Census Is Released & Highlighting Conservation
Census Is Released & Highlighting Conservation plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.
The 2012 Census of Ag has been released in its entirety and you can access it online at agcensus.usda.gov. Hubert Hamer, Director, Statistics Division of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service summarizes the number of land in farms.
HAMER: Farms at 2.1 million were indicated in the census. That's a 4.3% decline from 2007 or a 95-thousand farm drop. Land in farms at 915-thousand is down .8 of a percent, 7.6 million acres below what was indicated in 2007. And the average size of a farm at 434 acres is up 16 acres from 2007.
Eastern Washington landowners will be highlighted for their work to conserve natural resources while maintaining viable agriculture production at an upcoming film festival in Portland, Ore. Two videos submitted by Washington state conservation districts will screen on May 7 at the event "Stories of our Watersheds" hosted by River Restoration Northwest. In candid interviews, local farmers and livestock owners describe how the conservation district helped them implement practices that improve water quality, protect steelhead, and conserve resources for future generations.
Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.
Farmers and ranchers are quickly becoming the newest endangered species. Each time a court restricts farmers and ranchers from using their own land, their own water supplies, or protecting their livestock because of an endangered species another farmer or ranchers is forced to stop producing food. The most recent example of this was in March of this year when a California appeals court ruled for environmentalists over farmers water rights in order to protect a small fish known as the Delta smelt. In a state that has been suffering with severe drought a decision to restrict the allocation of water to farmers and ranchers in order to protect a three-inch bait fish seems almost ludicrous. Michael Smith, representing the family owned Harris Ranch based in California, spoke before a House Agriculture subcommittee last week regarding the state of the beef industry and told those gathered there that because of this type of ESA ruling, which has resulted in a severely restricted allocation of water to area farmers and ranchers, Harris Ranch would be forced to leave fallow 2/3 of all the ground they farm. There are numerous federal rules and regulations, many of which Smith touched on during his testimony, that are literally strangling U.S. farmers and ranchers, making them the number one endangered species in the country.
Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
