March 2024 - 4

EDITOR'S LETTER
U.S. Census of Agriculture:
Beyond the numbers
The U.S. Census of Agriculture, a massive document released every
five years by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Services, is
now available.
When USDA officials gathered at
news conference to discuss the report
(nass.usda.gov/AgCensus/), Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is
concerned about the state of agriculture
and food production in the U.S., because
the census showed a drop in the overall
number of farms and the amount of
farmland in production. The new census,
which updated 2017 data with information
from 2022, shows a 7% drop in the number
of farms and 2% decrease in farmland.
The number of farms producing noncitrus
fruit crops, and the acreage they
grow on, has dropped, but not as sharply,
with a 0.63% drop in farms and 0.93% decrease in acreage. Data for each
fruit category depicts which ones are seeing some success, although
the number of farms and overall acreage doesn't let us know what the
returns are on those crops.
Here are some select crops and how they've performed over the past
five years. The first number is the percentage increase/decrease in
the number of farms, followed by acres: apples +4%, +7.7%; non-wild
blueberries +11.2%, +21.7%; sweet cherries -4.7%, +4.9%; tart cherries
+12.9%, -7.6%; grapes -1.5%, -2.6%; peaches +8.5%, +1.4%; pears +19.2%,
-9.6%; and strawberries -5.1%, +22.1%.
That's a mixed bag, with apples, blueberries and peaches seeing
increases in farms and acreage and only grapes seeing a decrease
in both. More farms are growing tart cherries, which are facing stiff
competition from imported juice, although acreage is down. Blueberry
growers in the Southeast are facing increased imports from Mexico, yet
overall number of farms and acreage are up.
Vilsack said he hopes the takeaway from the census to Congress and
federal agencies making ag policy is that production ag is important, but
it sends " a message of hope and opportunity to small- and mid-sized
operators " by exploring ways to increase revenue streams for farmers,
and not just rely on growing more.
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MARCH 2024 | VOLUME 63 | ISSUE 3
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4 | MARCH 2024
https://www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus/
March 2024

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