US Industrial Farming

US Farming & GDP

• Agriculture, food, and related

industries contributed $992

billion to U.S. gross domestic

product (GDP) in 2015, a

5.5% share

• output of America’s farms

contributed $136.7 billion of

this sum— ~ 1% of GDP

US Farming Employment

• 2014: 17.3 million full- and part-time jobs related to agriculture = 9.3% of total U.S. employment.

• 3.2 mill farmers

• 2.1 mill farms (915 million

acres of farmland)

In 2000, there were more than 2.16 million

farms in the U.S. In 2016, farms in the U.S.

decreased to 2,060,000 .

US Farmers

• Lg farms w/over $1 million in sales/year = 4% of farms, but 66% of sales

• ¾ of all US farms gross $50,000/year = 4% of sales/year

U.S. Farmers

• 30% women

• Latinos ↑ by 21%

• Majority:

– White males

– 58 years old

• Young farmers ↑ 11%

Food Costs

• Overall household budget (2015):

– 1. housing (33%)

– 2. Transportation (17%)

– 3. food (12.5%)

Corporate Farming

• Co’s that own or influence farms & agricultural practices on a LARGE scale

– Ownership

– Sales

– Ag educ

– Research

– Public policy

• Monoculture farming

• 1950’s

lobbying

The US poultry industry is often used

as an example of corporate farming

due to the influence of large integrators

like Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms.

monoculture—the practice of growing single

crops intensively on a very large scale. Corn,

wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice are all

commonly grown this way in the United States.

Agricultural Industries

• Animal agriculture = 45% of sales

• Grains, oilseeds, beans, peas = 33% of sales

• Fruits & vegetables = 11% of sales

CAFO’s

• Confined Animal Feeding Operation

• Industrial system of meat production

• Mobility restricted, fed high-calorie, grain-based diet, w/antibiotics & hormones to maximize weight gain

What Is a Factory Farm?

Beef cattle: 500-head on feed (feedlot)

Dairy: 500-head

Hogs: 1,000-head

Broiler Chickens Sold Annually: 500,000

Egg-Laying Chickens: 100,000

Even as the share of the workforce laboring on farms has fallen from almost everyone to nearly

no one, the absolute quantity of crops and meats has risen. That's because farming has seen

incredible productivity improvements. From better seeds to automated irrigation systems to

pesticides to tractors, an industry that used to require tremendous manpower is now built on

powerful technologies.

Top US Agricultural Companies

• Cargill: feed producer

• Tyson Foods: 2nd lgest poultry producer in world

• Foster Farms: CA-based poultry company

• DuPont: biotechnology, seeds

• Monsanto: seeds

• Dole Food Co: fruits, veggies

• Chiquita Brands: fruits, veggies

• Perdue Farms: poultry

• JR Simplot: frozen potatoes, cattle

Where is Agric in US?

The greener

areas are the

most valuable for

crop production.

The redder areas

are the most

valuable for

raising livestock.

California is,

unsurprisingly,

the site of much

of the most

valuable

land for crops.

But Wisconsin

and North

Carolina are

making

more money off

livestock than

many realize.

Calif Agriculture

• Top producing state in US

• 9 of top 10 counties in agric sales

• #1 county = Fresno, $5 bill in sales 2012 (more than sales of 23 individual states)

This map lays out where crops are being grown across the country. Many areas these days are

focusing almost exclusively on one crop — a practice called monoculture. Corn covers more land in

the US than any other crop. Some counties are up to 63 percent covered in corn. And second

place? Soybeans. People aren't growing the stuff just for tofu, either. The majority of American soy

becomes feed for livestock.

If there is one thing to conclude from this map, it's that cows are pretty much everywhere.

Just look at all that pink. Cattle are all over, from sea to shining sea, except for the deserts of the

Southwest and some remote mountains in upper New York state and West Virginia. But cows aren't

the only farm animals of interest. Pigs and chickens also make an impressive showing, but with a

more regional pattern. They're popular east of Colorado, with pigs gathered in the North and

chickens in the South. California also has a chicken belt. And check out that blue blob in Texas:

that's sheep and goats.

The previous map showed that China was consuming the most meat. But China also has a lot of

people. When the data is examined per person, the situation looks quite different. This map shows

how much meat, on average, people around the world eat every year. Each person in the US is

consuming roughly 250 pounds of meat — that's about three quarter-pounder burgers a day.

People in China eat about half the meat that Americans do. Some of that might be cultural, but much

of it is simple economics: meat is expensive compared to plant-based foods, and China's GDP per

capita is around a fifth of the US's.

US Industrial Farms

Photo Gallery

NY Times Magazine, Food Issue 2016

Product: Cranberries Facility: Bennett Cranberry Company Location: Cranmoor, Wisc.

Output: Approximately 3.5 million pounds per year

Cranberry cultivation began in Massachusetts, and it still brings to mind quaint images of New

England. But the bogs that farmers have created in Wisconsin can be more efficient — they’re both

flatter and neatly rectangular, making them easier for machines to fertilize,

irrigate and harvest.

Product: Cranberries Facility: Ocean Spray receiving and processing yard

Location: Tomah, Wisc. Lifts tip trucks to pour out their cranberry hauls. Ocean Spray,

a cooperative owned by more than 700 growers, is the largest processor of cranberries

on earth — last year, this facility alone took in 1.5 million barrels, nearly 13 percent of

the entire global cranberry crop.

Product: Turkeys Facility: Gary’s Gobblers Location: Northeastern Iowa

Output: 150,000 turkeys per year

During its busiest season, Gary’s Gobblers might have up to 60,000 turkeys living on five acres of

its 160-acre facility. The worker seen here is spraying an antibacterial solution into the turkey pens

to prevent disease.

Product: Dairy calves Facility: Calf Source Location: Greenleaf, Wisc.

Capacity: Approximately 10,000 calves at any given time

Newborn females arrive from local dairies and spend their first 180 days at Calf Source — first in

one of 4,896 hutches, like the ones seen here, and then in larger group pens. Trucks pass down

each of 72 rows, dispensing water and milk. After a transfer to Heifer Source, another facility owned

by the Milk Source company, the cows are inseminated and then returned — seven months

pregnant, and just under 2 years old — to the dairies they came from.

Product: Carrots Facility: Grimmway Farms’ Malaga facility Location: Kern County, Calif.

Output: 25 million pounds of carrots per week

Grimmway is one of the largest carrot growers in the world. In this part of the Malaga facility,

whole carrots are washed, sized and cut into two-inch “baby” pieces before passing through color

sorters — where 360-degree high-speed cameras and sensors spot defective carrots and air jets

push them off the line for use in juices or cattle feed.

Product: Ready-to-eat salads and vegetables Facility: Taylor Farms California

Output: 14 million pounds of produce per week

Taylor Farms doesn’t grow vegetables — it processes them, taking produce from some 200 farms and preparing

products consumed by one in three Americans. This entire facility follows the lettuce-growing season, moving

1,400 tons of machinery from Salinas, Calif., to Yuma, Ariz., in November, then back again in April. Each move

only interrupts processing — like the washing lines seen here — for 56 hours.

Product: Cattle Name: Simplot Cattle Feedlot Location: Grand View, Idaho

Capacity: 150,000 head of cattle

By World War II, the J.R. Simplot Company had become the nation’s largest shipper of fresh

potatoes; by 2005, it was said to be the source of more than half of all McDonald’s French fries.

This 750-acre feedlot resulted from a realization by its billionaire owner, John Richard Simplot, that

he could also use the waste products of his potato operation to fatten cattle.

Product: Greens and other produce Facility: Tanimura & Antle Location: Salinas, Calif.

Output: 740,000 tons of produce in 2015

The product being harvested here, Artisan Lettuce, requires seeding a variety of greens in each

row — scheduling them all to come to maturity simultaneously — so they can be packaged in the

field and sold as a salad-ready assortment.

Product: Beef, pork, veal and lamb cuts Facility: Omaha Steaks main plant

Location: Omaha

Output: 7 million pounds of meat per year

(Left) Throughout the day, employees at the plant do a series of ergonomic stretches

to prevent injuries. (Right) Cuts of meat are hand-trimmed by some of the plant’s

175 employees.

Product: Wheat and legumes Facility: Boyer Land & Cattle Location: Lapwai, Idaho

Output: 40,000 acres of wheat and legumes

The hills of the Palouse region, stretching along the border between Idaho and Washington, have

some of the most productive wheat-growing conditions in the country, with average yields that can

run over 100 bushels per acre. Landowners are reluctant to sell, but they increasingly lease their

fields to neighboring family farms. The wheat seen here is planted in rows perpendicular to slopes of

up to 45 degrees, and it is harvested with specially modified combines.

Product: Fish Facility: Glacier Fish Company’s Alaska Ocean Location: Eastern Pacific Ocean

Average daily catch: 150 metric tons

(Above) At 376 feet, with a net more than half a mile long, the Alaska Ocean is the largest

“catcher-processor” vessel in the United States fleet. On a given day, the ship’s facilities might

process Alaska pollock or Pacific whiting into 60,000 pounds of fishmeal and 125,000 pounds of

frozen fish — to appear in fish burgers, fish sticks and surimi, a minced fish product used to make

foods like imitation crab sticks.

Product: Milk and dairy Facility: Rosendale Dairy Location: Pickett, Wisc.

Output: 8,376,000 pounds of milk per year — approximately one million gallons

The two rotating carousels of this milking parlor operate 22 hours a day, milking 7,900 cows three

times each. Rosendale Dairy, like Calf Source and Heifer Source, is owned by Milk Source.

Product: Pigs and dairy cows Facility: Fair Oaks Farms Location: Fair Oaks, Ind.

Output: 80,000 to 90,000 piglets per year and 30,000 calves per year

Fair Oaks Farms is both a working farm and an educational tourist attraction, with a Pig

Adventure area showing visitors the seven-month cycle, from birth to sale, of a pig. Here, sows are

penned on their sides when nursing, while piglets spend the majority of each day feeding and

growing rapidly.