Numbers are in for the costs the pandemic had on restaurants. That’s today’s This Land of Ours. Detailed numbers are coming in for consumers’ food-buying habits during the pandemic. USDA Economic Research Service’s Food Expenditure Series shows significantly lower spending at restaurants during 2020, which was expected because of the many closures because of the pandemic. The question has been: …
Food Insecurity Rates Vary Across States
USDA Economic Research Service data released Monday shows food insecurity rates vary across U.S. states. The estimated prevalence of food insecurity during 2018-2020 ranged from 5.7 percent in New Hampshire to 15.3 percent in Mississippi. The estimated national average was 10.7 percent. The prevalence of food insecurity was significantly higher than the national average in nine states, including Alabama, Kentucky, …
Impact Farmers Make When It Comes to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The huge impact farmers have been making when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours. Since 1990, the United States population has increased 31-percent, from roughly 250 million to 329 million in 2019. With more people comes the need for more food. And, more food production could also mean more greenhouse gas …
USDA Data Tracks Fertilizer Price Increases
Data from USDA’s Economic Research Service details the increase in fertilizer prices. Fertilizer represents an average of 36 percent of a farmer’s operating costs for corn, 35 percent for wheat, and 30 percent for sorghum, according to estimates by USDA. Fertilizer prices declined from 2014 through 2017 before a gradual increase in 2019. In late 2021, prices began to spike …
Almost Half of U.S. States Lost Rural Population in 2010-2020
From 2010-2020, the USDA’s Economic Research Service says 24 states lost population in nonmetropolitan or rural areas. Sixteen of those states lost population overall or showed slow population growth of less than five percent. Data from the 2020 U.S. Census shows the U.S. population grew by 7.4 percent from 2010-2020, slower than the 9.7 percent growth from the previous decade. …
Crops Sector Received 65% of PPP Loans for Agriculture in 2020
Information updated by USDA’s Economic Research Service Wednesday shows 65 percent of Paycheck Protection Program 2020 agriculture funds went crop farms, with the rest for livestock. Last year, farmers and ranchers could use forgivable loans from the program to help keep employees on payroll and offset some of their operating costs. The maximum PPP loan amount was 2.5 times the …
Price Spread for Pork Products Increases as Processing Plant Labor Shortages Continue
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen longstanding labor shortages in the U.S. pork processing industry. Because the production of deboned products requires more labor, associated prices are higher than bone-in product prices, which have smaller labor requirements, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service. When labor shortages are severe, as in the spring of 2020, when COVID-19-related infections of processing plant …
ERS Study Shows Meatpackers Role in COVID Spread
A study from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) shows the role meatpacking plants played in the spread of COVID-19. In what ERS describes as a working paper, the study outlined 49 U.S. non-metro counties in which 20 percent or more of employment is in meatpacking, defined as meatpacking-dependent counties. This represents 41 percent of all nonmetro counties with employment in …