The OTHER 1 (or 2) percent

President Bob Stallman delivered his opening address at the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention on Jan. 8. (Photo courtesy of AFBF)

In his opening address to the 2012 American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention last week, AFBF President Bob Stallman noted the attention that the Occupy Wall Street movement has garnered for America’s “99 percent” who are concerned about their economic well-being.

Meanwhile, he noted, across the nation “Farm Bureau members are occupying the farm fields, the pastures, the livestock barns. We are occupying the orchards and the vineyards. We are occupying the combine and, yes, even the saddle.

“Ours is an occupation of production. … We are the 1 percent that is producing food and fiber for the other 99 percent.”

I checked his math.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports an average of 112,611,029 households in the United States between 2005 and 2009. That time period is when the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted most recent Census of Agriculture – in 2008, working with stats from 2007. The census found 2,204,792 farms in the United States.

That would make U.S. farms—the majority of which are family operations—1.95 percent of U.S. households.

Pretty close.

Stallman cited some other percentages as well.

“U.S. agricultural productivity has increased by nearly 50 percent since 1982,” he told convention participants. “Over a 20-year period, corn yields are up 41 percent. Soil loss has fallen by 70 percent per bushel, water use by 27 percent.” And other crops have seen similar improvements, he added.

About 7,000 famers and their families attended the AFBF convention. It’s always held in January, but it’s not always held somewhere nice and warm like Hawaii. Each year, participants are able to sample local culture, and this year the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture held a luau at Honolulu’s Polynesian Cultural Center.

Stallman, a Texan, noted some similarities to celebrations back home

“Anytime you cook a pig in a pit for 10 to 12 hours,” he said, “it’s just hard to go wrong.”