Local Food Web
Protect It, Build It, Use It
Food and Agriculture Statistics
Our global food system is enormously complex. To transform it, we first have to understand it, and we hope this ever-evolving list of facts and figures can help. We've tried to divide it into sections to make it more digestible (pun intended.)
Food Production - Global
- 37.4% of global land area is devoted to agriculture, totaling over 48.6 million square kilometers.[1]
- The world produced about 25% more food in 2016 than in 2005.[1]
Food Production - US
- Approximately 222 million acres (about 9% of total area) of the United States is devoted to irrigated agriculture.[2]
Fertilizers and Chemical Treatments
- Worldwide, we apply over 140 kg of fertilizer per hectare of agricultural land per year.[1]
Lawns and Gardens
- Lawn space totals about 128,000 square kilometers in the United States, or just over 1% of the total area of the country, but that still makes it the single largest irrigated crop in the country.[3]
Sources
1 - World Bank data: Land Use2 - US Department of Agriculture Quick Stats
3 - NASA Earth Observatory