporting countries. Contains information on U.S. rough, milled, and long-, medium-, and short-grain rice.

Provides a monthly update of year-to-date quantities and values of U.S. agricultural exports and imports. Also provides data on leading destination countries for exports and import source countries.

The Livestock and Meat Trade Data Set contains monthly and annual data for imports and exports of live cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats, as well as beef and veal, pork, lamb and mutton, chicken meat, turkey meat, and eggs. The tables report physical quantities, not dollar values or unit prices. Data on beef and veal, pork, and lamb and mutton are on a carcass-weight-equivalent basis. Breakdowns by country are included.

The latest U.S. agricultural trade data are now available from ERS. This new data product announces USDA's monthly release of calendar year, fiscal year, year-to-date, and monthly value of U.S. agricultural exports, imports, and trade balance.

Hired farmworkers make up a third of the total agricultural labor force and are critical to U.S. agricultural production, particularly in labor-intensive sectors such as fruits and vegetables. The hired farmworker labor market is unique because it includes a large population of relatively disadvantaged and often unauthorized workers, a portion of whom migrate to, and within, the United States. Recent economic and demographic trends, such as changing agricultural production methods that permit year-round employment, expanding immigrant populations in nonmetropolitan counties, and growing concerns over U.S. immigration policies, have elicited increased interest in hired farmworkers. This 2008 profile serves as an update to the 2000 Economic Research Service analysis of the 1998 Current Population Survey using current data with expanded sections on legal status, poverty, housing, and use of social services.

Issued monthly, WASDE provides the most current USDA forecasts of U.S. and world supply-use balances for major grains, soybeans and products, and cotton, and U.S. supply and use data for sugar and livestock products.

Despite strong overall economic growth and strengthening food demand, investment in Indian agriculture and agribusiness has remained sluggish, and growth in farm output has slowed, since the early 1990s. An array of policies and regulations affecting agricultural production, marketing, and food processing—along with weak infrastructure and a lack of market services—have discouraged private investment by farmers and large, vertically integrated agribusinesses. The policy environment has grown more investor friendly since the late 1990s and private investment appears to be responding, but significant barriers remain and the pace of future reforms remains uncertain.

The number of food insecure people in the 70 lower income countries covered in this report rose between 2006 and 2007, from 849 million to 982 million. Food insecure people are those consuming less than the nutritional target of 2,100 calories per day. The food security situation of these countries is projected to deteriorate over the next decade. The distribution gap—an indicator of food access—is projected to rise from 44 million tons in 2007 to more than 57 million tons in 2017. This is more than seven times the amount of food aid received by these countries in 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa, already the most vulnerable region with the lowest calorie intake levels, will suffer the greatest deterioration in food security.

This study looks at the relationship between food stamp participation and historical earnings over periods of 10-15 years. Earlier research found that households eligible for the Food Stamp Program that had short-term income declines were less likely to participate than those that had sustained low incomes. This analysis expands on that research by using a data set that matched historical Social Security earnings records to the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation, allowing examination of the relationship between participation and earnings over a longer timeframe than available previously. The results show some evidence that historical annual earnings as far back as 5 years earlier are negatively and significantly associated with households’ decisions to participate in the Food Stamp Program; that future earnings, which may proxy for earnings expectations, are also negatively and significantly associated with participation; and that monthly income volatility plays an important role. However, because of weaknesses in the specification of the regression models, findings in this paper are suggestive rather than precise descriptions of the relationship between longer run income and participation.

Disclaimer: This study was conducted by The Lewin Group under a research agreement with the Economic Research Service. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

Statistical Indicators previously published in Agricultural Outlook addressing a broad spectrum of agriculture-related issues. Includes commodity and food prices, general economic indicators, government program expenditures, farm income estimates, and trade and export statistics.

This data product summarizes the extent of adoption of herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant genetically engineered crops in the United States. Data cover GE varieties of corn, cotton, and soybeans over the 2000-2008 period, by State.

This report examined how decisions to invest in invasive species management on public lands could incorporate economic concepts to better gauge the level of social benefits generated and how optimization models could be applied to produce the maximum potential gains in ecosystem services. Findings suggested that management decisions were effectively modeled using GIS-based decision support tools, providing a means to reveal assumptions and allow greater input by the public and scientific community into the decision-making process. The optimization model results suggested that benefits achieved through invasive species treatment might be improved if multiple ecosystem service benefits were considered simultaneously when choosing sites and treatment options rather than choosing options that maximized a particular ecosystem service.

Disclaimer: This study was conducted under Research Agreement No. 43-3AEM-3-80092 with the Economic Research Service. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

This report describes a dynamic bioeconomic simulation model that represents the biological, economic, and regulatory features of a specific invasion management problem: the late 1990s invasion of California strawberries by the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, and the pesticide use restrictions imposed by California regulators to manage pesticide resistance. The model has three components: the population dynamics of the greenhouse whitefly, a population-yield damage function, and grower profit maximization. Use regulations are introduced as constraints on the grower’s decision. The cost of the regulations during a single season resulted in the restriction to 2 or fewer applications of pyriproxyfen which always reduced profits. Applying imidaclopid at planting always increased profits. The regulation, which restricts use of imidacloprid at planting only, does not offset the cost of the restriction to 2 or fewer applications of pyriproxyfen per season. Instead, a third application of pyriproxyfen and imidacloprid are complements, so the cost of the 2-application limit per grower is larger when imidacloprid is applied at planting. The requirement regarding the timing of the first application of pyriproxyfen reduced profits. Comparing the regulations’ benefit in slowed resistance to the reduction in profits over a 6-year period shows that there are some conditions under which use regulations provide a net benefit. Regulation, however, does not substitute for coordination among growers when seeking to control the greenhouse whitefly. Greater profits are possible through coordination, even under regulation.

Disclaimer: This study was conducted under Research Agreement No. 43-3AEM-3-80081 with the Economic Research Service. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

Annual estimates of U.S. exports by State and commodity group based on each States' share of U.S. agricultural production. These ERS estimates are based on two key sources of data. Export data are national-level Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS) data from USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, which are not separable by State. ERS also uses State-level historical production data from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service to determine State export shares for U.S. crops and livestock. Using these approximations, a State that is the largest producer of an agricultural commodity will also account for the largest share of U.S. exports of that commodity. Compared with other estimates, these estimates of State of export origin tend to be more accurate for agricultural commodities and do not inflate the relative exports from port States or undercount those of inland States.

Broiler production in the United States is coordinated almost entirely through systems of production contracts, in which a grower’s compensation is based, in part, on how the grower’s performance compares with that of other growers. The industry is undergoing a gradual structural change as production shifts to larger broiler enterprises that provide larger shares of an operator’s household income. Larger enterprises require substantially larger investments in broiler housing, and new or retrofitted houses are also an important source of productivity growth in the industry. This report, based on a large and representative survey of broiler operations, describes the industry’s organization, housing features, contract design, fees and enterprise cost structures, and farm and household finances.

Provides current intelligence and forecasts the effects of changing conditions in the U.S. vegetables and melons sector (including potatoes, pulses, and mushrooms). Topics include production, consumption, shipments, prices received, trade, and more.

Monthly milk cost of production estimates are available by State from January 2003 to the previous month.