By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist

The latest Feeding the Economy report shows how vital the food and agriculture sectors are to the Texas and U.S. economies.

The study, commissioned by 34 food and agriculture groups, found food and agriculture supports nearly 24 million U.S. jobs and contributes more than $9.6 trillion to the U.S. economy each year, while exports contribute another $181.36 billion.

The economic output has grown over trillion dollars since last year’s report.

The U.S. agriculture sector has a broad reach from the national, state and district levels.

“The report goes over the impact of agriculture upstream and downstream. And, of course, farmers are at the heart of that, but it starts with the folks that supply farmers and goes all the way out to the to the folks that eat,” Roger Cryan, AFBF chief economist, said.

The report accounts for more than one-third of the entire U.S. economy. Agriculture directly supports over 15% of U.S. employment, while 20% of the total U.S. output is attributed to agriculture.

“The direct impact of the food supply chain from farm to retail was about 24 million jobs, about $990 billion in wages and $3.8 trillion in economic activity. When you add in the multiplied impacts, it’s more than doubled to 49 million jobs and $2.8 trillion in wages and $9.6 trillion in economic activity,” Cryan said.

Texas food and agriculture sectors contribute over 4.5 million jobs, about $236.2 billion in wages and $860.8 billion in economic activity.

The report shows how vital agriculture is to the U.S. and helps illustrate the need for a new, modernized farm bill to strengthen national food security, Cryan said.

“The agricultural supply chain is everywhere. It’s critically important to the economy, let alone how important it is just to feed and clothe people. Numbers like this can help drive home to everybody in every state the importance to them of the agricultural economy, and why it’s so important to recognize that we need a farm bill to support that enormous engine for economic activity,” he said.

Millions of jobs support the food supply chains in food manufacturing, processing and storage facilities. Agriculture also touches more than one million restaurants and about 200,000 retail food stores.

Agriculture continues to bring economic benefits as workers in the food and agriculture sectors spend their income, helping support local economies, particularly in rural America.

View the full report at feedingtheeconomy.com.

View the Texas report here.