Acres & Assets | Defining Agriculture: From Farm to Family Table, a Comprehensive Overview

There are many definitions of agriculture.  It really depends on whom you ask.  To a farmer or rancher, it means the tilling of the soil to raise crops and livestock on land and facilities they own or rent.  To a person in an urban area, agriculture might mean the farmer they meet at the weekly farmers market who is selling produce or meats.  More broadly defined, agriculture is the people, suppliers, and processors who produce the food, fuel, and fiber from the farm and ranch to the family table or fuel tank.

The number of people employed directly to produce crops and livestock has shrunk from being 4.4% of the U.S. population in 1969 to 1.3% in 2021.  These 2.6 million people include farmers, ranchers, and hired employees.  Today’s number is a 35% decline from the 4 million owners and employees in 1969. (Information obtained from “Changes in Farm Employment, 1969 to 2021” by Mark White and Andrew Leuven, Farmdoc Daily, July 14, 2023)

Beyond the farm or ranch gate, the people involved in agriculture broadens out significantly to include seed and fertilizer companies, manufacturers of inputs such as crop protection chemicals, equipment dealers and manufacturers, grain buyers and processors, packers and stockyards, food manufacturing and processing companies, and the grocery stores that sell fresh and processed foods to the public.  Agriculture is a big tent that also includes knowledge providers from land grant universities to the ag media.  When agriculture is broadly defined, it generates $1.264 trillion of the U.S. economy.  (USDA Economic Research Service)

Another way to look at agriculture that probably hits closer to home for producers is to look at what is produced on the millions of acres of farm and ranchland in the U.S.  (The following information is taken from the USDA.)  There are approximately 893 million acres of land in the United States classified as agricultural land.  Crop and pasture land account for over two thirds of the total with the other one third being timber and non-farmable areas on farms and ranches.

The amount of land used for commodity crop, dairy, and livestock production makes up the largest share at 600 million acres.  These farms and ranches operate the land that most typically comes to mind when thinking about agriculture in this country.  The thirteen main grain and oilseed crops are grown on 250 million acres with corn, soybeans, and wheat comprising almost 90% of this acreage. 

Pasture grasses and forages are raised on 350 million acres.  These are the ranchland acres in the Plains and pasture and hay land elsewhere across the 50 states used to produce livestock and dairy. Interestingly, the USDA classification of “grass” comprises 86% of these acres which equates to one third of the total agricultural land in the country.

When it comes to the acres of agricultural land used to produce the food we directly consume, the amount is much smaller.  Only about 18 million acres in the U.S. are used for food production.  About 4.4 million acres are used to produce vegetables and melons with potatoes being a major portion at 1.1 million acres.  Fruits, berries, and tree nuts are produced on about 6 million acres.  The acreage used to produce larger quantity food crops such as peas, beans, sugar beets, peanuts, sugar cane, lentils, and others amounted to approximately 7.6 million acres.  Producers who operate these acres range from small, local farmers selling directly to consumers to the very large and complex commercial operations raising a large portion of our fresh fruits and vegetables found in the grocery store. 

Agriculture and farmers can be defined in multiple ways as there are numerous crops, livestock, and commodities utilizing a variety of production methods and inputs.  The many interrelated parts of agriculture are important from the people who own and work the land to the companies that provide inputs and processing to get the food, fuel, and fiber from the farm to the consumer.