Changing Farming Practices Accompany Major Shifts in Farm Structure
Erik O’Donoghue, James D MacDonald, Utpal Vasavada, and Patrick Sullivan ( December, 2011 )
Summary
For the past three decades, the number of U.S. farms has remained fairly stable at about 2.2 million, while the amount of farmland declined about 8 percent between 1982 and 2007. However, this relative stability masks major shifts in the distribution of production and significant growth in the amount of goods and services produced by the agricultural sector. The number of very large farms (those with over $500,000 in inflation-adjusted annual sales) has grown. Large farms’ share of agricultural production has increased, while the number and market share of all other farms except for the smallest (those with annual sales under $10,000) has declined.
Details
| Organization | Economic Research Service |
| Publisher | United States Department of Agriculture |
| Publication Date | December, 2011 |
| Publication Views | 955 |
| Material Type | Written Material |
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