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Nuts 
Thu Feb 12, 2009 at 00:36:53 AM PST
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About 50% of the acres harvested in the U.S. in 2007 were planted in corn and soy. Another 36% of the acres harvested were planted in wheat and hay. Veggies made up only 1.5% of the harvested acres in the U.S.; orchard crops (fruit and tree nuts) made up 1.6%. So who's growing all this fucking corn? Are small farmers equally as guilty as the biggest farms out there? Take a look:
| Farm Size | % of Sales($) From Corn | % of Sales($) from Wheat | % of Sales($) from Soy |
| 1-9 acres | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 10-49 acres | 0.8% | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| 50-69 acres | 1.5% | 0.2% | 0.9% |
| 70-99 acres | 3.0% | 0.3% | 1.7% |
| 100-139 acres | 3.9% | 0.4% | 2.3% |
| 140-179 acres | 5.2% | 0.8% | 3.5% |
| 180-219 acres | 6.2% | 0.7% | 3.7% |
| 220-259 acres | 7.4% | 0.8% | 4.4% |
| 260-499 acres | 10.9% | 1.3% | 6.1% |
| 500-999 acres | 16.2% | 2.0% | 8.8% |
| 1000-1999 acres | 21.1% | 4.0% | 11.2% |
| 2000+ acres | 18.2% | 8.6% | 8.0% |
| All Farms | 13.4% | 3.6 | 6.8% |
Because this table is measured in sales dollars as a percent of all sales dollars, you can't tell how many acres were planted of each crop. You CAN tell whose business is more reliant on corn, wheat, and soy though. And that's obvious: the bigger you are, the more likely you are to grow corn, wheat, and soy.
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Mon Jan 12, 2009 at 09:10:15 AM PST
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I've been doing a series based on the USDA's numbers on historical food consumption in America. These numbers aren't perfect. They probably don't capture what home gardeners grow and eat, I would guess. But they are based on total U.S. production minus exports and waste plus imports.
For similar data on fruits, go here.
For data on vegetables, go here.
The original USDA ERS data is here.
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