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 livestock such a beef cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, and goats. These farms may also produce other animal products such as milk, eggs, honey, horses, and fish (aquaculture). Crop production includes growing grains such as corn, barley, oats, milo, rye, and sorghum. These farms may also produce hay from a variety of grasses alfalfa, orchard grass, timothy, and brome. Other crops include cotton, tobacco, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and specialty horticultural items such [Page 7]as flowers and ornamental plants. Ultimately, many of these farms have both crops and livestock.

Agriculture production also includes a variety of processes, industries, and sectors that support the production, manufacturing, and sale of crop and animal foodstuffs. For crop production, these include soil preparation, planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops. Other support industries would include pesticide spraying, and shelling, grading, and grinding of crop foodstuffs. For vegetable, fruits, and nuts, this also includes labor hired during harvest. In animal production, additional services include breeding, livestock spraying, evaluating forage, artificially inseminating cattle, shearing and processing wool for sheep, and boarding and caring for horses. These agricultural support industries also include feed mills, farm equipment dealers, meat packers, farm credit lending institutions, and ultimately grocery stores.