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See also: Farms & Farmers
AGRICULTURE
The Egyptians believed that the god of agriculture, Osiris, taught humans how to make beer.
About 99% of today's agricultural production depends on only 24 different domesticated plant species. Of those, rice, wheat and corn account for most of the world's caloric intake.
Stephen A. Goff & John M. Salmeron, Scientific American, August 2004
Agriculture generates 20% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
One-fourth of the world’s beef and nearly one-fifth of the world’s grain, milk and eggs are produced in the U.S.
With modern methods, one acre of land in the U.S. (about the size of a football field) can produce:
• 42,000 lbs. of strawberries
• or 11,000 heads of lettuce
• or 25,400 lbs. of potatoes
• or 8,900 lbs. of sweet corn
• or 640 lbs. of cotton lint
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