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Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials

Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials

How much do you know about food and agriculture? What about rural America or conservation? ERS has assembled 70 charts and maps covering key information about the farm and food sectors, including agricultural markets and trade, farm income, food prices and consumption, food security, rural economies, and the interaction of agriculture and natural resources.

How much, for example, do agriculture and related industries contribute to U.S. gross domestic product? Which commodities are the leading agricultural exports? How much of the food dollar goes to farmers? How do job earnings in rural areas compare with metro areas? These are among the statistics covered in this collection of charts and maps—with accompanying text—divided into the nine section titles listed at left.

See also a booklet containing 34 Essentials charts and maps:

Selected charts from Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials, 2017

What is agriculture's share of the overall U.S. economy?

Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $992 billion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, a 5.5-percent share. The output of America’s farms contributed $136.7 billion of this sum—about 1 percent of GDP. The overall contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP is larger than this because sectors related to agriculture—forestry, fishing, and related activities; food, beverages, and tobacco products; textiles, apparel, and leather products; food and beverage stores; and food service, eating and drinking places—rely on agricultural inputs in order to contribute added value to the economy.

Conservation programs support conservation practices through financial and technical assistance

USDA conservation efforts rely mainly on voluntary incentive programs to address natural resource issues. The Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to remove environmentally sensitive land from production and encourages partial field practices including grass waterways and riparian buffers. Working-land programs provide technical and financial assistance to farmers who install or maintain conservation practices on land in production (e.g., nutrient management, conservation tillage, and field-edge filter strips). Agricultural easements provide long-term protection for agricultural land and wetlands. The Regional Conservation Partners Program coordinates conservation program assistance with partners to solve problems on a regional or watershed scale.

U.S. net farm income is forecast to fall for the fourth consecutive year in 2017

Gross farm income reflects the total value of agricultural output. Net farm income (NFI)—which reflects income from production in the current year—is calculated by subtracting farm expenses from gross farm income. NFI considers both cash and noncash income and expenses. Net farm income is forecast down by 10.5 percent as the drop in expenses is outpaced by the decline in gross farm income.

First period of nonmetro population loss continued during 2015-16

Nonmetro population continued to decline slightly for a sixth straight year in 2015-16, according to the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates. Nonmetro counties in some parts of the country have experienced population loss for decades. However, the 2010-16 period marks the first time with an estimated population loss for nonmetro America as a whole. Historically, nonmetro population grew because natural increase (more births than deaths) always offset net migration loss (more people moving out than moving in). But falling birth rates and an aging population have steadily reduced natural increase in nonmetro areas over time. The recent recession has also dampened migration to nonmetro locations, contributing to the overall drop in nonmetro population levels.

U.S. agricultural production occurs in each of the 50 States

The United States produces and sells a wide variety of agricultural products across the Nation. In terms of sales value, California leads the country as the largest producer of agricultural products (crops and livestock), accounting for almost 11 percent of the national total, based on the 2012 Census of Agriculture. Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota round out the top five agricultural-producing States, with those five representing more than a third of U.S. agricultural-output value.

U.S. trade surplus smallest since 2007

After 5 years of steady growth, U.S. agricultural exports declined in 2015 to $133 billion due to slower world economic growth, a strong U.S. dollar, lower exports of high-value products, and falling prices for bulk commodities. U.S. imports continued to grow at 2 percent in 2015 as the real exchange rate has made foreign goods cheaper in the U.S. domestic market. However, import gains were well below the 7-percent average for 2000-15, reflecting slower growth in global trade volume last year. These shifts in U.S. agricultural trade produced a trade surplus in 2015 about half of its 2014 value at $19.5 billion.

U.S. diets are out of balance with Federal recommendations

While Americans are consuming more vegetables and fruit than in 1970, the average U.S. diet still falls short of the recommendations in the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans for these major food groups. Americans, on average, consumed more than the recommended amounts of meat, eggs, and nuts and grains in 2014.

Grocery store food prices lower in first quarter 2017 from a year ago

The food-at-home CPI for the first quarter of 2017 was 1.5 percent lower than the food-at-home CPI for first quarter 2016. Grocery store prices decreased in just about all at-home food categories, with the largest declines for eggs, fresh vegetables, and beef and veal. The 21.6-percent drop in egg prices reflects the industry’s continuing recovery from the 2015 supply shock caused by the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Fish and seafood prices rose 2.0 percent and prices for snacks, frozen entrees, and other foods increased 0.2 percent.

The prevalence of food insecurity declined from 2014 to 2015

In 2015, 87.3 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year. The remaining 12.7 percent of households—down from 14.0 percent in 2014—were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 5.0 percent (6.3 million households) that had very low food security. Food insecurity increased from 10.5 percent in 2000 to nearly 12 percent in 2004, declined to 11 percent in 2005-07, then increased to 14.6 in 2008.

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Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials

Overview
Ag and Food Sectors and the Economy
Land and Natural Resources
Farming and Farm Income
Rural Economy
Agricultural Production and Prices
Agricultural Trade
Food Availability and Consumption
Food Prices and Spending
Food Security and Nutrition Assistance