User:Moogle/text edit

Checking the history, it is easy to see the differences between these two texts, but for larger lengths of text, the history function can be extremely useful (especially as I have yet to find another way to do such a thing). Is Agriculture Still Relevant?Take a closer look at farm numbers, and you'll see more than at first glance. By Terence Larson

Experts often minimize the importance America's farm population. They point out that farmers make up less than 2% of the U.S. population. In a November 2008 NPR Story, University of Maryland Professor James Gimpel shared this statistic and stated that farmers receive special attention and privileges because of the powerful lobbyists on their side. Whether or not farmers receive a disproportionate amount of attention is another discussion, but farmers do play an important role in America. Farmers and ranchers are neither insignificant nor irrelevant. Census of Agriculture and other statistics reveal a lot about U.S. agriculture.

U.S. farmers and ranchers feed America In 2007 American farmers produced $297.2 billion in agricultural products. According to the USDA's Economic Research Service the United States had a $34.9 billion trade surplus for agriculture in 2008, which is not bad considering the U.S. Census Bureau reported the country's total trade deficit that year as $983.3 billion. In short, U.S. farmers feed America and then some.

Farmers are stewards over 40% of America's land In the United States there are 922 million (nearly a billion) acres of farmland, making up 40% of what nationalatlas.gov reports as America's total 2.3 billion acres. Of those acres, 38.5 million are enrolled in government conservation programs.

America's farm population rivals that of New York and Los Angeles At least 2.9 million households receive income from farms, while family members of farm operators total 6.8 million. According to Census Bureau figures the population of New York City is 8.2 million, and Los Angeles' is 3.8 million. These two metropolises have a great affect upon our nation, and so do America's farm families.

The profitability of farms varies, and some farms make or lose more money than others (about half of the nation's farms don't make a profit). However, farm families receive an average of $18,000 per household or $8,000 per person in net profits. Many families receive significant income from farms.

The number U.S. farmers is equal to the population of Chicago

The number of farmers is somewhere between 2.5–3.3 million, that's close to the Census Bureau's reported 2.8 million Chicago residents. America's largest cities are important economic and cultural centers, and America's farms and ranches are equally or more important to the nation as providers of food as well as culture.

Farming is a significant part of America's culture Since the founding of the United States and through most of the nineteenth century, the majority of Americans were farmers, according to the Web site Agriculture in the Classroom. The number of U.S. farmers peaked in the 1910s, when 32 million or 31% of the U.S. labor force were farmers. The number stayed near 30 million until the 1940s. Since then the number has dropped. We’re losing farmland as well. Between 1978 and 2007 America lost 92.7 million acres of farmland. If the nation cares about its history and heritage, preserving America’s farms is very important.

These statistics don't touch on agriculture's contribution to national security, nor do they mention the peripheral and support industries that depend on farmers. The numbers exclude the numerous hired hands employed on farms. They don't include government food assistance, distribution and foreign aid programs that rely on farmers to function. They don't mention farm technology and skills developed in America and exported abroad. These also are farming's contributions to America and the world.

American farms deserve special attention, but not because of special interest groups, but because America has a special interest in agriculture. The United States depends on our farmers for food, jobs and as keepers of our land and culture. When looking at agricultural numbers don't underestimate the importance of our farmers and ranchers.