American farmers drive USDA survey reply rates to record low

8 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · May 1

In March, just over a third of 73,800 farm operations answered the annual prospective planting survey on spring acres for crops including corn, soybeans, tobacco and chickpeas.
That was down from about 60% in 2018, with participation falling every year since, according to government records.
The decline is the latest sign of eroding trust in US government data and could weaken a closely watched gauge of farmers' planting intentions.

With farmers shunning surveys, will satellites and AI become the new arbiters of America's food supply?

As farmer trust plummets, can statistical fixes mend a relationship broken by economic hardship and policy failures?