AG INSIGHT

BY JIM ERICKSON

Agricultural census data release date set for February 2024

The Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Even small plots of land, whether rural or urban, growing fruit, vegetables or some food animals count if $1,000 or more of such products were raised and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year. The Census of Agriculture, taken only once every five years, looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures.

For America’s farmers and ranchers, the Census of Agriculture is their voice, their future and their opportunity.

The Census of Agriculture provides the only source of uniform, comprehensive and impartial agriculture data for every county in the nation. Through the Census of Agriculture, producers can show the nation the value and importance of agriculture and can influence decisions that will shape the future of U.S. agriculture.

Census of Agriculture information is used by all those who serve farmers and rural communities — federal, state and local governments, agribusinesses, trade associations and many others.

USDA expands access to school breakfast, lunch

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that it is giving an estimated 3,000 more school districts in high-need areas the option to serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost, by expanding the availability of the Community Eligibility Provision, commonly known as CEP.

While this change in CEP applies across the country, it will be particularly impactful in states and school districts which commit to supporting healthy school meals for all students with their own funds.

USDA to fund 12 Alabama projects in specialty crop block grant program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) recently announced over $496,000 in Fiscal Year 2023 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funding to Alabama.

With this grant, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADAI) will fund projects that enhance the competitiveness of specialty crop products and create new market opportunities for the state’s specialty crop producers.

“With this year’s Specialty Crop Block Grant funding, Alabama is investing in innovative projects that will help address the needs of specialty crop producers within the region,” said USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt. “The funded projects will also further USDA’s efforts to ensure U.S. specialty crop products remain competitive in markets across the nation and abroad.”

Through the SCBGP, the ADAI will fund 12 projects. Among ADAI’s projects is funding to Auburn University to evaluate the use of drone imaging to automate disease and pest scouting for container nursery and vegetable production. Additional funded projects focus in areas such as evaluating new strawberry cultivars, sustainable use of mulching systems and increasing consumer awareness of Alabama specialty crops.

Rye shows ability to "nab" nitrates, capture carbon and generate bioenergy

Winter rye is prized for its versatility. It is a source of grain and also a forage and ground cover that protects the soil from erosion by wind and rain. But the benefits of winter rye don’t stop there.

A series of studies, begun in 2015, by a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university collaborators suggest that establishing a cover crop of winter rye between rotations of corn and soybean can reduce nitrate losses, sequester carbon and provide a source of renewable natural gas.

Robert Malone, an agricultural engineer with the Agricultural Research Service’s National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment at Ames, Iowa, is coordinating the studies to evaluate rye’s potential role in the "sustainable intensification of agriculture"— an approach deemed critical to meeting growing world demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel without overtaxing what the land and natural resources can provide.

In the latest studies, the team used a field-scale computer model to simulate rotations of corn and soybean, with or without winter rye cover crops, at 40 sites across the North Central United States, including parts of the Mississippi River Basin, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Across the 63-total million hectares (approximately 156 million acres) of North Central farmland that the model’s simulations encompassed, use of winter rye cover crops on tile-drained fields translated to a 27% reduction in nitrate loads entering the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River basin.

Nitrate poses an environmental concern when it goes unused by crop plants and escapes into streams, river, lakes and other bodies of surface water, compromising water quality and helping fuel algal blooms.  The subsequent death and decay of the algae in these blooms consumes oxygen, killing or driving off fish and other aquatic life.

Study results show consumers fail to use safe food handling practices

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released the results from the final year of a fiveyear study that observed how consumers prepared meals. The study was produced by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) as part of their efforts to highlight the importance of safe food handling practices.

The study results were released during the recent observance of Food Safety Education Month. “The results provide guidance on how to shape food safety communications that help consumers safely prepare food,” USDA officials said.

The study observed food safety behaviors, including participants’ thermometer use for ground pork sausage, handwashing, and cleaning and sanitizing of food preparation surfaces.

As seen in the previous four years of the study, thorough handwashing remains a concern. The most recent data shows that 87% of participants self-reported they washed their hands before starting to cook in the test kitchen. However, only 44% of participants were observed doing so before meal preparation.

Additionally, handwashing was not attempted 83% of the time when it should have been done (e.g., touching raw sausage and unwashed cantaloupe, cracking eggs, contaminated equipment or surfaces). Throughout the study, 96% of handwashing attempts did not contain all necessary steps.

Avocado peels viewed as a way to help curb plastic waste problem

Over the past two decades, the United States has been importing more and more avocados each year, underlining a growing obsession with the nutrient-dense fruit. Simultaneously, the U.S. and the rest of the world have been dealing with a growing environmental crisis spurred on by an over-reliance on plastic. Could avocados—specifically avocado peels— provide a potential solution?

According to a study conducted by South Dakota State University researchers, the fibers of avocado peels could possibly be used to make biodegradable films—something that could ultimately replace plastic as a packaging material.

Ag groups seek assurances from presidential hopefuls

Major U.S. agriculture organizations have asked all 2024 presidential candidates to prioritize new market access trade agreements as a means to strength-en U.S. agriculture and decrease reliance on China.

The organizations also called on the presidential candidates to hold China accountable in a responsible manner that does not endanger U.S. food and agriculture’s largest export market or threaten American farmers with new retaliatory tariffs.

“The U.S. again needs to take the lead in negotiating new FTAs with other countries and work to strengthen and reform the rules-based multilateral trading system,” the organizations said in the letter.

“In many respects, future FTAs could be modeled on the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA) passed by Congress with broad bipartisan support. Such agreements could protect American workers and the environment, help contain China’s growing geopolitical influence, and open new export markets for our farmers by meaningfully reducing and eliminating tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers.”

USDA uses taste test panel for feedback on food products

The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) employs some of the world’s latest, greatest and most sensitive laboratory equipment. And, while every scientist has a favorite “toy,” one scientist is putting his research where his mouth is.

For Ryan Ardoin, it’s human taste buds that provide the metrics that matter. That’s because Ardoin oversees a group of people known as a “sensory panel” – taste-testers who provide a human perspective on food characteristics.

“Sensory research is important to any project where the final product is intended for human consumption,” said Ardoin, a research food technologist at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC)’s Sensory Evaluation Lab (SEL) in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“The sensory panel is a critical part of our research because analytical instrumentation can’t truly tell us what people experience from a food product. Only people can do that.”

While the SRRC does have a few human taste-testers on staff, most are residents of the New Orleans area. These panelists receive many hours of training to familiarize them with the basic elements of food products. They then learn to use a 15-point universal scale to rate these attributes consistently.

In essence, they are trained to ignore personal preference.