The USDA announced the latest data on the US agricultural system in a press release. It summarizes the highlights:
- Number of farms: 1.9 million (down 7% from 2017)
- Average size: 463 acres (up 5%)
- Total farmland: 880 million acres of farmland (down 2%), accounting for 39% of all U.S. land.
- Revenues: $543 billion (up from $389 billion)
- Net cash income (less expenses): $152 billion.
- Average farm income: $79,790. A total of 43% of farms had positive net cash farm
- Percent farms with net income: 43%
- Farms selling direct to consumers: 116,617 with sales of $3.3 billion (up 16%)
- Farms with sales of $ 1 million or more: 105,384 (6% of all farms); they sell three-fourths of all agricultural products.
- Farms with sales of $50,000 or less: 1.4 million (74% of farms); they sell 2%.
- Percent of farmland used for oilseeds or grains: 32%
- Percent of farmland used for beef cattle: 40%
- Average age of farmers: 58.1 (up 0.6 years)
- Average age of beginning farmers: 47.1
The 2022 census information is so complicated to access that the USDA provides a video on the main site to explain how to use it. This helps---a lot.
The site for the full report is here. For the full report itself, go here.
Highlights are here.
Most of the data refer to industrial crops like corn and soybeans: feed for animals, fuel for automobiles.
If you want to know about food for people , you can looik at Table 36. Vegetables, Potatoes, and Melons Harvested for Sale: 2022 and 2017
All of this is in miserable-to-read tables. Fortunately, The Guardian to the rescue: 'America is a factory farming nation': key takeaways from US agriculture census.
It provides illuminting charts based on the data. For example:
What more to say? Only that our agricultural system needs a major refocusing on smaller, diverse, regenerative farms producing food, as well as those producing animal feed. We should not be growing food crops to produce automobile fuel.
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