General U.S. agriculture statistics

Agriculture is the nation's largest employer with more than 22 million people working in some important capacity, ranging from growing food and fiber to selling it down at the local supermarket.

There are 2.2 million farms in the U.S., and the average size of a farm in 1999 was 432 acres.

There are 165,102 farms operated by women in the United States.

Individuals, family partnerships or family corporations own 99 percent of U.S. farms, with fewer than 10 stockholders. Non-family corporations own only .4 percent of America's farms and ranches.

Americans spend 10.9 percent of their income on food, the lowest percentage found in the world, as compared to India (51.3 percent), Mexico (24.5 percent) and Japan (17.6 percent).

It takes about 40 days for most Americans to earn enough money to pay for their food supply for the entire year. It takes the same American 124 days to earn enough money to pay federal, state and local taxes for the year.

The annual per capita consumption by Americans include: 205 pounds of milk, 197 pounds of flour and cereal products, 187 pounds of fresh vegetables, 132 pounds of fresh fruits, 116 pounds of red meat, 65 pounds of poultry, 65 pounds of fats and oils, 28 pounds of cheese, 19 pounds of rice and nearly 250 eggs.

The United States provides food at a lower cost, as a percentage of income, than any other country in the world. Americans produce sufficient surplus to be the nation's leading exporter.

The U.S. produces 46 percent of the world's soybeans, 41 percent of the world's corn, 21 percent of the world's cotton and 13 percent of the world's wheat.

The United States exports $49.1 billion in agricultural products annually and imports $37.5 billion. Asia imports the most, roughly $10.5 billion, and Russia imports the least, less than $1 billion.

The American farmer regains 20 cents of every dollar in agricultural products sold, 39 cents goes to labor, 6 cents to taxes and interest, 8.5 cents goes to packaging and the remainder goes to fuel, electricity, transportation and advertising.

Farm receipts total $208 billion each year; most is meat animals ($46.9 billion), while the least is tobacco ($2.3 billion).

As of mid-2000, farmers enrolled 31.4 million acres of their land in the Conservation Reserve Program to protect the environment and provide habitat for wildlife. Farmers and ranchers provide food and habitat for 75 percent of the nation's wildlife.

Erosion rate by water on U.S. croplands has been reduced by nearly a quarter (24 percent) in the last 18 years.

Only two labor hours and one acre of land is required to produce 100 bushels of corn, with the farmer using a tractor, a 5-bottom plow, a 25-foot plow, tandem disk and herbicide applicator, a planter, a 15- foot self-propelled combine and, of course, the common, two-door truck.

- Information compiled from www.FFA.org