Agriculture is the world’s largest industry. On a worldwide basis, more people are involved with agriculture than all other occupations combined. There may be only 2 million people actively involved in production agriculture in the United States, but according to the International Food Information Council, one out of every six jobs is tied to our industry. From producer to researcher, teacher to economist and mechanic to truck driver, agriculture supports every aspect of our economy.

Advances such as pest-resistant seeds, highly mechanized equipment, precision global positioning satellite technology, and grain storage and transportation systems that maintain the quality of the crop, enable U.S. farmers to produce more high quality crops on less ground. According to the USDA, there were more than 1.1 billion acres in production spread across 5.3 million farms in 1950. Today, 2 million farmers operate on 950 million acres. While the number of farms has declined over the years, the average size continues to grow.

What does that mean to the consumer? Since the 1950s, crop yields have increased more than 55 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of income Americans spend on food has declined. In 2003, U.S. corn growers planted more than 78 million acres of corn, producing upwards of 10 billion bushels of grain. Corn is grown in all 50 states, yet 88 percent of U.S. production is centered in the Corn Belt– Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Corn is a worldwide crop, grown in countries as diverse as China, Brazil, Ukraine, South Africa, Thailand, Romania and Nigeria. The USDA estimates more than 70 percent of the world’s corn is grown in four regions – the United States, China, Brazil and the European Union.