. "Use of Materials Balances to Estimate Aggregate Waste Generation in the United States." Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1999.
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potatoes, cotton, tobacco). Harvested output of all field crops, including hay, in 1988 was 421.75 million metric tons (MMT).2 Truck crops totaled 67.5 MMT. Total weight of harvested crops was 489 MMT (Table 1).3 It should also be noted that corn plants harvested whole for silage, or "hogged" on the farm, are not included in the grain production figures. This material, which is fed to animals, is classed as "harvested roughage"; it amounted to 68 MMT in 1988. Total biomass harvested by humans and animals including grazing was 885 MMT.
According to one estimate, the average ratio of above-ground crop residues remaining on the land to harvest weight is about 1.5 for cereals (straw), 1.0 for legumes (straw), 0.2 for tubers (tops) and sugar cane (bagasse), and 3.0 for cotton (stalks) (Smil, 1993). On this basis, total residues left above ground in 1988 would have been around 400 MMT. Total above-ground biomass production was about 1,285 MMT. In the United States, most of the crop residues are left on the land; a small fraction, about 20 percent, is burned for fuel or used for other purposes (Smil, 1993). (In China and India, by contrast, as much as two-thirds of crop residue production is burned as fuel in household cooking.)
Biomass is a mixture of cellulosic fiber, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and water, the latter accounting for about 50 percent by weight. Hence, we estimate that the dry weight of the biomass produced in 1988 was about 642 MMT. For each 100 units of dry output (CH2O basis), the photosynthetic process equation implies that 146.7 MMT CO2 (containing 40 units of carbon) were initially extracted from the air, 60 units of water were converted, and 106.7 units of oxygen were returned to the atmosphere. Overall, for 1988, water inputs—not including water required for evapotranspiration—were about 1,027 MMT, and carbon dioxide inputs were about 1,002 MMT. Oxygen produced by the photosynthesis process in agriculture would have been about 685 MMT. The overall flows for U.S. agriculture in 1988 are summarized graphically in Figure 1.
One other air pollutant, methane, is worth mentioning. Most animals have anaerobic organisms in their guts that convert a small amount of the food they consume into methane, typically 1-2 percent on an energy basis. However, this percentage is larger for cattle and sheep, ranging from 5.5 to 7.5 percent, depending on the quality and quantity of feed. Taking these factors into account, Crutzen et al. (1986) have estimated annual methane output of 60 kg per head of cattle and 8 kg per head of sheep. The U.S. cattle population in 1988 was 99.6 million; the sheep population was 10.5 million. Methane emissions from these sources amounted to 0.68 MMT.
It should be noted that the agricultural sector uses large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. The nitrogen (N) content of ammonia used for fertilizer consumed domestically was 11.2 MMT in 1988, or 76 percent of all the synthetic ammonia produced in the United States that year. Large quantities of urea (about 0.33 MMT), a fertilizer material, are also used for animal feed supplements. Domestic agriculture consumed 33.5 MMT of phosphates containing 10.8 MMT P2O5. Many of these substances find their way directly or through animal excreta into surface water and groundwater. Much of the N content of animal feed ends up in