Profile of U.S. Agriculture

Agricultural productivity is a key factor in an economy's industrial transformation. The United States has been especially successful in increasing agricultural productivity to a point where it can feed a growing population while at the same time reducing the absolute size of the farm population, the amount of land used in agriculture, and the number of farms. One negative side of this transformtion is that productivity has been sustained by use not just of mechanical inputs but more critically by the used of derived energy inputs in the form of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By themselves, these energy inputs may not be harmful initally, but when increased concentrations are used, the reduce the net energy output from agriculture and pose toxic risks to consumers. For the future, the challenge in maintaining agricultural productivity will be in providing ways to make a more efficient use of existing inputs, even as new input substitutions are made. Technological progress thus is the key to success. Additional links are provided at the end of this site.

	Farm Population (in millions)	Farm Share of U.S. Population	Number of Farms (in thousands)	Mean Agricultural Population per Farm
1910	32.1	35	6,366	5.04
1920	31.9	30	6,454	4.94
1930	30.5	25	6,295	4.84
1940	30.5	23	6,102	4.99
1950	23	15	5,388	4.26
1960	15.6	9	3,962	3.93
1970	9.7	5	2,954	3.28
1980	7.2	3	2,440	2.95
1985	5.4	2	2,293	2.35
1993	4.6	1	2,068	2.22
1995
2000

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Last update:d 2/6/99

Phillip LeBel

Address: LeBelp@mail.montclair.edu