U.S. land area amounts to 2.26 billion acres, with over half or nearly 1.2 billion acres for agricultural uses.
Distributed over more than two million farms, one-third of US land is used for pasture and grazing. The major occupant on all this land: cows. Between those pastures for grazing and the cropland used to produce feed, 41% of US land revolves around livestock.
In 2024, agriculture contributed slightly more than 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., including nearly half of the nation’s total non-CO2 emissions.
About half of agricultural GHG emissions are from crop production; nearly all of the rest come from livestock. Agricultural GHG emissions are mainly nitrous oxide and methane, which, per ton emitted, are much more potent than CO2 in trapping atmospheric heat. Agriculture accounts for nearly all U.S. emissions of nitrous oxide and almost half of emitted methane. The sector’s nitrous oxide emissions mainly come from fertilizers used to produce crops.
Most of agriculture’s methane emissions are from livestock operations, particularly from collecting and storing manure and from the digestive emissions of cattle.
However, if you look at the food system at large -- including feed, fertilizer and pesticide manufacture, processing, transportation, refrigeration and waste disposal --the industry contributes about 30% or more of total annual global greenhouse gas emissions.
While agriculture plays a significant, yet often neglected, role in contributing to our climate crisis, new agricultural practices can also be a major part of the solution. Understanding agricultural issues and practices help support farmers and our need to shift to sustainable practices.
CREDIT: EPA. Data from The Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.
