1. Farm Definition; What’s it Mean and Why is it Important? Michael Duffy Iowa State University AAEA Annual Meetings Orlando, FL 2008

2. Farm Definition For Census of Agriculture; “a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year.” This definition was first used for the 1974 Census

3. 2002 Census The 2002 Census continued this definition but there was expanded coverage The goal of the expanded coverage was to capture the underreported farms, especially small farms. NASS was very successful in meeting their goal

5. Background

8. The Smallest Farms

19. Percent of Farms with Sales Under $1000 in the State

20. So Why Worry? “The census of agriculture is the leading source of facts and statistics about the Nation’s agriculture” The data is used by a variety of sources and for a variety of purposes, including: –“…formulate farm and rural policies..” –“Allocate local and national funds for farm programs…”

21. So Why Worry? It causes misinformation to be disseminated regarding the sector, the information is there but people won’t take the time to verify ‘facts’ It masks the changes that are occurring, such as consolidation and it provides an erroneous message with respect to the entry of women and minorities in ag.

22. So Why Worry? Current method provides a distorted view of the production ag. sector. –Over past decade net farm income was 20% of gross farm income. If averages hold and using gross for sales this would mean the small class had less than $200 in net farm income -In 2002 only 47% of the farms with sales less than $1,000 said they intended to do so. 39% did not and 15% didn’t answer. -With point farms, the total number of farms decreased 3%, without them there was a 13% decrease

23. Solutions Dual census Increase the cutoff based on inflation since 1974 Change approach entirely Leave it as it is