A 25 Agriculture in the usa.

Almost 21mln.people or about 17 % of all population works in the

agriculture of USA. Nearly 3 millions independent farms deliver feed

products to the American consumers. The area of an average farm in the USA

makes about 400 acres. In 1984 there were more than 2.3 million farms in

the country. However, the very large farms -those with 1000 acres and more

account for more than 40% of farm acreage. The largest manufacturers of

grains making up 2,3% of total of farms, produce about 50 % of wheat in the

country. Similarly, the largest 2 % of the manufacturers of chickens -

broilers own 70 % of market sales.

Number of firms producing selected products in the USA. 1980es.

|Product

|Wheat

|Corn

|Rice

|Soy-bean

|Tobacco

|Pea-nuts

|Dairy products

|Cattle

There are therefore some concentrations of agricultural production in hands

of the largest manufacturers in the USA. However,

even domestic manufacturer, who are protected against entry must compete for

sales to the foreign manufacturers in the export markets.

Agriculture in the United States is extremely diverse in the range of crops grown and animals raised, and produces over $200 billion a year in food commodities, with livestock accounting for more than half. American agriculture is marked by several trends. The first is the continuing decline of small family farms. Since 1979, 300,000 small farms have disappeared in the United States, and since 1946 the number of people employed in agriculture has been cut in half.

The second trend is the increasing productivity of the sector. Agricultural production in the United States has increased by an average of 5 percent each year since 1990.

The third trend is the growth in both exports and imports.

The fourth and final trend is the loss of agricultural subsidies .

About 40 percent of the land in the United States is used for agriculture of some form, including livestock grazing. This includes acres of cropland, acres of pasture, acres of forests. Other major crops include sugar cane, sugar beets, potatoes, bananas, and coffee. Tobacco also provides substantial cash returns, although yields are small when compared with many other crops. Total animal output in 1998 was $94.19 billion while forestry products, including timber, totaled $24.68 billion. Commercial fishing has declined significantly in the United States over the past 30 years.

There have been dramatic improvements in agricultural technology in the United States. Improvements include increased use of computers, scientific soil and crop analysis, and more sophisticated machinery. Genetic engineering of seeds has also increased crop yields but created controversy over the safety of genetically altered products.

The United States is the world's largest producer of timber. About 70 percent of the nation's forests are privately owned, but there is also limited logging allowed in federally-owned or managed forests. Almost 80 percent of timber harvested is soft woods such as pine or Douglas Fir. Hardwoods such as oak account for the remaining 20 percent.

Industry

The technological and industrial history of the United States describes the United States' emergence as one of the largest nations in the world as well as the most technologically powerful nation in the world. The availability of land and labor, the diversity of climate, the ample presence of navigable canals, rivers, and coastal waterways, and the abundance of natural resources facilitating the cheap extraction of energy, fast transport, and the availability of capital all contributed to America's rapid industrialization.

Industries: highly diversified, world leading, high-technology innovator, second largest industrial output in world; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining.

Although the United States remains one of the world's preeminent industrial powers, manufacturing no longer plays as dominant a role in the economy as it once did.

Industrial activity within the United States has been expanding southward and westward for much of the 20th century, most rapidly since World War II. Louisiana, Oklahoma, and especially Texas are centers of industrial expansion based on petroleum refining; aerospace and other high technology industries are the basis of the new wealth of Texas and California, the nation's leading manufacturing state. The industrial heartland of the United States is the east–north–central region, with steelmaking and automobile manufacturing among the leading industries. The Middle Atlantic states and the Northeast are also highly industrialized; but of the major industrial states in these two regions, Massachusetts has taken the lead in reorienting itself toward such high-technology industries as electronics and information processing. Large corporations are dominant especially in sectors such as steel, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, aircraft, petroleum refining, computers, soaps and detergents, tires, and communications equipment. The growth of multinational activities of US corporations has been rapid in recent decades.