{"id":1210,"date":"2010-01-28T13:36:38","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T13:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2012-09-26T13:39:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T13:39:00","slug":"usda-to-measure-the-financial-health-of-the-ag-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/01\/28\/usda-to-measure-the-financial-health-of-the-ag-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA TO MEASURE THE FINANCIAL HEALTH OF THE AG INDUSTRY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><strong><em>Economic Field Survey Coming to Maryland Farmers Soon<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Annapolis, MD &#8211; Starting in February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct its Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).\u00a0 This survey will provide farmers with an opportunity to provide accurate, real-world data that will help shape the policies, programs and issues that affect them.<br \/>\n\u201cARMS asks a small, but representative, sample of farmers about their operation in order to understand the current financial state of Maryland agriculture,\u201d said Barbara Rater, director of the NASS Maryland Field Office. \u201cParticipation in ARMS is so important because government and agricultural leaders use the information needed to make sound decisions that impact the future of farmers, their families, their businesses and their communities.\u201d<br \/>\nThe survey will be conducted between February and March.\u00a0 In an effort to obtain the most accurate data, NASS will reach out to nearly 35,000 producers nationwide.\u00a0 Out of Maryland\u2019s 12,800 farms, only 200 will be surveyed.\u00a0 Producers will be asked to provide data on their operating expenditures, capital improvements, labor use, assets and debt, production costs and household characteristics.<br \/>\n\u201cOnly 1 in 64 farms in Maryland will be surveyed. Given the current state of the national economy, it is critical that farmers participate in Agricultural Resource Management Survey,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. \u201cThis survey is the best means of telling Washington how farmers are really faring down on the farm. It provides information that is not available anywhere else. Farm organizations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, other government agencies, members of Congress, and State and local officials use the collective information from ARMS to answer questions and make important decisions concerning the economic viability of American agriculture, the rural economy and other emerging issues.\u201d<br \/>\nAs with all NASS surveys, information provided by respondents is confidential by law. NASS safeguards the confidentiality of all responses, ensuring no individual respondent or operation can be identified.<br \/>\nThe economic data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report on August 3, 2010. All NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.<br \/>\n###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Economic Field Survey Coming to Maryland Farmers Soon Annapolis, MD &#8211; Starting in February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct its Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).\u00a0 This survey will provide farmers with an opportunity to provide accurate, real-world data that will help shape the policies, programs and issues that<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/01\/28\/usda-to-measure-the-financial-health-of-the-ag-industry\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1212,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions\/1212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}