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Figures about agriculture and food that aren’t widely known
 
A recent survey of young American farmers and ranchers indicated 97 percent of the polled group planned to remain on their farm or ranch for the rest of their lives, according to a North Carolina State University publication, online at www.cals.ncsu.edu/CollegeRelations/AGRICU.htm
Among the young producers surveyed, 90 percent said they would like their children to follow in their footsteps. Most agriculturalists and non-agriculturalists would agree this is a ringing endorsement for farming and ranching as a desired way of life in America.
Several recent polls of U.S. college agriculture students indicate many more young people would like to farm but lack access to land and capital. Ever fewer Americans farm, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture.
The census used data collected in 2013 to estimate the United States had 2.2 million farms on which 4.6 million people lived. Ranches are considered farms for USDA statistical purposes.
Ninety-seven percent of U.S. farms are owned by individuals, families or family corporations. Eighty-six percent of the total net U.S. farm household income is derived from off-farm sources, such as jobs, investment returns and government payments.
Living on a farm or ranch as a way of life comes with a cost; the production of food, fiber and renewable fuel is supplemented by non-farming activities. Moreover, for every $1 spent on food in the U.S., the farm producer receives 23 cents, according to the NCSU publication.
Americans spent 9.9 percent of their disposable income in 2013 on food, says a March 2015 USDA Economic Research (ERS) bulletin. This is the lowest of any of the 83 countries the ERS tracks.
In a December 2014 report the ERS said U.S. consumers, businesses and government entities spent $1.4 trillion on food and beverages in grocery stores, at other retailers and for away-from-home meals and snacks in 2013. Consumers spent almost half of this in restaurants, fast-food outlets and on snacks.
In contrast, Pakistan residents spent half of their 2013 disposable income on food, which is the highest of the 83 countries whose food costs are tracked by the ERS. Residents of countries with higher average household income than the United States, such as Switzerland and Sweden, spent 11 percent and 12.2 percent of their disposable incomes respectively on food.
Of the 83 countries tracked by the ERS, India had the lowest food cost annually, of $220. Because of its relatively low average household income, food comprised 25.2 percent of the country’s average annual household expenditures.
Forty percent of the world’s jobs, 1.3 billion, involve producing or processing food, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The majority of these jobs, however, involve self-employment by subsistence farmers in underdeveloped countries.
Subsistence farming in underdeveloped countries is needed to feed their people. The FAO also estimated that during 2012-14, 850 million people worldwide experienced chronic undernourishment, mostly in the poor underdeveloped nations of Africa, but including some in Asia, the South Pacific and the country of Haiti.
The poorer the country, the greater the percentage of people who engage in some type of farming and barter to obtain food. Impoverished individuals and families may spend the majority of their available money, time and energy securing food.
A March 2014 article in Emergent Economics indicated the poorest half of the world’s 7 billion people own less than 1 percent of the world’s wealth – just 0.71 percent.
When possible, most families in poor and underdeveloped nations have a garden nearby or a food plot within walking distance on which to raise their own crops. Many also keep a few animals such as chickens or goats.
A third of all food is wasted worldwide, about 1.3 billion tons annually, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The lack of infrastructure, such as crop harvesting equipment, transportation systems, storage facilities that are pest and moisture-proof and cold storage units for perishable items, accounts for the estimated 40 percent loss of food in underdeveloped countries, according to the UNEP.
In the United States about 30 percent of all food, worth about $49 billion, is thrown away each year. Food losses to harvest and storage conditions and during manufacturing, or because of safety concerns, account for about a fifth of the wasted food here. The most common reason for wasted food in the United States is incomplete consumption of food items. A 2010 report published in Environmental Science and Technology indicated food scraps make up 12.4 percent of waste hauled to municipal solid waste handling facilities.
Maybe our mothers were right when they said “Clean your plate or you won’t get any dessert.” On the other hand, some of us would be better off not eating as much, or eating the right foods in the correct amounts.

Michael R. Rosmann, Ph.D. is on the adjunct faculty of the University of Iowa, author of Excellent Joy: Fishing, Farming, Hunting and Psychology, lectures across the United States and abroad and owns a row crop farm in Harlan, Iowa.
He is a founding partner of the nonprofit network AgriWellness, Inc. Email thoughts and questions to him, and find recently published columns available for a small fee, through his website at www.agbehavioralhealth.com
5/21/2015