ERS

In a typical year, American farmers can expect to pay more than the year before for production expenses.  But the USDA's new farm income forecast is a bit of a surprise.  A forecast for lower production expenses.   ERS’ Spiro Stefano said prices that farmers are getting for many of their crops continue to fall.  The USDA is projecting a 12%...

USDA's New farm income forecast for this year has U.S. farmers making a lot less money than last year.   “Net cash farm income for 2024 is forecast at $154 billion, which is about a 7.2% drop from 2023," said Spiro Stefano  who runs USDA's Economic Research Service.  He noted that crop...

USDA's annual look at household food security in our nation reveals that in 2023, food insecurity among American households increased from 12.8% to 13.5%.   “Very low food security, a more severe form of food insecurity, was unchanged," noted economic researcher Matthew Rabbit.   R...

U.S. dairy farms vary widely in size, from fewer than 50 dairy cows to having 2,000 or more.  While many factors can influence a dairy farm’s production cost per unit of milk, such as technology use, management, and input prices paid, farm size can also affect costs.   The Ec...

Formal educational attainment in rural America has grown, but still lags behind urban communities.  USDA’s Economic Research Service data shows the share of adults ages 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased in rural areas from 15% to 21%.  In the same time sp...

Economic Research Service publishes its price forecasts in the monthly Food Price Outlook report.  The FPO forecasts food-at-home prices will increase by 8.6% in 2023, with a prediction interval of 5.6%-11%.  Forecasts now include a midpoint and a prediction interval to represent the expected price change and range of likely prices. The pred...

New data from USDA’s Economic Research Service shows that between fiscal years 2018 and 2022, Mexico accounted for nearly 14% of all U.S. agricultural exports.  With a total value of $28 billion, Mexico is projected to be the United States’ second largest destination for U.S. agricultural expor...

The organic market has seen continued growth in retail sales in the past decade.  However, according to ERS, the pace of growth has slowed.  U.S. organic retail sales increased by an average of 8% per year and surpassed $53 billion in 2020.  In 2021, sales we...

A new report from USDA's Economic Research Service suggests ethanol demand may decline with the rise of electric vehicles.  The Global Demand for Fuel Ethanol Through 2030 report suggests that global gasoline demand is expected to stagnate over the next decade, leaving changes in blend rates as the main determinant for future changes in fuel ethanol demand. ...

“We find that the percentage of socially disadvantaged and the percentage of getting farming operations are negatively correlated with things like average lease size," noted Scott Callahan with ERS.  "And positively correlated with the percentage of rented farmland.”    ...