1. Did You Know?
More than 35% of the Earth’s surface is used, at least indirectly, for harvesting food and other materials.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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2. Did You Know?
Globally, about 60% of food is produced using rainwater, 40% using irrigation.
Source: USDA/ERS, Agricultural Outlook, November 2001
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3. Did You Know?
In one day, a cow consumes 35 gallons of water, 20 pounds of grain, and 35 pounds of hay and silage.
In one day, a cow produces 5.4 gallons of milk or 2.0 pounds of butter or 4.6 pounds of cheese.
Source: USDA-NRCS, For the Good of the People: Fun Facts about Farmers and Ranchers, October 2003
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4. Did You Know?
The United States is the world’s second- largest orange producer after Brazil. Together, the two countries account for over half of world production.
Source: USDA/ERS, Characteristics of U.S. Orange Consumption, August 2003
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5. Did You Know?
Cattle defecate times per day and urinate times per day.
Source: USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Range and Pasture Handbook
Photo: © Digital Vision® Ltd., The Funny Farm

6. Did You Know?
One acre of corn gives off 4,000 gallons of water each day through evaporation.
Source: EPA, Office of Water
Photo: © Creatas, Farmlands

7. Did You Know?
More than 75 million tons of soil are blown or washed into the oceans each year.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Photo: © Creatas, Farmlands

8. Did You Know?
Earthworms can completely mix the top 6 inches of a humid grassland soil—in 10 to 20 years.
Source: USDA-NRCS, Rangeland Soil Quality—Soil Biota, May 2001
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9. Did You Know?
The “permanence” of the ice cream industry was established during World War II as manufacturers geared up production for American servicemen.
But ice cream had been in the United States for a long time; the product was produced during another war—the American Revolution.
Source: USDA/ERS, The Structure of Dairy Markets: Past, Present, Future (Agricultural Economic Report No. 757), 1997

10. Did You Know?
The term “snap beans” refers to the crackling sound made when fresh beans are broken in two. Once widely known as string beans because of their stringy pods, over the past century the tough pod strings have been bred out of most of today’s popular varieties.
Source: USDA/ERS, Agricultural Outlook, March 2002
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11. Did You Know? Cattle usually graze for 4-9 hours a day.
Sheep and goats usually graze for hours a day.
Source: USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Range and Pasture Handbook
Photo: © Digital Vision® Ltd., The Funny Farm

12. Did You Know?
During the pre period, farmers viewed poultry raising as a way either to produce eggs or to put spilled grain, grass, and insects around the farm yard to productive use.
Source: USDA/ERS, Structural Change in U.S. Chicken and Turkey Slaughter (Agricultural Economic Report No. 787), 2000
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13. Did You Know?
Cattle slaughter plants usually specialize in one of two types of cattle. Plants specialize because the animals have different shapes that require different settings for slaughter line equipment, and because the animals provide different meat products.
Source: USDA/ERS, Consolidation in U.S. Meatpacking (Agricultural Economic Report No. 785), 2000
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14. Did You Know?
The first application of modern scientific methods to plant reproduction is credited to Gregor Mendel in the mid-19th century. Mendel’s research focused on the identification of particular traits in garden peas, and the ways in which such traits were inherited by successive generations.
Source: USDA/ERS, The Seed Industry in U.S. Agriculture (Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 786)
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15. Did You Know?
On the average, rainfall adds about 5 pounds of nitrogen per acre per year.
Source: USDA/NRCS, From the Surface Down: An Introduction to Soil Surveys for Agronomic Use, May 2000 (revised)
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16. Did You Know?
At the turn of the 20th century, about 38 percent of the labor force worked on farms. By the end of the century, that figure was less than 3 percent.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Report on the American Workforce (2001)
Photo: USDA-NRCS, photographer unknown, 1943

17. Did You Know?
Though botanically a fruit, in 1893 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the tomato was a vegetable. The import tax on vegetables (not on fruits) protected U.S. tomato growers from foreign markets.
Source: USDA, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
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18. Did You Know?
In a living tree, the heartwood is entirely dead and only a comparatively few sapwood cells are alive. Therefore, most wood is dead when cut, regardless of whether the tree itself is living.
Source: USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI, Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material, 1999
Photo: © PhotoDisc, Inc., Environmental Concerns

19. Did You Know?
Approximately 45% of the U.S. land area is used for agricultural purposes, with 472 million acres in cropland and 587 million acres in range or pasture.
Source: National Biological Service, Our Living Resources
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20. Did You Know? America’s forests cover 747 million acres.
Source: USDA, Forest Service, America’s Forests 2003 Health Update
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21. Did You Know?
On average, it takes one pound of oranges to make one 8-ounce glass of single-strength orange juice. Juice consumption took off in the mid-1940s with the introduction of frozen concentrated orange juice.
Source: USDA/ERS, Characteristics of U.S. Orange Consumption, August 2003
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22. Did You Know?
About half the U.S. beef cow inventory is on rangeland and pastures between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Source: USDA/ERS, Interstate Livestock Movements, 2003
Photo: © Corbis Corporation, Business & Agriculture

23. Did You Know?
Early 20th century agriculture was labor intensive, and it took place on a large number of small, diversified farms in rural areas where more than half the U.S. population lived.
They employed close to half the U.S. workforce, along with 22 million work animals, and produced an average of five different commodities.
Source: USDA/ERS, The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy (Economic Information Bulletin Number 3), June 2005

24. Did You Know?
Demand for wool declined after World War II due to the reduction in use by military service personnel.
Source: USDA/ERS, Trends in the U.S. Sheep Industry (Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 787)
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25. Did You Know?
The agricultural sector of the 21st century is concentrated on a small number of large, specialized farms in rural areas where less than a fourth of the U.S. population lives.
These highly productive and mechanized farms employ a tiny share of U.S. workers and use 5 million tractors in place of the horses and mules of earlier days.
Source: USDA/ERS, The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy (Economic Information Bulletin Number 3), June 2005

26. Did You Know?
The years were the era of the cattle drives from Texas to Missouri and Kansas stockyards.
Source: USDA/ERS, Agricultural Outlook, December 2002
Photo: © Corbis Corporation, Business & Agriculture

27. Did You Know?
Before 1898, hardwoods were graded by individual mills for local markets.
Source: USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI, Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material, 1999
Photo: © PhotoDisc, Inc., Environmental Concerns

28. Did You Know?
The Great Plains has 478 counties in 11 states, about one- fifth of all U.S. land area outside of Alaska.
Source: USDA/ERS, Rural Development Perspectives, Vol. 13, No. 1
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29. Did You Know?
Steers and heifers are fed a concentrated diet of corn rations before slaughter, producing a more marbled cut of beef that is preferred for taste.
Cows, which are fed on grass and forage, produce leaner meat that is usually mixed with trimmings from steer and heifer carcasses to produce ground beef.
Source: USDA/ERS, Consolidation in U.S. Meatpacking (Agricultural Economic Report No. 785), 2000

30. Did You Know?
Native to Mexico and South America, poinsettias were named after the U.S. ambassador to Mexico—Joel Poinsett— who introduced the plant in the U.S. in
Source: USDA/ERS, Agricultural Outlook, December 2002
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31. Did You Know? Milk is produced in all 50 states.
Source: USDA/ERS, The Changing Landscape of U.S. Milk Production, 2002
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32. Did You Know?
Corn production uses over 25% of the nation’s cropland and more than 40% of the commercial fertilizer applied to crops.
Source: USDA/ERS, Soil, Nutrient, and Water Management Systems Used in U.S. Corn Production (Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 774), April 2002
Photo: © Corbis Corporation, Business & Agriculture (Volume 102)

33. Did You Know?
According to the National Resources Inventory, on average, 666,000 acres of prime farmland are converted each year to non-agricultural uses— more than 70 acres per hour each day.
Source: USDA, Agriculture Fact Book
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34. Did You Know?
“Uncle Sam” is modeled after Sam Wilson, a meatpacker from Troy, New York. During the War of 1812, the meat he shipped to the government was stamped “U.S. Beef.” Soldiers began to call it Uncle Sam’s beef.
Source: USDA/ERS, Agricultural Outlook, December 2002
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35. Did You Know?
One inch of rain yields 27,000 gallons of water per acre.
Source: EPA, Office of Water
Photo: © PhotoDisc, Inc., Agriculture

36. Did You Know?
The eggshell and membranes under it provide a barrier that limits the ability of organisms to enter the egg. The shell surface has from 7,000-17,000 tiny pores that permit moisture and carbon dioxide to move out and air to move in.
Source: USDA, Agricultural Research, June 2004
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37. Did You Know?
Sweet corn is actually a genetic mutation of field corn and was reportedly first grown in Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s. The natural mutation in sweet corn causes the kernel to store more sugars than field corn.
Source: USDA/ERS, Agricultural Outlook, August 2001
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38. Did You Know?
Plants contain openings that permit air to enter and water vapor to leave. These openings are called stomata. The word stoma comes from the Greek word meaning “mouth.”
Source: NASA, The Case of the Prize-Winning Plants (EG LARC), 2004
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39. Did You Know?
While China’s population is more than four times that of the United States, the U.S. has about one-third more cropland than China.
Source: USDA/ERS, China’s Food and Agriculture: Issues for the 21st Century (Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 775), 2002
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40. Did You Know?
There are more than 22,000 different soils identified and mapped in the United States. Some states recognize more than 1,000 different kinds of soil.
Source: USDA-NRCS, Urban Soil Primer, 2005
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41. Did You Know?
Domestic broiler consumption in the U.S. is predominantly of white meat.
In contrast, dark meat — drums, thighs, deboned leg meat, whole legs, and leg quarters — is preferred by consumers in most foreign markets, including Mexico.
Source: USDA/ERS, U.S.-Mexico Broiler Trade: A Bird’s-Eye View, 2002
Photo: © PhotoDisc, Inc., Agriculture

42. Did You Know?
Today’s forest land area amounts to about 70% of the area that was forested in 1630.
More than 75% of the net conversion to other uses occurred in the 19th century.
Source: USDA Forest Service
Photo: © PhotoDisc, Inc., Environmental Concerns

43. Did You Know?
Corn starch is used by the paper industry as a coating on paper and by the construction material industry as a component in the manufacture of wallboard.
Source: USDA, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 742
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44. Did You Know?
The bulk of U.S. hog production is located in the Corn Belt, near abundant feed supplies.
Source: USDA/ERS, Interstate Livestock Movements, 2003
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45. Did You Know?
All domesticated cattle have a common ancestor: the wild Aurochs cattle, which originated in Asia. Unfortunately their wild, aggressive temperament made them hard to domesticate. But with enough meat on them to feed a village for weeks, they became a trophy to hunt. Eventually, though, they were hunted to extinction: The last true Aurochs cow is believed to have been killed by poachers in Poland in 1627.
Source: Canadian Agriculture at a Glance, “From wild beast to docile partner,” by Barbara McLaughlin, Statistics Canada, catalogue no XPB

46. Did You Know?
Spanish explorers introduced the tomato to Europe in the 1600s. Northern Europeans suspected the “wolf peach” was poisonous and only grew it for decoration.
Source: USDA, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
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47. Did You Know?
Production of saliva in a mature ruminant can exceed 47.5 gallons per day when cows chew six to eight hours per day.
Source: Pennsylvania State University, From Feed to Milk: Understanding Rumen Function (Extension Circular 422), 1996