Census of Ag Part 2

Census of Ag Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, the number of farms has grown in the past 5 years. Those numbers are up 4% and there is also greater diversity on those farms. Carol House USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service’s Deputy Administrator talks about where those increases happened.

HOUSE: There were more smaller farms and this has been true in the past and there are more very large farms. And we’re seeing the concentration of production in ag again going to the larger farms, there are more of those. There’s a small amount of increase in larger farms but the middle, the middle sized family farms are what are continuing to go down.

House says the location of those farms has changed incrementally.

HOUSE: There’s a little bit of a shift but we had 39 states had an increase in farm numbers and only 11 states showing a decrease but all of them are showing an increase in these small farms.

Those small farms are catching the attention of the USDA.

HOUSE: USDA has been very interested in making sure that they serve all the farmers and ranchers out there, that they’re really serving the whole continuum of agriculture. And even though small farms may not contribute a lot toward the production of agriculture, they have a place – they’re on the cutting edge of some of the new things that are happening in agriculture. They’re a good part of our rural community.

The 2007 Census tried very hard to discover the minority owners of small farms including American Indians. They teamed with many local agencies and went directly to the tribal leaders to make sure all were counted.

HOUSE: What we measured were more of all of these farms. There are more farms operated by Hispanics, by Asians, by American Indians, by blacks and a 30% increase in the number of farms operated by women. And I think it will be very important to the Secretary to know that those farms exist and in the numbers they exist and to be able to make sure the policies and programs of USDA include those farmers also.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.