The National Indicators Report®
A Peer-Reviewed Look at Sustainability Trends in U.S. Crop Production
Built from publicly available datasets, government reports, and scientific literature, this report serves as a national reference point for peer-reviewed sustainability every five years. It is designed to help the value chain understand what’s improving, what’s plateauing, and where collective action can accelerate progress.
Keep an eye out for the next edition, coming in Q1 2027.
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Executive Summary / Introduction
Introduction
Over the past two decades, agricultural stakeholders in the United States have collaborated on programs, tools and incentives to transition to sustainable farming systems that build thriving and healthy agriculture systems and improve environmental outcomes. Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture was formed in 2006 from one such collaborative effort between farmers, agribusiness, brand and retail companies, environmental organizations, and university and government partners to focus specifically on improving environmental outcomes from commodity crop production. As the largest share of cropland in the U.S. is devoted to commodity crops, transitioning these lands to sustainable systems can provide many environmental benefits across the country while helping to ensure resilience to climatic disruptions already occurring and anticipated to worsen over the next several decades.
U.S. croplands are some of the most productive agricultural areas on the planet and provide food, feed, fiber and fuel for domestic consumption and export. As a critical region for global food security, maintaining the productivity of U.S. cropland is key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Zero Hunger by ensuring adequate, nutritious food for a growing population (United Nations, 2015). At the same time, the harmful environmental impacts from the past centuries of farming on these lands have been considerable and at odds with other SDGs, including Clean Water, Life on Land, Life Below Water, and Climate Action. Recent progress reports on the SDGs highlighted the important role of agricultural value chain stakeholders and partnerships in devising solutions to achieve Zero Hunger (SDG 2) (Veldhuizen et al., 2020) as well as the need to focus on the interconnections between the goals and to strive for achieving synergistic improvements (Messerli et al., 2019). Balancing these goals is the critical challenge facing agricultural producers and stakeholders over the coming decade.
Recent scientific reports have highlighted historical biodiversity losses in agricultural regions and found that the growth in agricultural land use since 1970 is unsustainable with respect to the natural systems impacted, including declines in soil health and pollinator diversity. These reports call for renewed efforts to protect and restore nature (Diaz et al., 2019). In addition, the most recent scientific consensus on climate science has confirmed that disruptive weather events over the past several years are attributable to global climate change caused by human
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Download the full report, supporting references, crop factsheets, and methodology appendices. Use these assets in internal briefings, for stakeholder engagement, and in sustainability collaborations, while following citation guidance.
Access everything you need from the 2021 National Indicators Report in one place. Download the full report, references, and technical appendices to dig into the data, methodology, and findings behind one of the most comprehensive assessments of sustainable agriculture in the United States.
Full Report References Appendix A: Environmental Indicators Methodology Appendix B: Additional Representations of Environmental Indicators
Get the National Indicators Report findings that matter most for the crops you care about. Our Crop Factsheets distill decades of sustainability data into easy-to-share summaries for eleven major U.S. commodities, highlighting environmental performance trends and the regional context behind them. Use them in internal briefings, grower outreach, or sustainability collaborations.
Barley | Corn for Grain | Corn for Silage | Cotton | Peanuts | Potatoes | Rice | Sorghum | Soybeans | Sugar Beets | Wheat
See how far U.S. agriculture has come. Our earlier National Indicators Reports trace the long-term arc of environmental progress across major commodity crops, giving you the historical context to understand where the industry stands today and where it's headed.
Key Findings at a Glance
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A Decade of Slower Gains
Progress across key environmental outcomes has generally been more limited over the past ~15 years compared with earlier decades.
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Soil Conservation: Big Gains, Then Plateau
Soil erosion dropped significantly from ~1990 through 2005, then largely held steady as conservation tillage adoption leveled and cover crop acreage remained relatively low nationally.
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GHG Emissions Per Crop Production Down, Per-Acre Mixed
Greenhouse gas emissions have declined per unit of crop production, yet have held steady or increased per acre for some crops, often tied to nitrous oxide emissions and higher rates of agricultural inputs.
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Energy Use: Efficiency Improved, Inputs Matter
Overall energy efficiency has improved over time, but some crops show increases in energy use in the past decade due to increased use of agricultural inputs.
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Water Use: Improvement with Variability
Irrigation water use efficiency fluctuates with weather and shifting production regions; trends show improvement for many crops over time.
Cite This Report
Citing and using the National Indicators Report
In the interest of responsible data use and research transparency, we encourage you to cite or reference this report. However, please note that the 2009, 2012, 2016, and 2021 reports should not be used to make individual sourcing or performance claims for a given crop. When referencing findings, be explicit about the timeline, data sources, units of analysis, and that results reflect national averages, not individual performance.
Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, 2021. Environmental Outcomes from On-Farm Agricultural Production in the United States (Fourth Edition). ISBN: 978-0-578-33372-4
While the National Indicators Report may be cited or referenced, the 2009, 2012, 2016 and/or 2021 reports should not be used to make individual sourcing or performance claims for a given commodity. In addition, any mentions of the findings from the Field to Market report “Environmental Outcomes On-Farm Agricultural Production in the United States” should be explicit regarding the timeline of study, the source of data, the units of analysis, and the fact that results represent national averages rather than individual performance.
Field to Market does not authorize or endorse claims that equate or compare Field to Market’s national average results with the results of specific individuals or geographies. It also does not support claims that equate past performance with future performance or that overlook and/or are not explicit regarding the relevance of units of analysis.
For more information or to obtain permission to reproduce material contained in this report, or if you would like to report a claim that violates the above guidance, please contact Dr. Eric Coronel, Director of Science. (link to: ecoronel@fieldtomarket.org)
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