Talk: Agriculture in the United States

Issues with reading and interpreting data[]

The 2012, 2013 and 2014 reports do not have data about service employees (or service workers)

Farm Labor - 2013, NASS says:

Workers hired directly by farm operators numbered 871,000 for the reference week of October 6-12, 2013, down less than 1 percent from the October 2012 reference week. There were 906,000 workers hired directly by farm operators on the Nation’s farms and ranches during the week of July 7-13, 2013, matching the number of hired workers during the July 2012 reference week.

The 2012 report has the same wording, talking only about workers hired directly
The 2011 report says something different: There were 1,141,000 hired workers on the Nation’s farms and ranches during the week of October 9-15, 2011, down 1 percent from a year ago. Of these hired workers, 828,000 were hired directly by farm operators. Agricultural service employees on farms and ranches made up the remaining 313,000 workers.

-- BlizzardOSH (talk) 20:28, October 29, 2014 (UTC)

Irrigation[]

Irrigated agriculture accounted for 31 percent of the nation’s total water demand in 2005 and increased 43 percent since 1950. (Irrigated agriculture, with withdrawals of about 143 maf, accounted for 31 percent of the Nation’s total in 2005.) Irrigated agriculture accounted for 58 percent of surface water withdrawals and 79 percent of groundwater withdrawals. [1] [2] - [3]