Industrialization of Agriculture: Trends, Spatial Patterns, and Implications for Field-Level Application by the Natural Resources Conservation Service

Objectives of the Report: The central objective is to provide county-based mappings of the industrialization of agriculture - specifically increases in hog rearing, beef cattle raising, poultry production, and timber cutting. Subsequent sections provide a context for understanding recent changes in the organization and structure of agricultural and forestry Industries. The United States county data examined here portray several aspects of the structure of various animal Industries. First, counties with more than ten farms in the largest agricultural census size category in each industry are identified on U.S. county maps. Second, counties that have added more than ten farms in the largest size category between 1982 and 1992 are identified. Finally, changes in the industrialization of the various animal and forest industries are linked to the presence of poor and minority populations, as well as population change. Maps show counties with more than ten large farms in each industry that are in the upper quartile of counties with Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and poverty populations, as well as in the highest category of 1980-92 population change. Industrialized forestry is described in terms of the counties with the greatest number of industrial forest acres as estimated by U.S. Forest Service survey data.