WASHINGTON, March 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
NATIONAL AGRICULTURE
Profile America — Monday, March 20th. Ask many Americans where their food comes from, and they'll answer the supermarket, while clothing comes from the mall. Dispelling such notions is why today kicks of National Agriculture Week. Tomorrow is National Agriculture Day, featuring most of the themes and activities. These annual programs focus on students across the nation, the consumers of tomorrow. They'll learn that from pizzas to cosmetics, from clothing to orange juice, agriculture gives us what we eat each day and much of what we wear and use. In 1920, there were nearly 6.5 million farms in the U.S., and some 32 million people lived on farms. Today, the number of farms has shrunk to just over 2 million. America has 912 million acres of farmland, averaging 434 acres per farm. Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources:
Agriculture day/accessed 1/3/2017: http://www.agday.org/
Week/accessed 1/3/2017: http://genesee.cce.cornell.edu/ag-in-the-classroom/ag-literacy-week
Number of farms in 1920: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 465, 458
Number of farms/accessed 3/14/2017: http://www.fb.org/newsroom/fast-facts
Average acreage/accessed 3/14/2017: http://www.fooddialogues.com/foodsource/farm-size-and-ownership/what-is-the-average-size-of-an-american-farm
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).
SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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