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State statistician stresses ag census' confidentiality |
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By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition |
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December 5, 2002 -- It's time for Texas ag producers to stand up and be counted. Around 324,000 producers will be receiving the blue Texas Crop and Livestock Survey in mid December, which is produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)/Texas Agricultural Statistics Service (TASS). According to Robin Roark, TASS state statistician in Austin, the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducts the Census of Agriculture all across the nation every five years, and 2002 is the year. Producers of any and all agricultural products are required, by federal law, to participate in the census. Some producers are hesitant to participate, believing that the government is trying to poke around in their business in order to increase taxes or use the information for other detrimental purposes. Roark said that is one of the first things he addresses in any conversation or meeting he is attending. "One of the first and most absolute things I want to talk about is the fact that the same law that says we have to do the census for agriculture ... it's a legal guarantee by U.S. Code Title 7, that protects that confidentially to the point that you and I in a conversation - you won't ever hear me mention a producer's name," explained Roark. While less than 1 percent of the national census forms have already been mailed, on Dec. 16, approximately 324,000 will be sent to producers in Texas. Roark said one problem their agency has concerns the small farmers, small producers and/or retired producers. Even if there is one cow or one horse owned on the property, or one pasture of hay, it is supposed to be counted in the census. Once the questionnaires are received in Austin, the data inside them is scanned and then the form is shredded. The name and address contained on the form is converted to a number, protected by federal law. "That's protected by law. That guarantees that we won't ever turn it (name/results) to anybody else, and even in a court action, when somebody was trying to do a lawsuit ... the court cannot force us to give that data out, and that includes other government agencies," said Roark. He used a divorce as an example of one party trying to get the correct information concerning agricultural income/land from the census, and reiterated that it is against the law. While some agencies under the USDA must allow public access to information, the ag census information is not one of them. Roark said the information collected is the most "comprehensive of data" gathered, concerning the nation's agricultural production. He said the "... census results will provide valuable information you need to know about the structure of agriculture, production of hundreds of commodities, including very specialized crops and livestock, and operator characteristics for every county, state and the nation." This 2002 census will provide information concerning multiple operators per farm, production contracts/landlord shares, computer use, and more detailed farm-related income than those of the past. Also included will be new commodities such as bison, elk, llamas, deer, emus and ostriches, said Roark. "It's important to have those individual reports, because they roll up and become county, state and national totals. Who better to go to and ask how much is being produced than the producers themselves?" he added. For those producers who are concerned because they may be the only one in a specific county who produces certain crops or livestock, they are protected from disclosure of their personal business affairs. "If you look through an old census of ag production, you'll see all throughout the book ... "d's" scattered in and out. That "d" stands for disclosure, which means we couldn't disclose it because for that given commodity, in that given county, there was either less than three producers or there was one producer who had the majority of the product for that county, so we just don't publish that county at all," said Roark. The annual Texas Agricultural Statistics are annually released in a book, usually the end of August or the first part of September. When the producers fill out their census report, there is an option to receive the annual free of charge. Finally, Roark explained the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) has had a cooperative agreement for 71 years with the USDA, and has saved Texas taxpayers money by sharing information outlined under the agreement, but still conducted with the confidentiality required by the USDA guidelines. This information has recently been used in showing how the lack of water in South Texas has affected producers in the past years. Recently, Congress passed a bill for relief payments to be paid to certain producers, and the census data was used to determine how to divide the payments among South Texas producers. As far as the new Farm Bill and new regulations, Roark said most of the people making new regulations are between two to four generations removed from actual farming, so information collected by the census is used to ascertain the facts. In closing, Roark said that if each producer would fill out the first census received in the mail, the savings to Texas taxpayers would be up to $500,000. The mail-outs are sent up to three times. If no reply from the producer is made, contact will be made by phone, and if that doesn't work, an employee of TASS will pay a personal visit to the producer. "It is required by law," said Roark. |
