Did you know, that the United States started collecting statistics on agriculture before we had a United States Department of Agriculture? In 1840 the first Census of Agriculture was tallied and in February 2024 the 2022 Census of Agriculture was released. The surveys, completed once every five years, are distributed nationally and collect data from any farm that produces $1000 per year or more.
About 60% of farmers and ranchers responded to the survey and while the data is far from perfect, it represents an important opportunity to reflect on the changes in an industry that we all rely on for our daily sustenance and a critical component of our economy. It is also important to reflect upon how our policies shape and are shaped by the trends that we see. This is especially true for an industry that can contribute to climate change and be a critical part of the solution.
Key Findings and Implications
A bleak data point that stands out among the census data is that unfortunately, the number of farms decreased by 7% since 2017 coupled with an increase in larger farms while mid-size and smaller farms declined. Having few, very large farms and losing the “agriculture of the middle” is a disturbing trend. Fred Kirschenmann detailed why we should care about this loss twenty years ago. While not directly related to farm scale, it is, as he details, scale-dependent in that mid-size farms are the most vulnerable in highly consolidated markets. As we know, access to profitable markets is key for farmers to sustain a living and contribute to their communities.
Additionally, we also see a loss of small farms. While average farm income in 2022 was up 85% or almost double from 2017, when you look at farms by value of sales, all categories saw a decrease except for those farms that sold $500,000 or more.
Additional key statistics from the 2022 Census include:
- The land in farms decreased for all categories except for the very largest (farms with 5,000 acres or more)
- 85.2% of farms are 499 acres or less
- The number of farms classified as family or individual farms decreased by more than 8% while the number of farms classified as corporations increased by more than 9% in the same period
Connecting Trends to Policy and Climate Change
“Climate-smart” Agriculture is a term being used by the USDA, large commodity groups, and agribusinesses. While there may be varied definitions of what that means, we can be sure of one thing, good soil health is fundamental to an agriculture system that sequesters carbon and limits nitrous oxide emissions.
Let’s take a look at some of the basic tenets of good agricultural management system components in the context of the 2022 Census and climate change.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) issued a 2019 report titled “Agriculture and Climate Change: Policy Imperatives and Opportunities to Help Producers Meet the Challenge”, which details four principles of soil health management supported by USDA NRCS. These principles provide scientific guidelines for soil organic carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation to climate.
The four principles supported by the USDA are:
- Maximize soil cover
- Maximize living roots as much of the year as practical
- Diversify the cropping system to build maximum soil biodiversity
- Minimize soil disturbance (physical, chemical and biological)
In addition to the USDA principles, NSAC recommended the addition of two more:
- Integrate crop and livestock production
- Return organic residues to the soil (“law of return”)
The 2022 Census found that five commodities accounted for two-thirds of all ag production value including corn and soybeans. While we may see corn and soy rotations in parts of the country, the use of highly diversified production systems is not the norm, especially for the 1% of farms which sold more than $5 million and accounted for 42% of sales.
When it comes to farm production expenses, $78 billion dollars or 18% of production expenses went to fertilizer, chemicals and fuels all of which can be minimized to avoid GhG emissions, protect water quality, soil health and biodiversity.
Navigating the Road Ahead: Opportunites and Challenges
There is good news in that a recent policy investment can help farmers make positive changes and adopt many of the practices listed above. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) invested almost $20 billion of additional money into the farm bill’s agricultural conservation programs and is targeted to a list of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Analysis from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy showed that while more farmers have been able to access conservation funding through the IRA, 3 out of every 4 farmers who applied for EQIP or CSP were still turned away due to lack of funding further demonstrating that demand is still outpacing supply, Protecting and growing agricultural conservation funding to support farmer adoption of voluntary, in-demand conservation practices is a priority.
When USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack shared comments at the 2022 Ag Census release in February he was troubled by the loss of farms and asked if there was a better way forward referring to a report from the Carter Administration in 1981 titled, A Time to Choose: Summary Report on the Structure of Agriculture from then Ag Secretary Bob Bergland. Secretary Bergland foresaw many of the changes that have been borne out in 40 years of ag census data. At that time he was concerned about the loss of farmers, the increasing concentration of land in small and very large farms, and what he, and others saw as, a narrow reactionary focus as opposed to comprehensive and visionary policymaking for agriculture.
So, as we reflect on the latest agricultural census data trends, let us heed the call of the likes of Bob Bergland, Fred Kirschenmann and Tom Vilsack and create a visionary approach to our policy around food and agriculture. There is still time to choose.
For more information or to learn more about how you can help protect and grow agricultural conservation funding, contact amalie@calclimateag.org.
