Facts

citizenJoe's food facts get you tidbits on two longstanding debates on the science and economics of farming; subsidies and genetically modified foods. But first, a bit of the lay of the farmland...

Farms - General

• How much we spend on food: $616 billion, or 13% of our out-of-pocket expenses (Census - 2003)

• How much goes to farmers in net income: $75 billion, and as gross profit: $239 billion (the rest goes to processing, distributing, etc.) (USDA - 2005)

Big farm/Small farm (USDA - pdf)

how many there are - small, medium and large

source: USDA

how much they produce - small, medium and large

• Small family farms (that sell less than $250,000):

  • Are 92% of all farms;

  • Own 71% of farming related assets (including 67% of land);

  • Are responsible for 32% of all production.

• Large family farms (that sell more than $250,000) and non-family farms:

  • are 8% of all farms;

  • own 29% of farming assets (including 33% of land);

  • produce 68% of our food.

Support to farmers:

• Total subsidies to farmers:

  • In 2000: $23.5 billion (including $3 billion in conservation and disaster subsidies);

  • In 2002: $12.2 billion ($3 billion for conservation and disaster).

• Amount of subsidies in 2002:

  • That went to the top 8% of farms: $7.3 billion (60%);

  • That went to the other 92%: $4.9 billion (40%).

For more on subsidies and where they go see EWG and the WP's special report.

Genetically Modified Foods

• What they are: crops that are altered by splicing in genes from other plants or animals. Usually a GM crop will have a gene added from, say, a bacteria to make the crop either distasteful to pests (but still yummy for us) or resistant to herbicides. (Pew)

• How long they've been around: since 1996. (Pew)

• How many of our cropland is used for GMOs:

  • In the world: 200 million acres worldwide (roughly 22% of all cropland). (WHO - pdf) (2004)

  • In the U.S - 118 million acres (roughly 40% of all cropland in use) (WHO - pdf) (2004)

Who's making GMF - Percent of GMF around the world

GM growth around the world

How much of US crops are GM Pewagbiotech.org (2004)

• Corn – 45%

• Soybean – 85%

• Cotton – 76%

• Canola – 54% (2001)

• Papaya – 50%

How much of our processed food contains GMOs:

• about 75% (Pew - pdf)

Where the facts are from:

• USDA - US Department of Agriculture - government site

• Subsidy statistics are from Environmental Working Group, a liberal activist organization, but closely match stats from Heritage, a conservative think tank.

Fertile ground for more facts:

• The State Department's brief history of farming and farm policy.

• Endless facts on farming from the USDA's Economic Research Service, and their 2002 Fact Book (PDF).

• For fish facts, see National Marine Fisheries Service stats page.

Facts pulled together with Vincent Greco. Updated Summer 2006.

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