Minnesota Farmers Union

(March 19, 2010) - In our last three columns we have looked at the production of corn, wheat, and soybeans and the exports of corn, wheat, and soybean complex. This column looks at the sum of the three crops to give a broader picture of agriculture and particularly of the crops that account for the utilization of the majority of the acres of US cropland.

Between 1980 and 2009, the world production of corn, wheat, and soybeans grew by 86 percent, increasing from 926 million metric tons to 1.73 billion metric tons (Fig. 1 solid red line). During that same period, the world population grew from 4.5 billion people to 6.8 billion, an increase of 51 percent. On average, the world production of the three crops grew at a rate 40 percent faster than population.

World exports of corn, wheat and soybean complex grew from 218 million metric tons to 362 million metric tons during the 30 year period beginning in 1980 (Fig. 1 dashed blue line), an increase of 66 percent as nations relied less and less on imports of these crops.

Figure 1. World Production of the total of corn, wheat and soybeans and exports of the total of corn, wheat, and soybean complex, 1980-2009. Data Source: USDA.