The Corn Farmers Coalition recently published a “Corn Fact Book” full of great stats on farming and corn production. Some of my favorites:

• By 2005, the U.S. was the world’s biggest grower of biotech crops with more than half. It’s thought that global farming would have been $5 billion less without these crops. The biggest gains have been in soybeans and cotton. However, corn boosted farm income by more than $3 billion in 2005.

• Thanks in part to ag biotech, it takes 40% less land and 50% less energy to produce a bushel of corn than it did in 1987.

• Farmers grow five times as much corn as they did in the 1930s — on 20 percent less land.

• Reduced tillage and other farm management practices have reduced soil erosion 43% in 20 years.

• A farmer can save as much as 3.5 gallons of fuel an acre from no-till farming, which is possible with some biotech crops.

• The Federal Bureau of Labor statistics say that most farms employ only the farmer and perhaps a family member or a hired hand or two.

• The US produces enough corn that we can afford to export one in every five rows of corn each year and still have enough for domestic needs.

• Individuals or families own 82% of American corn farms. Another 6% are family held corporations; 11% are owned by partnerships; and the remaining handful — less than 4,000 — are owned by other types of corporations or estates, trusts and institutions.

• The average corn farm has fewer than 250 acres. Only 8% are bigger than 2,000 acres according to government statistics.