The 4 Countries That Produce
the Most Food
Food
is an important and fundamental economic product, but only a handful of countries
actually excel at food production. Most agricultural commodities require a lot of land, which only
the largest countries have in abundance. In fact, the world's four dominant
food-producing countries all rank in the top five for total geographic size.
The
United States has long been a superpower in food markets – and it is still the
world's largest food exporter – but it falls to third place when measuring
total output. China and India produce more food than the U.S., but they end up
consuming much more of their own products. This makes sense, since China and
India have the world's largest populations by a wide margin.
These
three countries (the U.S., China and India) each produce more food than the
entire European Union put together. In fourth place
is Brazil; its food industry tilts heavily towards sugarcane and
soybeans.
One
country noticeably missing from the list is Russia, the largest country in the
world and home to the ninth-largest population. Russia is partially a victim of
its own harsh northern climate. A huge percentage of the Russian territory is
neither arable nor pasturable. Russia also has a history of low-output farms.
Easily
topping the list is China, which is the world's biggest producer, importer and
consumer of food. Much of China's land is too mountainous or too arid for
farming, but the rich soils of the eastern and southern regions are extremely
productive. China also has the world's largest food workforce, with some
estimates as high as 315 million laborers. By comparison, the U.S. is the
world's third most populous country, with 320 million people.
China
is the most prolific producer of an impressive list of foods: rice, wheat,
potatoes, lettuce, onions, cabbage, green beans, broccoli, eggplant, spinach,
carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, pears, grapes, apples, peaches, plums,
watermelons, sheep milk, chicken, pork, sheep, goat, peanuts, eggs, fish and
honey.
In
terms of total calorie content, India is the second most productive food
country in the world. When measured by the total value of agricultural
production instead, India drops to fourth place and produces less than half of
China's total output.
India
has another problem: Many of its citizens are too poor to purchase the food it
produces. There have been major strides in the 21st century as the Indian economy emerges, but many experts worry that the Indian
population is growing even faster. At 1.2 billion people with a very high birth
rate, India is expected to eclipse China as the world's largest population.
Farm
productivity in India is also far lower than in China, the U.S. or Brazil. In
2010, analyst and author Somini Sengupta outlined three steps to
boost Indian food efficiency: reduce food staple spoilage, improve
infrastructure and reduce restrictions on producers.
No
country produces as much as efficiently as the U.S. Despite having a
smaller workforce than China, total U.S. agricultural product is almost as high.
Food production is spread across much of the country, but the largest
food-producing states include California, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska and Illinois.
American
companies dominate the food export market; second-place Netherlands still
exports 35% less than the U.S. and is closer to 10th-place China in terms of
international product. The U.S. has been the world's largest exporter of food
for a very long time thanks to an increasingly productive farming sector. In
fact, the total food production in the U.S. has more than doubled in the
post-war period (from 1948 to 2015).
The Brazilian economy is historically centered on
agriculture, particularly sugarcane, dating back to its time as a European
colony. Thirty-one percent of Brazil is used as cropland, largely to produce
coffee, sugarcane, soybeans and corn.
Brazil
is also a major producer of oranges, pineapples, papaya and coconuts thanks to
its warm, fruit-friendly climate. The country ranks second (behind the U.S.) in
total beef output.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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