USDA RELEASES COUNTY STATISTICS FROM THE 2002 CENSUS
OF AGRICULTURE
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)–For the first time the United States
Department of Agriculture has released a special report of county
agricultural statistics that makes it easy to see how agricultural
production impacts a county and how a county ranks in the state
and the nation.
“Previously the counties’ information was scattered
among commodity sections,” said MaryAnn Kwader, public
relations program manager for Florida Farm Bureau. “The
new special report, State and County Profiles, allows
a quick reference to individual counties with production information
specific to that county in one location.”
In addition to total number of farms and land in agriculture,
the report lists market value of production and the commodities
produced in the county, including top crop items, top livestock
inventory items, value of sales by commodity group and market
value of commodities sold.
Conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the census
of agriculture attempts to reach every agricultural operator
in America through a mail survey. Follow-ups by telephone or
personal interview are conducted for those who do not respond
by mail. Data represent all agricultural operations, defined
as any place which sold or normally would have sold more than
$1,000 worth of agricultural products during the census year.
“We asked the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service
for the information to be broken down to be county-specific,
and they worked with the National Agricultural Statistics Service
to compile the information for all counties in the United States,”
said Kwader. “The information will prove invaluable to
the agricultural industry.”
The report is available on the National Agricultural Statistics
Service’s 2002 Census of Agriculture Web site at http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census02/profiles/fl/index.htm
and it will soon be listed on the Florida Farm Bureau Federation’s
County Farm Bureau Office Locater, http:/FloridaFarmBureau.org/county
under the “Ag Facts” section.
The Florida Farm Bureau Federation is the state's largest general-interest
agricultural association with more than 150,000 member-families
statewide. There are Farm Bureaus in 62 counties in Florida,
where agriculture comprises a stable, vital leg of Florida's
economy, rivaling the tourism industry in economic importance.
Headquartered in Gainesville, the Federation is an independent,
non-profit agricultural organization and is not associated with
any arm of the government. More information is available on
the organization’s website,
http://FloridaFarmBureau.org.
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Florida Farm Bureau Federation