Agricultural Production

In the United States, agriculture and food production remains critical to the social, economic, and inevitably political stability. One out of eight people work in a sector associated with agriculture.

Agriculture is a major industry in the United States, and the country is a net exporter of food. As of the last census of agriculture in 2007, there were 2.2 million farms, covering an area of 922 million acres (373 million hectares), an average of 418 acres (170 hectares) per farm.

Agricultural production is defined as the industry devoted to providing foodstuffs that are plant and animal based. It is divided into two large subsectors: one is devoted to the production of animal foodstuffs, the other to the production of crops. Animal production includes farms that raise ...