The Voice of Agriculture - American Farm Bureau

Fast Facts

Agriculture is America's #1 Export and More...

One-fourth of the world's beef and nearly one-fifth of the world's grain, milk and eggs are produced in the United States.

One in three U.S. farm acres is planted for export, and 25 percent of gross farm income comes directly from exports.

Through research and changes in production practices, today's food producers are providing Americans with the widest variety of foods ever.

Research and advancements in biotechnology are now in the marketplace with tastier fruits and vegetables that stay fresh longer and are not damaged by insects.

Consumers derive health benefits from changes in farm production including less fat in meat. Tofu, a soybean product, has been shown to reduce the risk of some cancer and heart disease.

With modern methods, one acre of land in the United States (about the size of a football field) can produce: 42,000 lbs. of strawberries, 11,000 heads of lettuce, 25,400 lbs. of potatoes, 8,900 lbs. of sweet corn, or 640 lbs. of cotton lint.

American consumers spend the lowest percentage of their annual income on food - around 10 percent.

Cotton is by the far the most dominant fiber produced in the United States and is used for apparel, home fabrics as well as industrial uses.

The agricultural industry employs 20 percent of America's workforce, or approximately 21 million people.

Farmers and ranchers are the first environmentalists, maintaining and improving the soil and natural resources to pass on to future generations.

Farmers use reduced tillage practices on more than 72 million acres to prevent erosion.

Farmers maintain over 1.3 million acres of grass waterways, allowing water to flow naturally from crops without eroding soil.

Contour farming, planting crops on hillsides instead of up and down, keeps soil from washing away. About 26 million acres in the United States are managed this way.

Cattle ranchers and others control water run-off with sod waterways and diversions, erosion control structures and catch basins.

Just as urban families recycle grass, newspaper and aluminum, farm families have practiced recycling for a long time by applying manure to fields to replace nutrients in the soil.

Agriculture and the Environment

Over the past decade, farmers have dramatically increased their use of conservation tillage techniques that keep crop residue such as leaves and stalks in the field. According to the Conservation Technology Information Center, conservation tillage was used on 103.1 million acres and reduced tillage on another 64.1 million acres in 2002. No till/strip till acreage grew by another 3.1 million acres since the last survey conducted in 2000. No till/strip till acreage has grown steadily since 1990 when it was at 16.9 million acres. Nearly 60 percent of the acres planted to crops in the United State is included in these types of crop residue management. This greatly reduces field runoff and keeps crop protectants where they belong - in the field and out of streams. This helps protect water quality.

The erosion rate by water on U.S. cropland was reduced by 24 percent between 1982 and 1997, according to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service 1997 National Resources Inventory. In 1982, 4.1 tons of soil per acre were lost to erosion per year. Today, soil lost to erosion is down to around 3 tons per acre per year.

Soil erosion on 23.5 million acres of highly erodible land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program has decreased by 90 percent - to less than 1 ton per acre per year. Most soils naturally regenerate at rates of 2 to 12 tons per acre per year, according to the Soil and Water Conservation Society. A generation ago, soil erosion rates of up to 40 tons an acre were recorded during the Dust Bowl. Today's new farming methods and tillage techniques have made erosion negligible, while enriching the soil in the process.

During the past 12 years, 1,276,619 acres of wetlands have been restored across the United States in the Wetlands Reserve Program. These acres are in addition to the 1.7 million cropped wetland acres that are currently included in the Conservation Reserve Program. In addition, a private program called Adopt-A-Pothole now has 18,337 acres protected for duck habitat through its programs in North Dakota and Minnesota. (Sources: USDA NRCS, 2002, and Delta Waterfowl Report, Issue 1, 2001.)

Today's farmers and ranchers use precise plant nutrition management plans to increase food production while producing less waste. This translates into cleaner rivers, lakes and streams across the United States. The American farmer and rancher have a stake in the future of America's natural resources. With more than 90 percent of America's farms and ranches operated by individuals or families, maintaining and improving our nation's natural resources is vital to keeping the business in the family for generations to come. Using precise plant nutrition and crop health practices and tools helps today's farmers produce more food with less seed and fewer inputs.

A 2003 survey of America's young farmers and ranchers revealed that 60.9 percent use conservation (or no-till) tillage while 47.7 percent regularly test the soil or crop tissue prior to the application of nutrients and pesticides.