Agriculture

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

5. 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.

6.  Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BB-S06QuJU
 What is agriculture to Americans?