how many acres of agricultural land in the us

How many acres is the contiguous 48 states?

 · In 2014, farms in the United States occupied a total area of approximately 913 million acres. By 2021, this amount decreased to about 895 million acres. Read more

How to calculate acreage?

How many acres do farmers have? Farms and Land in Farms Highlights Total land in farms, at 897,400,000 acres, decreased 2,100,000 acres from 2018. The average farm size for 2019 is 444 acres, up 1 acre from the previous year. Farm numbers and land in farms are differentiated by six economic sales classes.

What is the size of the US in acres?

In 2016, the total U.S. cropland area was about 253.1 million acres, and is expected to be 253.7 million acres by 2018.

How many acres are in the United States?

 · She’s a data journalist from Bloomberg News. And she went through the reports issued from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s about 1.9 billion acres of land that we’re dealing with, entirely.

How much of US land is used for Agriculture 2020?

896,600Total area of land in United States farms from 2000 to 2021 (in 1,000 acres)*CharacteristicLand in thousand acres2021895,3002020896,6002019897,4002018899,5009 more rows

How many acres of farmland does China own in the United States?

about 192,000 acresAt the turn of this century, Chinese owners owned about 192,000 acres of farmland in the U.S., according to the USDA. By 2019, the USDA says foreign ownership of U.S. acres exceeded 35.2 million acres, a 60 percent increase from the decade prior.

What foreign country owns the most property in the United States?

CanadaCanada is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. agricultural and timber land, and owns 4.7 million acres in the United States. The Netherlands is the second largest foreign owner with 4.6 million acres.

How much land does Bill Gates own in the United States?

242,000 acresToday, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farmland in 19 states. In addition, he owns 25,750 acres of transitional land and 1,234 acres of recreational land for total land holdings of 268,984 acres. His largest holding is in Louisiana (69,071 acres), followed by Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Arizona (25,750 acres).

How many acres are there in a farm?

Farms and Land in Farms Highlights Total land in farms, at 897,400,000 acres, decreased 2,100,000 acres from 2018. The average farm size for 2019 is 444 acres, up 1 acre from the previous year. Farm numbers and land in farms are differentiated by six economic sales classes.

How many acres does Bill Gates have?

This might not sound very believable, but Gates is America biggest farmer. Bill Gates and his estranged wife Melinda Gates have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 American states. As per the Land report and NBC report, Gates has farmlands in Louisiana, Nebraska, Georgia and other areas.

How much land does Bill Gates own?

The outlet reported this week that Gates, 65, owns 268,984 acres of land combined across 19 states.

Is 1 acre of land sustainable?

One acre isn’t likely large enough to accomplish all of those things and be completely self-sustaining, but it is certainly large enough to be sustainable and practical.

Can you farm 100 acres?

What’s the matter, from farming the IT to farming the land? Yes, you can make productive use of your 100 – acre. Make it a hunting ranch by planting some trees and bringing in some animals for guided tour That’d not be labor intensive, and would be more profitable than farming or ranching.

Is Statista a good site?

Statista has been my savior on several occasions. The site is easy to maneuver and the data is in a format that can go right into a report or presentation.

Where does tobacco come from?

For instance, much of the tobacco produced in the United States originates from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia.

Which state has the most farms?

Facts about U.S. Farms. As the largest state in the continental United States, Texas also has the highest number of farms of any U.S. state, at 248 thousand in 2018. Missouri came in second place at 95 thousand farms in that year.

How many acres of land are there in the United States?

There are 1.9 billion acres of land in the continental United States. But how does that land get used? The co-hosts of NPR’s daily economics podcast The Indicator, Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia, use a familiar fast-food meal to answer that question.

How many acres are in a happy meal box?

That is the second largest use of land in the U.S. – unprotected forest. That’s 538.6 million acres. Wheat for the bun – 21.5 million acres. Also in the box – the fries. A million acres of potatoes are grown in the U.S.

How big is the US?

CARDIFF GARCIA, BYLINE: The U.S. is enormous. It’s hundreds of millions of acres big, and it’s full of resources, not to mention some of the most productive land on Earth.

Who makes NPR transcripts?

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary.

Is forestland a national park?

LEATHERBY: Forestland. And that’s a combination of unprotected forestland, which means that it’s not a part of a national park or state park, and about 14% was owned by corporations. But it was quite striking to see this massive chunk of the U.S. designated as forestland, and about 2% of that goes away and then comes back every year (laughter) – gets replanted.

Why did Smithfield pork stop exporting to China?

food supply chains. When the pandemic hit, Smithfield increased pork exports to China even as the United States experienced widespread meat shortages due to supply chain disruptions and Smithfield closed some of its plants due to poor working conditions. This series of events prompted Congress to look at how to prevent Chinese ownership in U.S. agriculture, even though other foreign entities, like Brazilian-owned JBS, control similarly large portions of U.S. food supply chains.

How does land grabbing affect food security?

Land grabbing—when a government, company, or other entity purchases large swathes of land in another country—can affect local land rights and agricultural production, sometimes putting local food security at risk. While such purchases in low- and middle-income countries have been covered extensively, they also happen here in the United States. Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land doubled from 2009 to 2019, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) records, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about foreign control of the U.S. food supply.

Why are farmers unable to buy land?

For long-term U.S. food security , perhaps the larger concern is why up-and-coming U.S. farmers are unable to buy the land they need. According to the NYFC, young and aspiring farmers say access to land is their largest barrier to starting a successful farm business. With an aging U.S. farmer population and not enough new farmers able to enter the industry, more land will inevitably be converted to other uses or sold to foreign and domestic investors unless policies are put in place to support the next generation of farmers. Focusing narrowly on land purchases by Chinese companies or other foreign entities will not address the full scope of this problem. Policymakers should, instead, consider the many threats facing the future of the U.S. food system and ensure that current and aspiring farmers have the resources they need to secure long-term U.S. food production, starting with access to affordable farmland. In addition to federal action, some states, like Arizona, could do more to protect their local resources and communities from exploitation by domestic and foreign entities.

Why do foreigners buy land?

Foreign entities buy agricultural land for a variety of reasons, such as food production, wind farming, carbon offsets, or speculative investments. In 2019, 49 percent of reported foreign-held acreage in the United States was forest land, while 25 percent was crop land, 24 percent was for pasture and other agricultural uses, and 2 percent was for non-agricultural uses (such as homesteads and roads). The USDA reports that the changes in pasture and crop land holdings since 2009 were mostly due to foreign-owned wind companies signing or terminating long-term leases.

What is the CSIS?

Critical Questions is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author (s).

How much land does a foreign investor own?

According to USDA data, foreign investors owned at least 35.2 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2019—2.7 percent of U.S. farmland, an area almost the size of Iowa. While foreign land ownership has been reported in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, the holdings are concentrated in particular states. The greatest share is in Texas, with over 4.4 million acres, followed by Maine (3.3 million acres) and Alabama (1.8 million acres). Over 40 percent of the additional 3.4 million acres acquired by foreign investors in 2019 was located in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Who owns Smithfield Foods?

Across the country, the 2013 purchase of Smithfield Foods by the Chinese firm Shuanghui, now called WH Group, received national attention and escalated concerns about Chinese intervention in U.S. food systems. The deal meant that WH Group now owns the largest pork producer in the United States as well as over 146,000 acres of Missouri farmland. Missouri had formerly banned all foreign ownership of agricultural land in the state, but one week before Shuanghui took over Smithfield, that rule changed to allow foreign entities to own up to 1 percent of the state’s farmland. Critics claim that the rule change was instrumental in allowing the deal to go through as written, and some members of Congress warned of Chinese government involvement in the purchase. Smithfield is vertically integrated and owns all aspects of its supply chain, meaning that WH Group now controls a significant portion of U.S. pork production and revenue in addition to farmland.

Who is the No. 1 landowner in the United States?

At the top end of the Land Report 100, an entirely different story emerged. In 2021, California’s Emmerson Family, owners of Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), acquired 175,000 acres in Oregon from Seneca Jones Timber. That transaction, which was announced on October 1, raised the family’s holdings to more than 2.33 million deeded acres.

Other top landowners

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone ranked No. 2 with 2.2 million acres of ranchland out West and timberland holdings in the Northeast. Washington’s Reed Family ranked No. 3 with 2.1 million acres. CNN Founder Ted Turner ranked No. 4 with 2 million acres. Los Angeles Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke ranked fifth with 1,627,500 acres.

Why is farmland being lost?

And, of course, some of the farmland being lost is for so-called “specialty” crops, like fruits and vegetables. But there are other reasons as well. Development on farmland can have negative effects, removing land that animals use as a habitat. Well-operated farms care for the soil, air, and water, and produce viable ecosystems.

What does it mean when a farmland rating is 0.65?

If farmland has a rating above that – say, 0.65 – that makes it great farmland. Below that, and it’s subpar. Farmland with a high rating is being lost disproportionately quickly, which means suboptimal farmland will have to be used. And suboptimal farmland requires more water, more transportation, more energy, more fertilizers, …

Why is farming so difficult?

The average age of the American farmer was nearly 60 in 2012 (the time of the last census); as those farmers retire or pass away, successive generations turn elsewhere for jobs, the land goes fallow and is sold off. Another reason: it’s sometimes simply worth more to sell farmland rather than actually farm the land, especially if that farmland is near a city or town. “There’s no one to take it over and it’s worth more selling to developers, so why not?” That’s also part of the reason it’s obscenely difficult to find new land for new farmers; land access, according to the National Young Farmers Coalition, is one of the most difficult obstacles for beginning farmers.

Why is farmland less important than food?

This is concerning for a variety of reasons. The obvious one is that farmland produces food, so less farmland means the price of food may rise . The majority of American farmland is devoted to commodity crops – soy, corn, wheat – and many of the uses of those crops are not for direct eating.

What is the most important factor that caused the loss of farmland?

It probably comes as no surprise that the expansion of cities and suburbs are responsible for most of the loss in farmland. But 41% of the lost acres actually came from development in rural areas.

How much land is ideal for farming?

Just 17% of American land is ideal for farming. We don’t have that much to lose! The amount of the best land lost is about equal to California’s entire Central Valley.

When was agricultural land converted to urban land?

This image, courtesy of American Farmland Trust, shows the conversion of agricultural land to urban and low-density residential development between 1992 and 2012.

How much land does China own in 2020?

As of the start of 2020, Chinese investors owned about 192,000 acres of U.S. agricultural land valued at about $1.9 billion, according to Politico. While Chinese land ownership in the U.S. is less than that of other foreign nations, the growth in Chinese land ownership is part of an overall trend in China rapidly buying up other country’s farmland over more than a decade.

Which states have laws limiting foreign ownership of farmland?

Both Iowa and Minnesota have already passed state laws, imposing restrictions on foreign ownership of farmland in their states. In 2019, ahead of the Democrat presidential primaries, then-candidate Warren said she would support a national version of Iowa’s law and further safeguards against foreign investors buying farmland through “fake American buyers” to circumvent land purchase rules.

Did Maxwell warn foreign investors to bid higher for farmland?

Maxwell also warned foreign investors could start bidding much higher prices for U.S. farmland up for auction, pricing out prospective new U.S. farmers.

Can foreign investors set up LLCs?

Joe Maxwell, president of the progressive advocacy group Family Farm Action, told Politico that foreign investors could likely still set up limited liability companies (LLCs) in the U.S. and designate an American owner to circumvent reporting requirements while still owning the U.S. agricultural land through their corporate structure. Sifting through layered corporate structures could prove time-consuming and labor-intensive for regulatory agencies.

Who said America cannot allow China to control our food supply?

In a speech last week for the conservative Heritage Foundation, Republican former Vice President Mike Pence said, “America cannot allow China to control our food supply.” During his speech, Pence called on President Joe Biden to “end all farm subsidies for land owned by foreign nationals.”

History

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