Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
Jan
30
2015
USDA’s farm “typology” report: defines small, midsize, large
The USDA has just posted its enormous—more than 700 pages—2012 Census of Agriculture (Farm Typology) report.
Its definitions and results are impressive. Definitions are based on a metric called Gross Case Farm Income (GCFI):
- Small <$350,000
- Midsize >$350,000 but less than $1 million
- Large >$1 million but less than $5 million
- Very large >$5 million
Another metric: average number of acres per category (one square mile is 640 acres):
- Small: GCFI between $150,000 and $350,000: 961 acres
- Midsize: 1582 acres
- Large: 2926 acres
- Very large: 4673 acres
And some basic facts:
- 88% of farms are Small (GCFI <$350,000).
- 12% are Midsize and Large, but they account of 80% of agriculture sales.
That’s US agriculture in a snapshot.
