THE ECONOMY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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A Natural Resource Sector.The United States, more than most countries, enjoys a wide variety¹of natural resources.

The United States has substantial mineral deposits within its borders. It leads the world in the production of phosphate, an important ingredient in fertilizers, and ranks second in gold, silver, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, natural gas, and coal. The United States has huge fields of natural gas and oil. Petroleum production is third in the world, after Russia and Saudi Arabia. Although mining accounts for only a small share of the nation’s economic output, it was historically essential to US industrial development and remains important today. Coal and iron ore are the basis for the steel industry, which fabricates components for manufactured items such as automobiles, appliances, machinery, and other basic products. Petroleum is refined into gasoline, heating oil, and the petrochemicals used to make plastics, paint, pharmaceuticals, and synthetic fibers.

Agricultural output in the United States has historically been among the highest in the world. Despite its vast output, the US economy is so large and diversified that agriculture accounted for only 2 percent of annual GDP and employed only 3 percent of the workforce. Even though the number of farms has been declining for the last decades, overall production has increased because of more efficient operations. Bigger farms, operated as large businesses, have increasingly replaced small family farms. By applying mechanization, technology, efficient business practices²,and scientific advancesin agricultural methods, larger farms produce great quantities of agricultural output using small amounts of labor and land.

The United States has some of the best cropland in the world. Cultivated farmland constitutes 19 percent of the land area of the country and makes the United States the world's richest agricultural nation. In part because of the nation's favourable climate, soil, and water conditions, farmers produce huge quantities of agricultural commodities and a variety of crops and livestock.

The United States is the largest producer of corn, soybeans, and sorghum, and it ranks second in the production of wheat, oats, citrus fruits and tobacco. The United States is also a major producer of sugar cane, potatoes, peanuts, and sugar beets. It ranks fourth in the world in cattle production and second in hogs. Farmers in the United States not only produce enough food to feed the nation’s population, they also export more farm products than any other nation.

Cattle production, hog production, and chicken production are widespread throughout the United States. Vegetables are grown widely in the United States. Outside major US cities, small farms and gardens, known as truck farms³, grow vegetables and some varieties of fruits for urban markets. Most fruits grown in the United States are apples, pears, plums and citrus fruits – lemons, oranges, and grapefruits.

Forestry accounts for less than 0.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Nevertheless, forests represent an essentialresource for US industry. Forest resources are used in producing housing, fuel, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods.

The United States leads the world in lumber production and is second in the production of wood for pulp and paper manufacture. Since these high production levels, however, do not satisfy all of the US demand for forest products, the United States has to import lumber, most of which comes from Canada.

Rich fishing grounds of the country provide a rich marine harvest, the commercial valueof which is about evenly divided⁴between fish and shellfish. Americans consume approximately 80 percent of the catch as food. The remaining 20 percent goes into the manufacturing of products such as fish oil, fertilizers, and animal food.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 956