Fast Facts About Agriculture 02/20/2015

 Fast Facts About Agriculture

• 2.2 million farms dot America’s rural landscape. About 97 percent of U.S. farms are operated by families – individuals, family partnerships or family corporations.
  
  
• Farm and ranch families comprise just 2 percent of the U.S. population.
  
  
• More than 21 million American workers (15 percent of the total U.S. workforce) produce, process and sell the nation’s food and fiber.
  
  
• Today’s farmers produce 262 percent more food with 2 percent fewer inputs (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.), compared with 1950.
  
  
• In 2010, $115 billion worth of American agricultural products were exported around the world. The United States sells more food and fiber to world markets than we import, creating a positive agricultural trade balance.
  
  
• One in three U.S. farm acres is planted for export.
  
  
• 31 percent of U.S. gross farm income comes directly from exports.
  
  
• About 23 percent of raw U.S. farm products are exported each year.
  
  
• Farmers and ranchers receive only 16 cents out of every dollar spent on food at home and away from home. The rest goes for costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution. In 1980, farmers and ranchers received 31 cents.
  
  
• U.S. farm programs typically cost each American just pennies per meal and account for less than one-half of 1 percent of the total U.S. budget.
  
  
• Americans enjoy a food supply that abundant, affordable overall and among the world’s safest, thanks in large part to the efficiency and productivity of America’s farm and ranch families.