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American agriculture is among the most productive in the world. It employs 2.6 million people in growing food and other products worth nearly $400 billion annually. Over 20 percent of that output is shipped abroad, making the United States the largest exporter of agricultural products globally. U.S. agriculture also has grown more efficient in recent years, increasing crop and livestock production by about 30 percent from 1997 to 2017 while increasing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by only 7 percent.
But even considering this progress, the U.S. agricultural sector will need to do much more to address the global challenges of rising food demand and climate change. Global food demand is projected to grow by 56 percent between 2010 and 2050 due to population growth and rising incomes. At the same time, agriculture and related land-use change generate roughly one-quarter of global GHG emissions, and agricultural production accounts for about 10 percent of U.S. emissions.