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| I understand some academic researchers may be trying to use survey results for good and wholesome reasons (which may very well be totally different intentions than "big brother" wanting cheap food for the American public at the expense of many rural farm families) which is fine. But, the academic types need to watch how they write the surveys if they are involved in their creation. The main reason I did not fill my survey out even though they offered me a $20 atm card is the questions were so complicated that I would have needed a room full of bookkeepers and CPAs to fill it out accurately and honestly. The questions were so involved and required looking back at so many records that I highly doubt most farmers could answer them accurately if they wanted to. The $20 would not have begun to reimburse me for my time to do the amount of research about my farm that they were asking for. Therefore, I had two choices---make things up to answer the questions (like I'm sure most did anyway) and send it back with inaccurate information, or not send it back at all. I chose the latter.
All in all, if most surveys are like the one I got sent, I would bet that most of the information written on them by farmers is at best WAG (wild ass guessing). | |
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how USDA gets its numbers....
