Hired farmworkers make up less than 1 percent of all U.S. wage and salary workers, but they play an essential role in U.S. agriculture, particularly in labor intensive crops such as fruits, vegetables, and nursery products. The U.S. Department of Labor's National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) is the only national survey that ascertains the legal status of noncitizen farmworkers, but it is limited to hired crop farmworkers and excludes hired livestock farmworkers. Based on NAWS data, the share of hired crop farmworkers who were not legally authorized to work in the U.S. grew from roughly 15 percent in 1989-91 to almost 55 percent in 1999-2001. Since then it has fluctuated around 50 percent: the figure was 48 percent on average for 2007-2009 (the latest data available). This chart is found in the Farm Labor topic on the ERS website, updated February 2013.

Spending by families and individuals on at-home and away-from-home food accounted for 79.1 percent of the $1.3 trillion in total U.S. food sales in 2011. In the decade prior to the 2007-09 recession, U.S. consumers’ share of total food sales averaged 82.7 percent. Food spending by U.S. consumers and local, State, and Federal governments fluctuate with economic conditions. During severe recessionary times, families’ share of food spending generally decreased, while government entities’ share grew due to increased outlays for assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the National School Lunch Program. Businesses’ share of total food sales has been relatively flat since the late 1960s, at just under 10 percent. The value of food grown by farmers and households for their own consumption has declined from its 1940 share of 17.4 percent. The statistics for this chart are from ERS’s Food Expenditure Series data product.

As a result of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, the current amount that can be transferred to the next generation free of Federal estate tax is $5.25 million ($10.50 million for a married couple). Based on simulations using farm-level survey data from the 2011 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), only about 1.5 percent of farm estates would be required to file an estate tax return, and only about half of these estates or 0.7 percent would owe any Federal estate tax. This chart updates information found in the Federal Tax Issues topic page on the ERS website.

After adjusting for inflation, 2013’s net farm income, forecast at $128.2 billion, is expected to be the highest since 1973. A return to trend yields would lead to record crop production levels and result in substantial year-end crop inventories and higher net farm income. Net cash income—which measures the difference between cash expenses and the combination of commodities sold during the calendar year plus other sources of farm income—is forecast at $123.5 billion for 2013, down almost 9 percent from 2012.   Not all crops produced in 2013 will be sold during the year, so while their value increases net farm income, crop cash receipts are expected to decline in 2013. A small projected increase in livestock receipts is not sufficient to offset expected increases in production expenses.  Even so, 2013’s forecast would be the fourth time net cash income, measured in inflation-adjusted dollars, has exceeded $100 billion since 1973. This chart is found in the 2013 Farm Sector Income Forecast on the ERS website, updated February 11, 2013.  

USDA projects that grain exports by Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—the major grain exporting regions of the Former Soviet Union—will expand substantially during the coming decade. Gains in grain area are expected to be modest, but higher grain yields are projected to boost Russian grain output by 22 percent and Ukrainian output by 50 percent by 2021. While growth in meat production is expected to continue to increase the demand for feed grain within the region, exportable surpluses of both wheat and corn are projected to rise. By 2021, the combined exports of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan are projected at 71 million tons, more than 90 percent above the 2006-10 average, with the region’s share of global grain exports rising from 22 percent to 29 percent during the same period.  The key reason for the anticipated growth in grain production and exports is further farm-level improvements in the productivity of inputs, led by large new farm operators that have upgraded agricultural technology and management in the region. This chart appears in the ERS report Rising Grain Exports by the Former Soviet Union Region: Causes and Outlook, WHS-13A-01, February 2013.

Organic food sales in the United States have increased from approximately $11 billion in 2004 to an estimated $27 billion in 2012, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.  Organic food products are still gaining ground in conventional supermarkets as well as natural foods markets, and organic sales accounted for more than 3.5 percent of total U.S. food sales in 2012. Markets for organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs have been developing for decades in the United States, and fresh produce is still the top-selling organic category in retail sales. Although the annual growth rate for organic food sales fell from the double-digit range in 2008 as the U.S. economy slowed, its 7.4-percent growth rate in 2012 was more than double the annual growth rate forecast for all food sales in 2012. This chart appears in Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2012 Edition, EIB-98, August 2012.

The U.S. pork industry registered another year of strong productivity gains in 2012.  Since 1990, pork production has increased by more than 52 percent, while the U.S. inventory of breeding sows has decreased by more than 15 percent.  A primary source of pork industry productivity gains is increasing litter rates, which have more than offset declining sow numbers.  Because of the growth in sow efficiency, the industry can produce the same or greater number of pigs with fewer sows.  The dramatic increase in litter rates beginning in 2007 is mostly attributed to advances in breeding herd genetics and improvements in the management and care for sows during gestation and farrowings.   Since 2007, the hog industry has enhanced its selective breeding methods to develop sows that produce and nurture more piglets.  At the same time, a larger share of swine producers utilized the latest housing technologies and labor practices, improving the comfort and survivability of sows and their piglets, hence contributing to larger hog production.  This is an update of a chart from Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook, LDPM-220, October 2012.

Ninety-seven percent of U.S. farms are family farms where the majority of the business is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator. The remaining 3 percent are nonfamily farms, which produced 15 percent of the value of agricultural output in 2011. Two features of family farms stand out. First, there are many small family farms (having less than $250,000 in annual sales); together, they account for 87 percent of all U.S. farms. Second, large-scale family farms account for most of the Nation’s agricultural production—70 percent in 2011, as measured by value of output. The share of farm assets held by small farms is substantially higher than their 15-percent share of production. Small-scale family farms hold about 56 percent of all farm assets. The disproportionate asset holdings of smaller farms reflects their overinvestment, particularly in land and dwellings, for purposes other than production, and economies of size enjoyed by larger farms that allow them to produce more with the resources they control. This chart updates one found in the 2010 Edition of the ERS report, America’s Diverse Family Farms, with 2011 Agricultural Resource Management Survey data recently added to the ERS Web tool.

Stocks of all U.S. hay stored on farms totaled 76.5 million tons on December 1, 2012, down sharply from a year ago because of the effects of the 2012 U.S. drought. When measured relative to the demand for hay, by converting livestock inventories into roughage consuming animal units (RCAU), 2012 hay stocks were the lowest since 1984. The drought-reduced 2012 commercial hay harvest, coupled with diminished availability of forage on pasturelands, led to the drawdown of onfarm hay stocks. The decline in hay supplies is partially compensated by record production of silage, as growers facing poor grain yields chose to convert their corn and sorghum crops to silage. Also, to assist livestock producers affected by the prolonged drought of 2012, a record 2.8 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land was opened to haying and grazing.  This chart appears in Feed Outlook, FDS-13a, January 2013.

For the first time, a study has documented the substantial overlap between very low food security and disability. Very low food security is a severe range of food insecurity characterized by reductions in food intake and disrupted eating patterns for one or more household members.  In 2009/10, one-quarter of U.S. households with very low food security included a working age adult (age 18-64) who was unable to work due to disability. Twelve percent of very-low-food-secure households included a working-age adult with other reported disabilities (disabilities that did not prevent employment). Altogether, close to two in five households with very low food security included a working-age adult with a disability. This chart is from Food Insecurity Among Households with Working-Age Adults with Disabilities, ERR-144, January 2013.