Farms, By The Numbers
Today there are 2.1 million farms in the U.S., feeding a population of 319 million. That’s down from 6.5 million at the peak a century ago when the population barely topped 100 million.
What changed? The size of farms, which averaged less than 200 acres a century ago and now run close to 500 acres. “There’s no such thing as a typical farm,” said Patrick Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy ResearchInstitute at the University of Missouri.
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