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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Bits and pieces about American agriculture since the 1930's
  • Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:40:50 -0600


This is from a local water planning list in NM. I haven't checked the
figures.

FARM FACTS
Bits and pieces about American agriculture since the 1930's

* In the 1930's, 25% of the population lived on a farm, now it is less than
2%

* Today, agriculture (the entire food and fiber industry) accounts for 13%
of America's worth

* Today, Americans spend about 10% of their disposable income on food, in
many other countries it's more than 50%

>From a peak of 6-1/2 million farms in 1935, 5-1/2 million in a 1950, a 1992
census counted only 1,925,300 American farms left, less than during the
pre-Civil War days of 1860.

In 1996, 25 percent of the farms accounted for 88 percent of production.

In 1997, by another count there were 2,190,510 farms left, of these;

1,191,050 farms produced less than $10,000
645,960 farms produced $10,000 to $99,999
353,500 farms produced more than $100,000

These largest operations (353,500 farms) controlled 532,150,000 of the
956,010,000 total farmland acres (more than half)

Incredibly... America has almost one billion farmland acres !!

Farm facts for year 2000
* 17% of the American workforce, or 25 million jobs, were involved in some
phase of agriculture, either growing, processing or distributing... making
the food and fiber system the nation's largest employer.

* U.S. agricultural exports (excluding fish and forestry products) totaled
$51.6 billion dollars and generated and additional $116 billion in
business.

* Production alone (farms) added $82 billion to the GDP (Gross Domestic
Product)

* Eight states had exports of $1 billion or more

* Excluding farm labor, 444,000 people processed, packaged, stored,
financed, marketed and shipped agricultural products.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

For 2002-2003 USDA statistical highlights... see National Agriculture
Statistics Service - Overview

Other farm trivia:
In 1999, U.S. agricultural exports were $48 billion, being the fifth (5)
largest category behind;

(1) Transportation Equipment ($124.8 billion)

(2) Electronic and Electric Equipment ($118.8 billion)

(3) Industrial Machinery and Computers ($118.1 billion)

(4) Chemical Products ($67.2 billion)

Total U.S. exports in goods and services (all categories) were $960
billion, up 56% from 1992.

Sources: U.S. Commerce Dept and the U.S. Department of Agriculture





  • [Livingontheland] Bits and pieces about American agriculture since the 1930's, TradingPostPaul, 07/14/2007

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