Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service is getting ready to conduct the 2012 Census of Agriculture, a complete count of U.S. farms, ranches and the people who operate them. The census occurs every five years.
Commissioner Troxler encourages N.C. farmers to participate in the census because it is the “only source of uniform, comprehensive agricultural data for every county in North Carolina.” The census also is a chance for farmers to have some influence on policy decisions that affect their farms, communities and industry.
The census looks at a variety of topics, including land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures. The information is used by everyone who serves farmers and rural communities, from federal, state and local governments to agribusinesses and trade associations. Legislators use the data when shaping farm policy, and agribusiness companies factor it into their planning efforts.
By law, USDA must keep all individual information confidential.
Click below to listen to the Commissioner and Rhonda talk about the Census of Agriculture and why it’s so important for telling agriculture’s story to policy makers. For more information about the censu, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_12-18.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for Dec. 18]
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