The Food Network star’s family reportedly owns 433,000 acres of land, making her the 23rd largest land owner in the country. The Normandy acre was equal to 1.6 arpents, the unit of area more commonly used in Northern France outside of Normandy. Builder's acre – In US construction and real estate development, an area of 40,000 square feet (200 x 200 ft. square). The co-hosts of NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator, Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia, use a familiar fast-food meal to answer that question. The word "acre" is derived from Old English æcer originally meaning "open field", cognate with west coast Norwegian ækre, Icelandic akur, Swedish åker, German Acker, Dutch akker, Latin ager, Sanskrit ajr, and Greek αγρός (agros). The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. The U.S. is a big place, nearly 1.9 billion acres. A description of the differences between the August 2019 NASS crop acre estimates and the FSA certified acres reported to FSA can be found on the Office of the Chief Economist website, click this link for more information. She's a data journalist from Bloomberg News. The average size of farms in the United States has seen a steady increase over the last decade. “The Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond is one of the biggest landowners in the United States according to a new report. Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia from NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator, look at how all that land is divvied up. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Im sure you could never know how many in actuallity since many are probably abandoned and overgrown or forgotten family burial sites. FSC Certified Acres by State As of 2019 (Updated May 2020) PDF, Size: 32,33 KB Added: Wednesday, 29.08.2012 Updated: Wednesday, 13.05.2020; FSC Acres by State - Map U.S. farmers have planted 91.7 million acres of corn in 2019, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). That is the number recognized by the National Geological Survey. A total of almost 4 million hectares (10 million acres) of timber is harvested each year, but most of that timber regenerates and remains classified as forested land, albeit at a … I found a few rough estimates that may shed some light on this. In 2018, the average farm size reached 443 acres, up from 418 acres in 2007. Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia from NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator, look at … "In 2017, the United States produced zero rare earth minerals. 31 million acres of farmland lost to development, in total, between 1992 and 2012. For residents of other countries, the acre might be envisioned as rather more than half of a 1.76 acres (0.71 ha) football pitch. [6], Since the difference between the US survey acre and international acre (0.016 square metres, 160 square centimetres or 24.8 square inches), is only about a quarter of the size of an A4 sheet or US letter, it is usually not important which one is being discussed. These include Antigua and Barbuda,[11] American Samoa,[12] The Bahamas,[13] Belize,[14] the British Virgin Islands,[15] the Cayman Islands,[16] Dominica,[17] the Falkland Islands,[18] Grenada,[19] Ghana,[20] Guam,[21] the Northern Mariana Islands,[22] Jamaica,[23] Montserrat,[24] Samoa,[25] Saint Lucia,[26] St. Helena,[27] St. Kitts and Nevis,[28] St. Vincent and the Grenadines,[29] Turks and Caicos,[30] the United Kingdom, the United States and the US Virgin Islands. Wheat for the bun - 21.5 million acres. But it was quite striking to see this massive chunk of the U.S. designated as forestland, and about 2% of that goes away and then comes back every year (laughter) - gets replanted. [35] The measure is still used to communicate with the public,[37] and informally (non-contract) by the farming and property industries.[38][39][40]. That's 538.6 million acres. The USA is 3,797,000 square miles. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land. But also, private land ownership, which is also on the rise. That is the second largest use of land in the U.S. - unprotected forest. VANEK SMITH: Stacey Vanek Smith, NPR News. Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, an acre was defined as the area of land that could be ploughed in one day by a yoke of oxen.[3]. Acreage (June 2019) 5 USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service Principal Crops Area Planted – States and United States: 2017-2019 [Crops included in area planted are corn, sorghum, oats, barley, rye, winter wheat, Durum wheat, other spring wheat, rice, soybeans, peanuts, Overview of Land Use in the United States- The U.S. has 2.3 billion acres of land. It's a Happy Meal. Fish and Wildlife Service. In most U.S. states, there could be more lawn than any single irrigated crop. [a] As detailed in the box on the right, an acre was roughly the amount of land tillable by a yoke of oxen in one day.[43]. In addition to the 755.3 million the government also owns 820 million acres of the continental shelf. The US survey acre is about 4,046.872 square metres; its exact value (.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px;white-space:nowrap}4046+13,525,426/15,499,969 m2) is based on an inch defined by 1 metre = 39.37 inches exactly, as established by the Mendenhall Order of 1922. While all modern variants of the acre contain 4,840 square yards, there are alternative definitions of a yard, so the exact size of an acre depends upon the particular yard on which it is based. ), 4,046.8564224 square metres (or a square with approximately 63.61 m sides), 4,046.87261 square metres (1 square kilometre is equal to 247.105 acres), 1 acre is approximately 208.71 feet × 208.71 feet (a square), A furlong by a chain (furlong 220 yards, chain 22 yards), Customary acre – The customary acre was a measure of roughly similar size to the acre described above, but it was subject to considerable local variation similar to the variation found in. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ​1⁄640 of a square mile, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m2, or about 40% of a hectare. VANEK SMITH: After going over the land use data myself, I came up with this object that I think really represents in one word - I guess it's actually two words - how we use land in the U.S. 10% of the world’s arable acres lie within the United States. In France, the acre (spelled exactly the same as in English) was used only in Normandy, but its value varied greatly across Normandy, ranging from 3,632 to 9,725 square metres, with 8,172 square metres being the most frequent value. Vermont’s 134,000 certified organic acres accounted for 11% of its total 1.25 million farm acres. Presidential Christmas Trees. One recognised symbol for the acre is ac,[1] but the word "acre" is also used as the symbol.[2]. The acre is a statute measure in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in almost all countries of the former British Empire: in most it is lawful to "use for trade" if given as supplementary information and is not used for land registration. Weather Santa Ana winds will continue today into Thursday across southern California with dry and windy conditions also across portions of the Southwest and southern High Plains. The USDA reported that farmers intended to plant 89 million acres of soybeans and 88 million acres of corn in 2018. 450-1100)-language text, Articles containing Norwegian-language text, Articles containing Icelandic-language text, Articles containing Swedish-language text, Articles containing Sanskrit-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 0.40468564224 hectare (A square with 100 m sides has an area of 1 hectare. Despite an unusually wet spring followed by an unusually cool June, America’s corn farmers planted even more than they did last year. Some states, however, had relatively large shares of organic farmland. And she went through the reports issued from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But, first, I want to speak with Lauren Leatherby. In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, the United States and five countries of the Commonwealth of Nations defined the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metre. But what's interesting is that the amount of food that we eat from all of that cropland, a lot of it is used for livestock. Give every person one acre, and you’d cover about 13% of the USA. There are 2.2 Billion acres onshore. Alaska has more acres than Texas, California & Montana combined. Together, the five agencies manage about 615.3 million acres, or 27% of the U.S. land base. How many acres does Drummond family own? What was the biggest use of land in the U.S.? Areas are seldom measured with sufficient accuracy for the different definitions to be detectable. In Canada, the Paris arpent used in Quebec before the metric system was adopted is sometimes called "French acre" in English, even though the Paris arpent and the Normandy acre were two very different units of area in ancient France (the Paris arpent became the unit of area of French Canada, whereas the Normandy acre was never used in French Canada). LEATHERBY: Forestland. Many other agencies administer the remaining federal acreage. 109,000 cemeteries. Soybeans traditionally come in second to corn as the most planted crop in the U.S. Used to simplify the math and for marketing, it is nearly 10% smaller than a survey acre. The land area of the lower 48 states is approximately 1.9 billion acres. [citation needed], Its use as a primary unit for trade in the United Kingdom ceased to be permitted from 1 October 1995, due to the 1994 amendment of the Weights and Measures Act,[34] where it was replaced by the hectare  – though its use as a supplementary unit continues to be permitted indefinitely. Before the enactment of the metric system, many countries in Europe used their own official acres. Thus, there are 2.43 billion acres in the USA. As a unit of measure, an acre has no prescribed shape; any area of 43,560 square feet is an acre. In the past 10 years, it's been growing at a rate of about 1 million acres per year. The Normandy acre was usually divided in 4 vergées (roods) and 160 square perches, like the English acre. | The Montserrat Reporter", "The Voice – The national newspaper of St. Lucia since 1885", "FEATURE: We built an island dream on our own St Helena | St Helena Online", "SIDF Sinks SKN Passport Money into Christophe Harbour :: The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer", "PM vows to spend rest of life seeking reparations – I-Witness News", "Government gets $8million from Emerald Cay sale", "Proposed dolphin facility will enclose about 2 acres of Water Bay – News – Virgin Islands Daily News", "Land Measurement Units in India - Confident Group", The Weights and Measures Act 1985 (Metrication) (Amendment) Order 1994, "Explanatory memorandum to The weights and measures (metrication amendments) regulations 2009", Waddesdon Estate: about us "By purchasing the adjoining land, the estate has grown from the original 2,700 acres in 1874 to 6,000 acres in 2011. ack Simplot (1909-2008) was a farmer’s farmer. And that's a combination of unprotected forestland, which means that it's not a part of a national park or state park, and about 14% was owned by corporations. The United States has more than 2.4 billion acres of total area (land and water). And then we get to a relatively small category, which is urban areas. Downloads. Copyright © 2019 NPR. Top crops in each state: Mostly lawn, but a heart of gold. The U.S. is a big place, nearly 1.9 billion acres. The ERS Major Land Uses series is the longest running accounting of all major uses of public and private land in all 50 States. VANEK SMITH: And this is of course the largest use of land in the U.S. - that is, cow pasture - 654 million acres, plus the feed for the livestock, which is 127.4 million acres. This page was last edited on 25 December 2020, at 01:58. LEATHERBY: That's by far the fastest growing. This article takes a look at the latter; specifically the four major deserts of the southwestern US. Alaska accounts for more than 17% of the total acres in the United States. Accuracy and availability may vary. So that's the size of about Phoenix and LA and Houston combined, every year, growing in urban area. Hay predominates in the West, however, and in Nebraska and Kansas, there are more acres of corn than anything else. Agriculture contributes $992 billion to the American economy each year.