All land does not have the potential for agricultural production as the term is used by the USDA. Throw the thing in the trash. If somebody calls you, tell them no and hang up on them. If somebody visits your house, tell them that you do not wish to participate in any survey and close the door.
How do I know these things? My husband and I DO have a farm. We cultivate approximately 2,000 acres of row crops. I also do quite a large garden and sell some produce locally.
My husband, in the past, always participated in the survey -- sometimes by mail and other times via a phone call we received. A couple of years ago, a USDA representative showed up at the house to do some "follow-up" to the paper survey. I was working in the kitchen which joins our den via an open bar area. Some of the questions were getting creepy. Like, do you own your home? How much do you have in the bank? Do you finance it yourself or get a crop loan every year? Stuff that had nothing to do with agriculture or the crops we were planting.
I had to step in and excused myself into the conversation. Why do you need this information, I asked. Didn't get a good answer. She proceeded with another question. By this time my husband is looking at me with a half go-get-em look and half quizical. I asked the lady if we were required by the USDA or any other agency to provide this information. Oh, no, she said.
At that point I told her that we were on our way out to eat and pardon me if I go ahead and show you back to the door.
Right before Christmas, the lady from the local USDA office called my husband to do the survey by phone and he told her that he did not want to participate. She said goodbye. The survey that came in the mail got thrown away.
During the big census rush somebody came to the door with a handwritten name tag claiming to work for the census bureau. He tried to ask questions like “how many TV’s do you own? How big are they?” etc. When I refused to answer he tried to guilt me into it by saying “But if you don’t answer, the survey won’t count.” I ended up shutting the door in his face, but I was very glad I’d answered the door armed!!!