Habitat conservation plans (HCPs) — Plans prepared under the Endangered Species Act, by nonfederal parties wishing to obtain permits for incidental taking of threatened and endangered species. The number of HCPs has expanded enough in the last 5 years that there are concerns over cost, effectiveness, contributions to recovery, monitoring, and other issues.

HACCP — Hazard analysis and critical control point.

Handler — Generally, the first buyer of a farmer’s commodity destined for fresh market use (in contrast to processing). Under marketing orders, handlers are defined as anyone who receives the commodity from producers, grades and packs it, and sells it to someone else for further marketing. Usually, the requirements spelled out in marketing orders technically apply to handlers, although producers absorb their effects.

Hardiness zones — See plant hardiness zones.

Harmonization — The process of establishment, recognition, and application of internationally recognized measures or standards. Used most often in reference to tariffs (as in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS)), technical standards, or sanitary and phytosanitary measures applied to imported food products.

Harmonized system — The international classification system for goods, implemented by most countries on January 1, 1998, which is used for tariff classification, trade statistics, and ultimately, transport documentation. Officially known as the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, conversion was begun by the Customs Cooperation Council in 1970 as a replacement for the Customs Cooperation Council Nomenclature also known as the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature.

Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the United States (HTS, HTSUS) — This document, published and maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, provides the applicable tariff rates and statistical categories for all merchandise imported into the United States; it is based on the international Harmonized System, the global classification system that is used to describe most world trade in goods.

Hart-Scott-Rodino — The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 establishes a notification and review process that precedes mergers and acquisitions. Generally, large companies planning a merger or acquisition of another firm first must notify both the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, and provide the two agencies with information (which must be kept confidential) that enables them to assess the likely competitive impacts. The agencies usually have 30 days to make this assessment. During this period, USDA — which has no authority to approve mergers — might be asked, or decide on its own, to contribute information if the proposed merger affects agriculture.

Harvested acres — The cropland actually harvested for a particular crop, usually somewhat smaller at the national level than planted acres due to weather damage or abandonment because of low market prices.

Hatch Act of 1887 — The permanent statute (24 Stat. 440) authorizing federal funds to state agricultural experiment stations affiliated with the land grant colleges of agriculture. Congress last amended the act in 1955, adding a formula that USDA uses to allocate the annual appropriation among the states. 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% is allotted equally to each state; 52% is allocated on the basis of a state’s share of U.S. rural and farm population; a maximum of 25% is allocated to the states for research projects that involve more than one state; and 3% is reserved for administration. On average, Hatch Act formula funds constitute 10% of total funding for each experiment station.

Haying and grazing rules — Under previous commodity support law, farmers were permitted, for limited time periods (usually during droughts) and under specific circumstances, to harvest hay or graze cattle on land idled under acreage reduction programs. These rules were eliminated by the FAIR Act of 1996.

Hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) — A production quality control system now being adopted throughout much of the food industry as a method for minimizing the entry of food borne pathogens into the food supply in order to protect human health. Under a HACCP system, potential hazards are identified and risks are analyzed in each phase of production; critical control points for preventing such hazards are identified and constantly monitored; and corrective actions are taken when necessary. Record keeping and verification procedures are used to ensure that the system is working. HACCP is one of the major elements of regulations, issued by USDA in July 1996 to control pathogens in meat and poultry products. Under the rules, all meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants with 500 or more employees had to develop and implement, by January 1998, a USDA-approved HACCP plan for each of their processes and products. Plants with 10 to 500 employees had until January 1999 to comply, and plants with less than 10 employees have until January 2000, to implement HACCP. Under separate rules issued by the Food and Drug Administration on December 5, 1995, seafood processors and importers also were required to implement HACCP plans and be in full compliance by December 1997.

HAZMAT — Hazardous materials.

HCP — Habitat conservation plan.

Head month — A month’s use and occupancy of rangeland by a single animal or equivalent. A full head month’s fee is charged for each month of grazing by adult animals if the grazing animal (1) is weaned, (2) is 6 months old or older when entering National Forest System land, or (3) will become 12 months old during the period of use. For fee purposes, a head month is equivalent to one animal unit month.

Headwaters — The source, or upper part, of a stream. Often used in discussing water rights related to wilderness or other federal land designations.

Healthy Meals for Healthy Americans Act of 1994 — P.L. 103-448 (November 2, 1994) Amendments reauthorizing several expiring programs under the National School Lunch Act and Child Nutrition Amendments of 1966 through FY1998. Required that federally subsidized meal programs conform their meal requirements to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, made the nutrition education and training (NET) program an entitlement, and made other changes to the WIC program expanding program outreach and coordination. Superceded by William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-336).

Hectare (ha) — A metric measure of area equal to 10,000 square meters. One hectare=2.47 acres. One acre=0.405 hectares. See acre.

Hedging — Taking a position in a futures market opposite to a position held in the cash market to minimize the risk of financial loss from an adverse price change; a purchase or sale of futures contract as a temporary substitute for a cash transaction that will occur later (i.e., long hedge and short hedge). Hedgers use the futures markets to protect their business from adverse price changes.

HEL — Highly-erodible land.

Herbicide — Any pesticide used to destroy or inhibit plant growth; a weed killer.

HHS — Department of Health and Human Services.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — Produced from converting to fructose a portion of naturally occurring glucose in starch produced from corn. A natural sweetener, HFCS production expanded during the 1980s as a substitute for higher-cost sugar used in soft drinks. HFCS-55 (55% fructose), which is as sweet as sugar, has almost completely replaced liquid sugar in beverages. HFCS-42 (42% fructose) is roughly 90% as sweet as sugar, and is mainly used in cereal, baking, dairy, and processed foods. HFCS and two other corn-derived sweeteners (glucose syrup and dextrose) accounted for approximately 55% of total U.S. natural (caloric) sweetener use in recent years.

High moisture feed grains — Corn and grain sorghum must have moisture content below CCC standards in order to qualify for marketing assistance loans. However, the FAIR Act of 1996 makes recourse loans available to producers of corn and grain sorghum that have higher moisture content.

High value products (HVP) — Agricultural products that are high in value, often but not necessarily due to processing. HVPs can be divided into three groups: 1) semi-processed products, such as fresh and frozen meats, flour, vegetable oils, roasted coffee, refined sugar; 2) highly processed products that are ready for the consumer, such as milk, cheese, wine, breakfast cereals; and 3) high-value unprocessed products that are also often consumer-ready, such as fresh and dried fruits and vegetables, eggs, and nuts. In recent years HVPs have accounted for a greater percentage than bulk commodities in total value of U.S. agricultural exports.

Highly erodible land (HEL) — Land that is very susceptible to erosion, including fields that have at least 1/3 or 50 acres of soils with a natural erosion potential of at least 8 times their T value. More than 140 million acres are classified as HEL. Farms cropping highly erodible land and under production flexibility contracts must be in compliance with a conservation plan that protects this cropland.

HNI — Human Nutrition Institute.

Hog/corn ratio (corn-hog ratio) — Number of bushels of corn equal in value to 100 pounds of live hogs (feed ratio). Put another way, the price of hogs, per hundredweight, divided by the price of corn per bushel. Since corn is a major input cost to hog producers, the higher the price of hogs relative to corn, the more profit there is in feeding hogs.

Holding pond — A pond or reservoir, usually made of earth, built to store polluted runoff.

Homestead protection — When a USDA farm loan borrower lacks the financial resources to make payments on a delinquent loan, is ineligible for a restructured loan, and is unable to buy out the loan at the net recovery value of the collateral property, the borrower can convey the property to USDA in lieu of loan payments. Until eliminated by the FAIR Act of 1996, the borrower may have been eligible for homestead protection, whereby the borrower could lease and/or purchase the residence and up to 10 acres of adjoining land.

Honey program — Non-recourse marketing loans had long been available to support honey prices until FY1994, when the funding was suspended by provisions in annual appropriations legislation. The FACT Act of 1990 had set honey loan rates at 53.8 cents per pound and permitted deficiency payments. The 1996 FAIR Act repealed the statutory authority for the honey program. A Honey Recourse Loan Program was made available the 1998 crop only through broader emergency spending authority in the FY1999 agriculture appropriations act (P.L. 105-277, October 21, 1998).

Honey Recourse Loan Program — A program authorized by the emergency provisions of the FY1999 USDA appropriations act (P.L. 105-277, October 21, 1998) that makes recourse loans based on a national average rate of $0.56 per pound on 1998-crop honey. Final date to obtain a loan was May 7, 1999. The producer-owned honey must be merchantable and stored in acceptable containers. Loans carry an administrative fee of $0.009 per pound, bear an interest rate 1% higher than the CCC borrowing interest rate, and mature not later than 9 months following disbursement. The program is administered by the Farm Service Agency.

Horse Protection Act — P.L. 91-540 (December 9,1970), as amended, makes it a crime to exhibit, or transport for the purpose of exhibiting, any "sored" horse, which is one whose feet have been injured deliberately to accentuate the animal’s gait. APHIS enforces the law, which covers all breeds, although Tennessee Walking Horses are the most frequent subjects of this procedure.

Horticultural specialty crops — The Census of Agriculture includes as "horticultural specialties" bedding plants, florists’ greens, flower and vegetable seeds, flowers, foliage, fruit stocks, nursery and ornamental plants, shrubbery, sod, mushrooms, and vegetables grown under cover (e.g., in greenhouses).

Household (foodstamp) — A food stamp household is composed of all those who purchase food and prepare meals in common. All related co-residents must apply as a single food stamp household, no matter how they purchase and prepare food — except for elderly persons who are medically certified as unable to purchase and prepare meals separately. Other co-residents may apply separately if they purchase and prepare food separately, and residents in certain eligible institutional settings (e.g., shelters for battered women, residential drug treatment programs) may apply as separate households no matter how they purchase and prepare food.

Housing Act of 1949 — Title V of P.L. 81-171 (October 25, 1949) authorized USDA to make loans to farmers to construct, improve, repair, or replace dwellings and other farm buildings to provide decent, safe, and sanitary living conditions for themselves, their tenants, lessees, sharecroppers, and laborers. The USDA was authorized to make grants or combinations of loans and grants to farmers who could not qualify to repay the full amount of a loan, but who needed the funds to make the dwellings sanitary or to remove health hazards to the occupants or the community. Over time, the Act has been amended to authorize housing loans and grants to rural residents in general and these are administered by the Rural Housing Service (RHS). The rural housing programs are generally referred to by the section number under which they are authorized in the Housing Act of 1949, as amended.
 

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HSI — Habitat suitability index.

HSUS — Humane Society of the United States.

HTS, HTSUS — Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.

Hundredweight — One hundred pounds (abbreviated as cwt.). A standard unit of measure for milk, rice, and some meat livestock.

Hunger / Food insecurity — An economic definition is the lack of food due to the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. The USDA, in 1997, estimated that about 12% of US households suffer from food insecurity.

Hunger Prevention Act of 1988 — P.L. 100-435 (September 19, 1988) amended the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 to require the USDA to make additional types of commodities available for the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), to improve the child nutrition and food stamp programs, and to provide other hunger relief.

HVP — High value products.

Hydric soil — Soil that, in its undrained state, is flooded long enough during a growing season to develop anaerobic conditions that support the growth and regeneration of hydrophytic vegetation (plants specialized to grow in water or in soil too waterlogged for most plants to survive). This term is part of the legal definition of a wetland included in the Food Security Act of 1985. The Natural Resources Conservation Service maintains a national list of hydric soils.

Hydroponics — The growing of plants without soil by using an inert medium such as sand, peat, or vermiculite and adding a nutrient solution containing all the essential elements needed by the plant for its normal growth and development. Water culture, when plant roots are suspended in a liquid medium containing the nutrient solution while their crowns are supported in a thin layer of inert medium, is true hydroponics. Often called soilless culture, it also includes aeroponics where plant roots are suspended in a dark chamber and sprayed with the nutrient solution.

Hypoxia — A low oxygen condition in the water that may occur where a nutrient-laden free-flowing body of water (like a river) enters a lake or ocean. The high nutrient content promotes rapid growth of plankton/phytoplankton that subsequently die and, in the process, consume large amounts of oxygen (see biochemical oxygen demand). While fish and shrimp can migrate away from a hypoxic area, less mobile bottom-dwelling organisms are unable to escape. A Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Talk Force under the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency (comprised of representatives from the scientific, economic, ecological and agricultural communities) is investigating the recurring and increasingly large hypoxia problem at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Currently, scientists believe nitrogen making its way into tributaries that flow into the Mississippi River, and eventually the Gulf of Mexico, causes the hypoxia condition.

Hypoxie zone — An area in the Gulf of Mexico off the mouth of the Mississippi River covering about 6,000 square miles where there is not enough oxygen to support fish and shellfish populations. The oxygen depletion is caused by an excessive amount of nutrients that are brought together from throughout the Mississippi River watershed. Many of these nutrients are believed to originate from agricultural activities, and the largest portion, over 30%, has been traced to the upper Mississippi drainage, according to research prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey.

H-2A — Refers to the provision in federal immigration law under which aliens can be granted temporary visas to enter the country for work in agriculture. Farm lobbyists have sought revisions in the H-2A program, which they contend is too restrictive, to make it easier for them to employ temporary foreign workers.

IBA — Independent Bakers Association.

ICAC — International Cotton Advisory Committee.

ICBA — Independent Community Bankers Association.

ICM — Integrated crop management.

ICO — International Coffee Organization.

Identity preserved (IP) — This is the designation given to bulk commodities marketed in a manner that isolates and preserves the identity of a shipment, presumably because of unique characteristics that have value otherwise lost through commingling during normal storage, handling and shipping procedures.

IDFA — International Dairy Foods Association.

IFAD — International Fund for Agricultural Development.

IFIC — International Food Information Council.

IFT — Institute of Food Technologists.

IGC — International Grains Council.

IJO — International Jute Organization.

Import fee — Generally, an import fee is a charge assessed for a service rendered. For example, when an import stamp or import license is issued, the government assesses a fee for this service. Within the context of Section 22 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, "fees" were imposed on imports of agricultural products when deemed necessary to protect domestic farm programs. Then, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (starting in 1994) and the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (starting in 1995), Section 22 import fees and quotas were converted into tariff-rate quotas.

Import license — A document required and issued by some national governments authorizing the importation of specified goods into their respective countries. When used in a discriminatory manner, these licenses can become nontariff trade barriers.

Import quota — A trade barrier that sets the maximum quantity (quantitative restriction) or value of a commodity allowed to enter a country during a specified time period. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture requires the conversion of import quotas and other quantitative restrictions to tariff-rate quotas and/or bound tariff rates.

Incentive payments — Direct payments made to producers of wool and mohair, which were similar to deficiency payments made to producers of grains and cotton. The incentive payment rate was the percentage needed to bring the national average return to producers (the market price plus the incentive payment) up to the annually set national support price. Each producer’s direct payment was the payment rate times the market receipts. Producers with higher market receipts got larger support payments. This created an incentive to increase output and to improve quality. The wool and mohair commodity programs ended after the 1995 marketing year as required by P.L. 103-130.

Income insurance — A concept, similar to revenue insurance, that envisions an insurance program that would insure farm families a specified minimum annual income.

Income Protection (IP) — A form of revenue insurance that protects a grower of an insurable crop whenever low prices, low yields, or a combination of both causes revenue to fall below a guaranteed level selected by the producer.

Income support — Generally, programs providing direct, income-supplementing payments to farmers. Intended to protect farm income without affecting market prices. Production flexibility contract payments provide income support, not price support. The phrase also is used to characterize the nature of support provided to low-income families by various food assistance programs.

Indemnity payment — The payment that eligible producers receive if they realize a qualifying crop loss under crop insurance, revenue insurance, or any insurance program.

Industrial crops — Crops that primarily have industrial applications in contrast to food or livestock feed uses. Industrial uses account for a relatively small but a growing and potentially much larger share of the market for farm commodities. The USDA devotes a significant research effort to identifying and developing new industrial uses for crops; this effort is encouraged by the Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation (AARC). Some of the industrial and experimental crops include: castor beans (lubricants, nylon, cosmetics); chia (cosmetics); crotalaria (fibers); cuphea (soap, surfactants); guar (food stiffeners, drilling muds, paper manufacturing); guayule (natural rubber and hypoallergenic latex products); hesperaloe (specialty pulp paper); kenaf (twine, fiberboard, carpet padding, newsprint); lesquerella (lubricants, cosmetics); meadowfoam (cosmetics, lubricants, water repellents); milkweed (insulated clothing, filler for comforters, nonwoven textiles) and plantago ovato (high fiber additive to laxatives). While corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol, it is not considered an industrial crop because nearly 95% of production goes to feed uses.

Industrialization — When used in agriculture, this term generally refers to the consolidation of farms into very large production units.

Inert ingredient — Pesticide components such as solvents, carriers, dispersants, and surfactants that are not active against target pests. Inert ingredients may be toxic and may be subject to testing under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

Infant formula cost-containment — Refers to statutory provisions in the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 that require state WIC agencies to solicit bids to infant formula companies for the sale of infant formula used in WIC food packages.

Infiltration — The downward entry of water into soil. Also called percolation. A high rate of infiltration means that soil moisture for crops will be higher. Many conservation practices, such as conservation tillage, reduce rates of runoff and increase infiltration rates.

Infoshare — USDA established this program in 1993 to merge and coordinate the business management and information technology (computer) activities of its agencies, particularly in the field, in order to support consolidation of field offices into one-stop field service centers for farmers and other USDA clients. However, the program, which initially had been budgeted at nearly $3 billion, was terminated by early 1996 in the wake of critical reviews by USDA’s Office of Inspector General, the General Accounting Office, and others, which found, among other things, that despite Infoshare, individual USDA agencies were continuing to buy their own computers, were not sharing information technology with each other, and were still not operating in a common computing environment. Infoshare has been replaced by another computer modernization initiative now being designed and coordinated by the Farm Service Agency.

INRO — International Natural Rubber Organization.

Insecticide — A pesticide used to kill, deter, or control insects.

Instream use — Water use taking place within the stream channel. Examples are hydroelectric power generation, navigation, fish propagation and use, and recreational activities. Often used in discussions concerning water allocation and/or water rights.

Integrated Farm Management Program (IFMP) — A program authorized by the FACT Act of 1990 to assist producers in adopting resource-conserving crop rotations by protecting participants’ base acreage, payment yields, and program payments. The program’s goal was to enroll 3 to 5 million acres over 5 years. The FAIR Act of 1996 replaced the IFMP with production flexibility contracts and a pilot conservation farm option program.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) — A pest control strategy based on the determination of an economic threshold that indicates when a pest population is approaching the level at which control measures are necessary to prevent a decline in net returns. In principle, IPM is an ecologically based strategy that relies on natural mortality factors, such as natural enemies, weather, and crop management, and seeks control tactics that disrupt these factors as little as possible. Also, a USDA/Environmental Protection Agency program that aims to decrease pesticide applications by teaching farmers to use a variety of alternative control techniques to minimize pesticide use. These techniques include biological controls, genetic resistance, tillage, pruning, and others.

Integration — The combination (under the management of one firm) of two or more identical (horizontal) or successive (vertical) stages in the production or marketing process of a particular product. Generally the stages are capable of being operated as separate businesses. The firm that has management responsibility is called the integrator. The poultry industry, for example, is vertically integrated, from production through processing and distribution. Diversification, on the other hand, is the production of two or more products by one firm or farmer.

Intermediate agricultural products — Generally refers to agricultural products that have a higher per-unit value than bulk commodities; they are often partly processed but not necessarily ready for the consumers. Examples might include soybean meal, wheat flour, vegetable oils, feeds and fodders, animal fats, hides and skins, live animals, and sweeteners such as sugars. Applied to trade policy, intermediate products are one of three categories of agricultural products used by the Foreign Agricultural Service to report export and import data under its BICO system (the others are bulk and consumer-oriented agricultural products). The agricultural trade title (Title II) of the FAIR Act of 1996 permits the Secretary of Agriculture to make available up to $100 million annually of Export Enhancement Program funds for the sale of intermediate agricultural products.

Intermediate Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-103) — One of CCC’s export credit guarantee programs. See GSM-103.

International commodity agreement — An undertaking by a group of countries to stabilize trade, supplies, and prices of a commodity for the benefit of participating countries. An agreement usually involves a consensus on quantities traded, prices, and stock management. For example, the United States was a party to the International Natural Rubber Agreement.

International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — Title II of P.L. 95-223 (October 28, 1977) grants the President authority to regulate a comprehensive range of commercial and financial transactions with another country in order to deal with a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the President declares a national emergency. This has been the basis for economic sanctions since expiration of the Export Administration Act.

International Grains Agreement (IGA) — Replaced the International Wheat Agreement in 1995. The IGA comprises a Grains Trade Convention (GTC) and a Food Aid Convention (FAC). The IGA is administered by the International Grains Council (IGC), an intergovernmental forum for cooperation on wheat and coarse grain matters. The Grains Trade Convention provides for information-sharing, analysis and consultations on grain market and policy developments. Under the Food Aid Convention, donor countries pledge to provide annually specified amounts of food aid to developing countries in the form of grain suitable for human consumption, or cash to buy suitable grains in recipient countries. The International Grains Agreement does not contain any mechanisms for stabilizing supplies, prices, or trade.

International Grains Council (IGC) — An intergovernmental forum responsible for administering the International Grains Agreement (IGA).

International Monetary Fund (IMF) — A multilateral financial institution established in 1945 to help member countries with international payments problems and to maintain orderly exchange rate policies. U.S. agricultural exports benefit indirectly from activities of the IMF that maintain the global trade in commodities and food.

International Trade Commission (ITC) — An independent, quasi-judicial federal agency that provides objective trade expertise to both the legislative and executive branches of government and determines the impact of imports on U.S. industries. It makes recommendations concerning countervailing duty and antidumping petitions submitted by U.S. industries seeking relief from imports that benefit from unfair trade practices. The agency also updates and publishes the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. Established by Congress in 1916 as the U.S. Tariff Commission, the Trade Act of 1974 changed its name to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

ITTO — International Tropical Timber Organization.

International Wheat Agreement (IWA) — Replaced in 1995 by the International Grains Agreement.

Interregional Project 4 — See IR-4.

Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) — The federal-state-industry cooperative body which manages the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.

Invasive species — Alien (non-native) species of plants, animals, and pests whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. Executive Order 13112, issued February 8, 1999, seeks to prevent the introduction and minimize the impacts of invasive species through better federal agency coordination under a National Invasive Species Management Plan to be developed by an interagency Invasive Species Council. Examples of invasive species receiving recent attention include the Asian long-horned beetle, Africanized honeybees, zebra mussels, and the Formosan termite. APHIS carries out inspection and quarantine programs at U.S. ports of entry to prevent entry of invasive species. A number of laws are aimed at prevention and control, including among others the Plant Quarantine Act, the Animal Damage Control Act, the Federal Seed Act, the Federal Plant Pest Act, the Federal Noxious Weed Act, the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act, and the Alien Species Prevention and Enforcement Act.

IOOC — International Olive Oil Council.

IP — Income protection program (see revenue insurance).

IPM — Integrated pest management.

IR-4 — Inter-regional Project 4, also know as the Minor Crop Pest Management Program, is funded by CSREES to generate data to register pesticides and biological pest control agents for minor crops where there is no economic incentive to do so on the part of the pesticide manufacturing industry IR-4 provides coordination, funding, and scientific guidance for both field and laboratory research to develop data for the registration by the Environmental Protection Agency of pest control products on a wide variety of commodities. The program has been responsible for data to support over 2,074 food use clearances (1,127 of which were obtained during the past ten years), 3,602 ornamental registrations and, has supported research on 26 biopesticides which resulted in 18 minor use registrations. Each year, about 40% of all EPA newly registered pesticides are the result of IR-4 activities.

IRIS — Instructional resources information system; integrated risk information system.

IRM — Integrated resource management.

Irradiation — The process of exposing food or other items to radiation of various wavelengths in order to destroy contamination from undesirable organisms, achieve insect disinfestation or delay maturation. It is approved for most produce and some meat products. Recently the Food and Drug Administration approved its use and USDA proposed rules for its use in red meat products. While it has been used for produce and chicken in the Southeast, its expanded use is dependent on the construction of facilities on a wide-spread basis. There are various types of irradiation treatments (gamma, x-ray and ultraviolet) with various characteristics and limitations to consider in building irradiation facilities.

Irrigation — Applying water (or wastewater) to land areas to supply the water (and sometimes nutrient) needs of plants. Techniques for irrigating include furrow irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, trickle (or drip) irrigation, and flooding. About 51 million acres of land are irrigated in the United States. More acres of corn are irrigated than any other crop, but only about 15% of the harvested acres. In contrast, irrigation is used for 100% of rice, 81% of orchards, 64% of vegetables, and 36% of cotton. About 40% of freshwater withdrawals in the nation are for irrigation, making agriculture the single largest user of water. Nearly 90% of all irrigation water withdrawals are in the western states, where in some areas competition for available supplies among uses, including base stream flow, has become controversial. Consumptive use as a percent of withdrawals is about 61% for irrigation.

Irrigation return flow — Part of artificially applied water that is not consumed by plants or evaporation, and that eventually "returns" to an aquifer or surface water body, such as a lake or stream. Commonly used when discussing water conservation techniques and measurement.

Irrigation water management — Managing irrigation applications based on the water-holding capacity of the soil and the need of the crop. The water is applied at a rate and in such a manner that the crop can use it efficiently and resource losses are minimized. Irrigation efficiency is the ratio of the amount of water stored in the crop root zone compared to the amount of water applied. Water conservation has become more important as costs have risen and demands have grown for wildlife and urban uses.

ISO — International Sugar Organization.

ISSC — Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference.

ITC — International Trade Commission.

IWA — International Wheat Agreement.

Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (JAWF) — Created in 1978, the facility is a cooperative effort between USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce to collect, on an ongoing basis, global weather data and agricultural information to determine the impact of weather conditions on crop and livestock production. JAWF reports are followed closely not only by producers but also by commodity traders.

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