Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed more than $1 trillion to U.S. GDP in 2017

Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $1.053 trillion (5.4 percent) to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017. This total represents a decline of $7.9 billion, or 1 percent of the 2016 total. This decline marks the first such decline in the contribution of agriculture and related industries to U.S. GDP since at least 1997, the first year for which detailed data is available. The output of America’s farms contributed $132.8 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 (listed in the chart) rely on agricultural inputs. The largest contributor to GDP of these related industries is the “food service, eating and drinking places” category, which in 2017, added roughly $427 billion dollars to U.S. GDP, an increase of 7 percent since 2016. All other categories declined from 2016 to 2017. The largest declines were registered for “food and beverage stores” (down 7 percent) and “forestry fishing and related activities” (down 11 percent). This chart appears in the ERS data product, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials, updated in April 2019.

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