A few numbers show the magnitude of this historic change.As recently as 1950, there were 10 million people working on farm in the United States, representing 17 person of the labor force In 2000,fewer than 3 million people worked on farms,or 2 percent of the labor force. This change coincided with tremendous advance in farm productivity: Despite the 70 percent drop in the number of farmers , U.S. farms produced more than twice the output of crop and livestock in 2000 as they did in 1950.