Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Did You Know...


This blog is entirely devoted to facts about agriculture in New York and the United States.  The purpose is to illustrate the impact agriculture has on our economies and food system.

  • “If the number of farms and level of productivity remained constant since1950, there would be no food for anyone in the following states – California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia” (the nine most populous U.S. states representing 151 million people). (Speer, 2011)
  • There are roughly 619,000 dairy cows in New York State, and each cow contributes $13,700 to the state’s economy annually—that works out to an $8.48 BILLION contribution. Also, each dollar spent on dairy generates another $2.50 locally.  (New York Dairy Impact Quick Statistics)
  • New York’s has 5,400 farms that produce 12.4 billion pounds of milk.  The average farm size has 113 cows, producing 20,071 pounds of milk per year. (New York Dairy Impact Quick Statistics)
  • “About 25 percent of the state’s land area, or 7.55 million acres, are used by the 35,600 farms to produce a very diverse array of food products.”  (Ag Facts, 2011) 
  • “Today dairy farmers, dairy processors, milk delivery companies and local retailers are all working together to reduce the carbon footprint of fluid milk by 25 percent by 2020 — equivalent to taking more than 1.5 million passenger cars off the road every year.”   (Capper, et al., 2009)
  • “According to a Cornell University study, dairy farmers have already reduced their carbon footprint by more than 63 percent from 1944-2007 due to production efficiencies, cow nutrition, cow comfort and other improvements.” (Capper, et al., 2009)

References: 

Ag Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2011, from Department of Agriculture and Markets:             http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/agfacts.html

Capper JL, Cady RA and Bauman DE. Journal of American Science. Published online March 13, 2009.)

NY Dairy Impact Quick Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2011, from New York Animal Agriculture Coalition: http://www.farmskeepnygreen.org/toolbox/quick-stats.html

Speer, N. C. (2011, April 23). Agriculture A Victim of Its Own Success . Retrieved April 27 , 2011, from Feedstuffs FoodLink : http://www.feedstuffsfoodlink.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=124ECF05FDF84451B3E79A3 37664CA3C&nm=Blog&type=Blog&mod=View+Topic&mid=67D6564029914AD3B2            04AD35D8F5F780&tier=7&id=4629E115C53E431EA83A33F534B66F38






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