FOOD. FIBER. FUEL.

Farming in the 21st century.

Agriculture is everything involved with growing plants and animals to be used for something else. Nearly everything we eat, wear, and use comes from a plant or an animal raised on a farm.

Cindy Hall – Education Program Manager, Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation

Agriculture includes science and engineering.

It is the genetics work used to improve the seeds and animals farmers purchase. It is the development, design, production and sales of everything farmers use – tractors, equipment, buildings, fertilizer, and more.

Agriculture includes business.

It is the financial and legal aspects of acquiring land and other assets needed to farm. It is the marketing, sales, and distribution of plants and animals.

Agriculture includes more than food.

The clothes in your closet wouldn’t exist without cotton farmers. And corn is in everything from your toothpaste to your gasoline. Sports fans can thank cattle ranchers for making footballs and baseballs possible.

With most of the U.S. population being one or more generations away from the day-to-day life of farming, it's easy to see why some romanticized views of farming persist still today.

Brian Scott – Farmer, Forbes Writer

Farming today is specialized.

Farmers used to raise a little of everything on their farm. Now, most farmers focus their efforts on a few crops or livestock. This helps them acquire the facilities, technology, knowledge, and skills needed to produce it, and produce it well.

Farming today is high-tech.

Farmers use iPads, laptops, drones, robots, and more. These technologies enable farmers to be efficient and provide precise care to their animals.

Even livestock barns have Wi-Fi, web-cams, and automated feed and climate control systems so farmers can make adjustments remotely.

Farming today is still a family business.

About 99% of U.S. farms are operated by families – individuals, family partnerships or family corporations.

Farmers today are entrepreneurs.

Not only are farmers entrepreneurs, they're also educated – 70% of farmers have a higher education including a college diploma or vocational certificate.

Farmers today care about the earth.

Farmers know their actions affect the environment. No one is closer to the earth than farmers and it's important to them to care for the land and water.

By 2050, it is projected the world’s population will reach 9 billion people, requiring agriculture production to double. To meet the challenges of the future, it is imperative that youth and adults are informed consumers, advocates, and policy makers.

Debra Spielmaker – National Center for Agricultural Literacy

Workers are not working in agriculture.

Farming technology keeps getting better, which means fewer people can grow more food. Currently, only 15% of U.S. workers are in food and fiber industries.

Consumers are not agriculturally literate.

According to a U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance survey, 72% of consumers reported knowing nothing about farming or ranching. Even more alarming, 7% of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.

The future will challenge agriculture.

More food will have to be produced in the next 50 years than the past 10,000 years combined. And we will need to do it with less land and water.