+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| ![](media/image1.jpe           | **News Release**                    |
| g){width="3.079861111111111in" |                                     |
| height="1.2506944444444446in"} | **Pennsylvania Field Office**       |
|                                |                                     |
|                                | [***www.agcensus.usda.gov           |
|                                | ***](http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/) |
|                                |                                     |
|                                | ***Contact: USDA, NASS-PA Field     |
|                                | Office***                           |
|                                |                                     |
|                                | ***717-787-5147                     |
|                                | nass-pa@nass.usda.gov***            |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| **FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**      | **Contact:** Marc Tosiano           |
|                                |                                     |
| **December 19, 2007**          | \(717\) 787-5147                    |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

**\*\*\*This news release issued from Penn State University, College of
Ag Sciences, has been re-printed with their permission.\*\*\***

**PENN STATE DEAN URGES PRODUCERS TO RETURN THE AG CENSUS**

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa, Dec 19, 2007 \-- As the Pennsylvania field office
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture\'s National Agricultural
Statistics Service prepares to mail 2007 Census of Agriculture forms to
some 98,000 addresses across the state, an administrator in Penn
State\'s College of Agricultural Sciences is urging producers to return
completed forms promptly.

\"The entire land-grant university system relies on ag census data to
prioritize its work,\" says Robert Steele, dean of the college. \"The
research, academic and cooperative extension programs the College of
Agricultural Sciences conducts extend to communities throughout the
state, and the county-level data the census provides helps us decide
which programs to offer and which to expand.\"

Steele points out that so-called formula funds from the federal
government for research and extension also are dependent on ag census
data. \"When Pennsylvania taxpayers send tax dollars to Washington,
information such as the number and distribution of farms, the size of
crops and the population of rural Pennsylvania is important in
determining how many of those dollars come back to Pennsylvania and to
the College of Agricultural Sciences for programs that are important to
the state\'s producers and consumers.\"

The ag census, which documents agricultural statistics for every county
in the nation, takes place every five years. Producers will be asked
about crops grown in 2007, livestock or livestock products sold and
animal inventories on hand at the end of the year. Data collected is
used by federal, state and local governments, land-grant universities,
agribusinesses, grower associations, lenders and many others. The census
helps guide agricultural and rural policy, environmental and
conservation programs, land-use planning, business investment and other
decision making.

Marc Tosiano, director of the Ag Statistics Service\'s Pennsylvania
field office, says it\'s important \-- indeed, required by law \-- that
forms be completed and returned by Feb. 4, 2008, regardless of the size
of a producer\'s operation. The same law makes individual information
confidential to the Ag Statistics Service; it cannot be shared with
anyone, including other government agencies such as the Internal Revenue
Service, the Environmental Protection Agency or the National Animal
Identification System.

\"About 60 percent of Pennsylvania farms gross less than \$10,000 a
year,\" says Tosiano, \"and we sometimes hear folks say, \'We\'re too
small to count.\' Although these small growers account for only about 3
percent of ag-product sales, they control more than a third of
Pennsylvania\'s farmland, so it\'s important that their voice be heard,
too.\"

Information on the 2007 ag census is available online at
www.agcensus.usda.gov or by calling (888) 4AG-STAT. For more
information, contact Marc Tosiano at 717-787-3904 or by e-mail at
<nass-pa@nass.usda.gov>.

\###