Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program. This data set contains participation and cost data for SNAP. The data is furthered divided by annual, state, and monthly levels categorized by persons participating, households participating, benefits provided, average monthly benefits per person and average monthly benefits per household.

The Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) is the source of national and State-level statistics on food insecurity used in USDA's annual reports on household food security. The CPS is a monthly labor force survey of about 50,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once each year, after answering the labor force questions, the same households are asked a series of questions (the Food Security Supplement) about food security, food expenditures, and use of food and nutrition assistance programs. Food security data have been collected by the CPS-FSS each year since 1995. Four data sets that complement those available from the Census Bureau are available for download on the ERS website. These are available as ASCII uncompressed or zipped files. The purpose and appropriate use of these additional data files are described below: 1) CPS 1995 Revised Food Security Status data--This file provides household food security scores and food security status categories that are consistent with procedures and variable naming conventions introduced in 1996. This includes the "common screen" variables to facilitate comparisons of prevalence rates across years. This file must be matched to the 1995 CPS Food Security Supplement public-use data file. 2) CPS 1998 Children's and 30-day Food Security data--Subsequent to the release of the April 1999 CPS-FSS public-use data file, USDA developed two additional food security scales to describe aspects of food security conditions in interviewed households not captured by the 12-month household food security scale. This file provides three food security variables (categorical, raw score, and scale score) for each of these scales along with household identification variables to allow the user to match this supplementary data file to the CPS-FSS April 1998 data file. 3) CPS 1999 Children's and 30-day Food Security data--Subsequent to the release of the April 1999 CPS-FSS public-use data file, USDA developed two additional food security scales to describe aspects of food security conditions in interviewed households not captured by the 12-month household food security scale. This file provides three food security variables (categorical, raw score, and scale score) for each of these scales along with household identification variables to allow the user to match this supplementary data file to the CPS-FSS April 1999 data file. 4) CPS 2000 30-day Food Security data--Subsequent to the release of the September 2000 CPS-FSS public-use data file, USDA developed a revised 30-day CPS Food Security Scale. This file provides three food security variables (categorical, raw score, and scale score) for the 30-day scale along with household identification variables to allow the user to match this supplementary data file to the CPS-FSS September 2000 data file. Food security is measured at the household level in three categories: food secure, low food security and very low food security. Each category is measured by a total count and as a percent of the total population. Categories and measurements are broken down further based on the following demographic characteristics: household composition, race/ethnicity, metro/nonmetro area of residence, and geographic region. The food security scale includes questions about households and their ability to purchase enough food and balanced meals, questions about adult meals and their size, frequency skipped, weight lost, days gone without eating, questions about children meals, including diversity, balanced meals, size of meals, skipped meals and hunger. Questions are also asked about the use of public assistance and supplemental food assistance. The food security scale is 18 items that measure insecurity. A score of 0-2 means a house is food secure, from 3-7 indicates low food security, and 8-18 means very low food security. The scale and the data also report the frequency with which each item is experienced. Data are available as .dat files which may be processed in statistical software or through the United State Census Bureau's DataFerret http://dataferrett.census.gov/. Data from 2010 onwards is available below and online. Data from 1995-2009 must be accessed through DataFerrett. DataFerrett is a data analysis and extraction tool to customize federal, state, and local data to suit your requirements. Through DataFerrett, the user can develop an unlimited array of customized spreadsheets that are as versatile and complex as your usage demands then turn those spreadsheets into graphs and maps without any additional software. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: December 2014 Food Security CPS Supplement. File Name: dec14pub.zipResource Title: December 2013 Food Security CPS Supplement. File Name: dec13pub.zipResource Title: December 2012 Food Security CPS Supplement. File Name: dec12pub.zipResource Title: December 2011 Food Security CPS Supplement. File Name: dec11pub.zipResource Title: December 2010 Food Security CPS Supplement. File Name: dec10pub.zip

"The Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers farm operating loans to farmers who are temporarily unable to obtain private, commercial credit at reasonable rates and terms. Operating loans are used to purchase items such as livestock and feed, machinery and equipment, fuel, farm chemicals, and insurance; pay family living expenses and general farm operating expenses; and make minor improvements or repairs to buildings and fencing. Both guaranteed loans and direct loans are available through this program. FSA guaranteed loans provide lenders (e.g., banks, Farm Credit System institutions, credit unions) with a guarantee of up to 95 percent of the loss of principal and interest on a loan. The maximum FSA guaranteed operating loan is $1,302,000 (adjusted annually based on inflation). Applicants unable to qualify for a guaranteed loan may be eligible for a direct loan from FSA. Direct loans are made and serviced by FSA officials, who also provide borrowers with supervision and credit counseling. The maximum amount for a direct farm operating loan is $300,000. FSA also provides Microloans, which are direct operating loans designed to meet the unique financial operating needs of many socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers, niche farm operations, the smallest of family farm operations, and those serving local and regional food markets, including urban farmers. The maximum loan amount for a Microloan is $35,000. The repayment terms vary according to the type of loan made, collateral securing the loan, and the applicant's ability to repay. Term operating loans are normally repaid within 7 years and annual operating loans are generally repaid within 12 months or when the commodities produced are sold."

To achieve net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050 as set out by the 2019 amendment to the 2008 UK Climate Change Act, a major shift towards renewable energy is needed. This includes the development of new methods along with improving and upscaling existing technologies. One example of new methods in bioenergy is developing new Miscanthus cultivars for electricity generation via thermal power station furnaces. Miscanthus is still relatively new compared to other agriculture practices, so market assessments and improvements are needed to reduce the barriers of entry for prospective growers. This publication provides a profile of UK Miscanthus growers and their businesses, their experiences of benefits and drawbacks of the crop, and what they see as potential barriers to entry for prospective farmers. A survey of current Miscanthus growers in England and Wales was conducted and indicated that most farmers were content with the crop and that its environmental and economic benefits were noted. However, it was evident that with a geographically limited UK market, growers wanted to see a better distribution of biomass processing stations to reduce the ongoing costs of transport. With growing demand for renewables, including bio-energy sources, it was determined important to provide information and support for stable farming operations and to incentivise the adoption of Miscanthus. Such incentives include ongoing development of new cultivars, focussing on traits such as production potential and stressor resilience, and growers indicated preference for an annual planting grant. These developments are predicted to further improve the crop’s profit margin, making it a more cost-effective crop for farmers. Sensitively managed Miscanthus also has the potential to contribute to carbon sequestration, soil health and aspects of farmland biodiversity. Incentivising such management in government land-based environmental schemes would offer additional income streams and help to promote environmental positive crop planting. Methods The grower’s questionnaire was sent out to all Terravesta-contracted Miscanthus growers in England and Wales in 2021. The questionnaire contained 37 questions with initial questions about the farm, followed by questions about the grower’s demographic status and experience in the sector (age, education, involvement in green schemes, etc.), followed by questions on their experience of the benefits and drawbacks of growing Miscanthus. The survey included multiple choice and open-ended questions, with multiple choice responses based on the five-point Likers scale: ‘strongly disagree’ (score 1), ‘disagree’ (2), ‘neutral’ (3), ‘agree’ (4), and ‘strongly agree’ (5). The statements were based on the outcome of a previous grower’s survey by Shepherd et al., (2020) and discussion with stakeholders and other researchers associated with the UKRI-funded Supergen Bioenergy Hub. The questionnaire was created in Snap 11 (Version 11, build 11.22) which is managed online by the Snap WebHost. The questionnaire passed the research ethics review of the University of Aberdeen and a link to the questionnaire was distributed by Terravesta in a newsletter sent to their Miscanthus growers. The questionnaire was open for two months. Whilst the participation remained anonymous, interested parties were offered the opportunity to access a separate prize draw link at the end of the questionnaire as an incentive to respond to the survey. Each grower was asked to answer the questionnaire, only two questions (questions 1 and 21) were mandatory, and all others were voluntary. The analysed results were given as a percentage of responses, also accounting for missing responses. Where a limited number of response options were provided, a following question allowed for free input to provide other responses that were not included in the list. Descriptive statistics were calculated to summarise the survey data. Responses to open-ended questions were captured in a table. Data visualisation used Excel (Version 2202, build 16.0.14931.20118).