2. THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURE.

While its industrial and technological skills are well known, what many people, including Americans, don’t know that the USA is also the world’s leading agricultural nation. Agriculture is a major industry in the US, 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, an average of 418 acres per farm. 

Although agricultural activity occurs in most states, it is particularly concentrated in the vast expanse of flat, arable land known as the Great Plains, which encompasses the central region of the nation and in the region around the Great Lakes known as the Corn Belt.

America is the biggest supplier of grains, growing about 20 % of all the world’s wheat, corn, oats and sorghum. Similarly, American farmers are responsible for 14 % of the world’s dairy products, 17 % of all its meat, 27 % of its vegetables fats and oils, and over 60 % of its soybeans. This is surprising; because America’s share of the world’s land can be used for farming is less than 8 %. And because only a tiny proportion of America’s total population (less than 3 %) is involved in agriculture. America not only feeds her own people, but a great many other people in the world as well.

A problem acing American farmers is, that they produce much more food and agricultural products than ever before. Despite the great decrease of the American farm population – from 23% of the total population in 1940 to less than 2,5 % now – the agricultural output has increased more rapidly than the demand. This has lowered the price of agricultural products; some farmers are now in difficulty.

Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BB-S06QuJU

What is agriculture to Americans?