Vilsack releases preliminary 2012 Census report
February 20, 2014 | 06:11 PM
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today released a preliminary version of the 2012 Census of Agriculture that showed that the value of U.S. agricultural production has risen nearly $100 billion in five years. But the Census also showed declines in the number of farmers, which Vilsack said indicated a need for continuing public policies to shore up the rural economies and population.
Tom Vilsack
“The preliminary data released today provide a snapshot of a strong rural America that has remained stable during difficult economic times,” Vilsack said, a viewpoint that obviously reflected concern about the 2012 drought rather than the economic data over the 2007 to 2012 period, which was one of the best periods for agriculture in American history.
The value of agricultural products sold in the United totalled $394.6 billion in 2012, up $97.4 billion from 2007, the Census said.
In a speech to the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum, Vilsack said the drought and the fact that the government could not provide disaster assistance in 2012 because disaster programs had expired may be one reason that only 80 percent of farmers responded to the Census questionnaire, compared with 85 percent in 2007.
He also said some farmers may also have been reluctant to provide information to USDA even though the data is not shared with other agencies.
Farmers are required by law to respond to the Census.
Cynthia Clark
Vilsack also noted that the report released today is preliminary, because the sequester and the government shutdown did not allow USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service to finish it on time. The full Census will be released in May.
At a panel discussion about the Census at the forum, NASS Administrator Cynthia Clark said that between technical problems and the sequester, “I would call this a miracle Census.”
Vilsack also said this Census was more rigorous than in the past and that direct comparisons of data should be avoided. But he also said, “There are trends over 20 to 30 years that are instructive.”
The Census showed that the number of farms dropped from 2.2 million in 2007 to 2.1 million in 2012, a decline of 4.3 percent that continues a long-term trend.
Most of that land stayed in production in larger farms, however. The number of acres in farm land declined from 922 million to 914 million, a decline of only 0.8 acres. Nationwide the average farm size rose from 418 acres to 434 acres, an increase of 3.8 percent.
The Census also showed that big operations continue to thrive, that the number of small farms in which the operator also has non-farm income is growing, and that the number of middle-sized operations continues to decline.
Vilsack also noted that the average age of a farmer crept up from 57 to 58, also continuing a trend. In 1982, the average age of a farmer was about 51. The number of female farmers fell, but the number of African-American, Native American, Hispanic and Asian farmers rose.
The rising age of farmers, Vilsack said, showed the necessity of continuing to promote exports, which helps large-scale producers, and local and regional production and new products, which helps younger, smaller producers.
The secretary said the survey showed that agriculture needs to embrace the notion of diversity in product lines, markets and the composition of the work force and the farming community.
“If we are going to get young people in we’ve got to make it exciting,” he said.
Vilsack repeated his often-used line that it is important to maintain population in rural America because the value system of those who work on farms and ranches is important to the country.
“Something that gives as the land does, as it does if it is treated well, requires us to give something back to it.”
Young people from rural areas, he also noted, go into the military in disproportionate numbers.
“If rural populations decline, if continue to see a shrinking middle, my question is not only who is going to farm the land, but who is going to defend the land,” Vilsack said.
But the release of the final Census data may show some nuances that Vilsack did not mention. The data released today was on “principal operators” and did not reflect children or grandchildren who may be part of the operation.
Bob Young
During the panel discussion, American Farm Bureau Federation economist Bob Young said his organization’s young farmers and ranchers program “has grown by leaps and bounds.”
Young said his concern is that young people who have entered farming in the past few years have experienced boom times and that he wonders whether they will be able to handle an era of lower prices.
At Farm Bureau’s meetings of its young farmers and ranchers, Young said, he brings in farmers and ranchers who went through the bad times of the 1980s to talk about what they would have done differently.
