Chapter 3 Importance of Agribusiness

Size of Production Agriculture Land 2.3 billion aggregate acres 21% crops 25% livestock 30% forest 24% non-agricultural Average 469 acres About the same number of farms have >1000 ac and <1000ac Products GDP- measure of the value of good and services that America produces in a year $8.5 trillion in 2002 Agriculture = 17% $936 billion Enough money to feed Am pop 20% of total jobs Cattle and Calves = 22.5%

American Farming Enterprises Animal Beef Dairy Hogs Poultry Nuts Almonds Plant Corn for grain Soybeans Wheat Cotton Fruit Grapes Oranges Apples

$$$$$ 30 cents of every dollar Farmers share 70 cents Transportation Processing Marketing Profits $150 billion farm products 45 billion off-farm sources

Things to know Value-added Food and fiber processed and packaged by related industries Production efficiency Persons supplied by the average farmworker Currently 1 farmworker provides for 155 people Only 20 in 1945 Average consumption 1365 pounds Average production 54 tons Allows others to have careers Science Government Arts Medicine Computers others

US Ag vs World

Mo’ Money Outputs increased Inputs stay steady 1 production agriculturist produces 16 agribusiness jobs 1946 Bread 10 cents Steak 50 cents/lb Milk 67 cents/gallon Minimum wage $0.40/hour 2014 Bread $1.98 (20 X more) Ground Beef $5.98/lb (12Xmore) Milk $3.15/gallon Minimum wage $7.25 (18Xmore) ebasket.html ebasket.html

Spending Today Spend less than 9% More than 90% produced here Income up 48% Money on food increased by 23% 40 days to earn enough for food 131 days for taxes Increase of 180% spent on processing and marketing Some countries spend 70% 1963 Am spent 18.7% 1973 Am spent 16.2% minutes of work would buy 1 gal of Milk minutes of work will buy 1 gal of Milk

Agriservices Researching new and better ways to produce and market food Protect food producers and consumers Provides specialized and customized services Public and Private

Agriservices continued Public Special services Federal State Local USDA- 100,000 employees Extension- 17,500 Experiment Stations- 24,000 Administrators- 25,000 AG Teachers- 12,000 FDA, Dept of Int, NPS, Dept of Commerce Private $1 billion per year Vet Care Feed grinding and mixing Machine harvesting Contract labor Spraying 30,000 firms 100,000 workers $600 million payroll 30,000 nonpaid or part time workers

Agribusiness and foreign trade US is the leader in foreign trade Top 5 Feed grains and products Soybeans and products Wheat and products Live animals Meat and meat products Exports $50 billion in 1994 Only $6 billion in 1966 Export to almost every country in world Increased farm imports Come from every continent except Antartica Mainly Latin America, Asia, Europe Trade surplus $18.9 billion in 1994 $1 billion in exports = 25-30,000 jobs million full-time jobs 1/3 of ag production Somes states 50% is from exports

Agribusiness and Energy Producer Direct burning Wood and corn Ethanol production E85 Max 10% ethanol Biodiesel Soybean oil Methane gas Sewage sludge- dairies and feedlots Landfill decomposition Consumer 10-20% or nations energy 1/3 production 2/3 agribusiness

Agribusiness and Environment Ecologists Began as radicals Few heeded warnings Sierra Club Audubon Society National Wildlife Federation Friends of the Earth Environmental Defense Fund League of Conservation Voters Pollution control National Environmental Policy Act 1969 EPA NOAA-1970 Jobs High school courses Environmentalists Using soil for growing crops First were Rome India and Peru NRCS National Resource Conservation Service

Conservation Efforts Minimum tillage No-till Strip cropping Contour farming Surface drainage Farm ponds Grassed waterways Irrigation systems Field windbreaks Brush management Rotation grazing Pasture and hay land seedlings Range reseeding Improved tree harvest Tree planting Windbreak renovation