A few numbers show the magnitude of this historic change. As recently as
1950, there were 10 million people working on farms in the United States, representing
17 percent of the labor force. In 1998, fewer than 3 million people worked
on farms, or 2 percent of the labor force. This change coincided with tremendous
advances in farm productivity: Despite the 70 percent drop in the number of farmers,
U.S. farms produced more than twice the output of crops and livestock in 1998
as they did in 1950