F:

F&CS: Food and Consumer Service

F.A.S.: Free Along Side

F.O.B.: Free On Board

F.O.B.: See Free on Board (F.O.B.).

F.S.T.: F.O.B., Stowed, and Trimmed

F.S.T. (F.O.B., Stowed, Trimmed): The seller places grain at the end of the loading spout, and provides and pays for stevedoring costs to stow and trim the cargo in the ship’s holds. The buyer provides the ocean vessel.

Fabrication: The process of cutting the carcass into wholesale cuts or retail cuts.

FAC: Food Aid Convention

FAC: Farm Credit System Financial Assistance Corporation

FAC: Food Aid Convention

Face: (1) The side of a hill or mountain being logged. (2) One side of a tree, log, or cant (log squared on two or more sides). (3) Standing timber adjacent to a clear-cut area. (4) Section of wood sawn and removed from the base of a tree.

Facilitator(s): (1) See Arbitration. (2) The company that receives the Pigford v. Veneman claims filed by class members and assigns claims to the Adjudicator or Arbitrator for a final decision. The Facilitator also makes the initial decisions on Track A claims to the Adjudicator.

Facilities guarantees: A subsection of the GSM-102 and administered by the Commodity Credit Corporation, this program will provide credit guarantees to support the construction of foreign infrastructure that will facilitate the importation of U.S. agricultural exports toemerging markets. See Emerging Markets (Democracies) program, and Export Credit Guarantee Programs Export Credit Programs (GSM-102 and GSM-103).

Facility Guarantee Program (FGP): A subsection of the GSM-102 and administered by the CCC, this program will provide credit guarantees to support the construction of foreign infrastructure that will facilitate the importation of U.S. agricultural exports to emerging markets. SeeEmerging Markets (Democracies) Program and Export Credit Guarantee Programs (GSM-102 and GSM-103).

FACTA: Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990

Factor of production: A resource that can be used in the production of economically useful commodities. Examples include labor, farm equipment, and land.

Factory farm: Very large, corporate farm.

Facultative bacteria: Bacteria that can grow in both the presence and absence of oxygen.

Facultative wetland plants: Plants that can tolerate either wet or somewhat drier conditions. See Obligate wetland plants.

FAD: Foreign animal diseases

FAEIS: Food and Agricultural Education Information System

Failed acres(s); acreage: Farm program term used to describe planted acres of a crop declared unfit for continued management due to poor stand, weeds, or disease. To be eligible for a Farm Service Agency failed-acreage determination, the total appraised and assigned production for the acreage must be less than 50 percent of the actual production history.

FAIR: Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996

FAIR: (National) Farm Animal Identification and Records

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) (29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq.): As amended, the Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector, and in federal, state, and local governments. In farm work involving child labor, permissible jobs and hours of work, by age, are as follows: (a) youths 16 years and older may perform any job, whether hazardous or not, for unlimited hours; (b) youths 14 and 15 years old may perform any nonhazardous farm job outside of school hours; (c) youths 12 and 13 years old may work outside of school hours in nonhazardous jobs, either with a parent’s written consent or on the same farm as the parent(s); (d) youths under 12 years old may perform jobs onfarms owned or operated by parent(s), or with a parent’s written consent, outside of school hours in nonhazardous jobs on farms not covered by minimum wage requirements. Minors of any age may be employed by their parents at any time in any occupation on a farm owned or operated by their parents. The Act contains many exemptions for agricultural laborers from the overtime pay, minimum wage, and training wage provision.

Fair market value: The cash or cash-equivalent value of something sold in an arms-length transaction by a willing seller to a willing buyer. Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (P.L. 89-755) (15 U.S.C. §§ 1451 et seq.): Signed into law November 3, 1966. The Act required all consumer products to have labels that are true and informative. The Food and Drug Administration enforces these provisions on foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.

Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (P.L. 89-755) (15 U.S.C. §§ 1451 et seq.): Signed into law November 3, 1966. the Act required all consumer products to have labels that are true and informative. The Food and Drug Administration enforces these provisions on food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.

FALCON: First Americans Land-grant College Organization and Network

Fallow: Cropland left idle during the growing season. It is usually tilled to control weeds and conserve moisture in the soil. See Summer fallow.

False packed cotton: Cotton in a bale containing substances entirely foreign to cotton; containing damaged cotton in the interior with or without any indiction of the damage on the exterior; composed of good cotton on the exterior and decidedly inferior cotton in the interior, but not detectable by customary examination; or containing linters worked into the bale.

FAMC: Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp (Farmer Mac)

Family farm corporation: A corporation in which (a) not less than 50 percent of the stock is owned by an individual; or an individual in combination with the spouse of such individual; or the parent, aunt, uncle, child, grandchild, or cousin of such individual or spouse of these; and (b) one or more of the individuals specified participates in the direct management of the day-to-day operations of the corporation.

Family farm(s): (1) A farm for which a family provides most of the labor and management decisions. The land may be owned, partly owned, or rented. Most family farms would have annual sales between $40,000 and $300,000. (2) An agricultural business that (a) produces agricultural commodities for sale in such quantities so as to be recognized as a farm rather than a rural residence; (b) produces enough income (including off-farm employment) to pay family and farm operating expenses, to pay debts, and to maintain the property; (c) is managed by the operator; (d) has a substantial amount of labor provided by the operator and family; and (e) may use seasonal labor during peak periods and a reasonable amount of full-time hired labor. (3) According to the Economic Research Service, farms organized as proprietorships, partnerships, and family corporations. Family farms exclude farms organized as nonfamily corporations or cooperatives, as well as farms with hired managers. Family farms are closely held (legally controlled) by their operator and the operator’s household. (4) Farms using less than 1.5 person-years of hired labor and with no hired manager. (5) Farms with less than 1.5 to 2.0 family workers and the same or fewer number of hired workers; self-managed. (6) Farms where agricultural production is either the primary occupation of the operator (or is an important contributor to family income); that provide at least one-half-time employment for an operator, family member, or a hired laborer; and that are operated by no more than three extended families.

Family Farmer Bankruptcy Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-554) (28 U.S.C. §§ 581 et seq.): Signed into law October 27, 1986. An Act that created Chapter 12 of Title 11 of the U.S. Code which is designed specifically to assist operators of family farms with regular income to reorganize their debts so that they can stay in farming. Chapter 12 enables debtors to devote their disposable income to a repayment plan over a three-year period, unless the court approves a longer period that cannot exceed five years. Chapter 12 was designed to eliminate barriers previously experienced by producers who sought to reorganize under Chapter 11 (designed for large corporations) or Chapter 13 (designed for wage earners who typically have smaller debts than producers). The provisions of this Act have been extended numerous times. Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10814), provisions of this Act were extended until January 1, 2003. At the end of the 107th Congress, Congress passed legislation to extend the provisions of this Act from January 1, 2003, until July 1, 2003.

Family member: Under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers program, an individual to whom a person is related as spouse, lineal ancestor, lineal descendent, or sibling, including (a) great grandparent, (b) grandparent, (c) parent, (d) child, including legally adopted children, (e) great grandchildren, (f) sibling of the family member in the farming operation, and (g) spouse of a person listed in (a) through (f).

Famine Early Warning System (FEWS): Advance forecasting of food insecurity and famine using satellite imagery and ground-level crop, demographic, and market observations.

Famine foods: Plants not normally considered as crops that are consumed in times of famine.

Fannie Mae: Federal National Mortgage Association. See Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac).

FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(UN)

FAPD: Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases

FAPRI: Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute

Farm acreage base: See Crop acreage base (CAB).

Farm Aid: Concerts organized by singer Willie Nelson, the proceeds from which were targeted to benefit indebted producers.

Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services: The USDA mission area that includes the Farm Service Agency, the Risk Management Agency, the Commodity Credit Corporation, and the Foreign Agricultural Service.

Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP): See Farmland Protection Program (FPP).

Farm and Ranch Risk Management accounts (FARRM): A risk management proposal to allow farmers and ranchers to place up to 20 percent of their annual farm or ranch income into tax-deferred FARRM accounts. By depositing income into FARRM accounts during years of high net income,producers could build a fund to draw on during years with low income. Producers who are able to build new savings through these accounts could be better able to smooth their household consumption over time and self-insure some of their income risk. FARRM deposits could stay in an account for up to five years, with new amounts added on a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis. FARRM deposits not withdrawn in 5 years would incur a 10 percent penalty. See Farmer savings account(s).

Farm Animal Identification and Records (FAIR): See National Farm Animal Identification and Records (FAIR).

Farm assets: Farmland, machinery, equipment, facilities, crop and forage inventories, livestock and poultry inventories, and purchased inputs.

Farm bank(s): See Agricultural bank(s).

Farm bargaining association(s): See Bargaining association(s).

Farm bill: The popular, generic term given to current federal omnibus agricultural legislation, usually enacted every four to seven years. The bill usually includes provisions on commodity programs, trade, conservation, credit, agricultural research, food stamps, and marketing. See Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR), and Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

Farm Bureau: See American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

Farm consumption: Consumption by the producer’s family, employees, or household, or by his work stock; or consumption by poultry or livestock on his farm, if such poultry or livestock or the products thereof are consumed or to be consumed by the producer’sfamily, employees, or household.

Farm Costs and Returns Survey: A nationwide survey that includes, for a given year, data on costs of production, capital expenditures, debts and assets, earnings, production practices, and other farm business and operator characteristics. These data are used to update cost-of-production estimates. They are also used to measure annual farm income and to assess changes in the financial conditions of farms. The survey is managed by USDA’s Economic Research Service and conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service and its 45 state offices. The survey covers every state except Hawaii and Alaska. Also, data from the survey may be used in making food and agricultural policy.

Farm counter-cyclical savings accounts: A proposed pilot program in which eligible producers could establish savings accounts in the name of the producer in a bank or financial institution selected by the producer and approved by the USDA. The account would consist of contributions by the producer, matching contributions by the USDA, and interest earned on account balances. An eligible producer could deposit as much in the account as the producer considered appropriate. The USDA would provide a matching contribution to the amount deposited by the producer into the account not to exceed 2 percent of the producer’s average adjusted gross farm revenue or $5,000, whichever is lower, for any applicable fiscal year. To be eligible, a producer would have to share in the risk of producing an agricultural commodity for the applicable year, have filed a farm business-related federal income tax return during each of the previous 5 years or be a recognized beginning farmer or rancher, and have at least $50,000 in average adjusted gross farm revenue (except for limited-resource farmers as determined by the USDA). This proposal was considered, but rejected, by the conferees on the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

Farm Credit Act of 1933: Signed into law June 16, 1933. The Act authorized farmers to organize Production Credit Associations to deliver short- and intermediate-term loans to farmers and ranchers, and to rural residents for housing.

Farm Credit Act of 1971 (P.L. 92-181): Signed into law December 10, 1971. The authorizing statute (as later amended) for the Farm Credit System, the Act recodified and replaced the prior laws under which the Farm Credit Administration and the institutions of the Farm Credit Systemwere organized and operated.

Farm Credit Administration (FCA): The government agency responsible for examination, supervision, and regulation of the Farm Credit System. Under the Farm Credit Amendments Act of 1985, the FCA’s role as an arms-length regulatory board was clarified. The FCA was granted the same intermediate enforcement powers possessed by other federal financial regulatory agencies. The Act created a new full-time, three-member board on which no more than two members may be members of the same political party.

Farm Credit Amendments Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-205): Signed into law December 23, 1985. The law implemented interest rate subsidies for farm loans, and restructured the Farm Credit Administration. See Farm Credit Administration (FCA).

Farm Credit association(s) (institutions): See Agricultural Credit Association(s) (ACA), Federal Land Bank Association(s) (FLBA), Federal Land Credit Association(s) (FLCA), and Production Credit Associations (PCA).

Farm Credit Bank(s) (FCB): A bank resulting from the mandatory merger of the Federal Land Bank and the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank in each Farm Credit System district, pursuant to Sec. 410 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987.

Farm Credit Council (FCC): The Farm Credit System’s trade association that represents the System’s interests before Congress and the federal government. The FCC also offers the System institutions business services. Farm Credit Leasing Services Corporation: Part of the Farm Credit System that provides equipment leasing services to eligible borrowers including agricultural producers, cooperatives, and rural utilities.

Farm Credit System (FCS): Made up of cooperative financial institutions in districts covering the U.S. and Puerto Rico that finance farm and farm-related mortgages and operating loans, some agribusinesses, and agricultural cooperatives. Institutions within each district specialize in farmland loans and operating credit, or lending to producer-owned supply, marketing, and processing cooperatives. FCS institutions rely on the bond market as a source of funds. The System is composed of six Farm Credit Banks that make direct, long-term real estate loans through six Federal Land Bank Associations and provide loan funds to Production Credit Associations, Agricultural Credit Associations, Federal Land Credit Associations, and one Agricultural Credit Bank that has the authority of a FCB.

Farm Credit System Financial Assistance Corporation (FAC): Created by the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 and chartered in 1988 to provide needed capital to the Farm Credit System through the purchase of preferred stock issued by System institutions that received financial assistance authorized by theFarm Credit System Assistance Board. Approximately $1.26 billion in funds were provided by the Financial Assistance Corporation; its authority to raise additional funds expired on December 31, 1992. This entity is managed by the same board of directors as the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation, and will continue to operate until all funds used to provide the assistance are repaid.

Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation (FCSIC): Established in 1988 primarily to insure timely payment of principal and interest on Farm Credit System debt securities.

Farm Credit System Regulatory Relief Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-105): The Act eliminated several regulatory requirements viewed by officials of the Farm Credit System as outdated. It also gave new authorities to the financially pressed Farmer Mac, but required that this institution bolster its capital base within two years or face liquidation.

Farm debt(s): Outstanding farm obligations for repayment of purchases, rental, or hiring of inputs (including farmland and farm labor), machinery, equipment, and facilities.

Farm Disaster Assistance Act of 1987 (P.L. 100-45): Signed into law May 26, 1987. The Act provided assistance to producers who experienced crop losses from natural disasters in 1986.

Farm equity: Equity equals farm assets minus farm debts, assuming assets exceed debts.

Farm gate price: Commodity market price received by producers at the first point of sale less costs for shipping/transportation.

Farm groups: See Farm organization(s).

Farm income: See Gross farm income (revenue), and Net farm income.

Farm input(s): See Input(s).

Farm labor contracting activity: The recruiting, soliciting, hiring, employing, furnishing, or transporting of any migrant agricultural worker or seasonal agricultural worker.

Farm labor contractor(s): Any person – other than an agriculture employer, an agricultural association, or an employee of an agriculture employer or agriculture association – who, for any money or other valuable consideration paid or promised to be paid, recruits, solicits, hires, employs, furnishes, or transports any year-round or migrant farmworker.

Farm labor housing loans and grants: Commonly known as Sections 514 and 516, Rural Housing Service grants are available for housing for migrant, seasonal, and year-round farm laborers. With grants of up to 90 percent of development costs, the USDA assists nonprofit and public groups to develop affordable migrant housing complexes, including essential support facilities such as day cares, laundries, and small medical clinics. In the off-season, migrant facilities can be made available for the homeless. Year-round housing can also be provided through local sponsors for affordable family units. Loan terms are one percent interest for up to 33 years. The farm labor housing program is the only exception to the RHS rural service area. Funds may be used inurban areas for nearby farm labor.

Farm labor(ers): Includes services in connection with cultivating the soil, raising, or harvesting any agricultural or aquacultural commodity.

Farm Link: A program that matches retiring producers who want to keep their land in agriculture with beginning producers who want to buy a farm. Farm Link programs are designed to facilitate farm transfers, usually between producers who are not related to each other. Also Land Link.

Farm marketing quota: See Marketing quota(s).

Farm number: Number assigned to each separate farming operation by the Farm Service Agency for program administration purposes. If a producer owns or operates more than one farm, each farm must have a different ownership structure in order to secure separate farm numbers.

Farm operating loan(s): See Operating loan(s) (OL).

Farm operator(s): A person who operates a farm, either by doing or supervising the work and by making day-to-day operating decisions about planting, harvesting, feeding, and marketing. An operator may be the owner, a member of the owner’s household, a hired manager, a tenant, a renter, or a sharecropper. However, under some government programs, a tenant is not considered a farm operator.

Farm organization(s): (1) An association of farmers, ranchers, other producers, or a collection of farmer associations formed to advance the interests of producers, agribusiness, and rural citizens. Such organizations may be local, regional, or national. (2) The business organization of a farm, most generally as either a family-owned, cooperative, or corporate farm. Family farms include individual operations, partnerships, and family corporations.

Farm ownership loan(s) (FO): Loans to farmers and ranchers by the Farm Service Agency for acquiring, enlarging, or improving farms, including farm buildings, land development, use and conservation, refinancing indebtedness, and loans for closing costs. Loans are made for 40 years or less. A direct loan may not exceed $200,000 at an interest rate established by the USDA not to exceed the cost of money to the government plus one percent. A guaranteed loan shall not exceed $700,000. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Title V, Subtitle A) modified certain eligibility guidelines and expanded the scope of the program. See Beginning; beginning farmer(s) and (or) rancher(s) (qualified).

Farm Poundage Quota Revisions Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-577): Signed into law November 15, 1990. This Act permitted the sale of burley tobacco quotas within counties, and established regulations affecting the purchase and sale of quotas. The leasing of quota and its transfer across county lines wasauthorized in Tennessee if approved by producers in a referendum.

Farm poundage quota(s) (peanuts): Initiated in the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, the individual farm share of the national poundage quota, which limited the amount of domestically consumed, edible peanuts that could be grown for the higher loan rate under the two-tiered loan system. The national poundage quota was distributed among the eligible states based on each state’s previous year’s share. It was then distributed by farm to quota holders based on past production history. In order to match the poundage quota with expected demand, import restrictions on peanuts were imposed. Under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 155), farm poundage quotas could be sold or leased within the same state, with some restrictions.Farm poundage quotas were mandatory for peanuts following a December 1997 referendum in which 94.8 percent of producers of quota peanuts voted in favor of farm poundage quotas. Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1309), peanut quotas are eliminated and eligible peanut quota holders will be offered compensation contracts as compensation for the lost value of their quota. See Additionals; additional peanuts, Compensation for loss of quota asset value (peanuts), and Peanut (price-support) program.

Farm product(s): An agricultural commodity, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, or a species of livestock, such as cattle, hogs, sheep, horses, or poultry, used or produced in farming operations; a product of such crop or livestock in its unmanufactured state (such as ginned cotton, wool-clip, maple syrup, milk, and eggs), that is in the possession of a person engaged in farming operations.

Farm program acreage: The acreage of a crop on the farm that was used to calculate deficiency payments.

Farm Program Payment Reserve (FPPR): A farmer savings account proposal that was less well developed then FARRM or IRMA proposals. A portion of direct payments would be diverted into a savings account to build safety net reserves for individual producers. Payments could accumulate until some level such as 150 percent of a five year average net farm income was achieved. After full funding was achieved, all direct payments would go to the producer. Withdrawals would be triggered when net farm income dropped below the five year average. As proposed, withdrawals could not cause net farm income to exceed the five year average.

Farm Program Payment Reserve (FPPR): A farmer savings account proposal that was less well developed than proposals for Farm and Ranch Risk Management Accounts or Individual Risk Management Accounts. A portion of direct payments would be diverted into a savings account to build safety net reserves for individual producers. Payments could accumulate until some level such as 150 percent of a five-year-average net farm income was achieved. After full funding was achieved, all direct payments would go to theproducer. Withdrawals would be triggered when net farm income dropped below the five-year average. As proposed, withdrawals could not cause net farm income to exceed the five-year average.

Farm program payment yield(s): Under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, farm program payment yields were set at the same levels as for 1990. The law also allowed the USDA to set farm program payment yields at the average of the preceding five years’ harvested yield (after dropping the high and low years). The farm program payment yield applied to eligible acreage did determine the level of production eligible for direct payments to producers. The yield for a crop on a given farm was used to calculate deficiency payments. Farm program payment yields were based on the history of past yields (although it may not have mirrored the true yield history), and records of crop sales provided to the local Farm Service Agency office by the individual producer. For some producers, an average area yield history may have been assigned. For purposes of calculating production flexibility contract payments under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996(Sec. 102), the farm program payment yield was the yield established for the 1995 crop of a contract commodity. Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, the payment yield for each of the 2002 through 2007 crops of acovered commodity shall also be the farm program payment yield established for the 1995 crop of the covered commodity. For oilseeds, which were added to the program, the USDA determined the average yield per planted acre for the 1998 through the 2001 crop years and adjusted this by multiplying this number by a ratio of the national average yield for oilseeds for the 1981 through 1985 crop years divided by the national average yield for oilseeds for the 1998 through 2001 crop years. For peanuts, the payment yield shall be the average of all yields assigned by the USDA to historic peanut producers. Also Program yield(s) and Payment yield(s). See Actual yield(s), Assigned yield(s), Deficiency payment(s), and Partial county yield average.

Farm program(s): See Program(s).

Farm revenue insurance (assurance): Generally, a previously proposed farm policy option that would substitute deficiency payments for revenue from the market with a minimum government guarantee. Policy options included decoupled transitions payments – a policy whereby participants would be eligible for income support payments whenever their gross revenue per acre falls below some insured level of return, regardless of whether the shortfall was caused by low prices or low yields. See Revenue insurance.

Farm Safety Net Initiative: A proposed Presidential initiative in FY2001 that included proposals for new legislation to provide supplementary counter-cyclical income assistance payments targeted to producers actually facing reduced prices and revenues, and to reform thecrop insurance program to provide better protection from production losses. Other parts of the proposal included a new Conservation Security Program, expansion of the Conservation Reserve Program and Wetlands Reserve Program, and other conservation programs.

Farm safety program: Smith-Lever 3(d) program that provides farm and ranch residents in all states with information to assist in reducing and preventing agriculturally related work accidents. See Smith-Lever 3(d) (funds).

Farm sector balance sheets: Used by the USDA to assess wealth in the farm sector. These include assets, debt, and equity, where equity equals assets minus debt. Assets are valued at market prices on December 31 of each year, or as close to December 31 as possible. Nominal and real capital gains on farm assets and farm debt are estimated.

Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-171): Signed into law May 13, 2002. Commonly known as the 2002 Farm Bill. The bill, with most of its provisions taking effect in 2002, reauthorized programs for six years and includes loan rates, target prices, and direct payments for covered commodities. The bill provided for the updating of base acres and payment yields; created a National Dairy Program; provided marketing loans and loan deficiency payments to wool, mohair, honey, and pulse crops; reformed the peanut program; provided assistance to apple producers; and lowered the payment limit on direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, loan deficiency payments, and marketing loan gains. The bill also significantly increased authorized spending for conservation programs, created the new Conservation Security Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program, and added a new Energy Title for the support of bioenergy production.

Farm serial number (FSN): An identification number assigned to a farm by the Farm Service Agency county committee. This number is unique to a farm and producer.

Farm Service Agency (FSA): The USDA agency responsible for administering farm price and income supports, disaster and selected crop-loss protection programs, as well as conservation, forestry cost-sharing, and farm credit programs. In particular, the FSA is responsible for commodity loans and loan deficiency payments, Agricultural Market Transition Act payments, the Dairy Refund Payment Program, the Dairy Indemnity Payment Program, the sugar program, tobacco and peanuts price-supportand production control programs, Conservation Reserve Program, environmental incentive programs, farm loan programs, commodity warehouse activities, commodity procurement operations, the noninsured crop disaster assistance program, and administrative services.

Farm size: (1) The value of gross farm sales. (2) Total acreage of a farm operation.

Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL; FSFLP): A Farm Service Agency loan program, under authority of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (Sec. 504(c)), providing low-cost loans for up to seven years to eligible producers to help build or upgrade commodity storage and handling facilities for on-farm storage of wheat, rice, soybeans, sunflower seed, canola, rapeseed, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe, other oilseeds to be announced, corn, grain sorghum, oats, and barley. The interest rate charged will be the same as the rate charged on comparable Treasury securities in effect during the month the loan is approved. The rate will remain in effect for the term of the loan. The decline of available commercial storage and rising production led to the renewal of thisprogram last utilized in 1983.

Farm structure: See Structure of agriculture.

Farm Viability Program: Under the Farmland Protection Program, authorized grants for use in carrying out farm viability programs to help producers create business plans and assess conservation easements and other options to best manage their farms for future generations.

Farm weight: The raw or unprocessed weight of a product in fresh form prior to any processing. Also Field run, Fresh weight, and Orchard run.

Farm(s): Since 1975, the Bureau of the Census, in agreement with the USDA and the Office of Management and Budget, has defined a farm as any place that has (or normally would have) $l,000 or more in gross sales of farm products (e.g., crops,livestock, fish, and trees) per year. Also included are operations having five or more horses or ponies and no other agricultural sales, and operations wholly enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program.

Farm-A-Syst: This new program, which helps prevent water pollution in rural America, offers voluntary assessment of pollution risks at a particular farmstead or rural residence. It helps residents learn more about water pollution risks and develop action plans to reduce risks. Now located in almost every state, the program allows local water-quality staff to adapt the prototype materials to local standards and regulations. It also paves the way for better coordination between state and local agencies affiliated with groundwater protection, and helps forge new links with nonprofit organizations and private businesses. Most importantly, it helps bring groundwater protection right at home.

Farm-raised fish: Under the country-of-origin labeling provisions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10816), farm-raised shellfish, and fillets, steaks, nuggets, and any other flesh from a farm-raised fish or shellfish.

Farm-raised fish: Under the country-of-origin labeling provisions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10816), farm-raised shellfish, and fillets, steaks, nuggets, and any other flesh from a farm-raised fish or shellfish.

Farm-related income: Income from custom work, machine hire, recreational activities, forest product sales, and other farm sources. See Other farm-related income.

Farm-to-fork: See Stable-to-table.

Farm-to-plant adjustment factor: For every pound of butterfat, there is a 0.0025 pound farm-to-plant loss (1.000 minus 0.0025 = 0.9975). In addition, for every pound of butterfat, there is an additional 0.0150 farm-to-plant loss on butterfat solids (0.9975 minus 0.0150 = 0.9825 pound of butterfat). The result of 0.9825 is divided by 0.82 (1.2213 pounds of butter can be made from one pound of butterfat) giving a factor of 1.20. See Class IV butterfat price, and Farm-to-plant loss adjustment.

Farm-to-plant loss adjustment: For the Class III price and Class IV price, the farm-to-plant loss adjustment is 0.25 percent loss of nonfat solids, including protein and other solids, and a 0.25 percent loss of butterfat plus a 0.015 pound loss of butterfat. See Farm-to-plant adjustment factor.

Farm-to-plant loss(es): Losses in milk solid components (butterfat and nonfat solids) that occur between moving milk from the farm or diverting plants and the receiving manufacturing plant that are beyond the control of processors.

Farmable Wetland Pilot Project (FWP): First authorized in the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 (Title XI), as a six-state (Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota) pilot project under the Conservation Reserve Program limited to 150,000 acres. Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 2101), wetland acres are to be enrolled through a continuous sign-up and payments are to be commensurate with those provided to landowners who enroll filter strips in CRP. Contracts can include up to ten acres of wetland, although not more than five are eligible for payment. Buffer acreage is limited to three times the wetland acreage. The program is now extended to all states and the enrollment cap has been increased to one million acres (part of the overall CRP acreage cap). Enrollment is limited to no more than 100,000 acres in any one state, but it could, within three years, be increased to 150,000 acres following a review of enrollment by the USDA. Also Pilot Program for Enrollment of Wetland and Buffer Acreage in the Conservation Reserve, and Wetland Enrollment Pilot Program. See Conservation of Farmable Wetland.

Farmed wetland pasture: Wetland that was manipulated and pastured for growing hay prior to December 23, 1985, and was inundated by water for seven consecutive or more days during the growing season in most years or saturated for 14 or more days during the growing season in most years.

Farmed wetland(s) (FW): Wetlands that were altered and used to produce an agricultural commodity prior to December 23, 1985, but not converted. Under swampbuster regulations, farmed wetlands are wetlands that can be farmed as a normal practice without destroying wetland characteristics. See Swampbuster.

Farmer Mac: Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation

Farmer Mac: See Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac).

Farmer Mac I: See Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac).

Farmer Mac II: See Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac).

Farmer program loan(s): Farm Service Agency direct and guaranteed loans, for both operating and farm ownership purposes, as well as soil and water loans and emergency loans. See Farm ownership loan(s) (FO), Guaranteed (Farm) Loan(s) program, and Operating loan(s) (OL).

Farmer savings account(s): See Farm and Ranch Risk Management accounts (FARRM), Farm Program Payment Reserve (FPPR), Individual Risk Management Accounts (IRMA), and Net Income Stabilization Account (NISA).

Farmer-Owned Reserve (FOR): A program, established under authority of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 and extended with modifications through subsequent acts, to provide protection against wheat and feed grain production shortfalls and to provide a buffer against unusually sharp price movements. Under the program, producers who placed their grain in storage received an extended nonrecourse loan from the Commodity Credit Corporation for 27 months, with a discretionary 6-month extension available as warranted by market conditions. The CCC made annual storage payments. The loans were nonrecourse in that producers could forfeit the commodity held as collateral to the government in full settlement of the loan without penalty and without paying accumulated interest. Interest on the loan also could be waived by the USDA, and producers could receive annual storage payments from the government. Under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, producerscould sell reserve grain at any time. Formerly, release prices or trigger-price levels governed release of grain from the FOR. In an emergency, the USDA could require repayment of the loans. Producers could remove their grain from storagewhen market prices reached specific release prices, or grain could be exchanged for generic commodity certificates. Authority for the FOR was suspended in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976 (P. L. 94-463) (7 U.S.C. §§ 3001 et seq.): Signed into law October 8, 1976. The Act encouraged the development and expansion of direct marketing of agricultural commodities from producers to consumers. The USDA was directed to initiate and coordinate a program designed to facilitate direct marketing through such activities as roadside stands, city markets, and vehicles used for house-to-house marketing of agricultural commodities. The Act was amended by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10605).

Farmer-to-Farmer Program (FTF): See John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer Program (FTF).

Farmers Home Administration (FmHA): Former USDA agency that provided credit at reasonable rates and terms for rural Americans unable to get credit from other sources. The FmHA provided farm ownership direct loans to help producers buy farms or land, repair buildings, or develop or conserve their land. Operating loans were extended to enable producers to purchase equipment, livestock, and other inputs. Other loans included youth project loans and low-interest emergency loans. In addition, more than two-thirds of the agency’s financial assistance was in the form of loan guarantees for commercial lenders who would not extend credit without a guarantee. It could also guarantee repayment of some such loans made by banks. The agency also madeloans for rural housing and community facilities as authorized by law. Following reorganization, the farmer program loan responsibilities were transferred to the Farm Service Agency. All other programs remained with the Office of Rural Development.

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP): mEstablished in 1992 to accomplish the goals of (a) providing fresh, nutritious, unprepared foods from farmers’ markets to women, infants, and children who are nutritionally at risk; and (b) to expand the awareness and use of farmers’ markets by consumers. The program was reauthorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 4307). Also WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program. See Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP).

Farmers’ Market Promotion Program: A program authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10605) to make grants to eligible entities to establish, expand,and promote farmers’ markets.

Farmers’ market(s): A common facility or area where several producers gather on a regular, recurring basis to sell a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and other farm products directly to consumers.

Farmers’ stock peanuts: U.S.-produced peanuts, customarily marketed by producers, that are not shelled, crushed, cleaned, or otherwise changed (except for removal of foreign material, loose- shelled kernels, and excess moisture) from the condition in which peanuts are harvested.

Farming occupation farm(s): Small farm whose operator reports farming as his/her major occupation. Although the operator spends most of his or her time farming, the household may receive substantial income from off-farm work by other household members and part-timeoff-farm work by the operator. Thus, both the farm and nonfarm economy may be important to these operators. Larger and smaller farms in this group differ in their characteristics, so the group is further divided into two additional subgroups based on gross sales: low-sales farms and high-sales farms.

Farming system: A decision-making unit, comprising a farm household, livestock, and cropping systems, that produces crop and animal products for consumption and sale. See Cropping system(s).

Farmland of local importance: In some local areas, there is a need for certain additional farmlands for the production of food, feed, fiber, forage, and oilseed crops, even though these lands are not identified as having national or statewide importance. Where appropriate, these lands are to be identified by a local agency or agencies. In some places, additional farmlands of local importance may include tracts of land that have been designated for agriculture by local ordinance.

Farmland of statewide importance: Land, in addition to prime farmland and unique farmland, that is of statewide importance for the production of food, feed, fiber, forage, and oilseed crops. Criteria for defining and delineating this land is to be determined by the appropriate state agency or agencies.

Farmland preservation: See Farmland protection.

Farmland protection: The protection of farmland from the encroachments of urban sprawl and rural subdivisions. Tactics to encourage keeping land in farming include property tax relief, protection from nuisance lawsuits for producers, purchases of agricultural conservation easement (PACE) programs, creation of special agricultural districts where commercial agriculture is encouraged and protected, comprehensive land use planning, and adoption of agricultural zoning ordinances.

Farmland protection policy: Assurance that actions of the federal government do not cause farmland to be irreversibly converted to nonagricultural uses in cases in which other national interests do not override the importance of the protection of farmland nor otherwise outweigh the benefits of maintaining farmland resources. The USDA is the federal agency primarily responsible for the implementation of this policy.

Farmland Protection Policy Act (P.L. 97-98): Title XV, Subtitle I, of the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981. It directed the USDA, in connection with other federal agencies, to develop a farmland protection policy; and criteria for identifying the effect of federal programs on the conversion offarmland to nonagricultural uses. It also encouraged the USDA to provide technical assistance to state, local, and nonprofit entities seeking to limit such conversions.

Farmland Protection Program (FPP): The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 2503) authorizes the USDA to establish a farmland protection program to reimburse state and local governments and Indian tribes for costs incurred in purchasing conservation easements and other interests in land with prime, unique, or other productive soil for the purpose of protecting topsoil by limiting nonagricultural uses of the land. To participate, a landowner must agree not to convert farmland to nonagricultural uses in return for a payment. The FPP cost share may not exceed 50 percent of the appraised fair market value of the conservation easement. The program is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Farmland(s): Agricultural land including cropland, rangeland, pastureland, forest land, and other rural land such as land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program.

Farmstead: Typically, the principal farm dwelling with the immediate grouping of outbuildings.

Farmstead equipment: Equipment, other than agricultural field equipment such as tractors, combines, or other self-propelled implements, that is used in agricultural operations for the production of food and fiber. This includes livestock feeding, watering, and waste-handling systems; crop dryers; milling systems; and material-handling equipment. Farmstead equipment is generally stationary equipment.

Farmstead windbreak: A windbreak or shelterbelt of closely spaced trees or shrubs planted perpendicular to the prevailing troublesome winds and adjacent to the farmstead, buildings, or work areas.

FARRM: Farm and Ranch Risk Managements accounts

Farrow to finish: A swine operation where the animals are kept in containment from birth until time for slaughter. It covers all aspects of production: breeding, farrowing, nursery, grow out, and finishing.

Farrow(ing)(ings)(ed): To give birth to a litter of pigs.

Farrowing date(s): The date that the first pig of a birth litter is born.

Farrowing frequency: The period between the start of consecutive groups of farrowings, expressed in days or weeks.

Farrowing index: The number of farrowings per breeding female per year.

Farrowing interval: Days between two consecutive farrowing dates for a mated breeding female.

Farrowing rate: The proportion of breeding females that farrow from a cohort of females served.

FAS: Foreign Agricultural Service

FAS Outreach Program: Only slightly more than three percent of the 160,000 U.S. companies in the food and fiber industry actively export. In order to expand U.S. export trade, the Foreign Agricultural Service maintains an outreach program to educate foreign buyers and highlight trade opportunities for domestic companies.

Fast-track (negotiating authority): See Trade promotion authority (TPA).

Fat: (1) See Butterfat. (2) See Fatty acid(s).

Fat cattle: Young cattle less than two years old ready for slaughter. The preferred term is fed cattle. See Fed cattle, and Finish(ed)(ing).

Fat free: A product containing less than 0.5 grams of fat per reference amount and per labeled serving. The product must contain no added ingredient that is fat or understood to contain fat.

Fat-Free Lean Index (FFLI): A formula that allows a swine producer to take raw data from any packer’s kill sheet and calculate the percentage of a hog carcass comprised of lean muscle, with all fat, including intramuscular fat, removed. The formula allows a producer to trace performance and document progress toward producing leaner, well-muscled animals. See Standardized Fat-Free Lean Index.

Fat-skim pricing: The pricing of milk based on its buttermilk content, with the remaining value assigned to the skim portion.

Fatty acid(s): Chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached to the carbon atoms. There are three main types of fatty acids: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. All fatty acids are. A saturated fatty acid has the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms attached to every carbon atom. It is therefore said to be saturated with hydrogen atoms, and all of the carbons are attached to each other with single bonds. In some fatty acids, a pair of hydrogen atoms in the middle of a chain is missing, creating a gap that leaves two carbon atoms connected by a double bond rather than a single bond. Because the chain has fewer hydrogens, it is said to be unsaturated. A fatty acid with one double bond is called monounsaturated because it has one gap. Fatty acids having more than one gap are called polyunsaturated. Also fat.

FCA: Farm Credit Administration

FCB: Farm Credit Bank

FCC: Farm Credit Council

FCIC: Federal Crop Insurance Corporation

FCP: Farm Credit Program of the FSA

FCP: Flood Compensation Program

FCR: Feed conversion ratio

FCS: Farm Credit System

FCSIC: Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation

FDA: Food and Drug Administration

FDPIR: Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations

Feathers: An underweight carcass. Such carcasses produce primal cuts that do not fit the box.

Fecal coliform bacteria: Bacteria, passed by animal waste, whose elevated presence in water suggests the presence of pathogens that cause dysentery, typhoid fever, and hepatitis.

Fed beef: See Fed cattle.

Fed cattle: Steers and heifers, managed to produce high-quality carcasses, that have been fed concentrates in a feedlot, usually for 90 to 120 days. See Finish(ed)(ing).

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac): Known as Farmer Mac, an instrumentality authorized by the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 that provides a resale or secondary market for agricultural mortgage loans made by government credit institutions, banks, or insurance companies, enabling lenders to obtain cash for further lending. Mortgages from lenders are pooled into securities and sold on the bond market; such bonds are referred to as Farmer Mac bonds. In addition, the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 authorized Farmer Mac to purchase, pool, and securitize the guaranteed portions of Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) (Farm Service Agency) guaranteed farmer program loans. These two areas of secondary market authority were organized by Farmer Mac into two distinct programs designated as Farmer Mac I and Farmer Mac II, respectively. This instrumentality is patterned after similar secondary financial markets such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae bonds), the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae bonds), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac bonds). Farmer Mac is regulated, examined, and supervised by the Farm Credit Administration through its Office of Secondary Market Oversight. See Guaranteed (Farm) Loan(s) program.

Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR) (P.L. 104-127): Signed into law April 4, 1996. Commonly known as the 1996 Farm Bill, this Act amended permanent legislation through 2002. The Act provided direct payments to producers of cotton, rice, feed grains, and wheat that were independent of market prices, and expanded planting flexibility opportunities. It suspended the Farmer-Owned Reserve; reduced the payment limitation from $50,000 to $40,000 per person; consolidated conservation cost-share programs; and eliminated the acreage reduction program, diversion payments, 50/85, 50/92, rye and honey price-support loans, purchase agreements, rice marketing certificates, high-moisture barley loans, and loan extensions.

Federal base funds: See Formula funds.

Federal Crop Insurance: See Federal Crop Insurance program.

Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-365) (7 U.S.C. §§ 1501 et seq.): Signed into law September 26, 1980. The law expanded crop insurance into a national program covering the majority of crops.

Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC): The federal corporation supervised by the Risk Management Administration that administers the Federal Crop Insurance program. Its mission is to promote the national welfare by improving the economic stability of agriculture through a sound system of crop insurance. The FCIC is a wholly owned federal government corporation created February 16, 1938 (7 U.S.C. §§ 1501 et seq.). Its duties were amended by the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980.

Federal Crop Insurance Corporation price: The price set each year that is the maximum price for which yield losses can be insured using an Actual Production History/Multiperil crop insurance policy.

Federal Crop Insurance program: A subsidized insurance program that provides producers with means of risk management and financial stability against crop production loss resulting from stated hazards such as weather. Although traditionally yield-based insurance, theprogram now includes insurance to insure against lost revenue. A participating producer is assigned a “normal” crop yield based on the producer’s actual production history, and a price for his commodity based on estimated market conditions. The producer can then select a percentage of his normal yield to be insured and a percentage of the price he wishes to receive when crop losses exceed the selected loss threshold. The producer pays a premium that increases as the levels of insurable yield and price coverage rise. The insurance is available for over 100 different crops, varying by county. With passage of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 193), participation in the program was made optional. Producers who chose not to obtain crop insurance could still enroll in a commodity program, obtain Farm Service Agency farm ownership or operating loans, or enter into a Conservation Reserve Program contract; such producers were required to sign a waiver of eligibility for crop disaster and emergency assistance. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Title X, Subtitle A) did not change the basic provisions of the program. Federal crop insurance has been available exclusively through private crop insurance agents since 1998. Producers participating in the Federal Crop Insurance program must annually provide records acceptable to the USDA on crop acreage, acreage yields, and production for each crop insured. See Additional coverage, Catastrophic coverage (CAT), Crop revenue coverage (CRC), Group plans (crop insurance), Individual farm plan (crop insurance), Multiperil crop insurance (MPCI), and Premium(s).

Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-354): Signed into law October 13, 1994. This Act was designed to eliminate ad hoc disaster assistance legislation by combining the multiple-peril crop insurance program with a permanent disaster and emergency assistance program. To be eligible for other types of program assistance, such as deficiency payments, price-support loans, and Farmers Home Administration loans, producers were required to purchase federal crop insurance.

Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation: An entity, owned by the Farm Credit System banks, that markets the securities the banks sell to raise loan funds. System institutions obtain the majority of their loan funds through the sale of these securities in the nation’s capital markets. These securities, chiefly bonds and discount notes, are offered by the Funding Corporation through a nationwide group of securities dealers and dealer banks.

Federal Farm Loan Act (FFLA): Signed into law July 17, 1916. The Act provided for the establishment of 12 Federal Land Banks to provide long-term mortgage credit to farmers and ranchers. Farmers and ranchers could borrow up to 50 percent of the value of their land and 20 percent of the value of their improvements. The Act led to the creation of the Farm Credit System.

Federal Food Safety Coalition: The interagency working group consisting of members from the USDA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Justice, and Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (FFDCA) (P.L. 75-717): Signed June 25, 1938, and amended by the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-115). The basic authority that expanded the Food and Drug Administration’s consumer protection capabilities intended to ensure that foods are pure and wholesome, safe to eat, and produced under sanitary conditions; drugs and devices are safe and effective for their intended uses; cosmetics are safe and made from appropriate ingredients; and all labeling and packaging is truthful, informative, and not deceptive. The Act added the power of court injunction to the existing penalties of seizures and prosecutions.

Federal Grain Inspection Advisory Committee: Provides advice to the Administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration on implementing the U.S. Grain Standards Act and the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946.

Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS): A former USDA agency that established official U.S. standards for 12 grains and other assigned commodities, and administered a nationwide inspection system to certify those grades. The agency was mandated by Congress to establish a nationwide system to ensure integrity in the inspection, weighing, and handling of U.S. grain. Under authority found in the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, FGIS was also responsible for inspection and weighing of rice, dry beans, peas, lentils, processed grain products, hops, and other assigned agricultural commodities. These voluntary services were paid for by the users. These functions have now been assumed by the new FGIS which is a part of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration. See Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA).

Federal Import Milk Act of 1927 (21 U.S.C. §§ 141-149): Signed into law May 16, 1927. The Act prohibits the importation into the U.S. of milk and cream unless the person by whom such milk or cream is shipped or transported holds a valid federal permit.

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (P.L. 80-104): Signed into law June 25, 1947, and amended in 1959, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1988, and 1996. This Act requires the registration of pesticide products to ensure that they meet stated health, safety, and environmental criteria. TheEnvironmental Protection Agency administers FIFRA, which also regulates the sale and labeling of many agricultural pesticides. In 1988, FIFRA was amended to require the EPA to reregister existing pesticides that were originally registered before current scientific and regulatory standards were formally established. See Reregistration, and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

Federal Intermediate Credit Bank(s) (FICB): Created by the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923 to discount short- and intermediate-term loans for commercial lenders. The same benefit was extended to Production Credit Associations in the Farm Credit Act of 1933. With passage of the Farm Credit Act of 1956, full ownership of the FICBs was to eventually pass to the Production Credit Associations as government ownership was phased out. Under the Farm Credit Amendments Act of 1985, the FICBs and the Federal Land Bankswere required to merge by 1988 to form Farm Credit Banks. See Farm Credit Bank(s) (FCB), and Farm Credit System (FCS).

Federal Land Bank Association(s) (FLBA): Local, producer-owned cooperative organizations through which producers obtain long-term (up to 40 years) loans on land. The associations are an integral part of the Farm Credit System.

Federal Land Bank(s) (FLB): Created by the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, the FLBs were established in 12 districts across the country for the purpose of providing long-term farmland mortgage financing. Under the Farm Credit Amendments Act of 1985, the Federal Intermediate Credit Banks and the Federal Land Banks were required to merge by 1988 to form Farm Credit Banks. See Farm Credit Bank(s) (FCB) and Farm Credit System (FCS).

Federal Land Credit Association(s) (FLCA): A Federal Land Bank Association that has received a transfer of direct, long-term real estate lending authority.

Federal Land Management Policy Act (FLMPA): See Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).

Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) (P.L. No. 94-579): Signed into law October 21, 1976. Commonly called the “BLM Organic Act” because it consolidated and articulated the management responsibilities of the Bureau of Land Management. The Act declared that all federal lands shall remain publicly owned unless unmanageable; public resources should be inventoried and their present uses reviewed; binding yet flexible plans should be created for resource use, and in particular, allotment management plans should be prepared for alllivestock operations on public property; all management should adhere to the goals of multiple use and sustained yield; public lands must be preserved in their natural state to permit continued usage by wildlife and people; fair market value should be paid for consumption of public resources; use of the public land should recognize the public’s need and demand for domestic sources of minerals, food, timber, and fiber; and the federal government should compensate the state and local governments for their loss of tax revenue due to federal land ownership within their boundaries.

Federal mark of inspection: See Marking.

Federal marketing order(s): See Federal marketing order(s) and agreement(s).

Federal marketing order(s) and agreement(s): (1) USDA is authorized to issue marketing orders and agreements for a variety of agricultural commodities and their products. Marketing orders have been established for milk, fruits and vegetables, and other commodities. The orders may regulate the handling of fruits and vegetables in a variety of ways, including limiting quantities that may be marketed, or establishing grade, size, maturity, or quality requirements. (2) A means authorized by the Agricultural Marketing Agreements Act of 1937, as amended, for agricultural producers to promote orderly marketing and to collectively influence the supply, demand, price, or quality of particular commodities. A marketing order is requested by a group of producers, and must be approved by the USDA and through a referendum by a required number of the commodity’s producers (usually two-thirds) in specified areas. Conformance with the order’s provisions is mandatory for all producers and handlers covered by theorder. It may limit total marketing or shipping, prorate the movement of a commodity to market, or impose size and grade standards. In 1997, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the constitutionality of federal marketing orders. (3) Voluntary agreements usually based on discussions and deliberations between representatives of the USDA and the duly constituted representatives of a commodity organization. Agreements may be issued in conjunction with orders or may be issued without orders. If issued without orders, there are fewer restrictions on marketing procedures, and these apply only to those producers or handlers who agree voluntarily to enter into the agreement with the USDA. Also Marketing agreement(s) and order(s).

Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (P.L. 59-242) (21 U.S.C. §§ 601 et seq.): Signed into law June 30, 1906. The Act, as amended, requires the USDA to inspect all cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and horses brought into any plant to be slaughtered and <i.processed< i=””>into products for human consumption. The original Act did not cover the poultry industry, and covered only plants selling in interstate and foreign commerce. See Processed Products Inspection Improvement Act of 1986, and Wholesome Meat Act of 1967.

Federal milk marketing order(s): Milk marketing orders authorized by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937.

Federal Noxious Weed Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-629) (7 U.S.C. §§ 2801-2814): Signed into law January 3, 1975, and amended in 1988 and 1994. The Act provided for the control and management of nonindigenous weeds that injured or had the potential to injure the interests of agriculture and commerce, wildlife resources, or the public health. Sections 2802 through 2813 of the Act were repealed by the Plant Protection Act. See Noxious weed(s).

Federal Pesticide Recordkeeping Program: Administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service, the program requires all private certified applicators to keep records of their use of federally restricted-use pesticides for a period of two years.

Federal Plant Pest Act (P.L. 85-36) (7 U.S.C. §§ 150aa-150jj): Signed into law May 23, 1957, and amended in 1968, 1981, 1983, 1988, and 1994. The Act regulated the importation and interstate movement of plant pests, and authorizes. the USDA to take emergency measures to destroy infected plants or materials. The Act was repealed by the Plant Protection Act.

Federal reserved water: Under the Winter Doctrine, when the federal government authorizes the establishment of federal land (by statute, treaty, or executive order), it implicitly intends to reserve enough water to fulfill the federal purposes. Unlike under the prior appropriation doctrine, federal reserved water rights may remain unused for many years.

Federal Seed Act of 1939 (7 U.S.C. §§ 1551 et. seq.): Signed into law August 9, 1939. Administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service, this Act prohibits false labeling and advertising of seed in interstate commerce, and complements state seed laws by prohibiting the shipment of seed containing excessive noxious weed seeds.

Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA): See Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA).

Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972: See Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA).

Federal-State Cooperative Inspection plants: Meat and poultry processing plants that are federally inspected but staffed by state employees. Also Talmadge-Aiken processing plants.

Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP): Authorized by the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (Sec. 204(b)). Payments are made to state marketing agencies to (a) identify and test marketing of alternative crops, (b) determine methods of providing more reliable market information, and (c) develop better commodity grading standards. Projects include electronic marketing and agricultural product diversification. Current projects are focused on the improvement of marketing efficiency and effectiveness, and seeking new outlets for existing farm commodities. The USDA may enter into cooperative agreements with state departments of agriculture or similar state agencies to improve the efficiency of the agricultural marketing chain. The states perform the work or contractit to others, and must contribute at least one-half of the cost of the projects.

Fee income: Income to credit institutions from noncore businesses such as insurance, tax and records preparation, and appraisal services.

Feed additive(s): Chemical materials added to animal feeds to improve animal nutrition, disease prevention and control, and growth promotion.

Feed bank: (1) The storage of grain, oilseeds, beans, or seeds on a warehouse receipt that are intended to be partially or periodically withdrawn by the owner. As such, a feed processing plant receives and stores grain, oilseeds, beans, or seeds that itprocesses and returns to the grain’s owner in equivalent amounts, at intervals, and with added ingredients that are mutually agreeable to the grain’s owner and the person operating the plant. (2) The stockpiling of forages to be used for feeding emergencies or at times later in the grazing season.

Feed bunk: A feeding apparatus, especially for dairy operations and cattle in feedlots, that provides feed just off the ground to cattle so that the cattle may eat at the preferred “head down” position. The bottom surface is smooth so as to avoid abrasions on the animals’ tongues. The apparatus is designed for ease in cleaning, and delivery of a fresh ration in a manner that maximizes dry-matter intake and minimizes feed waste and spoilage.

Feed conversion: The units of feed consumed per unit of weight increase. Also Feed efficiency.

Feed conversion ratio (FCR): Ratio of feed disappearance to live-weight gain.

Feed Cost-sharing Program: See Disaster Reserve Assistance Program (DRAP).

Feed disappearance: The total amount of feed that is both consumed and wasted.

Feed efficiency: See Feed conversion.

Feed grain(s); feedgrain(s): Any of several grains most commonly used for livestock or poultry feed. Corn, grain sorghum, oats, and barley are the main feed grains produced in the U.S. These are sometimes called coarse grains.

Feed grains program: The ederal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 authorized eligible feed grains producers to enroll in production flexibility contracts and be eligible for production flexibility contract payments, nonrecourse marketing assistance loans, and loan deficiency payments for the 1996-2002 crop years. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Title I) amended the program to provide a system of direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, and nonrecourse loans with marketing loan provisions through 2007.

Feed lot(s); feedlot(s): Typically, a confinement operation for the finishing of feeder cattle; the business operation for feeding grain to cattle for finishing to a desired slaughter grade. See Concentrated animal feeding operation(s) (CAFO).

Feed Outlook: An Economic Research Service report that examines U.S. feed grain supply, use, prices and demand, milling, and transportation for corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, and hay.

Feed processing: An operation for the acquisition, evaluation, formulation, and processing of feed ingredients to produce complete feed.

Feed ratio: The ratio of feeding costs to the value of livestock.

Feed supplement(s): Dietary component containing high concentrations of protein, vitamins, and minerals. See Supplement (feed).

Feed(s): In its broadest sense, any type of food, including feed grains, oilseed meal, premix or mixed ration, liquid or dry supplemental feed, roughage, pasture, or forage, used for the feeding of livestock.

Feeder cattle: Weaned calves, in backgrounding, that are ready for the feedlot and finishing.

Feeder lambs: Lambs lacking in weight or finish that are usually placed in a feedlot for finishing to slaughter weight and grade.

Feeder pigs: Weaned pigs ready to be fed for market.

Feeder(s): (1) Cattle that need further feeding prior to slaughter. (2) A producer who feeds cattle. (3) The component of a combine that transports the crop from the cutter or crop pickup apparatus to the threshing system.

Feedlot costs: Fees charged by feedlots for grain, hay, yardage, processing, insurance, taxes, and checkoffs. See Stockyard services.

Feedstock: Any raw input material which is converted to another form or product. When applied to the biomass conversion process, feedstock refers to the agricultural or forestry material being converted to chemicals or energy.

Feedstuff(s): Animal feed ingredients including soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn gluten feed, millfeeds, feather meal, molasses, alfalfa pellets, canola meal, linseed meal, sunflower meal, meat and bone meal, blood meal, fish meal, distillers’ dried grain, brewers’ dried grain, wheat middlings, and hay.

Fell(ed)(ing) (fall): To cut down trees.

Feller (faller): One who cuts down trees.

Feller-buncher: A self-propelled machine that cuts trees with giant shears near ground level and then stacks the trees into piles to await skidding.

Felting (property): The unwoven property of wool and some other fibers to interlock or mat with each other to create felt.

Ferment(ed); fermentable: See Fermentation.

Fermentation: (1) For tobacco, there are two common types of fermentation: natural fermentation and forced fermentation, with the duration of the process ranging from two days to two months or more. Natural fermentation, also known as aging, is a chemical reaction caused by moisture and warm temperatures; it occurs when tobacco is packaged in bales or hogsheads. Forced fermentation involves placing tobacco in huge stacks so that the chemical reaction caused by the moisture and warm temperatures is intensified by pressure. Fermentation affects color and taste. (2) Acidification of food through the addition of specific microorganisms like bacteria or yeast that produce acid. (3) In biofuels production, used to convert sugars toethanol during hydrolysis/fermentation, or to convert synthesis gas to ethanol during gasification/fermentation.

FERRET: Food Emergency Rapid Response and Evaluation Team

Fertilizer response function: A function that relates yield to the amount of fertilizer used, holding all other inputs constant.

Fertilizer(s): Any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to soil to provide <i.nutrients< i=””>(including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), and is necessary to sustain plant growth.

Fescue toxicity: The toxic effect on cattle caused by grazing fescue forage grasses infected with toxin-producing endophytes. Fescue toxicity can cause loss of weight and reproductive problems.

FEWS: Famine Early Warning System

FFA: Future Farmers of America

FFDCA: Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938

FFLA: Federal Farm Loan Act

FFLI: Fat-Free Lean Index

FFP: Food for Progress Program

FFV: Flexible fuel vehicle

FGIS: (former) Federal Grain Inspection Service (USDA)

FI: Food Institute

Fiber diameter (wool): Wool fibers measured in microns under laboratory analysis.

Fiber length (cotton): In the simplest sense, the linear distance spanned by a fully extended cotton fiber; however, in the cotton trade, fiber length is determined on a bundle of fibers in a number of ways which give different values and have different meanings.Classer’s staple, expressed as 1/32 of an inch, is based on the comparison with official standards, and is determined by a trained classer. Upper-half mean (UHM), expressed in inches, is measured by high-volume instrumentation (HVI), and represents the average fiber length of the half (by weight) of the bundle that has the longer fibers. Length contributes to yarn strength and “feel” of the resulting fabric. See Staple length.

Fiber measurements (cotton): For purposes of the USDA’s official cotton grade, fiber measurements include (a) leaf grade, (b) fiber length, (c) length uniformity, (d) strength, (e) micronaire, (f) trash, and (g) color.

Fiber properties: See Fiber quality.

Fiber quality: Collectively, the parameters or properties that are considered important in the marketing or processing of cotton fiber. These include staple or length, grade, color, strength or tenacity, elasticity, micronaire or fineness, maturity, and length uniformity.

Fiber strength (cotton): Closely related to yarn and fabric strength and to spinning efficiency. The measurement of fiber strength is made by clamping and breaking the beard of fibers with 1/8-inch gage spacing between the clamp jaws. The strength reported is the force in grams required to break a bundle of fibers one tex unit in size. A tex unit is equal to the weight in grams of 1,000 meters of fiber.

Fiber(s): (1) In anatomical botany usage, an elongated, thickened cell within the tissue of a plant. (2) The cotton fiber technically is a plant hair, or trichome, that grows from the outer-most (epidermal) layer of cells on the developing seed. The anatomy of a mature cotton fiber is unique in that it is a single cell that elongates up to five centimeters and produces a secondary cell wall of almost pure cellulose. Two types of fibers occur on the seeds of most upland cotton genotypes: lint (used in textile yarn) and fuzz (or linters) used in filling and in rayon and cellophane synthesis. During ginning, the long lint fibers break from the seed, but the short fuzz fibers remain on the seed. (3) Wood volume produced by a tree or trees that can be converted into wood products, such as lumber, paper, or cardboard. Also known as pulpwood. (4) Dietary fiber generally refers to parts of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and legumes that resist digestion by humans or animals. (5) A unit of matter characterized by having a length at least one hundred times its diameter or width. The fundamental component used in making textile yarns and fabrics. (5) Meat muscle fiber.

FICB: Federal Intermediate Credit Bank

Field border(s): (1) The outer boundaries of a farm or field. (2) A readily identifiable distinction between two areas of land, indicated by different planting patterns or plant densities, or an area where no crop is planted. See Filter strip(s).

Field day(s): Traditionally, the exhibition to stakeholders by research, Extension, or agribusiness personnel of research findings, culture practices, equipment performance, or product efficiency.

Field run: See Farm weight.

Field Service Center: Local USDA offices typically containing the Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices for one-stop-shopping ease.

Field windbreak: A windbreak or shelterbelt of closely spaced trees or shrubs planted perpendicular to the prevailing troublesome winds.

Field work: The work, related to planting, cultivating, or harvesting operations, that occurs in the field rather than in a processing plant or packing shed.

Field worker(s):Under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, both workers performing cultivation and harvesting activities indoors (e.g., nursery and mushroom-growing operations), and workers who plant, cultivate, or harvest field crops. Field worker is a class of seasonal agricultural worker.

FIFRA: Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

Fifth wheel: A vehicle with a weight-bearing swivel mounted over the driving axles for attaching a trailer.

Fill-of-container standard(s): Defines how full a container must be and how this is measured. See Standard(s) (FDA).

Filled cheese: A descriptive term for cheese from which all butterfat has been removed and in its place a vegetable oil has been used as a substitute. Filled cheese also is referred to as imitation cheese.

Filled milk: (1) Milk, cream, or skim milk from which natural butterfat has been removed and replaced with other fats or oils from plant sources. (2) Under the Filled Milk Act of 1923, any milk, cream, or skimmed milk, whether or not condensed, evaporated, concentrated, powdered, dried, or desiccated, to which has been added, or which has been blended or compounded with, any fat or oil other than milkfat, so that the resulting product is in imitation or semblance of milk, cream, or skimmed milk.

Filled Milk Act of 1923 (21 U.S.C. §§ 61-64): Signed into law March 4, 1923. The Act declared that filled milk is an adulterated food, injurious to the public health, and that its sale constitutes a fraud upon the public. The Act made it unlawful for any person to manufacture any filled milk within any U.S. territory or possession, or within the District of Columbia, or to ship or deliver for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce.

Filler: Tobacco that has been blended and cut and is ready to be used in cigarettes.

Filly: A female horse under four years of age.

Filter strip(s): A strip or area of vegetation for removing sediment, organic matter, and other pollutants from runoff and wastewater through filtration, deposition, infiltration, or plant uptake. The term refers to any vegetative strip left around a field border or next to a stream or body of water for filtering runoff. See Buffer strip(s); buffer acreage, and Conservation buffer(s) strip(s).

Final planting date (crop insurance): The date, established by the Risk Management Agency for both insured and uninsured crops, by which the crop must be initially planted in order to be insured for the full production guarantee or amount of crop insurance per acre. For noninsurable crops, the end of the planting period for a crop as determined by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Financial Assistance Corporation (FAC): See Farm Credit System Financial Assistance Corporation (FAC).

Financial instrument(s): There are two basic types: a debt instrument (a loan with an agreement to pay back funds with interest), and an equity security (a share or stock in a company).

Financial risk: Perils that can affect a farm’s ability to access capital. Capital is a necessary input to sustain and grow a farm business operation. Several factors, such as interest rates, cash flow needs, local banking reserves, bank credit policies, and farm liquid reserves, can have an impact upon the financial risk faced by a farming operation.

Financially related services (FRS): Income to credit institutions from origination fees, leases, loan conversions, and participation fees. See Noninterest income.

Findley loan rate:

An option available to the USDA to improve U.S competitiveness by lowering the statutory basic loan rate up to 20 percent for wheat and feedgrains. Originally proposed by former Representative Paul Findley (R-IL), this provision was adopted in the Food Security Act of 1985. If the basic loan rate was reduced under the Findley provision, the USDA made additional deficiency payments to producers to provide the same total return as if there had been no reduction. The Findley paymentrate equaled the statutory loan rate minus (a) the national weighted season average farm price for the marketing year, or (b) the announced loan level, whichever was higher. Findley payments were also called emergency compensation payments. The Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 limited the Findley loan rate provisions of the previous farm bill for wheat and feedgrains. The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 retained the authoritythat allowed the USDA to reduce the loan rate for wheat and feedgrains depending upon the projected stocks-to-use ratio, but eliminated the authority for the further 10 percent discretionary reduction. Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, loan rates are fixed by the Act. See Announced loan rate, Basic loan rate, and Formula loan rate.

Findley payment(s): Also known as emergency compensation payments. See Findley loan rate.

Findley provision: A provision of the Food Security Act of 1985, and limited in the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, and in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. Originally, it gave the USDA discretion to reduce crop loan rates below the basic loan rate, by up to 20 percent, if the average market price in the previous marketing year was not more than 110 percent of the loan rate for that year, or if the reduction was necessary to maintain a competitive market position. Findley payments were additional deficiency payments required as a result of applying the Findley provision. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 fixed loan rates. See Findley loan rate, and Findley payment(s).

Finfish: Fish with fins; not shellfish.

Fingerlings: (1) Young and small fish, of any species, larger than a fry but not an adult, up to one year old. (2) In channel catfish, young fish of approximately one to eight inches in length.

Finish(ed)(ing): (1) Typically, the feeding of feeder cattle, lambs, and hogs in preparation for slaughter. (2) The degree of fatness or distribution of fat in the animal.

Finished beef: See Finish(ed)(ing).

Finisher feed: Feed offered to livestock in the finishing production stage.

Finisher pig(s): (1) A growing pig that is beyond the nursery production stage. (2) Pigs that are grown until they reach market weight.

FIP: Forestry Incentives Program

Fire ant(s): See Imported fire ant(s).

Fire-cured tobacco: A process that uses artificial atmospheric conditions, such as open fires, from which the smoke and fumes of burning wood are partly absorbed by the tobacco. See Curing (tobacco).

Firebreak: (1) The space cleared of flammable material to stop or check creeping or running fires. (2) Any natural or constructed barrier utilized to segregate, stop, and control the spread of fire, or to provide a control line from which to work.

FIREWISE: An education program, for landowners and vacationers who are in forest fire and wildfire-prone areas, on proper management techniques that should be adopted in the wildland-urban interface.

First Americans Land-grant College Organization and Network (FALCON ): The group comprised of tribal college staff working with the land grant programs on their individual campuses.

First crop: (1) Under the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000, the first crop of the first agricultural commodity insured and planted for harvest, or prevented from being planted, on specific acreage during a crop year. See Prevented (from) planting; prevented from being planted (PP), Replant(ing); replanted crop, and Second crop. (2) The first production reaching harvest in a ratoon cropping system.

First handler(s): (1) Any entity or person who first buys or takes control or possession of a commodity from a producer for the purpose of entering such commodity into commerce. (2) Processors or market agents who are responsible for the pooling and issuing of payment to individual producers.

First pick(ing): See Pick(ed)(ing), and Scrap(ped)(ping).

First purchaser: Any person that buys or acquires agricultural products directly from the producer for movement into commercial channels. This does not normally include the Commodity Credit Corporation, which may acquire title to agricultural products throughloan forfeiture. See First purchaser(s) (peanuts).

First purchaser(s) (peanuts): Under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, a person acquiring peanuts from a producer, or if the peanuts have been forfeited to the Commodity Credit Corporation, the person acquiring peanuts from the CCC. SeePeanut (price-support) program.

First-last grazing: A method of grazing that utilizes the same land area to graze sequentially two or more groups of animals, usually with different nutritional requirements. Animals with high nutrient requirements enter the paddock first and remove high-qualityforage tops; animals requiring less nutrients are then moved in as the others are rotated to other paddocks.

First-time loan commodities: Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, wool, mohair, honey, dry peas, lentils, and small chickpeas.

First-time loan commodities (special rule): For the 2002 crops of wool, mohair, honey, dry peas, lentils, and small chickpeas, a producer of any such crop that would be eligible for a loan deficiency payment except for the fact that the producer lost beneficial interest in the crop prior to the date of publication of the regulations implementing the LDP for these crops. The producer is eligible for a LDP as of the date the producer marketed or otherwise lost beneficial interest in the crop.

Fiscal year(s) (federal) (FY): October 1 through September 30.

Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS): Part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The early beginnings of the Fish and Wildlife Service go back to 1871. Today, the FWS consists of a headquarters in Washington, D.C., 8 regional offices, and over 700 field units and installations. Included are more than 470 National Wildlife Refuges, comprising more than 90 million acres, 57 fish and wildlife research laboratories and field units, 43 cooperative research units at universities across the country, nearly 135 national fish hatcheries and fishery assistance stations, and a nationwide network of law enforcement agents and biologists.

Fish farming: See Aquaculture; aquacultural.

Fish hatchery(ies): Government and commercial aquaculture facilities that raise fish for recreational and commercial stocking as well as for mitigation of aquatic resource and habitat damage.

Fish meal: Prepared from dried, ground tissues of undecomposed whole marine fish or fish cuttings, such as menhaden, herring, or white fish. Fish meal contains 60 to 80 percent protein, and is a good source of essential amino acids. It is often used to supplement feeds containing plant proteins. Fish meal is also rich in energy, minerals, and essential fatty acids.

Fish pond(s): The most common type of water facility for raising fish. Most ponds are man-made, and fish usually have access to the entire pond. The water area is the surface acres of the pond without regards to the depth of the pond. Also Pond(s). SeeAquaculture; aquacultural, Raceway(s), Recirculating systems, and Tank(s); circular tank (culture).

Fish-Rice Rotation Farming Program Act (P.L. 85-342) (16 U.S.C. §§ 778-778c): Signed into law March 15, 1958. The Act authorizes the Department of the Interior to establish experimental stations to determine species of fish most suitable for culture, on a commercial basis, in shallow reservoirs and flooded rice lands, and to develop methods for the control of parasites and diseases. The authority was transferred to the Agricultural Research Service in 1996.

Fisher-Tropsch (liquefaction) (process): A catalyzed chemical process in which carbon monoxide and hydrogen in synthesis gas are converted into liquid hydrocarbons of various forms for use as synthetic lubrication oil or as synthetic fuel.

Fit the box: The desire by packers to process carcasses that are within optimum weights so as to improve plant efficiency and product marketability.

Fitting: The clipping, washing, and grooming of animals for show.

Fixed costs: Those short-run costs (e.g., land or management) that do not change in the aggregate when the level of output changes. No costs are fixed in the long-run, or stated simply, all costs are variable. Fixed costs include insurance, rent or land mortgage payments, interest, and machinery depreciation.

Fixed price (cotton): The sales price of a fixed price contract is final at conclusion of the sale and does not change, regardless of fluctuations in the New York Cotton Exchange futures market prices. See On call (cotton).

Fixed price contract(s): See Forward contract(s)(ing).

Fixing: In the nitrogen cycle, the process of nitrogen changing into a less mobile and more usable form by combining with hydrogen to make ammonia.

Flaking: A process for converting typically dehulled oilseeds into thin flakes for solvent extraction or other processing.

Flaming: The use of liquid propane or similar fuel-burning equipment for weed control by quickly searing weeds, but not consuming them with flame.

Flash pasteurization: Involves a high-temperature, short-time treatment in which pourable products, such as juices, are heated for 3 to 15 seconds to a temperature that destroys harmful microorganisms. After heating, the product is cooled and packaged. Most drink boxes and pouches use this pasteurization method as it allows extended unrefrigerated storage while providing a safe product. See Pasteurization; pasteurizing; pasteurized.

Flat or modified flat bale; flat/modified flat bale: A cotton bale density of less than 23 pounds per cubic foot, with flat bale density normally at 12 pounds per cubic foot, and modified flat bale density at 14 pounds per cubic foot. Unless otherwise noted, reference to flat bales in specifications also includes modified flat bales. Such a bale is generally not acceptable to most cotton buyers, and ordinarily must be re-compressed to a standard density and dimension to be marketable.

Flat storage: Structures for the storage of grain and other bulk, raw agricultural commodities. The commodity is stored in a pile in bulk on a flat-bottom surface. These may include flat-bottom tanks, buildings where the commodity is stored on the floor, tents, or other structures.

Flatwoods: A site with flat to gently sloping topography and relatively poorly drained, sandy soils; these often have standing water during wet weather.

Flavored milk: A subclass of fluid milk to which flavoring, such as chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla, has been added.

Flaxseed: The seed of the flax plant from which is derived linseed oil. It takes 2.77 pounds of flaxseed to yield approximately one pound of linseed oil.

FLB: Federal Land Bank

FLBA: Federal Land Bank Association

FLCA: Federal Land Credit Association

Fleece wool: Typically, all fleeces grown in the states east of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Fleece(s): The entire coat of wool shorn from the sheep at one time.

FLEP: Forest Land Enhancement Program

Flex acres (acreage); flexible acres (acreage): See Maximum flex acres (acreage); maximum flexible acres (acreage) (MFA), and ,and Optional flex acres (acreage); optional flexible acres (acreage)(OFA), Triple base, and Triple-base plan.

Flex(ing); flexing out; flex option: See Flexibility.

Flexibility: A price and income policy concept that allows producers greater flexibility in planting crops, and still allows them to participate in federal farm price and income support programs. As originally proposed, the intent was to allow producers to plant outside of program restrictions while providing budget relief, because crops grown under the flexibility option are not eligible for deficiency payments. Under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, the flexible acres could be planted to any program crop, oilseed crop, or nonprogram crop other than fruits, vegetables, peanuts, tobacco, wild rice, trees, and nuts. The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 greatly expanded the flexibility option by allowing producers to plant 100 percent of their total contract acreage to any crop, except for fruits and some vegetables. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 maintained the flexibility of the previous farm bill. Participating producers are permitted to plant and harvest all cropland acreage on the farm to any crop, except for fruits and vegetables (with exceptions). The land must be kept in agricultural uses (including being left fallow), and producers must comply with certain conservation and wetland provisions. See Maximum flex(ible) acres(age) (MFA), Normal flex(ible) acres(age) (NFA), Optional flex(ible) acres(age) (OFA), Permitted crop(s), Planting flexibility, Triple base, and Triple-base plan.

Flexible fuel vehicle (FFV): A vehicle that can operate on either alcohol fuels (methanol or ethanol) or regular unleaded gasoline or any combination of the two from the same tank.

Flexible lease(s): Leases in which price and production risk, as well as possible profit opportunities, are shared between owner and tenant, . The actual rent paid adjusts automatically as production or price conditions change. Owners do not have to be involved in decisions about crop inputs or grain marketing. See Adjustment for price and yield lease, Adjustment for price only lease, Adjustment for yield only lease, Base rent plus bonus lease, and Percentage share lease.

Flexible marketing allotment(s) (sugar): See Sugar (marketing) allotment(s).

FLMPA: Federal Land Management Policy Act

Flood Compensation Program (FCP): See 1998 Flood Compensation Program (FCP), and 2000 Flood Compensation Program (FCP).

Flood irrigation: The application of irrigation water so that the entire surface of the soil is covered by ponded water that is maintained at a uniform and shallow depth throughout the growing season.

Flood Plain Management Assistance: Under this Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program activity, the Natural Resources Conservation Service cooperates with other state and federal flood plain management offices to develop priorities for flood plain studies, and encourages the use of nonstructural measures to reduce flood damage. Flood plain management studies are special studies that coordinate the reduction in the loss of life, disruption, and damage caused by floods, and preserve and restore the natural resources and functions of the flood plain.

Flood plain(s); floodplain(s): Lowland and relatively flat areas adjoining inland and coastal waters, including flood-prone areas of islands. This land includes, at a minimum, those areas that are subject to a one-percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year.

Flood Risk Reduction Program (FRRP): As authorized in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 385), the USDA could offer flood risk reduction contracts to producers who had frequently-flooded contract acreage under a production flexibility contract. Producers could receive, up front, 95 percent of all projected contract payments due from the time of enrollment in the FRRP through 2002, and such other incentive payments as determined necessary by the USDA. In exchange, producers had to terminate their production flexibility contracts, comply with all conservation compliance measures, and forego future disaster payments, crop insurance payments, conservation program payments, and loans for contract commodities, oilseeds, and extra-long staple cotton. The program was not reauthorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

Flooding: (1) Establishing and maintaining an irrigated rice crop. (2) To apply water to the field for the benefit of saturating the soil for land preparation. See Flood irrigation.

Floor broker(s): In commodity options and futures trading, persons (including companies) who execute futures contracts or options orders for others. Also Broker. See Commodity option(s), and Futures trading.

Floor sweepings: The scraps or leaves of tobacco that accumulate on a warehouse floor during the regular course of business.

Floor trader(s): In commodity options and futures trading, persons (including companies) who execute futures contracts or options orders for their own accounts. See Commodity option(s), and Futures trading.

Flora: (1) A term used to describe the entire plant species of a specified region or time. (2) The sum total of the kinds of plants in an area at one time; all plant life associated with a given habitat, country, area, or period.

Floral crops: Major cut flowers and flowering pot plants including roses, carnations, poinsettias, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas, lilies, gladiolus, bulbous iris, azaleas, and other flowering plants.

Floriculture: The cultivation and management of ornamental and flowering plants including cut flowers, cut greens, potted plants, and bedding and garden plants.

Floriculture and environmental horticulture crops: Crops classified as “nonedible horticulture,” or flowers, plants, bulbs, sod or turfgrass, and other related horticultural specialties that are grown primarily for ornamental or environmental purposes. Also included are trees, plants, and vines that are purchased by commercial growers for food-production purposes.

Flow to market: A quantity provision in a fruit and vegetable marketing order that does not change the total quantity that can be marketed during a season, but rather controls the rate or time period that quantities can be shipped to market, including shipping holidays and prorates.

Flow-through provisions: Under the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, if a tolerance or exemption is in effect for a pesticide chemical residue on a raw agricultural commodity, the tolerance/exemption applies to residues in any processed food made from the raw agricultural commodity, if the residues have been removed to the extent possible in good manufacturing process, and residues are not above the raw agricultural commodity tolerance.

Flow-through raceway; flow-through system: See Raceway(s).

FLP: Forest Legacy Program

FLPMA: Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976

FLRP: Foundation Livestock Relief (Cost-Share) Program

FLSA: Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

Flue-cured tobacco: The principal class of tobacco grown in the U.S. Its name comes originally from the metal flues of the heating apparatus used in curing barns. The current curing process uses artificial atmospheric conditions that regulate heat and ventilation without allowing the smoke and fumes from the fuel to come in contact with the tobacco. Also called bright tobacco or Virginia tobacco. See Curing (tobacco).

Flue-cured Tobacco Warehouse Designation Program: A program that requires each flue-cured tobacco farm operator to designate to which warehouse(s) that farm’s tobacco will be presented for sale and the number of pounds of tobacco that will be marketed at each designated location. Such designations provide information vital to the equitable scheduling among warehouses of the day(s) on which each location can hold an auction sale and the number of pounds that can be sold on each of those scheduled days. This information also allows Agricultural Marketing Service to schedule personnel to grade such tobacco when it is presented for sale. Designation is a condition of price-support eligibility for flue-cured tobacco growers. See Grower Designation Program (tobacco).

Fluid (grade) milk: See Grade A milk.

Fluid cream product: Cream (other than plastic cream or frozen cream), including sterilized cream or a mixture of cream and milk or skim milk, containing 9 percent or more butterfat with or without the addition of other ingredients.

Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Program: Also Processor-Funded Milk Promotion Program. See Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990.

Fluid milk processor(s): Under the Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990, as amended by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1506(b)), any person who processes and markets commercially more than 3 million pounds of fluid milk products in consumer-type packages per month (excluding products delivered directly to the place of residence of a consumer).

Fluid milk product(s): Under the Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990, as amended by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1506(a)), any of the following products in fluid or frozen form: milk, skim milk, lowfat milk, milk drinks, buttermilk, filled milk, and milkshake and ice milk mixes containing less than 20 percent total solids, and including any such products that are flavored, cultured, modified with added nonfat milk solids, concentrated (if in a consumer-type package), or reconstituted. It does not include evaporated or condensed milk (plain or sweetened), evaporated or condensed skim milk (plain or sweetened), formulas specially prepared for infant feeding or dietary use that are packaged in hermetically sealed glass or all-metal containers, and any product that contains by weight less than 6.5 percent nonfat milk solids or whey.

Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990 ( P.L. 101-624) (7 U.S.C. §§ 6401-6417): Subtitle H, Sections 1999A-1999R, of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, as amended by the Food Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1506). Also known as the Processor-Funded Milk Promotion Program. The Act established a second dairy promotion board, for milk processors, that finances its activities through an assessment of 20 cents per hundredweight on fluid milk processed and marketed in the U.S. All fluid milk processors who marketmore than 3 million pounds of fluid milk products per month must participate. The goal of this national campaign is to strengthen the dairy industry in the marketplace, to maintain and expand markets, and to find new ways to utilize fluid milk. TheFarm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1506(c)) eliminated the discretion of the USDA to terminate or suspend the program. See Dairy Promotion and Research Program.

Flush: (1) See Flush irrigation. (2) A sudden growth burst. (3) The removal of manure in confined animal feeding operations by flushing with large quantities of water.

Flush irrigation: Short-term, rapid irrigation.

Flush season: The time of the year, usually in spring and early summer, when there is maximum milk production. During this period, fluid milk utilization is normally the lowest. Manufacturing facilities are usually operating at full capacity because there is a considerable daily surplus above the fluid milk market needs.

Flush system: The use of hydraulic energy utilizing large quantities of water released quickly to wash manure, waste bedding, and urine into treatment lagoons. These systems have advantages in that they allow free-stall and holding areas to be kept clean by allowing multiple clean-outs each day.

Fly ash: Small ash particles carried in suspension in combustion products.

FMD: Foreign Market Development Program (Cooperator Program)

FMD: Foot-and-mouth disease

FMD: Foreign Market Development Program (Cooperator Program)

FMDCP: Foreign Market Development Program (Cooperator Program)

FmHA: Farmers Home Administration

FMMO: Federal Milk Marketing Order

FMNP: Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program

FMP: Forest management plan

FNS: Food and Nutrition Service

FO: Farm ownership loans

Foal: The offspring of a horse, under one year of age. It can be of either sex.

Foliage plants: Those plants normally without flowers, primarily produced in pots or similar containers, that are typically used for interior decorations, whether grown under cover or in field operations. See Potted flowering plants.

Food Agriculture Conservation and Trade Act of 1990 (FACTA) (P.L.101-624): Signed into law November 28, 1990. The omnibus food and agriculture legislation that provided a five-year framework for the USDA to administer various agriculture, food, conservation, and trade programs. The law, with its 25 titles, amendedpermanent legislation and superseded the Food Security Act of 1985. This Act continued efforts to move agriculture in a market-oriented direction. It froze target prices and allowed more planting flexibility. New titles included rural development, forestry, organic certification, and commodity promotion programs.

Food additive(s): As defined in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, with narrow exceptions, any substance that results, directly or indirectly, in its becoming a component or otherwise affecting the characteristics of any food, including substances intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting, or holding food, including any source of radiation intended for one of these uses.

Food Additives Amendment of 1958 (P.L. 85-929): Signed into law Sept. 6, 1958. The Act established the “reasonable certainty of no harm” standard for food additives.

Food Aid Consultative Group (7 U.S.C. § 1725): The group authorized to review and address issues concerning the effectiveness of the regulations and procedures that govern food assistance programs, and the implementation of provisions that may involve private voluntary organizations, cooperatives, and indigenous nongovernmental organizations. The group was reauthorized through FY2007 by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 3005).

Food Aid Convention (FAC): Under this Convention, donors pledge to provide annually specified minimum amounts of food aid to developing countries in the form of grains and other eligible products. The objective of the Convention is to contribute to world food security, and to improve the ability of the international community to respond to emergency food situations and other food needs of developing countries. It is a major component of the International Grains Agreement.

Food aid program(s): See Food for Progress Program (FFP), P.L. 480, and Section 416(b).

Food and Agricultural Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-321): Signed into law November 3, 1965. The first multiyear farm legislation, providing for four-year commodity programs for wheat, feed grains, and upland cotton. It was extended for one more year through 1970 (P.L. 90-559). It authorized a Class I milk base plan for the 75 federal milk marketing orders, and a long-term diversion of cropland under a Cropland Adjustment Program. The law also continued payment and diversion programs for feed grains and cotton, and marketing certificateand diversion programs for wheat.

Food and agricultural science(s): Under Sec. 1404(8) of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. § 3103), basic research, applied research, and developmental research, extension, and teaching activities in food and fiber, agriculture, renewable natural resources, forestry, and physical and social sciences, including activities relating to the following: (a) animal health, production, and well-being; (b) plant health and production; (c) animal and plant germ plasmcollection and preservation; (d) aquaculture; (e) food safety; (f) soil and water conservation and improvement; (g) forestry, horticulture, and range management; (h) nutritional sciences and promotion; (i) farm enhancement, including financial management, input efficiency, and profitability; (j) home economics; (k) rural human ecology; (l) youth development and agricultural education, including 4-H clubs; (m) expansion of domestic and international markets for agricultural commoditiesand products, including agricultural trade barrier identification and analysis; (n) information management and technology transfer related to agriculture; (o) biotechnology related to agriculture; and (p) the processing, distributing, marketing, andutilization of food and agricultural products.

Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate Fellowship Grants Program: Under authority of Sec. 1417(b)(6) of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. § 3152(b)(6)), the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service may make competitive grants, for periods not to exceed five years, to land grant colleges and universities, to colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments and a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences, and to other colleges and universities having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences, to administer and conduct graduate fellowship programs in targeted national needs areas for the development of scientific and professional expertise in the food and agricultural sciences.

Food and Agriculture Act of 1962 (P.L. 87-703): Signed into law September 27, 1962. This Act authorized an emergency wheat program with voluntary diversion of wheat acreage, and continued the feed grain support program. It also included a marketing certificate program for wheat. Theprogram, however, was rejected by wheat producers, who were required to approve its marketing quota. The Act also authorized the Resource Conservation and Development program.

Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-113): Signed into law September 29, 1977. The law increased price- and income supports; imposed payment limitations on wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, and rice; and established a farmer-owned reserve for grain. It also established a new two-tiered pricing program for peanuts. Under the program, producers were given an acreage allotment on which a farm poundage quota was set. Producers could produce in excess of their quota, within their acreage allotment, but would receive the higher of the two price-support levels only for the quota amount. Peanuts in excess of the quota were referred to as additionals. The Act also included the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (Title XIII), and the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (Title XIV).

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): An agency of the United Nations concerned with the distribution and production of food and agricultural products around the world. Founded in 1945, FAO is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating country data on food, agriculture, and rural affairs. FAO serves as a coordinating body between government representatives, scientific groups, and nongovernmental agencies to carry out development programs in developing countries. The agency offers technical assistanceand operates training projects in many developing countries. It is officially known as the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

Food and Consumer Service (F&CS): The USDA agency formerly responsible for administering federal domestic food-aid programs. The parent Food and Nutrition Service was established 1969; the agency was given this name by the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, but later readopted the original agency name.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): A subordinate organization of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that has the primary responsibility for assuring the safety and wholesomeness of the food supply. The agency also regulates drugs for humans or animals, cosmetics, and medical devices. The FDA appropriations are included in the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

Food and Nutrition Service (FNS): Formerly known as the Food and Consumer Service, FNS administers the nutrition assistance programs of the USDA. The mission of FNS is to provide children and needy families better access to food and a more healthful diet through its food assistance programs and comprehensive nutrition education efforts.

Food Assistance in Disaster Situations: Following a major storm, earthquake, civil disturbance, flood, or other disaster, USDA agencies mobilize to insure there is food in areas where people may find themselves suddenly, and often critically, in need. Through the Food and Nutrition Service, assistance is provided in three ways: (a) commodity foods for shelters and other mass feeding sites, (b) commodity food packages directly to households in need, and (c) emergency food stamps. FNS has the primary responsibility of supplying food to disaster relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, for mass feeding or household distribution. Disaster organizations request food and nutrition assistance through state agencies that run the USDA’s nutrition assistance programs. State agencies notify the USDA of the types and quantities of food that relief organizations need for emergency feeding operations.

Food circle: The concept of a dynamic, community-based and regionally integrated, closed food system that is a production-consumption-recycle model.

Food Code: A Food and Drug Administration reference document for regulatory agencies responsible for overseeing food safety in retail outlets, such as restaurants, grocery stores, and institutions (including nursing homes and daycare centers), that consists of recommendations for adoption by local, state, and federal governmental jurisdictions.

Food deficit countries: Countries where food supplies are not sufficient to meet the population’s demands. This includes having neither the ability to produce enough food nor the ability to acquire sufficient foreign exchange to pay for imports needed to meet the country’s food demand.

Food distribution: Food and Nutrition Service programs that strengthen the nutrition safety net through commodity distribution and other nutrition assistance to low-income families, emergency feeding programs, Indian Reservations, and the elderly. SeeCommodity distribution program(s).

Food Distribution 2000: The initiative begun by the USDA Commodity Improvement Council in 1998 to transform the USDA’s commodity distribution programs. The goal was to improve customer service and operating efficiency and effectiveness.

Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR): The Food and Nutrition Service acquires and distributes food commodities to needy persons and families on Indian reservations and to Native American families who live near reservations who are not receiving food stamps. The program was reauthorized through fiscal year 2007 by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 4122).

Food distribution program(s): See Commodity distribution program(s).

Food donation program: See Nutrition Services Incentive Program (NSIP).

Food Emergency Rapid Response and Evaluation Team (FERRET): The working group authorized by the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 that ensures USDA-wide coordination of food safety activities.

Food fish: Fish raised for food or sport. These include carp, channel catfish, hybrid striped bass, perch, salmon, sturgeon, tilapia, and walleye.

Food fish industry (warmwater): Usually a term for the production in ponds of channel catfish; it also includes buffalo, Chinese carp, and tilapia.

Food for Development (program): See P.L. 480.

Food for Peace program: See P.L. 480.

Food for Progress Act of 1985 (7 U.S.C. §§ 1736o): Title XI, Sec. 1110, of the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended and reauthorized by Title XV of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, and the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 3106). It authorized the Food for Progress Program.

Food for Progress Program (FFP): Under the Food for Progress Act of 1985, the Commodity Credit Corporation may finance the sale and exportation of agricultural commodities, on credit terms or on a grant basis, to support developing countries and emerging democracies that have made a commitment to introduce or expand free enterprise elements into their agricultural economies and strengthen private-sector agriculture. Priority will be given to countries that are (a) engaged in private-sector development, (b) food importers, and (c) low income. Food for Progress agreements can be signed with governments or with private voluntary organizations, nonprofit agriculture organizations, cooperatives, intergovernmental organizations, or other private entities.Commodities may be provided under authority of P.L. 480 or Section 416(b), and the program is administered by the Foreign Agricultural Service. As a bona fide overseas food aid program that is not used to circumvent export subsidy reduction commitments, the Food for Progress Program is consistent with the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 3106) reauthorized the program through FY2007, and called for better reporting and monitoring.

Food grain(s): The cereal grains most commonly used for human food. Wheat, oats, rice, and rye are the main food grains produced in the U.S.

Food Guide Pyramid: The USDA food guide, released in 1992, that is designed to assist customers in choosing healthier diets. The Food Guide Pyramid includes the five major food groups, with the base being breads, cereals, rice, and pasta (six to eleven servings recommended); the next level including vegetables (three to five servings recommended) and fruits (two to four servings recommended); the next, smaller level being milk, yogurt, and cheese (two to three servings recommended) and meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts (two to three servings); and the cap (smallest) level consisting of fats, oils, and sweets (sparing use recommended).

Food insecurity: Whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways, is limited or uncertain. See Chronic food insecurity, and Transient food insecurity.

Food Institute (FI): A nonprofit information and reporting association, founded in 1928. Its membership includes more than 2,200 companies in all 50 states and in over 40 foreign countries. FI members span the entire food distribution system, from seed companies to grocery chains and all bases between, including producers, food processors, importers, exporters, brokers, wholesalers, supermarket chains, independent retailers, food industry suppliers, food service distributors, advertising and banking executives, and government officials.

Food irradiation: See Irradiation (pasteurization).

Food plot: An annual planting of grain to provide a winter source of food for a variety of wildlife.

Food power: The use of food as a tool of diplomacy by those countries with stable food resources and strong food export abilities.

Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) (P.L. 104-170): Signed into law August 3, 1996. The Act amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. It set new standards for chemical residues in foods, updated the scientific basis for rule-making, and reformed pesticide registration. The Act changed Environmental Protection Agency regulatory practices for pesticides by including a new safety standard, reasonable certainty of no harm, that must be applied to all pesticidesused on foods.

Food Safety: The USDA mission area that includes the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Food Safety (program): Smith-Lever 3(d) program for education of food handlers and consumers on how to minimize the risk from foodborne illnesses, as well as providing preharvest pathogen reduction education programs. See Smith-Lever 3(d) (funds).

Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS): The USDA agency that oversees food labeling and inspection. FSIS inspects all meat and poultry sold in interstate and foreign commerce, and tests for drug and chemical residues.

Food Safety Coalition: See Federal Food Safety Coalition.

Food Safety Commission: The 15-member commission authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 10807) to make specific recommendations to enhance the food safety system, including a report to the President and Congress addressing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Commission, and a summary of any other materials used by the Commission in the preparation of the report.

Food Safety Initiative: In January 1997, the President announced a budget request to initiate and expand science-based food safety activities to improve the safety of the nation’s food supply. Funding was directed toward an early warning system for foodborne illness; increasing seafood inspections; and expansion of food safety research, training, and education with the goal of reducing the incidence of foodborne illness. This initiative promotes collaboration between public and private sectors and interagency coordination.

Food security: (1) As defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Achieving food security means ensuring that sufficient food is available, that supplies are relatively stable and safe, and that those in need of food can obtain it. (2) Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002(Sec. 3106), access by all people at all times to sufficient food and nutrition for a healthy and productive life.

Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-198): Signed into law on December 23, 1985. The omnibus food and agriculture legislation that provided a five-year framework for the USDA to administer various agriculture and food programs. The Act amended permanent legislation – the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 and the Agricultural Act of 1949 – for the 1986 through 1990 crop years. The law allowed lower price- and income supports, lowered dairy supports, established a dairy termination program, established swampbuster and sodbuster provisions, and created a conservation reserve program targeted at erosive croplands.

Food Security Commodity Reserve: Under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 225), there was authorized the creation of a 4-million-ton reserve to include corn, grain sorghum, and rice, as well as wheat already in reserve under the authority of theFood Security Wheat Reserve of 1980. The USDA was authorized to release reserve supplies to developing countries for urgent humanitarian disaster relief. Subtitle B of the Africa: Seeds of Hope Act of 1998 amended the Food Security Commodity Reserve to rename specified provisions of the Food for Development Program as the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.

Food Security Improvements Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-260): Signed into law March 20, 1986. The law made further modifications to the Food Security Act of 1985, including limiting the nonprogram crops that can be planted under the 50/92 provision; permitting haying and grazing on diverted wheat and feed grain acres during a set five-month period, if requested by a Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service State Committee; and increasing assessments taken from the price of milk received by producers to fund the whole herd buyout program.

Food Security Wheat Reserve of 1980: A 4-million-metric-ton reserve program providing wheat to be used for emergency food donations. It is now known as the Food Security Commodity Reserve.

Food Stamp Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-525): Signed into law August 31, 1964. The law provided the basis for the Food Stamp Program. It was later replaced by the food stamp provisions (Title XIII) of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977.

Food Stamp Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-113) (7 USC §§ 2011 et seq.): Signed into law September 29, 1977. Title XIII of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, the Act permanently amended the Food Stamp Act of 1964 by eliminating purchase requirements and simplifying eligibility requirements.

Food Stamp Program (FSP): A program that helps low-income families improve their diets by providing nutrition education and food purchasing supplements, based on net income levels and household size. The program began as a pilot operation in 1961, and was made part of permanent legislation in the Food Stamp Act of 1964. The program, as amended by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Title IV, Subtitle A), is a federal-state partnership in which the USDA provides the full cost of food stamps benefits and half the cost of state administration. The states provide eligibility certification and employment and training activities, and conduct nutrition education. See Food Stamp Act of 1977.

Food stamp(s): See Food Stamp Program (FSP).

Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (FACTA) (P.L.101-624): Signed into law November 28, 1990. The omnibus food and agriculture legislation that provided a five-year framework for the USDA to administer various agriculture, food, conservation, and trade programs. The law, with its 25 titles, amended permanent legislation and superseded the Food Security Act of 1985. This Act continued efforts to move agriculture in a market-oriented direction. It froze target prices and allowed more planting flexibility. New titles included rural development, forestry, organic certification, and commodity promotion programs.

Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services: The USDA mission area that includes the Food and Nutrition Service and the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.

Foodborne illness(es): Diseases caused by certain bacterial contamination of food. These include botulism, campylobacteriosis, cholera, E. coli 0157:H7, listeriosis, salmonella enteritidis, shigellosis, and typhoid fever.

Foodborne Outbreak Response Coordinating Group (FORC-G): The group which provides an opportunity for federal, state, and local authorities to coordinate activities requiring close inter-agency cooperation across geographic or jurisdictional lines regarding outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.

Foodshed: A concept, using the analogy of a watershed, that describes the structure of an area food supply and the need to protect the source, as well as the need to know and understand its specific geographic and ecological dimensions, condition, and stability, in order for it to be safeguarded and enhanced.

Foodsize (catfish): For catfish, a large foodsize fish weighs over three pounds, a medium foodsize fish weighs over one and one-half pounds to three pounds, and a small foodsize fish weighs over three-fourths of a pound to one and one-half pounds.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD): A viral disease of all cloven-footed animals. The disease is spread by direct or indirect contact with an infected animal, or by milk, meat, or slaughter byproducts of an infected animal, but is rarely transmitted to humans. The disease leaves affected animals severely debilitated causing losses in production of meat and milk. Because the disease is highly contagious, infected and exposed animals in the U.S. are usually destroyed. Trade with the U.S. in animals and meat products from areas with FMD is restricted. Also called hoof-and-mouth disease, and aftosa.

FOR: Farmer-Owned Reserve

Forage allowance: The relationship between the weight of forage dry matter per unit area and the number of animal units at any one point in time; a forage-to-animal relationship. See Grazing pressure.

Forage Value Index (FVI): The weighted-average estimate of the annual rental charge per head per month for pasturing cattle on private rangelands. The FVI is one component used in calculating federal grazing fees.

Forage(s): (1) Fresh or preserved vegetable matter, including alfalfa hay, corn silage, and other hay crops, that is gathered and fed to animals as roughage. (2) All browse and herbaceous growth available and acceptable to grazing animals, or that may be harvested for feeding purposes. Forage includes pasture, rangelands, and crop aftermath.

Forbearance; forbear: See Loan forbearance.

Forbs: Herbaceous plants.

FORC-G: Foodborne Outbreak Response Coordinating Group

Force majeure: Severe weather conditions, fire, explosion, flood, earthquake, insurrection, riot, strike, labor dispute, act of civil or military authority, non-availability of transportation facilities, or any other cause, beyond the control of the warehouseman, that renders performance impossible.

Forced fermentation: See Fermentation.

Forced molting: The withdrawal of food (or nutrients) from egg-laying hens in order to induce a more regularized molting. Molting hens do not normally lay eggs. Also Induced molting.

Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS): The USDA export promotion and service agency responsible for expanding export opportunities for U.S. agricultural commodities and promoting world food security. The FAS coordinates and directs USDA’s activities related to international trade agreement programs and negotiations to improve access for U.S. farm products abroad. The agency is also responsible for gathering and disseminating information on worldwide production, supply, and demand for agricultural commodities; for operating statutory programs to facilitate the export of U.S. agricultural products; and for representing U.S. agricultural interests abroad. The FAS has 80 offices around the world covering agricultural developments and issues in 130 countries. It now contains the functions of the former Office of International Cooperation and Development. See Cochran Fellowship Program, Food For Progress Program (FFP), Foreign Market Development Program (Cooperator Program) (FMD) (FMDCP), Market Access Program (MAP), and P.L. 480.

Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory: See National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) and Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC).

Foreign animal diseases (FAD): Serious diseases that have either been eradicated from or have never occurred in the U.S. There are nearly 40 exotic diseases of livestock and poultry listed as FADs. To date, 13 serious livestock and poultry diseases have been eradicated from the U.S. Keeping these serious animal diseases out of the U.S. is the responsibility of the Veterinary Services unit of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Foreign Assistance and Related Programs: In the agricultural appropriations bill, the title that includes the Foreign Agricultural Service, P.L. 480, and Export Credit Programs accounts.

Foreign Assistance and Related Programs: In the agricultural appropriations bill, the title that includes the Foreign Agricultural Service, P.L. 480, and Export Credit Programs accounts.

Foreign Market Development Program (Cooperator Program) (FMD) (FMDCP): Authorized by Title VII of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978, and administered by the Foreign Agricultural Service, the FMD is a nonprice promotion program that promotes the sale of high-volume bulk commodities in a public-private partnership in which the federal government provides cost-share assistance to farmers and ranchers represented by the national cooperatives and commodity trade associations (cooperators). The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 3105) reauthorized the program and added emphasis to the export of U.S. value-added products. This program is not subject to Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture restrictions. See Generic promotion.

Foreign material: (1) All matter, other than grain or oilseeds, that remains in the sample after the removal of dockage, and shrunken and broken kernels or seeds. This generally includes straw, grass, weeds, and excessive dirt and sand, in a commodity samplethat is similar in size, shape, or weight to the grain or oilseed, and therefore less easily removable than dockage. (2) In wool, vegetable matter, sand, dust, stains from urine or vegetation, sweat, and polypropylene. See Cleanliness (grain), andDockage. (2) See Cotton classer; cotton grader. (3) See Dirty(ies) (eggs), and Loss (eggs).

Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) of 1974 (P.L. 93-378) (16 U.S.C. §§ 1601 et seq.): Signed into law August 17, 1974. This Act directed the USDA to make and keep current a comprehensive inventory and analysis of the present and prospective conditions of and requirements for the renewable resources of the forests and rangelands of the U.S. The Act further directed the USDA to develop and maintain, on a continuing basis, a comprehensive and appropriately detailed inventory of all National Forest Systems land and resources. This important legislation broadened the Forest Service mandate to include nontimber forest resources, such as wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, soil, and water, in its planning activities.

Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-307) (16 U.S.C. §§ 1641-1649): Signed into law June 30, 1978, and amended in 1980, 1988, 1990, and 1992. This Act authorizes the USDA to conduct renewable resources research activities on national forests and rangelands, including research relating to fish and wildlife and their habitats.

Forest farming: See Agroforestry, and Multistory cropping.

Forest grazing: The combined use of forest land, for both wood production and animal production, by grazing of the coexisting indigenous forage or vegetation that is managed like indigenous forage. See Grazable forest land, and Silvipastoral; silvopastoral.

Forest health: A condition of ecosystem sustainability and attainment of management objectives for a given forest area. Usually considered to include green trees, snags, downed logs, resilient stands growing at a moderate rate, and normal levels of insects and disease. Natural processes still function or are duplicated through management intervention.

Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP): A program, authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Title VIII, Subtitle A), that replaces the Stewardship Incentives Program and the Forestry Incentives Program. FLEP is optional in each state, and is a voluntaryprogram for non-industrial private forest land owners. It provides for technical assistance, educational assistance, and cost-share assistance to promote sustainability of non-industrial private forest land.

Forest land(s): Land that is at least 16.7 percent stocked by forest trees of any size, or land that formerly had such tree cover and is not currently being developed for nonforest uses.

Forest Legacy Program (FLP): A federal program, in partnership with states, that supports state efforts to protect privately owned, environmentally sensitive forest lands from being converted to nonforest uses. The FLP is an entirely voluntary program administered by theForest Service in cooperation with State Foresters. The program focuses on the acquisition of partial interests in privately owned forest lands, and helping states develop and carry out their forest conservation plans. Most FLP conservation easements restrict development, require sustainable forestry practices, and protect other values while maintaining private ownership of the forest.

Forest management: (1) Forest husbandry; generally, the practical application of scientific, economic, and social principles to the administration and working of a forest estate for specified objectives. (2) That branch of forestry concerned with the overall administrative, economic, legal, social, scientific, and technical aspects of silviculture protection and forest regulation.

Forest management plan (FMP): An approved plan prescribing management measures to be used on particular land to implement cost-shared practices.

Forest practice: (1) Any activity that enhances or recovers forest growth or harvest yield. Such activities include site preparation, planting, thinning, fertilization, and harvesting. (2) Road construction or reconstruction within forest lands for the purpose of facilitating harvest or forest management. (3) Any management of slash resulting from the harvest or improvement of tree species.

Forest product(s): Christmas trees, standing timber, maple products, gum for naval stores, firewood, and other forest-related products in a farm business.

Forest Products Conservation and Recycling program: A Forest Service program, under the Economic Action Programs initiative, that helps communities and businesses find new and expanded business opportunities based on forest resources.

Forest residuals: Wasted and unused wood in the forest, including logging residues left following conventional logging operations; rough, rotten, and dead trees; and annual mortality. See Forest residues.

Forest residuals: In the forest, wasted and unused wood including logging residues left following conventional logging operations; rough, rotten, and dead trees; and annual mortality.

Forest residues: Material not harvested or removed from logging sites in commercial hardwood and softwood stands as well as material resulting from forest management operations such as pre-commercial thinnings and removal of dead and dying trees. SeeForest residuals.

Forest Service (FS): Established in 1905 as an agency of the USDA that manages public lands in national forests and national grasslands. The Forest Service is the largest forestry research organization in the world, and provides financial and technical assistance tostate and private forestry agencies.

Forest Service Payments to States: In lieu of property taxes, the Forest Service generally shares 25 percent of receipts from the sale, lease, rental, or other use of the national forests to the states for use on roads and schools in the counties where the national forests are located. See Payment in lieu of taxes.

Forest Stewardship Program (FSP): A Forest Service program that brings professional natural resource management expertise to nonindustrial private forest land owners to help in developing plans for properly managing private forests, thereby providing timber, wildlife habitat, watershed protection, recreational opportunities, and other benefits.

Forest-dependent community: See National Forest-dependent rural community(ies).

Forestation: The establishment of a forest, naturally or artificially, on an area whether previously forested or not.

Forestry: (1) Generally, a profession embracing the science, business, and art of creating, conserving, and managing forests and forest lands for the continuing use of their resources and material. (2) The husbandry of tree crops, or the profitable exploitation of the resources intrinsic to forest land. (3) The science, art, and practice of managing and using for human benefit the natural resources that occur on or in association with forest lands.

Forestry colleges or programs (forestry schools): There are 52 forestry colleges or programs affiliated with Colleges of Agriculture (an additional 12 forestry programs are located at non-land grant universities). More than half the forestry programs were established after passage of the McIntire-Stennis Act of 1962, which remains the authority under which USDA funds for forestry research are distributed.

Forestry Incentives Program (FIP): Under provisions of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 373), the Natural Resources Conservation Service cost-sharing and technical assistance program that encourage landowners of nonindustrial private forest land to plant trees on suitable open land or cutover areas, and to perform timber stand improvement work for production of sawtimber, pulpwood, and related products. The FIP was replaced by the Forest Land Enhancement Program in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

Forestry research: Under the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Act, investigations relating to: (a) reforestation and management of land for the production of crops of timber and other related products of the forest; (b) management of forest lands and related watershed lands to improve conditions of waterflow and to protect resources against floods and erosion; (c) management of forest and related rangeland for production of forage for domestic livestock and game and improvement of food and habitat for wildlife; (d) management of forest lands for outdoor recreation; (e) protection of forest land and resources against fire, insects, diseases, or other destructive agents; (f) utilization of wood and other forest products; (g) development of sound policies for the management of forest lands and marketing of forest products; and (h) such other studies as may be necessary to obtain the fullest and most effective use of forest resources.

Forestry Research Advisory Council (FRAC): Authorized by the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 (Section 1441(c)) to provide advice to the USDA on administration of the McIntire-Stennis cooperative forestry research program and on the Forest Service research program. The Council reports on plans to better coordinate national forestry research within federal and state agencies, forestry schools, and the forest industry, and is composed of 18 voting members from federal and state agencies, forest industries, forestry schools and state agricultural experiment stations, and volunteer public groups.

Forfeit(ed); forfeiture: After maturity of a nonrecourse loan, the holder of the loan may surrender the commodity collateral to the Commodity Credit Corporation and retain the loan proceeds without recourse for any losses incurred. See Commodity certificate(s), Loan forfeiture, Loan settlement, Market loan repayment (provision) (MLR), Marketing loan program, Maturity; mature(d), Nonrecourse loan(s), and Price-support program(s).

Form A loan: A nonrecourse loan entered into between a producer and the Commodity Credit Corporation. See Form G loan.

Form G loan: A Commodity Credit Corporation nonrecourse loan entered into between a Cooperative Marketing Association and the CCC. See Form A loan.

Formula funds: Common name given to Hatch Act funds administered by CSREES and provided to the various state agricultural experiment stations on a formula basis, taking into account the size of the agricultural activity in the state and the number ofproducers. The formula was adopted in 1955 as an amendment to the Hatch Act. The formula provides for each state to receive what it received in 1955 as a base amount. Sums appropriated in excess of the 1955 level are distributed as follows: 20 percent is allotted equally to each state; 52 percent is allocated on the basis of a state’s share of U.S. rural and farm population; a maximum of 25 percent is allocated to the states for research projects that involve more than one state; and 3 percent is reserved for administration. On average, Hatch Act formula funds constitute 10 percent of total funding for each state agricultural experiment station. Formula funds also refers to Cooperative Extension Service Smith-Lever 3(b&c) funds administered by CSREES.

Formula funds: Common name given to federal funds provided for research, extension, and education activities at land grant institutions that are appropriated to the states on the basis of statutory formulas. Eligibility is limited to the cooperating institutions, most of which are 1862 institutions, 1890 institutions, and 1994 land grant institutions. These formula funds include research programs (Hatch Act funds, Animal Health and Disease Research, Evans-Allen 1890 Research, and McIntire-Stennis), extension programs (Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, Smith-Lever 3(b&c) funds, 1890 Extension, and Renewable Resources Extension Act) and education programs (Tribal Colleges Endowment Fund).

Formula grant(s): Mandatory close-ended grants. See Grant(s).

Formula loan rate: Under former farm bill programs, as in the case with the wheat and feedgrains programs, each year the USDA posted two loan rates: the basic or formula loan rate, and the effective loan rate. Under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, the formula loan rate for wheat was calculated as the higher of (a) 85 percent of the preceding five-year moving average market price, dropping the high and low years, or (b) 95 percent of the preceding year’s basic loan rate. Under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, the formula loan rates for wheat, feed grains, soybeans, and minor oilseeds were required to be no less than 85 percent of the simple average of prices received by producersduring the immediately preceding five years. Authority (Sec. 132) to adjust the marketing assistance loan rate for wheat and feedgrains was also provided. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1202) set fixed loan rates. See Announced loan rate.

Formula marketing arrangement: In cattle marketing, the advance commitment of cattle for slaughter by any means other than through a negotiated purchase or a forward contract, using a method for calculating price in which the price is determined at a future date.

Formula price: A price determined by a previously established mathematical formula, with the price in a specified market serving as the basis for the formula.

Formula purchase: See Other market formula purchase and Swine or pork market formula purchase.

Formula; formulated (cattle): See Formula marketing arrangement.

Formulation (feed): The designing and balancing of animal diets.

Fortification; food fortification; fortified: The addition of one or more essential nutrients to a food, whether or not it is normally contained in the food, for the purpose of preventing or correcting a demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the population or specific population groups.

Forward contract(s)(ing): (1) An agreement between a buyer and seller for future delivery of a commodity, specifying quantity, quality, place of delivery, price, and date. Exchange of title normally occurs at the time of delivery. (2) A method of selling crops before harvest by which the buyer agrees to pay a specified price to a producer for a portion, or all, of the producer’s crops. (3) Two types of contracts: fixed price contracts, and basis contracts. Fixed price contracts offer a guaranteed price for meeting the minimum quality requirement. These specify discounts and premiums from the base price for quality differences. A basis contract locks in just the difference between futures and cash prices.

Forward creep (grazing): A method of creep grazing in which mothers and offspring rotate through a series of paddocks, with offspring as first grazers and mothers as last grazers. It is a specific form of first-last grazing, although offspring can move back and forth between paddocks.

Forward market: Trading outside a commodities exchange for delivery at a future date.

Forward price contract: A contract that allows buyers and sellers of a commodity to negotiate a price for the commodity on a future delivery date, and that insulates both parties from price volatility.

Forward Price Contract Pilot Program: Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2000, a temporary pilot program authorized (amending the Agricultural Marketing Agreement of 1937) to allow individual dairy producers or their cooperatives to enter into a forward price contractwith a processor for certain uses of milk. Under current law, a processor must pay a producer no less than the blend price each month for any milk the processor purchases. The pilot program, to be administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service, will allow producers and cooperatives to enter into a forward price contract for all milk used for manufactured milk products, regardless of what the blend price is at the time of delivery. The program is available from August 1, 2000, through December 31, 2004. Also Dairy Forward Pricing Pilot Program.

Forward pricing: A marketing alternative used to lock in a future price for a commodity still unproduced, unplanted, growing, or in storage. Forward pricing is accomplished by cash contracting or hedging in the futures market.

Forward selling: Forward contracting in which the price is fixed at the time the contract is entered.

Forwarding: Log carrying.

Fossil fuel(s): Organic matter that has been transformed into coal, oil, and natural gas.

Foundation beef herd: Under the Cattle Feed Program, owned or leased beef cows, replacement heifers, and bulls kept for breeding of a beef cow herd. See Foundation herd; foundation flock.

Foundation flock: See Foundation herd; foundation flock.

Foundation herd; foundation flock: (1) Traditionally, a purebred seedstock operation that provides superior animal genetics for commercial purposes. (2) A resident herd of breeding animals with a history of production.

Foundation Livestock Relief (Cost-Share) Program (FLRP): A program established in 1997 to assist producers who needed unanticipated, excessive quantities of livestock feed due to extreme weather. Producers were reimbursed for up to 30 percent of eligible feed purchased and received during the assistance period.

Foundation seed: Seed stock produced from breeder seed by or under the direct control of an agricultural experiment station. Foundation seed is the source of certified seed, either directly or through registered seed organizations.

FPP: Farmland Protection Program

FPPR: Farm Program Payment Reserve

FQPA: Food Quality Protection Act of 1996

FRAC: Forestry Research Advisory Council

Fragile land(s): The geographic areas containing important natural, ecologic, scientific, or esthetic resources that could be damaged or destroyed by mining, agricultural, or construction activities.

Frame score: A cattle score based on subjective evaluation of height or actual measurement of hip height. This score is related to slaughter weights at which cattle should grade “choice” or have comparable amounts of fat.

Frankenfoods: Derogatory name given by opponents to genetically modified foods.

Freddie Mac: See Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac).

Free Along Side (F.A.S.): The seller places cargo beside a vessel on a dock or in a smaller vessel. It is usually applicable to bagged cargo such as rice or flour.

Free carrier: The seller fulfills the obligation to deliver when goods are handed over, cleared for export, into the charge of the carrier named by the buyer at the named place or point. If no precise point is indicated by the buyer, the seller may choose, within the place or range stipulated, where the carrier shall take the goods into his charge.

Free choice: The availability of feed at all times which allows animals to feed at will.

Free market: A theoretical concept in which prices are set by private forces, without direct government influence on the terms of trade.

Free on Board (F.O.B.): A price quotation indicating that the seller assumes all responsibility and costs for delivering the goods and loading them on a stated carrier at a specified location. The seller is responsible for placing grain at the end of the loading spout; the buyer is responsible for providing the ocean vessel.

Free radicals: The natural byproducts of cell metabolism. Free radicals form when oxygen is metabolized, or burned, by the body. They travel through cells, disrupting the structure of other molecules, causing cellular damage. Such cell damage is believed to contribute to aging, cancer, and other health problems.

Free range: Animals raised such that they receive regular access to fresh air, sun, soil, and green forage. Also Free roam.

Free rider: (1) A country that does not make any trade concessions, but profits, nonetheless, from tariff reductions and concessions made by other countries negotiating under the most-favored-nation principle. (2) Producers who benefit from the mass participation of other producers in farm programs, without having to enroll in the programs themselves or provide for any of the costs.

Free roam: See Free range.

Free stocks (supply): Stocks of a physical commodity that are available for commercial sale, as distinguished from government-owned or -controlled stocks.

Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA): The proposed integration of the economies of the Western Hemisphere into a single free trade area. This proposed arrangement was initiated at the 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami. The Heads of State of the 34 democracies in the region agreed to complete negotiations for the agreement by 2005, and made a commitment to achieve substantial progress toward building the FTAA by 2000. The objectives of the agriculture negotiations on market access are to (a) ensure thatsanitary and phytosanitary measures are not applied in a manner that would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries or a disguised trade barrier, (b) eliminate agricultural export subsidies affecting trade in the hemisphere, and (c) identify other trade-distorting practices for agricultural products, including those that have an effect equivalent to agriculture export subsidies, and bring them under greater discipline.

Free trade area(s): When two or more countries eliminate internal trade barriers, such as tariffs and border restrictions, while keeping their own external tariffs against nonmember countries.

Free zone: An area within a country (a seaport, airport, warehouse, or any designated area) regarded as being outside its customs territory. Importers may bring goods of foreign origin into such an area without paying customs duties and taxes, pending their eventual processing, transshipment, or re-exportation.

Free-use grazing permits: A permit issued to any applicant whose residence is adjacent to public lands within a grazing district, and who needs these public lands to support those domestic livestock owned by the applicant, whose products or work are used directly and exclusively by the applicant and his family.

Freedom to Farm: Agricultural policy emphasizing greater reliance on market forces. It was another name for the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

Freestall barn: See Barn (freestall).

Freeze brand(ing): A method of branding with extremely cold irons. Freeze branding destroys the natural pigments in hair, thus producing a growth of white hair. This relatively painless method of branding reduces hide damage. Cooling solutions used are isopropyl, ethyl, or methyl alcohol, although the most practical coolant seems to be dry ice.

Freeze brand(s)(ing): A method of animal identification using branding with extremely cold irons. Freeze branding destroys the natural pigments in hair, thus producing a growth of white hair. This relatively painless method of branding reduces hide damage. Cooling solutions used are isopropyl, ethyl, or methyl alcohol, although the most practical coolant seems to be dry ice.

Fresh market vegetables: Vegetables sold primarily as fresh, including artichokes, asparagus, green lima beans, snap beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cantaloupes, carrots, cauliflower, celery, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, escarole and endive, garlic, radishes, honeydews, lettuce, onions, bell peppers, spinach, tomatoes, and watermelons. It also includes fresh-cut products such as baby carrots and bagged salads.

Fresh poultry: Poultry whose internal temperature has never been below 26°F. The temperature of individual packages of raw poultry products labeled “fresh” can vary as much as one degree below 26°F within inspected establishments or two degrees below 26°F in commerce. See Frozen poultry.

Fresh weight: See Farm weight.

Fresh-cut vegetables (fresh-processed): Fresh market vegetables that have been trimmed, peeled, or cut (but not heated) into a completely usable fresh product that is marketed in a prepackaged form. Examples include bagged salads, baby peeled carrots, and broccoli florets.

Friable: A description of soil considered to be crumbly and easily powdered.

Fringe area(s): The area adjacent to an urban area with a population density of at least one thousand persons per mile.

Frontal grazing: A grazing method that allocates forage within a land area by means of a sliding fence that livestock can advance to gain access to ungrazed forage.

Frontier area(s): Those counties with a population density less than six persons per square mile.

Frowzy: Wool that is dry and lifeless, without a distinct crimp, due to weather or poor quality.

Frozen poultry: Raw poultry with an internal temperature of 0°F or below. See Fresh poultry.

FRPP: Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program

FRRP: Flood Risk Reduction Program

FRS: Financially-related services

Fructose: A monosaccharide found naturally in fruits, as an added sugar in a crystalline form, and as a component of high-fructose corn syrup.

Fruit fly(ies): Particularly damaging to fruit and vegetable crops, the Mediterranean, Oriental, and Mexican fruit flies attack oranges, melons, peaches, grapefruit, bananas, pineapples, tomatoes, avocados, pears, apples, plums, nectarines, and 150 other fruits and vegetables. The larvae feed on the pulp of the fruit.

Fry: (1) Very young post-larval fish. (2) In channel catfish, newly hatched fish shorter than one inch in size.

Fryer(s): Chicken raised from 90 to 120 days, then sold for meat.

Fryer-roaster turkey: A young, immature turkey, of either sex, usually less than 16 weeks of age.

FS: Forest Service (USDA)

FSA: Farm Service Agency

FSFL: Farm Storage Facility Loan Program

FSFLP: Farm Storage Facility Loan Program

FSIS: Food Safety and Inspection Service

FSMIP: Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program

FSN: Farm serial number

FSP: Forest Stewardship Program

FSP: Food Stamp Program

FTAA: Free Trade Area of the Americas

FTF: John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer Program

Fuel cell: An electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy in a fuel directly to electricity without the intervening combustion used in a conventional power system. In a typical fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen react electrochemically at separate electrodes, producing electricity, heat, and water.

Fuelwood: Wood salvaged from mill waste, cull logs, and branches; used to fuel fires in a boiler or furnace.

Full funding: (1) An appropriation that finances the full estimated cost of a project, program, or activity that will take several years to complete and that requires periodic or intermittent expenditures over that period of time. (2) Sometimes refers to an appropriation that provides the full amount authorized for a project or activity for an upcoming fiscal year. (3) An agency estimation of the funding amount required to reach the full potential of a project, program, activity, or unit. See Incremental funding.

Fulling: A finishing process in which the woven or knitted cloth is subjected to moisture, heat, and friction, causing it to shrink considerably in both directions and become compact and solid.

Fumigant(s): Pesticide gas or vapor intended to destroy pests in buildings or soil. See Methyl bromide.

Fumonisin(s): A mycotoxin most often produced by two species of fusarium molds. The crop most affected is corn. Fumonisin is usually produced before harvest, but if storage conditions are favorable, continued toxin production can occur. The effect of fumonisin ingestion on livestock varies with species, amounts ingested, and length of time ingested, and can range from mere excitability to death.

Function(s); functional category; functional classification: See Budget function(s).

Functional foods: Foods that may provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition.

Fund for Rural America: Established by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Sec. 793), the goal of the Fund was to provide agricultural research and rural development support. The bill authorized $100 million for each of the fiscal years 1997 through 1999. One-third of the funds were to be utilized for rural development, one-third for agricultural research, and the remaining one-third for either or both of the prior missions. The Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 extended program authority through FY2003. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 6403) repealed authority for the program.

Fundamental research: See Basic research.

Fundamental(s) (side of the market): In futures markets, the physical supply/demand side of the market. Important fundamentals include the size of production, weather, consumption levels, and yields.

Funds for Strengthening Markets, Income, and Supply: An account under Title I, Agricultural Programs, of agricultural appropriations. See Section 32.

Funds for Strengthening Markets, Income, and Supply: An account under Title I, Agricultural Programs, of agricultural appropriations. See Section 32.

Fungible: Uniform and consistent from lot to lot; required characteristic before a commodity can be traded on an exchange.

Fungicide(s): A chemical substance used as a spray, dust, or disinfectant to kill fungi (including blights, mildews, molds, and rusts) infesting plants or seeds. See Pesticide(s).

Furnace: An enclosed chamber or container used to burn biomass in a controlled manner to produce heat for space, smelt or refine ores, or incinerate wastes. See Incinerator.

Furrow irrigation: A partial surface flooding method of irrigation, normally used with clean-till crops, where water is applied in furrows or rows of sufficient capacity to contain the designed irrigation system.

Furrow slice: The layer of topsoil that is moved by tillage, typically about six inches deep.

Furrow(s): A long, narrow, shallow trench made in the ground by a plow for planting and irrigation.

Further processing (processed): Preparing a full range of processed products from a basic commodity item. This is usually a specialized and separate function of a plant or firm’s operation.

Fusarium: A genus of fungus, also known as scab, that infests certain grains. In wheat, (fusarium head blight) fungus infestation causes the wheat plant to weaken and to produce empty seed heads, thus reducing yield. As a by-product of its metabolism, fusarium produces fumonisins (one of which is known vomitoxin), a group of mycotoxins. Fumonisin B1 is the most prevalent fusarium-produced mycotoxin in corn. Its presence can cause livestock to refuse to eat infested feed, decrease reproductive efficiency in swine, and even kill horses.

Future Farmers of America (FFA): An organization for high school students studying vocational agriculture.

Futures: See Futures contract(s).

Futures commodity: See Commodity(ies) (futures trading).

Futures contract(s): A transferrable contractual agreement to buy or sell a specific kind, quality, and quantity of a commodity for delivery at a future time and place, and at a specified price.

Futures exchange(s): See Futures market(s).

Futures market(s): Public places where commitments to deliver or to take delivery of grain may be made under strict rules. Futures markets are primarily used to transfer financial risk from those seeking to reduce the risk of price change to those seeking to profit from the risk. Little grain is delivered as a result of futures market transactions; however, the pricing trends established through the open trading of futures contracts is directly reflected in world prices. The two largest futures trading markets in the U.S. are the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Futures price: (1) Commonly held to mean the price of a commodity, for future delivery, that is traded on a futures exchange. (2) The price of any futures contract.

Futures trading: A method of buying and selling commodities in which the seller agrees to deliver a certain quantity of a product at some specified future time for a specified price that is set when the contract is made, and the buyer agrees to accept the delivery at that future time and at that same price.

Futures Trading Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-641): Signed into law November 10, 1986. The law reauthorized appropriations to carry out the Commodity Exchange Act, and made technical improvements to that Act.

FVI: Forage value index

FW: Farmed wetland

FWP: Farmable Wetland Pilot Project

FWPCA: Federal Water Pollution Control Act

FWS: Fish and Wildlife Service

FY: Fiscal year