Choosing An Occupation Of The United States - 1406 Words

Introduction – Choosing an occupation can be based on a number of factors including personal interests, educational attainment, or family tradition. Farming is a profession that has existed for many years in practically every country in the world. It is required to produce commodities that are needed for human consumption such as meats, vegetables, and animal by products like dairy and eggs. The U.S. Census describes a farm as any establishment which produced and sold, or normally would have produced and sold, $1,000 or more of agricultural products during the year. The Census states that there are over 2.2 million farms in the United States. In spite of the predominance of family farms, there is strong evidence of a trend toward†¦show more content†¦Despite there being over 313,000,000 people living in the United States, there are less than 1% who claim farming as an occupation (and about 2% actually live on farms). In 2007, only 45% of farmers claimed farming a s their principal occupation and a similar number of farmers claiming some other principal occupation. The growing population will require more people to pursue a career in farming to meet the demand of agricultural products. Like other occupations, farming requires a level of skill and financial capital before one can begin to start an operation. Educational Issue – The majority of farms in the U.S. are owned and operated by individuals or families with the rest being either partnerships or corporate farms. Many farm families have formed modest-sized corporations to take advantage of legal and accounting benefits of that type of business enterprise. One reason for this business organization is that farm production expenses average $109,359 per year per farm. The high operating expenses of a farm make it very difficult to produce enough income to meet living expenses. In fact, less than 1 in 4 of the farms in this country produce gross revenues in excess of $50,000. Much like the manufacturing field, the U.S. farm population has declined and the average age of farmers continues to rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about sixty percent of the farmers in the