2012 ag census

I should not have assumed that you don’t farm, my apologies I have a hard time remembering what everyone does on this site. It sounds to me that you are a size they they would probably like to hear about.

My friend just got back to me and said that if you have anything that resembles Ag they would love to hear from you, especially about animals. With the NAIS 2.0 rearing its head they are looking for every animal owner so that they can get you in the system, hobbyist or not. I have a “please don’t ask me, I don’t want to tell” mentality when it comes to things like this. Although I think small farms are very very important, I don’t want to be part of big brother system, I want to be part of the local solution for food sovereignty.

A side note on how ridiculous the USDA is with our tax dollars:
A few years ago the family that I was with returned the Census, it triggered 2 visits by men hired by the USDA to go to farms and ask two questions: How many acres of oats did you plant? What is your expected yield? During the second trip they asked: How many acres of oats did you harvest? and what where your yields? The next farm on their list was 40 minutes from us, and was not the next closest farm that grew oats.

All of this (2 trips in a gas guzzling Durango, 2 men, and handouts of gloves and rain gauge) just to ask 4 questions about 5 acres of oats that are used on farm for feed. A ridiculous use of resources if you ask me, it would have been entirely more efficient to use the phone in this case.

They contacted me too. Got my name from the NH Maple producers association web site. They troll around and find all these public web sites with our name and address on them then add us to the data base.

I started my wood fire with mine 😉

Ed

You can submit it online if you want. It is essentially the same thing as the 10 year census of the entire population. They want to know what is going on with agriculture in the USA. It’s odd that they haven’t contacted me, I would assume they would get most of their list from the FDA, FSA, NASS(?) or USDA. It does say the IRS and USDA do not share information with each other so it doesn’t come from there.

“The Census of Agriculture is the responsibility of every farmer and rancher, regardless of the size or type of operation. For Census purposes, 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. If you do not meet this criterion, please write this information on the front of the survey form and return it in the envelope provided. If you do not respond, we will continue to contact you by mail, phone or in person to obtain a response.”

“The Census provides the only source of uniform, comprehensive and impartial agricultural data for every county in the nation. Through the Census, producers can show the nation the value and importance of agriculture and they can help influence the decisions that will shape the future of American agriculture for years to come. By responding to the Census, producers are helping themselves, their communities and all of U.S. agriculture.

Census data are used by all those who serve farmers and rural communities – federal, state and local governments, agribusinesses, trade associations and many others.
—Farmers and ranchers can use Census data to help make informed decisions about the future of their own operations.
—Companies and cooperatives use the facts and figures to determine the locations of facilities that will serve agricultural producers.
—Community planners use the information to target needed services to rural residents.
—Legislators use the numbers from the Census when shaping farm policies and programs.”

http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Help/FAQs/General_FAQs/

This information can be used to our advantage. We can show which counties in which states there is growth in small farms and local farming. Then we can compare that to local laws and in what ways agriculture is supported. How smaller farms are viable and it needs to be supported at the city, county, state and federal levels. People can make a living at it, should make a living at it and provide more for the community. The census occurs every 5 years so we can compare the data to past census and show the growth patterns. It can be a great tool to advance the overall smaller farm and local farm movement. I don’t know what the form looks like yet but it would be interesting if there were a way to track the growth of farming done with horse power as well.

That’s my 2-bits. I over analyze everything and probably spend too much time thinking so it’s worth what you paid for it.