T:

T: T-value; soil loss tolerance level

T by 2000: The conservation program adopted in some states to meet the soil loss tolerance level, or the T-value, by the year 2000, by reducing soil erosion. Tailings: The material consisting of unthreshed grain heads and all trash that is too coarse to fall through the sieves of a combine. Unthreshed heads are sometimes returned to the threshing section for a second threshing.

T-2 toxin: Produced by several of the Fusarium molds. Similar to vomitoxin, T-2 has a variety of effects on livestock that varies with species, age, and conditions. Effects can range from reduced weight gain to mutagenic actions causing deformed embryos.

T-DNA: Transfer DNA

T-Value: Soil loss tolerance level

T-yield: See Transitional yield(s).

T; T-value: The soil loss tolerance level, or T-value, that is the maximum level of soil loss due to erosion each year that will still allow maximum productivity. The T-value for most cropland usually falls between three and five tons of soil loss per acre per year.

Tag(s): (1) Dung locks, floor sweepings, or stained pieces of wool. (2) See Animal Identification Number (AIN) Tag , AIN/RF Tags, Ear tag(s), and Transponder(s).

Tagging: The practice of shearing wool from the udder region. Also called crutching or crotching.

Tailings: The material consisting of unthreshed grain heads and all trash that is too coarse to fall through the seives of a combine. Unthreshed heads are sometimes returned to the threshing section for a second threshing.

Tailwater: The runoff of irrigation water from the lower end of an irrigated field; runoff from gravity irrigation.

Tailwater recovery irrigation system: A facility to collect, store, and transport irrigation tailwater for reuse in a farm irrigation distribution system.

Take; taking: As defined in the Endangered Species Act, to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect any threatened species or endangered species. Harm may include significant habitat modification where it actually kills or injures a listed species through impairment of essential behavior such as nesting or reproduction.

Talmadge-Aiken processing plants: See Federal-State Cooperative Inspection plants.

Tank(s); circular tank (culture): Constructed of plastic, concrete, or steel, and widely used throughout the U.S. to culture aquatic species; primarily used to spawn fish, maintain fry and fingerlings, and to hold fish before sale. See Recirculating systems.

TAP: Tree Assistance Program

Target market-weight range: An ideal or intended weight range within which a particular class of livestock is intended to be marketed.

Target option payments (TOP): Under former authority, a program to be implemented at the USDA’s discretion, in which wheat and feed grain producers would have the option of choosing from a schedule of target prices and corresponding acreage reduction levels. The program was first authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985 and reauthorized in the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990. Program authority was eliminated by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

Target population: The population group by which a given food product is intended to be consumed, as evidenced by its labeling, advertising, and market position.

Target price: An income supporting price level, established by law, for wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, rice, and upland and extra-long staple cotton. Producers participating in the federal commodity programs received the difference between the target price and either the market price, during a period prescribed by law, or the loan rate, whichever was higher. If the average market price did not equal the target price, qualifying producers could receive a deficiency payment orcompensatory payment to make up part or all the difference. The target price mechanism was eliminated with the enactment of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. The target price concept was reintroduced in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Under Section 1001(15), the target price is the price per bushel, pound, ton, or other appropriate unit of a covered commodity or peanuts used to determine the payment rate for counter-cyclical payments. The target prices are fixed for 2002 and 2003 and then raised to higher fixed levels for 2004 through 2007, except for soybeans and rice which remain at the 2002-2003 levels. Unlike previous programs, counter-cyclical payments based on target prices are not tied to actual production. See Deficiency payment(s), and Loan rate(s).

Targeted Export Assistance Program (TEA): A former program, authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985, that reimbursed private businesses to promote exports of specific U.S. food and agricultural commodities in specified markets. Eligible participants, such as exporting firms, received generic commodity certificates in payment for promotional activities approved by the USDA. This program has since been succeeded by the Market Access Program. See Market Access Program (MAP), and Market Promotion Program (MPP).

Targeted income maintenance: The providing of income support payments only to those who need assistance based on a means test rather than to all producers enrolled in a program.

Targeting: See Means test, and Targeted income maintenance.

Tariff Act of 1930 (P.L. 71-361): Protectionist U.S. trade legislation that raised tariff rates on most articles imported by the U.S., triggering comparable tariff increases by U.S. trading partners. The Tariff Act of 1930 is also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, after the two legislators who sponsored it.

Tariff anomaly: Exists when the tariff on raw materials or semi-manufactured goods is higher than the tariff on the finished product.

Tariff binding(s): See Bound tariff rate(s).

Tariff escalation: A situation in which tariffs on manufactured goods are relatively high, tariffs on semi-processed goods are moderate, and tariffs on raw materials are nonexistent or very low.

Tariff peaks: Tariffs that are high relative to the average tariff for other products.

Tariff schedules: The comprehensive list of the tariffs a country applies to imported goods. See Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS).

Tariff(s): (1) A tax imposed on commodity imports by a government. A tariff may be either a fixed charge per unit of product imported (specific tariff), or a fixed percentage of value (ad valorem tariff). Tariffs are legal in the World Trade Organization (WTO), but tariff reduction was a goal of the Uruguay Round. The WTO contains 22,500 pages of national tariff schedules comprising tariff reductions for 120 countries, mostly phased in over five years, that were negotiated during the Uruguay Round. (2) Storage charges assessed by public warehouses for stored grain.

Tariff-rate quota (sugar): An integral part of U.S. sugar policy. A tariff-rate quota replaced an absolute quota in 1982. The tariff-rate quota for raw cane sugar is allocated on a country-by-country basis among sugar exporting countries in proportion to their average marketshare of U.S. raw sugar imports during 1975-81, exclusive of the highest and lowest years. The tariff-rate quota for refined sugar is on a global first-come, first-served basis.

Tariff-rate quota(s); tariff quota(s): Part of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S., as amended in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. Under tariff-rate quotas, a higher tariff rate is applied to imported goods after a certain quantitative limit (quota) has been reached. Tarriff-rate quotas limit imports and help maintain U.S. prices at levels that prevent forfeiture of Commodity Credit Corporation loans.

Tariffication: The process of converting nontariff trade barriers to trade to their tariff equivalent. This was one of the concessions sought by the U.S. in the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations.

TASC: Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops program

Task Force on Agricultural Air Quality Research: Under authority of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 391) the task force was established to oversee and review research in agricultural air quality issues in order to ensure intergovernmental cooperation in research activities.

Tax-loss farming: Farming operations carried out with the main objective of producing a loss to be claimed for tax reporting purposes. Such losses from farming operations may be used to reduce taxes owned from other businesses or nonfarm income sources.

Taxon; taxa: Any identifiable group of related organisms that share characteristics and natural relationships. See Taxonomy.

Taxonomic family: A group of organisms classified together in a classification system on the basis of common features.

Taxonomy: The science, laws, or principles of classifying living organisms in specially named categories based on shared characteristics and natural relationships.

Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 (43 U.S.C. §§ 315 et seq.): Signed into law June 28, 1934, and amended in 1936, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1947, 1948, 1954, and 1976. This Act was passed to control the use of publicly owned grazing lands and to ensure the most beneficial use of those grazing lands. The Actauthorized the establishment of grazing districts in which local ranchers, under a permitting system, have the right to graze specified numbers of animals at an annual fixed fee per head. The law permitted 80 million acres to be placed into grazing districts to be administered by the Department of the Interior as the Division of Grazing (later renamed the Grazing Service). The General Land Office was responsible for administering grazing on public lands outside the districts.

TBT: Technical barriers to trade

TCK: Tilletia controversa Kuhn fungus

TCK smut: Tilletia controversa Kuhn is a fungus found in the soil or on the surface of wheat kernels. The organism only infects plants that grow during the winter. High levels of the disease are usually found after early and persistent snow cover. Wheat infected with TCK is obviously dwarfed in contrast to healthy plants, and the inside of the kernel is converted into millions of fungus spores. The spores are not toxic to humans or livestock. Also Dwarf bunt.

TCP: Transition contract payments

TCR: Tribal Colleges Research Grants Program

TDR: Transfer of development rights

TEA: Targeted Export Assistance Program

Teaching and education: Under Section 1404(14) of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. § 3103), formal classroom instruction, laboratory instruction, and practicum experience in the food and agricultural sciences and related issues (such as faculty development, student recruitment and services, curriculum development, instructional materials and equipment, and innovative teaching methodologies) conducted by colleges and universities offering baccalaureate or higher degrees.

Teaching capacity: The quality and depth of an institution’s academic programs infrastructure, as evidenced by its (a) curriculum, (b) teaching faculty, (c) instructional delivery systems (d) student experiential learning opportunities, (e) scientific instrumentation for teaching, (f) library resources, (g) academic standing, (h) racial, ethnic, or gender diversity of its faculty and student body, as well as (i) faculty and student recruitment and retention programs provided by a college or university in order to achieve maximum results in the development of scientific and professional expertise for the nation’s food and agricultural system.

Team Nutrition: A Food and Nutrition Service program with the mission to improve the health and education of children by creating innovative public and private partnerships that promote food choices for a healthful diet through the media, schools, families, and community. Team Nutrition has two main initiatives: nutrition education, and training and technical assistance. Nutrition education uses proven, science-based nutrition messages to children to build skills and motivate children to make food choices for a healthy diet. Training and technical assistance provides support to food service personnel implementing the USDA dietary guidelines.

Technical (side of the market): The psychological aspect of the futures market. The technical market is the side that helps measure trader reaction to fundamentals. Technical traders use past performance as a guide to trading current markets.

Technical assistance: (1) Personnel and support resources needed to conduct planning, engineering, design, training, installation, certification, surveying, quality assurance, skills building, evaluation, assessment, or other assistance to assure success in the implementation of government-supported programs. (2) A problem-solving function performed for the benefit of a private business enterprise.

Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops program (TASC): A Foreign Agricultural Service program to assist producers of fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops to open, retain, and expand international markets by providing funding for projects that address sanitary, phytosanitary, and technical barriers that prohibit or threaten the export of U.S. specialty crops. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 3205) authorized $2 million per year to provide direct assistance through public and private sector projects.

Technical barriers to trade; technical barriers (TBT): Regulations, standards (including packaging, marking, and labeling requirements), testing and certification procedures, and other nontariff trade barriers that can create obstacles to trade. Under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, World Trade Organization members agreed to disciplines on the use of these measures as they apply to both industrial and agricultural products.

Technical Corrections to Food Security Act of 1985 Amendments (P.L. 99-253): Signed into law February 28, 1986. The law gave the USDA discretion, rather than a mandate, to require cross-compliance for the 1986 through 1990 wheat and feed grains crops, changed acreage base calculations, and specified election procedures for local Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service committees.

Technical determination: A conclusion concerning the status and condition of the natural resources and cultural practices based on sound science and the best professional judgment of natural resource professionals concerning soils, water, air, plants, and animals.

Technical service providers (TSP): Individuals certified to provide technical assistance on behalf of USDA. Technical assistance includes conservation planning and design, layout, installation, and review of approved conservation practices.

Technology transfer: The movement of modern or scientific methods of production or distribution from one enterprise, institution, or country to another, as through foreign investment, international trade, licensing of patent rights, and technical assistance or training.

Technology(ies): In agriculture, the methods, techniques, and systems used in producing and marketing food and other agricultural commodities.

TEFAP: Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program

TEFAP: The Emergency Food Assistance Program

Telecommunications Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-104): Signed into law February 8, 1996. Enacted with the intention of introducing greater competition in the communications market. It was the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in almost 62 years. See Telecommunications program.

Telecommunications program: In 1949, the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was authorized to make loans to provide telephone service in rural areas. Congress directed that the rural telephone program be conducted to “assure the availability of adequate telephone service to the widest practicable number of rural users of such service.” The telecommunications program develops policy to help bring advanced telecommunications service to rural America. The Rural Telephone Bank (RTB) was established in 1971, by an amendment to the REA Act, to provide an additional source of financing for the telecommunications program. RTB loans had a slightly different set of eligibility criteria than those of the direct loan program established in 1949. TheRTB was managed by a 13-member board of directors. As provided by law, the REA Administrator was the bank’s chief executive officer with the title of governor. Overall policy decisions and management were the responsibility of the board of directors; seven members were appointed by the President and six members were elected by the bank’s stockholders. The functions of these agencies have been assumed by the Rural Utilities Service. With passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telecommunications programs in rural areas were to benefit from infrastructure sharing and greater competition.

Telemedicine: See Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program (DLT), and Telemedicine and Distance Learning Services in Rural Areas.

Telemedicine and Distance Learning Services in Rural Areas (7 U.S.C. §§ 950aaa-1 – 950aaa-5): First authorized by the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (Sec. 2335A) and reauthorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 6203). Loans and grants are made to encourage rural community facilities, such as schools, libraries, hospitals, and medical centers, to improve and make affordable the use of advanced telecommunications such as interactive video, the Internet, and other information networks. See Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program (DLT).

Television demonstration program: Grants made for television programming developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of providing information on agriculture and other issues of importance to farmers and other rural residents. Grants are made from Rural Development funds under authority of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, as amended.

Telework: The use of telecommunications to perform work functions at a rural telework center located outside the place of business of an employer.

Telework centers: Off-site centers outside the regular place of business where an employer or multiple employers have employees working in a shared facility and linked through telecommunications. See Telework.

Telework grants; Grants authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 6022) to nonprofit groups, educational institutions, and Indian tribes to create telework centers.

Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (P.L. 98-8): Signed into law March 24, 1983. The law authorized distribution of foodstuffs, owned by the Commodity Credit Corporation, to indigent persons. See Emergency Food Assistance Program, The (TEFAP).

Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP): See Emergency Food Assistance Program, The (TEFAP).

Temporary storage: See Emergency and temporary storage.

Tenancy, tenant farming: The renting or leasing of land by a farm operator for a fixed amount of cash or commodities. Tenancy is an alternative to ownership.

Tenant protection: Provisions in some state and federal legislation (Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, Sections 1105(d), 1305(d), 2001 [Food Security Act of 1985 as amended, Sec. 1238C(d)], and 10904) designed to insure that both tenants and landowners equitably share farm program benefits or that tenants are not adversely impacted by farm program provisions.

Tenant(s): One who rents or leases land, for a fixed amount of cash or commodities, rather than owning it. Under some government programs, a tenant is not considered a farm operator.

Tender: (1) An act on the part of the holder of short futures contracts to deliver the physical commodity in accordance to the contract specifications. (2) Wool that is weak and breaks anywhere along the length of the fiber due to poor nutrition or sickness. (3) The selling of a commodity through the request of formal bids. See Pubic tender market. (4) See Poultry tender.

Tenure: (1) The relationship or type of control that a producer has on the land that is rented. (2) Farms that are classed as owner-operated, part owner-operated, or tenant-operated.

Term limit(s) (loans): For purposes of Farm Service Agency operating loans, the limit on the number of times a borrower may receive a direct annual operating loan. The Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Sec. 319) as amended by the Agricultural Credit Improvement Act of 1992 established a 15-year limitation for direct loans and guaranteed loans. Implementation of this provision was subsequently suspended through December 31, 2002, by the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 (Sec. 255). The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 5101) provides for a one-time waiver of this requirement for a period of up to two years. To receive a waiver, a borrower must have a viable operation, have been denied anoperating loan by two commercial lenders, be unable to obtain a loan with an FSA loan guarantee, and have completed or agreed to complete a borrower training program. See Graduation.

Terminal elevator(s): (1) An elevator located at a point of accumulation and distribution in the movement of grain. (2) An elevator that ordinarily receives grain by the carload, as distinguished from one receiving in truck loads such as a country elevator. (3) An elevatorin the business of storing grain for hire for others, usually operated by a wholesale grain dealer as opposed to a country grain dealer. (4) An elevator that receives grain primarily from other elevators. See Country elevator(s), and Elevator(s).

Terminal feedlot: A livestock feeding operation where all animals, upon exit of the operation, move directly to an abattoir.

Terminal lakes: Lakes with no outlet.

Terminal market: A metropolitan market that handles all agricultural commodities.

Terminal sires: Sires used in a crossbreeding system where all progeny are marketed.

Terminator gene: A toxin gene in plants that when activated prevents the seeds of the plants from growing. Such genes are engineered in plants to prevent producers from saving seed and to protect the environment from the potential negative effects of modified genes. See Terminator seeds.

Terminator seeds: The ability to engineer crops to kill their own seeds in the second generation, thus making it impossible for producers to save and replant seeds. Also Control of plant gene expression, and Trait protection system. See Saved seed(s).

Terminator technology: Also Control of plant gene expression, and Trait protection system. See Terminator gene, and Terminator seeds.

Terms of trade: The ratio of prices of a country’s exports to the prices of its imports.

TERP: Tobacco Equity Reduction Program

Terrace(s): Small earthen berms or levees erected on the contour across sloping fields for the purpose of holding soil by slowing the movement of runoff water or holding water.

Terracing: Construction of a series of levees on a hillside, one above the other, to hold runoff and sediment to reduce erosion. See Terrace(s).

Test weight (standard); test weight per bushel: The weight per Winchester bushel, as determined using an approved device according to procedures prescribed in Food and Grain Inspection Service instructions. The test weight per bushel in the standards for corn, mixed grain, oats, grain sorghum, and soybeans is determined on the original sample. The test weight per bushel in the standards for barley, flaxseed, rye, sunflowerseed, triticale, and wheat is determined after mechanically cleaning the original sample. The test weight per bushel is recorded in whole and tenth pounds, to the nearest tenth pound, for wheat, rye, and triticale. The test weight per bushel for all other grains is recorded in whole or half-pounds, with a fraction of a half-pound disregarded.

Tetrazolium test (TZ): A quick seed germination test. Seeds are soaked overnight in water and then treated with tetrazolium chloride to give an indication of viable, abnormal, and dead seeds in the seed lot. This test will not detect seed-borne diseases, but is highly reliable for determining viable seed of corn, wheat, oats, barley, and other grasses.

Textile mill(s): (1) A facility or business for making fabric. (2) All establishments engaged in the preparation of fiber and subsequent manufacturing of yarn, thread, braids, twine, and cordage; in manufacturing, broad woven fabrics, narrow woven fabrics, knit fabrics, and carpets and rugs from yarn; in dyeing and finishing fiber, yarn, fabrics, and knit apparel; in coating, waterproofing, or otherwise treating fabrics; in the integrated manufacture of knit apparel and other finished articles from yarn; and in the manufacture of felt goods, lace goods, nonwoven fabrics, and miscellaneous textiles.

Textile(s): (1) Yarns, piece-goods, made-up articles, garments, and other products made of cotton, wool, man-made fibers, or blends thereof, in which any or all of those fibers in combination represent either the chief value of the fibers or 50 percent or more by weight (or 17 percent or more by weight for wool) of the product. (2) Garments and other articles fabricated from fibers, yarns, or fabrics, when the products retain the characteristic flexibility and hang of the original fabrics.

Texture: (1) A property dependent on the relative proportions of the various-sized soil fractions making up a soil. Textural classes (sand, loamy sand, sandy loam, loam, silt, silty clay loam, sandy clay loam, clay loam) are defined on the proportions of the sand, silt, and clay fractions present, with due note of both the particle-size scale on which such fractions are determined and the particular system of class limits. In the field, texture is assessed subjectively, largely by feel and physical behavior, with allowance being made for the influence of clay type and organic matter content. (2) The structural character of wood as revealed by touch or reaction to cutting tools. In some cases (particularly with conifers), growth rings that are wide for the species concerned give coarse texture. There is considerable variation in element size or a distinct contrast between early wood and late wood.

Texture profile: The change of texture with depth of soil.

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP): A program established in 1983 to allow donations of commodities, owned by the Commodity Credit Corporation, to states in amounts relative to the population of unemployed and needy persons. The food was distributed by charitable organizations to eligible recipients. The program was replaced in 1990 by The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). See Emergency Food Assistance Program, The (TEFAP).

Thin markets: Markets generally characterized by few potential traders and few or infrequent trades.

Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC): An assay used for mycotoxin detection. Thin-layer chromatography is one of the more accurate methods of testing samples for the presence of aflatoxin, vomitoxin, or T-2 toxin.

Thinning: Cuttings made in immature stands in order to stimulate the growth of the trees that remain and to increase the total yield of useful material from the stand.

Thinning(s): Cuttings made in immature stands in order to stimulate the growth of the trees that remain, and to increase the total yield of useful material from the stand.

Third party (service) provider(s): As authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 2701), the use of USDA-certified, nonfederal personnel to provide technical assistance for USDA conservation programs in order to relieve excessive burdens onNatural Resources Conservation Service staff to provide the same services.

Third-country monetization: Monetization where commodities are sold in one country and the foreign currency generated is used in that country or another country in the same region.

Third-party vendor: An individual in either the public or private sector who has been certified by an approved independent certification organization or agency as being qualified to provide certain types of authorized assistance.

Thomas Jefferson Initiative for Crop Diversification: Authorized by the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reauthorization Act of 1998 (Sec. 405) and reauthorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 7130). A USDA initiative for research and development, in cooperation with other public and private entities, on the production and marketing of new crops and nontraditional crops needed to strengthen and diversify the agricultural production base of the U.S.

Threat awareness: Biological warfare-related intelligence including understanding new scientific trends that may be exploited by our adversaries to develop biological weapons; developing periodic assessments of evolving biological weapons; and anticipating and preparing for the emergence of threats by characterizing threat agents, assessing existing defenses, and rapidly developing safe and effective countermeasures. See Biodefense.

Threatened species: Any plant or animal species likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future, throughout all of a significant area of its range or natural habitat; identified by the Secretary of the Interior as “threatened,” in accordance with theEndangered Species Act.

Three-entity rule: Limits the number of entities through which a person may receive program payments. An individual can receive payments as an individual and also by holding 50 percent interest in two entities which are not combined as one person. An individual can directly receive $180,000 in direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, and loan deficiency payments, and could effectively receive up to $180,000 more through two more entities (by virtue of holding 50 percent interest in the two entities), thus effectively doubling the effective payment limitation.

Three-step program: See 3-step competitiveness program (cotton).

Thresh(ed)(ing): (1) The operation in which grain is removed from the straw, the seed is removed from the seed head, the kernel is removed from the corn cob, or the bean is removed from the pod during harvesting. Typically, the grain or seed is removed by treading, rubbing, or striking with a flail or machine. (2) A stage in tobacco processing that involves cutting the blade of the leaf away from the stem.

Thresher: A farm implement that separates the seed or grain from plants by beating the stems and husks.

Threshold: The lowest dose of a chemical at which a specified measurable effect is observed, and below which it is not observed. See Nonthreshold effect.

Threshold price: A minimum price.

Thrips: Minute, slender, active, and agile insects that live in flowers and other parts of plants feeding on sap. Thrips are serious pests of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and crops.

TI: Tobacco Institute

Tick: The least amount of price movement in a futures or options contract.

Tier I: See Tier I (conservation security) contract(s), Tier I (conservation security) payment(s), and Tier I renewals.

Tier I (conservation security) contract(s): Under the Conservation Security Program, a contract for land enrolled for a period of five years that includes conservation practices appropriate for the agricultural operation that will address at least one significant resource of concern on part of the agricultural operation at a level that meets the appropriate nondegradation standard, and that includes the active management of the conservation practices that are implemented or maintained under the conservation security contract. SeeTier II (conservation security) contract(s), Tier III (conservation security) contract(s), and Tier I (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier I (conservation security) payment(s): Under the Conservation Security Plan, payments that provide for the addressing of at least one natural resource concern to a nondegradation standard. The base payment is 5 percent of either the average national rental rate for the 2001 crop year for the specific land use or another appropriate rate that ensures regional equity, up to $5000. See Tier I (conservation security) contract(s), Tier II (conservation security) payment(s), and Tier III (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier I renewals: In the case of a Tier I conservation security contract, a producer may renew the contract only if the producer agrees to (a) apply additional conservation practices that meet the nondegradation standard on land already enrolled in theconservation security program; or (b) adopt new conservation practices with respect to another portion of the agricultural operation that address resource concerns and meet the nondegradation standard under the terms of the Tier I conservation security contract.

Tier II: See Tier II (conservation security) contract(s), and Tier II (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier II (conservation security) contract(s): Under the Conservation Security Program, a contract for land enrolled for not less than five nor more than ten years, as determined by the producer, that includes conservation practices appropriate for the agricultural operation that will address at least one significant resource of concern for the entire agricultural operation at a level that meets the appropriate nondegradation standard, and that includes active management of conservation practices that are implemented or maintained under the conservation security contract. .See Tier I (conservation security) contract(s), Tier III (conservation security) contract(s), and Tier II (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier II (conservation security) payment(s): Under the Conservation Security Plan, payments that provide for the addressing of at least one natural resource concern to a nondegradation standard on the entire agricultural operation. The base payment is 10 percent of either the average national rental rate for the 2001 crop year for the specific land use or another appropriate rate that ensures regional equity, up to $10,500. See Tier II (conservation security) contract(s), Tier I (conservation security) payment(s), and Tier III (conservation security) payment(s). Tier III (conservation security) contract(s): Under the Conservation Security Program, a contract for land enrolled for not less than five nor more than ten years, as determined by the producer, that includes conservation practices appropriate for the agricultural operation that will apply a resource management system that meets the appropriate nondegradation standard for all resources of concern of the entire agricultural operation, and that includes active management of conservation practices that are implemented or maintained under the conservation security contract. See Tier I (conservation security) contract(s), Tier II (conservation security) contract(s), and Tier III (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier III: See Tier III (conservation security) contract(s), and Tier III (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier III (conservation security) contract(s): Under the Conservation Security Program, a contract for land enrolled for not less than five or more than ten years, as determined by the producer, that includes conservation practices appropriate for the agricultural operation that will apply a resource management system that meets the appropriate nondegradation standard for all resources of concern of the entire agricultural operation, and that includes active management of conservation practices that are implemented or maintained under the conservation security contract. See Tier I (conservation security) contract(s), Tier II (conservation security) contract(s), and Tier III (conservation security) payment(s).

Tier III (conservation security) payment(s): Under the Conservation Security Plan, the highest level of conservation management treating all natural resource concerns to a nondegradation standard and involving the entire agricultural operation. The base payment is 15 percent of either the average national rental rate for the 2001 crop year for the specific land use or another appropriate rate that ensures regional equity, up to $13,500. See Tier III (conservation security) contract(s), Tier I (conservation security) payment(s), andTier II (conservation security) payment(s).

Tiering: A method of directing benefits of federal income and price-support programs toward small- or medium-sized farms. Under tiering, deficiency payments per unit of production would be higher for small farms and lower for quantities beyond a given amount. For example, federal payments to sugarbeet growers have been tiered.

Till(age)(ed)(ing): To prepare land for the production of crops by use of the plow and harrow.

TILLING: Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes

Tilt: See Butter-powder tilt.

Tilth: (1) The general physical condition of soil as it relates to agriculture use. (2) Land used for agriculture as opposed to pasture or forest.

Timber sale(s): The sale of Forest Service timber for the component purposes of (a) timber commodity – harvesting primarily to supply raw material (wood) to help meet the needs of society; (b) forest stewardship – harvesting as a cost-efficient tool to help achieve desired ecological conditions and nontimber resource objectives, as outlined in forest plans; and (c) personal use – harvesting forest products for removal and personal use such as firewood and Christmas trees.

Timber Stand Improvement (TSI): Noncommercial cutting and other treatments made to increase the growth and improve the quality of trees for timber uses. Treatments include thinning, pruning, weeding, prescribed burning, and fertilizing established stands of trees.

Time value: The amount of money option buyers are willing to pay for an option in the anticipation that, over time, a change in the underlying futures contract price will cause the option to increase in value. In general, an option premium is the sum of time value and intrinsic value. Any amount by which an option premium exceeds the option’s intrinsic value can be considered time value.

Time-limit order: In commodity futures trading, a customer order that designates the time during which it can be executed.

Tipped: The removal during processing of the pointed ends of tobacco leaves.

Tipping fee: A fee for disposal of waste.

Tippy wool: The badly weathered ends of fleece that usually contain a considerable amount of grease, dirt, and other debris. The tips dye differently from the rest of the fleece.

Tissue culture: The technique of growing a whole plant from a single engineered cell or piece of plant tissue.

Title 16: The conservation title of the U.S. Code. It contains the federal conservation statutes enacted by Congress and signed by the President or passed over the President’s veto. It contains all laws in effect at the time of compilation. See Title 7, andTitle 21.

Title 21: The food and drugs title of the U.S. Code. It contains the federal conservation statutes enacted by Congress and signed by the President or passed over the President’s veto. It contains all laws in effect at the time of compilation. See Title 7, andTitle 16.

Title 7: The agriculture title of the U.S. Code. It contains the federal agriculture statutes enacted by Congress and signed by the President or passed over the President’s veto. It contains all laws in effect at the time of compilation. See Title 16, and Title 21.

Title I: See P.L. 480.

Title II: See P.L. 480.

Title III: See P.L. 480.

Title IV: See P.L. 480.

TLAP: Tobacco Loss Assistance Program

TLC: Thin layer chromatography

TMDL: Total maximum daily load

TMS: Total milk solids

Tobacco (price-support) program (7 U.S.C. §§ 1311-1316; 7 U.S.C. § 1445): Authorized by both the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, and the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended. Depending on the type of tobacco grown, production control is accomplished by either marketing quotas or acreage allotments, or both. Minimum price-support levels are accomplished through national marketing quotas and price-supports at market-clearing levels. Commodity Credit Corporation price-support loans are provided to price stabilization cooperatives. The tobacco program is a no-net-cost program. See Assessment(s) (programs), No-net-cost, and Tobacco loan.

Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983: Title II of the Dairy and Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983. The act (a) reduced the levels of price-supports for tobacco, (b) eliminated the off-farm lease and transfer of flue-cured tobacco allotments or quotas beginning with the 1987 crop, (c) required the forfeiture of flue-cured tobacco allotments not planted in at least two years out of the most recent three-year period, (d) required grade and quality inspection of imported tobacco, and (e) made other adjustments to the tobacco program. See Dairy and Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983, and Leasing of quota.

Tobacco budworm: A tiny caterpillar pest of tobacco. Tobacco budworms eat into the buds or unfolded leaves of tobacco, as the plants begin to top, causing either distorted leaves or leaves with large holes.

Tobacco Equity Reduction Program (TERP): The proposed compensation for all tobacco allotments and quotas through payments to current tobacco quota owners and growers for the loss in value of the assets associated with most U.S. tobacco production.

Tobacco in the form not normally marketed by producers: Tobacco leaves, stems, strips, scrap, or parts that are the result of green tobacco having been redried, stemmed, tipped, threshed, or otherwise processed.

Tobacco industry: All establishments engaged in manufacturing cigarettes, cigars, smoking and chewing tobacco, snuff, and reconstituted tobacco, and in stemming and redrying tobacco.

Tobacco Inspection Act of 1935 (7 U.S.C. §§ 511 et. seq.): This Act promotes the protection of tobacco growers who use the auction market. The Act provides for the following: (a) mandatory inspection and grading of tobacco before sale at designated auction markets, and the furnishing of price information for various grades; and (b) inspection upon request for producers, dealers, and manufacturers. A referendum is required before the USDA will designate an auction market. Tobacco is the only major crop sold at auction.

Tobacco Institute (TI): The public relations and lobbying organization for the tobacco industry. It ceased operation in January 1999.

Tobacco loan: Nonrecourse price-support loans are available on each tobacco producer’s marketed crop. Tobacco that fails to bring at least the loan price at auction is consigned to the auction market. The producer is paid the loan amount by the auction market with money borrowed from the Commodity Credit Corporation. The consigned tobacco is redried, packed, and stored as CCC collateral. The auction market, acting as an agent of the CCC, will later sell the tobacco with the proceeds being used to repay the loan. See Price stabilization cooperative(s), and Tobacco (price-support) program.

Tobacco Loss Assistance Program (TLAP): A program authorized by the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000, to help compensate producers for reductions made in tobacco quotas. Each tobacco-growing state received a portion of TLAP funds based upon its share of reduction in tobacco quotas. Program payments were made to States which then paid eligible farmers. These payments are not constrained by the no-net-cost provisions of the tobacco price-support program.

Tobacco Loss Assistance Program 2000 (TLAP 2000): A program authorized by the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 to help compensate producers for reductions made in tobacco quotas. The program provided for direct federal payments to eligible farmers. The ARPA required that the quotabe under actual production for those associated with the quota to be paid; however, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001, required the USDA to make payments to otherwise eligible persons who would have been paid but for the quota not being produced.

Tobacco Loss Assistance Program 2001 (TLAP01): A program authorized by the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002, which provides that Commodity Credit Corporation funds be made available to tobacco growers, controllers, and quota holders to mitigate the loss of tobacco quotas.

Tobacco Payment Program (TOPP): Under authority of the Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003, direct payments will be provided to all acreage tobacco allotment and marketing quota holders and growers. Eligible applicants are quota holders and producers of all kinds of tobacco under the 2002 tobacco program. An eligible person is one who owns, controls, or produces eligible tobacco on a farm for which an acreage allotment or marketing quota was established for the 2002 marketing year. An eligible farm is one for which, irrespective of temporary transfers or under marketings, a basic quota or allotment for eligible tobacco was established for the 2002 crop year. Eligible tobacco includes types of flue-cured tobacco, burley tobacco, fire-cured tobacco, dark air-cured tobacco, Virginia sun-cured tobacco, and cigar filler and binder.

Tobacco pickings: The residue that accumulates in the course of processing tobacco prior to the redrying of such tobacco, consisting of scrap, stems, portions of leaves, and leaves of poor quality.

Tobacco settlement: Cigarette manufacturers reached a settlement on November 23, 1998, with 46 states (Florida, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Texas settled individually) over state claims against the tobacco industry for state health care expenses due to smoking. According to the Master Settlement Agreement, the cigarette industry is projected to pay the settling states $206 billion over the next 25 years with payments divided among participating states according to each state’s share of Medicaid funding, which is largely population based. Also Phase I. See Phase II.

Tobacco(s): A crop grown in 16 states, with two-thirds grown in North Carolina and Kentucky combined, and another one-fourth grown in Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia combined. In 2000, there were nearly 486,000 acres in tobacco grown on 90,000 farms producing nearly one billion pounds. See Air-cured tobacco, Burley tobacco, Fire-cured tobacco, Flue-cured tobacco, Maryland tobacco, and Sun-cured tobacco.

Tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA): Carcinogenic compounds, found only in tobacco products, that are created during fermentation, curing, and burning of the tobacco leaf.

Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee (TRAC): Jointly established by the Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA on April 30, 1998, under the auspices of the EPA. The committee provided a forum for a diverse group of individuals representing a broad range of interests and backgrounds from across the country to consult with and make recommendations to the Administrator of the EPA and the Secretary of Agriculture on matters relating to an approach for reassessing tolerances, including those for organophosphate pesticides, as required by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. The Committee concluded its last meeting in October 1999. See Committee to Advise on Reassessment and Transition (CARAT).

Tolerance(s): (1) See T; T-value. (2) The ability of a plant to resist disease without suffering death or loss of productivity. (3) The amount of toxic residue allowed by law or regulation. (4) The maximum legally permissible residue level for pesticides in raw agricultural produce and processed foods. In establishing tolerances, the Environmental Protection Agency considers the toxicity of each pesticide, how much of the pesticide is applied and how often, and how much pesticide residue remains in or on food. The EPA is required to review 9,721 pesticide tolerances. The EPA was required to review one-third of all tolerances by August 3, 1999 (met), two-thirds by August 3, 2002 (met), and the balance by August 2006. The EPA will give priority to the review of the tolerances or exemptions that appear to pose the greatest risk to public health: organophosphates, carbamates, and probable human carcinogens. The Food Safety and Inspection Service enforces tolerances formeat, poultry, and some egg products.

Tomato spotted wilt virus: An especially damaging virus of tomatoes, peppers, celery, eggplant, peanuts, lettuce, pineapple, and a wide range of ornamental plants. The virus affects both foliage and fruit and is spread by insects. The disease cannot be controlled once the plant is infected.

TOP: Target option payments

Top dressing: The application of fertilizer after seeding or transplanting, or after the crop has been established.

Top soil; topsoil: Generally, the layer of soil moved by crop cultivation; Horizon A.

TOPP: Tobacco Payment Program

Total cropland: Land from which crops were harvested or hay was cut; land in orchards, citrus groves, vineyards, nurseries, and greenhouses; cropland used only for pasture or grazing; land in cover crops, legumes, and soil-improvement grasses; land on which all crops failed; land in cultivated summer fallow; and idle cropland.

Total farm sales: The annual gross market value of all agricultural products sold, before taxes and expenses, including livestock, poultry, and their products; and crops, including nursery crops, greenhouse crops, and hay.

Total gross income: Gross cash income, plus nonmoney income, plus the inventory adjustment.

Total maximum daily load (TMDL): The Clean Water Act of 1972 requires each state to identify and priority-rank waters within its boundaries for which effluent limitation guidelines are not stringent enough to implement applicable water-quality standards. Once impaired waters are identified, the Act requires each state to establish the total maximum daily loads for the water, at levels necessary to comply with the applicable water-quality standards, allowing for seasonal variation and a margin of safety. The Act then requires each state to submit its list of identified waters and the necessary TMDLs to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval. If approved, the TMDLs are incorporated into the state’s water-quality management plans. If not approved, the EPA will identify waters to be protected and will establish the necessary TMDLs. At issue is whether the authority under the Act applies to nonpoint source pollution. On July 13, 2000, the EPA issued a final rule amending and clarifying existing regulations implementing a section of the Clean Water Act of 1972, which requires states to identify waters that are not meeting applicable water quality standards and to establish TMDLs to restore the quality of those waters. The rule also amended National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations to include provisions addressing implementation of TMDLs through NPDES permits. Congress prohibited the EPA from implementing the final rule. On December 27, 2002, the EPA published a notice to withdraw the final rule.

Total maximum daily load plan: Required when a water body exceeds state water-quality standards. The plan must detail how the pollutant will be reduced to meet the standards.

Total milk solids (TMS): Primarily milk proteins, fat, lactose, and minerals.

Total stocks: The combination of government and privately held commodity stocks.

Total supply: Generally, for any marketing year, the carryover of the commodity for the marketing year, plus the estimated production of the commodity in the U.S. during the calendar year in which the marketing year begins, and the estimated imports of the commodity into the U.S. during the marketing year.

Total value of producer milk: The combination of the Class I value (skim milk and butterfat price) plus the Class II value (nonfat milk solids and butterfat price), the Class III value (Class III butterfat price, protein, and nonfat milk solids), and the Class IV value (Class IV butterfat price and nonfat milk solids), and plus or minus a somatic cell count adjustment for Class II, Class III, and Class IV.

Touch-base provision: Under federal milk marketing orders, the number of days in each month that a dairy producer’s milk production needs to be delivered to a pool plant in order for the rest of the milk of that dairy producer to be eligible for diversion to non-pool plants.

Toxic air pollutants; toxics: Under Clean Air Act, pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects, or adverse environmental effects, including benzene, which is found in gasoline; perchlorethlyene, which is emitted from some dry cleaning facilities; and methylene chloride, which is used as a solvent and paint stripper by a number of industries. Other examples include dioxin, asbestos, toluene, and metals such as cadmium, mercury, chromium, and lead compounds.

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (P.L. 94-469) (US Code Title 15, Chapter 53, §§ 2601 et seq.): Signed into law October 11, 1976. This act gives the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate the manufacture, use, distribution in commerce, and disposal of chemical substances. Under earlier legislation, the EPA had authority to control toxic substances only after damage occurred. The TSCA authorizes the EPA to screen new chemicals, as well as existing chemicals, used in manufacturing and commerce before they enter the marketplace, to identify potentially dangerous products or uses that should be subject to federal control. As enacted, the TSCA also includes a provision requiring the EPA to take specific measures to control the risks from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The Act was later amended to include asbestos in 1986 (Title II, P.L. 99-519) and 1990 (P.L. 101-637); radon in 1988 (Title III, P.L. 100-551) and 1990 (P.L. 101-508, § 10202); and lead in 1992 (Title IV, P.L. 102-550).

Toxicologist: One who studies the affects, nature, and detection of toxic substances to plants and animals; commonly called weed scientists when studying plants.

Toxin(s): Substances produced by organisms that are poisonous to plants and animals.

Toxoid(s); Vaccine materials comprised of weakened or “killed” bacteria.

TPRB: Trade Policy Review Body

TPRM; Trade Policy Review Mechanism

TRAC: Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee

Trace element(s): (1) A chemical substance (such as manganese, zinc, iron, molybdenum, cobalt, and copper) used in minute amounts by organisms and held essential to their physiology. (2) An element found in only minor amounts (concentrations less than 1.0 milligram per liter) in water or sediment, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc.

Traceability: (1) Procedures, such as adequate record keeping, that allow feed, food, and their raw ingredients to be rapidly withdrawn from the market when a risk to consumer health is posed. (2) Conveying information about a product, such as what it contains, how it was produced, and every place it has been.

Traceback: A food safety technique and component of HACCP that allows for the tracking of animals and animal products through better identification, record-keeping, and screening.

Tracheal mite: A parasite bee mite that causes airway obstruction in bees, weakening the bees and shortening their lifespan. The mite does not contaminate the honey.

Tracing: The process of locating animals, persons, things, or premises that may be implicated in the spread of disease, so that appropriate action may be taken. See National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Track A: Under the Pigford v. Veneman consent decree in the class action suit by African-American producers, the easier, more streamlined track for class members who did not have as much, or any, direct proof of discrimination. A total of 21,597 claims were found eligible with approximately 60 percent of these claims upheld. Class members who chose Track A filed a written claim describing the discrimination, including (a) he or she owned, leased, or attempted to own or lease farmland; (b) he or she applied for a farm loan or loan servicing during the 1981 through 1996 period; (c) his or her loan or loan servicing application was not approved as requested, and such treatment was less favorable than the treatment that specifically identified, similarly situated, white farmers received; and (d) the USDA’s treatment of the application led to economic damage to the claimant. The USDA had an opportunity to respond and then the Adjudicator made a final written decision on the claim. Those who met the class definition and who provided written “substantial evidence” of credit discrimination received a blanket payment of $50,000, plus additional relief in the form of forgiveness of their debt on loans affected by discriminatory conduct, and some offset of tax liability. Those who met the class definition and were not claiming credit discrimination, but who provided written “substantial evidence” of non-credit discrimination to the Adjudicator, were eligible to receive payments of $3,000. See Track B.

Track B; Under the Pigford v. Veneman consent decree in the class action suit by African-American producers, the track for class members who believed that they had more proof of discrimination. Class members who chose Track B received a hearing before the Arbitrator. In the hearing, they presented documents and witnesses to prove that discrimination occurred. The USDA also had an opportunity to present documents and witnesses. The Arbitrator then made a final written decision on the claim. Only 236 claimants chose Track B; 182 were accepted for processing and 54 switched to Track A. Track B had a higher standard of proof (preponderance of the evidence) than Track A, but provided for a tailored settlement based on individual circumstances, including a cash payment equal to actual damages, and forgiveness of outstanding USDA loans affected by discriminatory conduct.

Track(ing): See Meat traceability, National Animal Identification & Tracking, Traceability, and Tracing.

Tractorcade: Best known as the protests by producers in Washington, D.C., in 1979 and 1980. Tractors and other farm equipment were used to paralyze traffic in and around the nation’s capitol as a way to force citizens to concentrate on the plight of producers and to force the government to enact emergency farm-relief measures.

Trade Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-618): This Act provided the President with tariff and nontariff trade barrier negotiating authority for the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations. It also gave the President broad authority to counteract injurious and unfair foreign trade practices. See Section 201, and Section 301.

Trade Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-210): Signed into law August 6, 2002. This omnibus trade bill granted the President the authority to negotiate international trade agreements subject to a single “up or down” vote by Congress without amendments. The Act also provided trade adjustment assistance for U.S. workers displaced by foreign trade, renewed and expanded the Andean Trade Preference Act, and renewed the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences. The President is required to consult regularly with Congress and solicit advice from advisory committees and the public as international trade agreements are being negotiated. The Act grants trade promotion authority to the President through June 1, 2005, with the possibility of a two-year extension.

Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers (TAA): A FAS program authorized by the Trade Act of 2002 to provide technical assistance and adjustment payments to U.S. agricultural, livestock, and aquacultural producers, including qualified fishermen, if it is demonstrated that increased imports of competitive commodities have contributed importantly to a 20% or more price decline compared to the average price over five preceding marketing years. Technical assistance can provide access to a wide variety of resources from theCSREES, in partnership with a county Cooperative Extension Service office, to assist producers in exploring alternative crops and marketing techniques.

Trade Agreements Act of 1979 (P.L. 96-39): Signed into law July 26, 1979. This Act provided the implementing legislation for the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade agreements in such areas as customs valuation, standards, and government procurement.

Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-573): Signed into law October 30, 1984. The law clarified the conditions under which unfair trade practices cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 can be pursued. It also provided bilateral trade agreement negotiating authority for the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Area, and defined procedures to be followed for Congressional approval of future bilateral trade agreements.

Trade barriers: Regulations used by governments to restrict imports from and exports to other countries. Examples include tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, embargoes, and import quotas.

Trade credit: The delivery mechanism for “point of sale” financing on equipment and input purchases.

Trade distorting activities: Unfair activities of state trading enterprises; unjustified restrictions or commercial requirements affecting new technologies, including biotechnology; unjustified sanitary and phytosanitary measures; other unjustified technical barriers to trade; and restrictive rules in the administration of tariff-rate quotas.

Trade liberalization: The complete or partial elimination of government policies or subsidies that adversely affect trade. The removal of trade-distorting policies may be done by one country (unilaterally) or by many (multilaterally). See Uruguay Round Agreement(s); Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA).

Trade promotion authority (TPA): Presidential authority first granted by Congress in 1934 and most recently reauthorized in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. The authority allowed the President to negotiate trade agreements with the understanding that the negotiated agreement will go before Congress for an “up or down” vote under rules that provided for no amendments, deadlines for legislative steps, limits on debate, and mandatory executive notices to and consultation with Congress. The authority expired on April 1, 1993, but was extended through April 15, 1994, solely for the purpose of permitting the completion of the Uruguay Round. Subsequent efforts to renew the authority were unsuccessful until passage of the Trade Act of 2002. Also Fast-track (negotiating authority).

Trade relief: See Section 201.

Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000: See Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001.

Traditional tillage: Tillage practiced mostly by use of manual labor using native tools that are generally few and simple. To facilitate seedbed preparation and planting, forest undergrowth or grass is cleared, and trees and shrubs are left, but pruned. The cut biomass and residues are disposed of by burning. This type of clearing is nonexhaustive, leaving both appreciable soil cover and the root system, which gives the topsoil structural stability for one or two years.

Traffic pan: See Hardpan.

Trait protection system: See Terminator seeds.

Trait ratio: An expression of an animal’s performance for a particular trait relative to the herd or contemporary group average.

Trans fatty acids; trans fat: Fats made during partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Usually, the hydrogen atoms at a double bond are positioned on the same side of the carbon chain. However, partial hydrogenation reconfigures some double bonds and the hydrogens end up on different sides of the chain. Trans fat intake raises the LDL-C (bad cholesterol) in the blood and is not an essential fatty acid. Trans fat is found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, and many other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated fats. See Fatty acid(s).

Transesterification: A chemical process mixing oils (vegetable oils or animal fats) with alcohol (methanol or wood alcohol) and a catalyst (most often sodium hydroxide or lye) to produce biodiesel, glycerin, and small amounts of soap.

Transfer of allotment: See Allotment transfer.

Transfer of development rights (TDR): A method of protecting farmland by transferring the “rights to develop” from one area and giving them to another. This allows for conservation easements limiting development rights to be established on property in agricultural areas while correspondingly allowing for an increase in development densities or “bonuses” in other areas that are being developed. The costs of purchasing the easements are recovered from the developers who receive the building bonus. See Purchase of agricultural conservation easements (PACE), and Purchase of development rights (PDR).

Transfer payment(s): Within a national economy, payments made by the government or the wealthier sectors of a population to the poorer people in the country, not in return for goods or services, but to redistribute income.

Transformation product(s): See Pesticide degradate(s).

Transgenic: New plant or animal life-forms created by transferring genes from one variety to another.

Transgenic cotton: A cotton variety genetically altered by the addition of foreign genetic material from another variety. Examples include cotton that is resistant to certain insects or herbicides. See Bt cotton, and BXN cotton.

Transgenic crops: See Bt corn, Bt cotton, BXN cotton, and Genetic engineering; genetically engineered.

Transient food insecurity: Seasonal or annual fluctuations in food insecurity due to factors that may be expected to change from period to period such as prices, weather, or economic conditions. See Chronic food insecurity.

Transition contract payments (TCP): Declining payments to encourage the gradual transition from subsidized agricultural production to a pure market system.

Transition payment(s): See Production flexibility contract(s) payment(s).

Transition(al) yield(s): (1) A ten-year historical county average yield. (2) The maximum average production per acre, or equivalent measure, that is assigned to acreage for a crop year by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation whenever the producer fails to (a) certify that acceptable documentation of production and acreage for the crop year is in the possession of the producer; or (b) present the acceptable documentation on the demand of the FCIC or an insurance company reinsured by the FCIC. Also T-yield. See Actual production history (APH).

Transitional acreage: According to the Risk Management Agency, acreage in the process of being certified organic. See Organic certification.

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE): Diseases that cause a progressive, debilitating neurological illness that is always fatal. The causative agent of TSE is not fully characterized. See Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), Chronic wasting disease (CWD), and Scrapie.

Transpiration: The evaporation of water from the leaf and stem surfaces of plants.

Transponder(s): A radio transmitter-receiver that is activated when it receives a predetermined signal. RFID transponders are sometimes referred to as tags.

Trap crops: Small plantings, made in advance of the main planting, used to divert insect pests away from the primary crop and towards a more attractive host. See Cultural method(s).

Trash measurement (cotton): Provides an estimate of the total amount of trash in the bale. The trash measurement for cotton can be made by a video trashmeter that measures the percentage area of trash on the sample surface. See Cotton classer; cotton grader, and High Volume Instrument(ation) (HVI).

Trash; trashy (cotton): Extraneous matter such as grass, bark, leaves, and stems, that affects the classification of cotton. Trash content is highly correlated to leaf grade of a cotton sample. See Extraneous matter (cotton), and Gin trash.

Traveling gun irrigation: A sprinkler irrigation system consisting of a single large nozzle that rotates and is self-propelled. The name refers to the fact that the base is on wheels and can be moved by the irrigator or affixed to a guide wire.

Tray-ready beef: Retail cuts of meat that are cut and packaged at the packing plant for retail sales.

Tree Assistance Program (TAP): A program of the Farm Service Agency that provides cost-share payments to orchard and vineyard producers who replant or rehabilitate orchard trees and vineyards lost to damaging weather including freeze, excessive rainfalls, floods, droughts, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Trees used for pulp or timber are excluded from eligibility for cost-share payments. The limit on payments is $75,000 or an equivalent value in tree seedlings. The program was reauthorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10201).

Tree farm: A parcel of land on which trees are planted, cultured, managed, and harvested as a crop.

Tree farming: Application of silvicultural practices for the perpetual production of commercial timber crops. It includes all activities from stand establishment through delivery of commercial timber (logs) to a log yard at the initial commercial product processing facility.

Tribal College and University Essential Community Facilities: The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 6008) established a grants program to cover the federal cost share, not to exceed 75 percent, for the construction of essential community facilities for tribal colleges and universities. There is authorized to be appropriated $10 million for each of the 2003 through 2007 fiscal years.

Tribal college(s) and university(ies): Also known as 1994 land grant colleges, an educational institution that (a) is formally controlled, or has been formally sanctioned or chartered, by the governing body of an Indian tribe or tribes, except that no more than one such institution is recognized with respect to any such tribe; and (b) includes an institution listed in the Equity in Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994, as amended by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 7201). Currently, there are 31 recognized 1994 land grant colleges.

Tribal Colleges Education Equity Grants Program: Authorized by the Equity in Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994, the Act provides funds to the thirty-one 1994 land grant colleges to support undergraduate and graduate studies teaching programs in food and agricultural sciences. See 1994 Land grant colleges (institutions), and Native Americans Institutions Endowment Fund.

Tribal Colleges Education Equity Grants Program (7 U.S.C. § 301 note): Authorized by the Equity in Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994, the Act provides funds to the thirty-three 1994 land grant colleges to promote and strengthen undergraduate and/or graduate studies teaching programs in food and agricultural sciences. See Native Americans Institutions Endowment Fund and Tribal college(s) and university(ies).

Tribal Colleges Endowment Fund (7 U.S.C. § 301 note): Under Title V, Part C, Sec. 533(c) of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, P.L. 103-382, this fund distributes the interest earned by an endowment established for the thirty-three 1994 land grant institutions. The Endowment Fund enhances education in agricultural sciences and related disciplines for Native Americans by building educational capacity at these institutions in the areas of curricula design and materials development, faculty development and preparation for teaching, instruction delivery systems, experiential learning, equipment and instrumentation for teaching, and student recruitment and retention. It also funds facility renovation, repair, construction, and maintenance in support of these efforts. At the end of each fiscal year, the earned interest income from the endowment fund is distributed according to a statutory formula (40% in equal shares to all 1994 institutions and 60% on a pro rata basis according to the Indian student count).

Tribal Colleges Extension Services Program: Authorized under Sec. 534(b) of the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. § 301 note), as amended by the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. § 7601). A program to provide funding to 1994 institutions to conduct nonformal education and outreach activities to help meet the needs of the Native American people and to provide essential services to their communities. See Extension activities.

Tribal Colleges Research Grants Program (TCR): Authorized under the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. § 301 note), as amended by the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. § 7601 note). A competitive grants program to assist tribal colleges in conducting agricultural research that addresses high priority concerns of tribal, national, or multi-state significance. The program objectives are to attract more students from under-represented groups into the food and agricultural sciences, expand the linkages among the 1994 institutions with 1862 and 1890 institutions, and strengthen the research capacity of the 1994 institutions to more firmly establish them as full partners in the food and agricultural science and education system.

Trichina(e): A microscopic parasite, prevalent in hogs, that is controllable through proper curing, freezing, or heating.

Trickle irrigation: A planned irrigation system in which all necessary facilities are installed for efficiently applying water directly to the root zone of plants by means of applicators operated under low pressure and placed on or below the surface of the ground.

Trigeminal ganglia: The cluster of neurons that supply motor and sensory function to the face. See Specified risk material(s)(SRM).

Trigger price: The point at which the market price reached or exceeded the release price of grain in the Farmer-Owned Reserve for the specified length of time, so producers could sell their reserve grain without penalty. The Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 allowed producers to repay an FOR loan at any time. The FOR was suspended in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

Trigger price levels: See Farmer-Owned Reserve program.

Trigger revenue: The county average price level chosen below which revenue insurance pays a producer.

Trigger yield: Under yield-based insurance coverage, the result of multiplying the expected county yield by the coverage level percentage chosen. When the payment yield falls below the trigger yield, an indemnity is due.

Triglycerides: The most common form of lipids in foods.

Triple base: Under former programs, the three tiers of use for base acres: (a) payment acres on which deficiency payments were paid, (b) acreage reduction program acres, and (c) flex acres, both normal and optional. See Flexibility, Normal flex acres (acreage); normal flexible acres (acreage) (NFA), Optional flex acres (acreage); optional flexible acres (acreage) (OFA), and Triple-base plan.

Triple-base plan: Mandated by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 to reduce government farm program costs by making deficiency payments only on part of the permitted acreage that a producer could plant under that program, while foregoing deficiency payments on acres “flexed” into the normal flex acres and optional flex acres. Under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, a 15 percent normal flex acreage was mandated; that is, 15 percent of the producer’s base acres must be “flexed.” Optionally, a producer could flex an additional 10 percent of his base acres without losing any base in subsequent years. The triple base included the permitted acreage, acreage reduction program acres, and normal flex acres. Triple-base provisions were eliminated with the passage of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. See Flexibility, Normal flex acres (acreage); normal flexible acres (acreage) (NFA), Optional flex acres (acreage); optional flexible acres (acreage) (OFA), and Triple-base plan.

Triple-purpose cattle breeds: Breeds bred for beef, milking, and draft purposes, including the Herens, Ratien Gray, and Wagyu. See Cattle breeds, and Dual-purpose cattle breeds.

Triploid: An organism with three basic sets of chromosomes.

Tripper: A structure that removes grain from a conveyor belt. See Belt(s), Leg, Marine leg, and Sampler.

Triticale: A high-protein hybrid cross of rye and wheat.

Truck crops: Crops that are not processed before selling, and are directly used or sold fresh such as lettuce, celery, and flowers.

Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement: Cooperative research between the USDA and another party whereby the USDA is paid in advance to conduct research. This agreement lacks the provision for exclusive licensing of USDA inventions. Information developed by the USDA can be withheld only to protect intellectual property rights until patent application.

TSCA: Toxic Substances Control Act

TSE: Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy

TSI: Timber stand improvement

TSNA: Tobacco-specific nitrosamines

TSP: Technical service provider

TTPP: Tobacco Transition Payments Program

Tunnel ventilated (poultry houses):Poultry houses designed to maintain temperatures (thus maximizing bird production) through the use of wind chill, or when temperatures exceed 90 degrees, evaporative cooling systems.

Turbidity: A measure of the amount of material suspended in water, including clay, silt, and organic and inorganic chemicals, as well as small aquatic organisms. Turbidity affects the amount of light that is able to pass through the water column.

Turf; turfgrass: A species or cultivar of grass used for landscaping and recreational use, including bermuda, centipede, zoysia, Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, St. Augustine, fine fescue, and tall fescue. Turfgrass is typically maintained at a desired height through regular mowing.

Turnover: The matching of buyers and sellers.

Turnrow: The land, at the margin of a field, on which farm equipment may be turned.

Two-price plan: (1) Price discrimination between the domestic and export markets that occurs when commodities for export are sold at a different price than in the domestic market. Governments or firms may adopt a two-price plan in order to expand markets, dispose of surpluses, or increase returns. (2) A plan that involves supporting that part of production used in the domestic market at one price, and selling the remainder for export at whatever it will bring. As with any price discrimination scheme, this is an advantage to domestic producers as long as domestic demand is less elastic than foreign demand, and as long as foreign buyers are prevented from reselling the commodity in the domestic market.

Two-tier plan; two-tiered pricing: See Two-price plan.

Type of contract: Under the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999, the classification of contracts or risk management agreements for the purchase of livestock by (a) the mechanism used to determine the base price for livestock committed to a packer, grouped into practicable classifications by the USDA; and (b) the presence or absence of an accrual account or ledger that must be repaid by the producer or packer that receives the benefit of the contract pricing mechanism in relation to negotiated prices.

Typhoid fever: Water- and food-borne illness caused by bacteria and transmitted in food or drink prepared by carriers of typhoid or with contaminated water. It can cause high fever and severe pain. See Food-borne illness(es).

TZ: Tetrazolium test