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Have you ever wondered how American agriculture compares with farming in our neighboring countries to the north and south? In today’s global economy, many people seek information about farmers, farmland and the production of food and other agricultural products around the world. A tripartite committee of agricultural statistical agencies in Mexico, Canada and the United States has launched a new website to make the comparison among the three North American nations easier.
North American Tripartite Committee on Agricultural Statistics or NATCAS as it is known aims to promote the sharing of information and standardization of data among our three countries in order to make agricultural statistics easily accessible to all users. The website contains detailed data on people, production, international trade and the horticulture industries. In addition, users can access maps and tables comparing selected data from each country’s census of agriculture, including the most recent U.S. Census of Agriculture.
I, along with my colleagues at NASS, have found this international collaboration to be very rewarding and insightful. We hope businesses, farmers, students, policymakers, researchers, the agricultural industry and others curious about how the three countries are different and similar will find the web site valuable. Available in English, Spanish and French, the website is a single, convenient place for data users to compare various aspects of agriculture throughout North America.
