Too little has been known for far too long about cooperatives in the United States, so the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set out to conduct its own census of this facet of rural America. Cooperatives (businesses that are mutually owned and democratically controlled by their members) are not identified by the US Census Bureau or covered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but their economic impact is significant, according to the USDA study. It found that more than 29,000 American cooperatives generate revenues of more than $654 billion, employ more than 2 million workers, and provide $75 billion in wages. In addition to gathering data, the project by USDA intends to build a comprehensive list of all U.S. cooperatives, and establish a Cooperative Research Council.