Top U.S. Cash Crops

How many of America's 27 most valuable cash crops can you name?
Sources: Most recent, 1997
A crop is a plant that is grown for human use or animal feed
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: February 6, 2021
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First submittedOctober 15, 2013
Times taken44,200
Average score55.6%
Rating4.41
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$ Value
Change
since 1997
Crop
52.9 bil
+116%
Corn
31.2 bil
+76%
Soybean
18.2 bil
+36%
Hay
8.88 bil
+3%
Wheat
6.62 bil
+145%
Grape
6.01 bil
-2%
Cotton
5.49 bil
+408%
Almond
4.14 bil
+59%
Potato
3.49 bil
+117%
Lettuce
3.01 bil
+78%
Apple
2.67 bil
+194%
Strawberry
2.62 bil
+1188%
Pistachio
2.46 bil
+42%
Rice
1.71 bil
-11%
Orange
1.60 bil
+28%
Tomato
1.18 bil
-1%
Sugarbeet
1.15 bil
+44%
Sugarcane
1.15 bil
-21%
Sorghum
1.13 bil
+22%
Peanut
1.13 bil
+48%
Mushroom
1.02 bil
+16%
Cottonseed
1.00 bil
+54%
Onion
0.946 bil
-69%
Tobacco
0.878 bil
+183%
Walnut
0.872 bil
+76%
Broccoli
0.863 bil
+96%
Carrot
0.761 bil
-18%
Barley
+2
Level 85
Oct 15, 2013
Count on NORML to be off in space. Spearmint is NOT a bigger cash crop than tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, mushrooms, onions, peppers, broccoli, carrots, cantaloupe, watermelons, cabbage, celery, garlic, cauliflower, cucumbers, asparagus, artichokes, spinach, or lentils.

The correct list is at: "http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/nass/CropRank/98180/crprnkus.txt".

+3
Level ∞
Oct 16, 2013
Wow. I thought their numbers looked a little strange. I can't believe how bad they were. Updated the quiz using your source. Thanks!
+3
Level 76
May 7, 2016
Marijuana easily beats corn into the number 1 position, with a value of 35.8 billion dollars. Ignoring the number one crop because it's illegal seems quite arbitrary.
+4
Level 86
May 7, 2016
But its price is much higher just because it is illegal...
+2
Level 79
May 7, 2016
And if corn were illegal no one would bother...
+11
Level ∞
May 7, 2016
I don't consider that news story to be accurate. Marijuana clearly would be somewhere on the list, but it's impossible to say where. Almost certainly not #1. Keep in mind that street value != crop value.
+2
Level 83
Nov 12, 2016
I'm sure it will start to be in the data soon. Having a legal crop grown in 7 or more states, where it is tracked and regulated will put it into the mix, and it will be actual value, not street value.
+2
Level 18
Jan 20, 2017
Now marijuana is legal in quite a few states. Maybe a list update?
+1
Level 89
Jul 22, 2018
True, it doesn't figure in the price of corn when you break it down into bag size.
+4
Level ∞
Feb 6, 2021
Believe it or not, marijuana is still not legal according to the federal government.
+3
Level ∞
Feb 6, 2021
I take back what I said before. It's far from clear that marijuana would appear in the top 27. Tobacco is only #23. Marijuana probably would NOT appear on this list if statistics were being kept accurately.
+1
Level 89
Feb 6, 2021
It's totally impossible to know. I live in a so-called legal state and the number of commercial growers is crazy. The consumption is way up over what it used to be. It's almost entirely a cash business, which skyrocketed this past summer with so many people getting paid to cruise around all day for unemployment vacations. I see drivers everywhere vaping more of the expensive crop than eating cheap lettuce behind the wheel.

Maybe they're laundering it as pistachio sales. Does anyone even eat pistachio ice cream anymore?

+2
Level 61
Apr 5, 2021
@Quizmaster

Cannabis is sold with little value added; outside of the growing edibles and CBD market, it's mostly still sold as loose buds. Therefore, the crop value would be closer to the street value than tobacco, which is bought on the consumer level as value-added products like cigarettes or chew, not to mention the high tobacco taxes that come with being sold legitimately rather than in the black market.

+1
Level 82
Jan 24, 2014
Got Soybean with 2 seconds to spare...
+2
Level 17
Jan 24, 2014
got sorghum with 1 second to spare
+9
Level 56
Jan 18, 2017
got a life. lololol
+19
Level 82
Apr 11, 2017
but how much time did you have left when you got it?
+2
Level 90
Jan 24, 2014
Surprised at some of these results. How can almonds, peanuts, pecans, and pistachios make the list, and my favorite, cashews, be left off? Also hard to believe sorghum is such a huge cash crop in the US, as I've never seen it as an ingredient.
+6
Level ∞
Jan 24, 2014
I don't think you can even grow cashews in the U.S. (outside of Hawaii)
+1
Level 30
Jun 10, 2017
arent cash crops thing that cant be eaten
+4
Level 78
Feb 16, 2021
It's an agricultural crop you can sell for profit.
+2
Level 82
Jan 24, 2014
I guessed sorghum because I saw it on some user-created quiz about the biggest cash crops in the world. But I had no idea sorghum was grown anywhere in the United States.
+1
Level 85
Jan 24, 2014
We grow a lot of it 'round these parts. (west Texas)
+2
Level 74
May 13, 2014
A pretty common summer cash crop in Australia - an option to corn (maize) sunflower etc. Generally sold as stockfeed; may be exported in limited quantities for human consumption
+2
Level 51
Jul 6, 2014
You wouldn't see it as an ingredient, necessarily. It's mostly used as feed, or for a syrup resembling molasses.
+1
Level 55
Apr 19, 2015
Thank you! I put in milo, but it didn't take it. Glad to know I at least had the right idea.
+2
Level 75
May 7, 2016
We used to grow grain sorghum but around here everyone calls it milo or millet. Please accept those? It is used mainly for animal feed and ethanol production. Sweet sorghum is used for making sorghum molasses, and isn't quite the same thing. Broomcorn is also in this family. My guess is that the data used here was only for grain sorghum.
+2
Level 56
Jan 24, 2014
surprised only 28% got hay?!
+1
Level 71
May 8, 2016
I wrote "grass"... :(
+1
Level 77
Jun 8, 2014
I've heard sorghum mentioned in my language, but I'd never ever even heard the English name and I wouldn't have come up with it in any language at all. Really unknown plant to me. -- Also almost forgot all the berries.
+2
Level 48
Aug 19, 2014
Surprised that spinach is not on here, but asparagus, which I thought was mainly a CA thing is..
+1
Level 45
Dec 27, 2014
Could you accept "sugar" for "sugarcane"?
+1
Level ∞
Nov 12, 2016
Okay
+2
Level 77
Nov 12, 2016
It should really be accepted for sugarbeet as well then. You get one and don't think the other one is on the list.
+1
Level 54
Aug 18, 2015
I was surprised that marijuana was absent. It did not specify "legal" cash crops. ;)
+3
Level ∞
Feb 4, 2016
Yes it does.
+1
Level 82
May 7, 2016
Now that marijuana is legal in many states, should it still not be included?
+2
Level 89
May 7, 2016
Probably not, only because there are four states where it's completely legal.
+1
Level 55
May 9, 2016
Like you mentioned above, while it's still illegal/moderately illegal in many states, it will be hard to get an accurate cash value on it. It'd have to be legalized everywhere to really compare it.
+2
Level 40
May 10, 2016
regardless if some states have legalized it, it is still considered illegal on the federal level. so for a country wide cash crop quiz, it would not be considered.
+1
Level 89
Jul 22, 2018
It's still not legal anywhere in the U.S. Some states just don't have state laws prohibiting it.
+2
Level 82
Jan 29, 2016
Nice quiz, but the title should be "name as many things that grow in the the ground as you can in six minutes." Guessing, say, the top 10 would be more quiz-like.
+1
Level ∞
Nov 12, 2016
Changed it to a top 25.
+1
Level 74
May 7, 2016
I'm surprised broccoli is so high. Who is eating more broccoli than peanuts, sugarcane, onions, beans, carrots, oats, etc.?
+6
Level 71
May 7, 2016
Prisons, jails, schools etc......... it's a form of punishment.
+4
Level 55
May 9, 2016
Maybe it's exported a lot? Only reason I can think of, since peanuts would definitely be pretty high because of peanut oil.
+1
Level 65
May 7, 2016
America, where are your pumpkins!
+1
Level 60
May 7, 2016
When I guessed 'bean' I was thinking 'green bean' but I see that's a separate answer. So what kind of beans are the higher scoring ones?
+2
Level 75
May 7, 2016
Dried beans such as Pinto, Great Northern, Black, Red, Wren's Egg, Jacob's Cattle, Horticulture, etc. I, too, thought "bean" covered all of them, including green beans. Many varieties can be used both for eating when the seeds are young in the pod (green) or allowed to mature and eaten shelled as dry beans.
+1
Level 71
May 8, 2016
What kind of mushroom?
+2
Level ∞
Nov 12, 2016
They are grouped together.
+3
Level 82
Feb 8, 2018
Since when are mushrooms a plant?
+1
Level 71
Jun 11, 2019
Should we just group all vegetables together as well then?
+6
Level ∞
Feb 6, 2021
I don't know. Write a letter to your congressman and see if you can get them to change the USDA classifications.
+1
Level 76
Nov 13, 2016
I presume you're excluding trees? Lumber would be a massive income producer. (I double-checked that a tree is indeed a plant before posting this)
+1
Level 31
Oct 14, 2017
Apple, orange, almond and walnut are trees
+1
Level 60
Feb 22, 2018
Trees aren't crops, unless the fruit from them is.
+1
Level 85
Feb 6, 2021
The current instructions say: "A crop is a plant that is grown for human use or animal feed."
+1
Level 72
Nov 15, 2016
I'm surprised avocado wasn't there. Growing up in the 1980's, I don't think we ever saw an avocado in Massachusetts. Now they seem to be on every sandwich that you order! :)
+2
Level ∞
Nov 15, 2016
So true. Also they are incredibly expensive. But I think most come from Mexico.
+1
Level 79
Nov 18, 2016
The majority do come from Mexico. I was a little surprised not to see olives.
+1
Level 68
Jan 18, 2017
Yes, avocado were very exotic and rare when I was a child, but now they are cheap (usually) and plentiful, thankfully! Yum! And they grow well here in NZ. Three huge avocado trees in my street.
+2
Level 57
Nov 15, 2016
Please accept grass for hay.
+4
Level 85
Jan 18, 2017
Mushrooms are not plants.
+1
Level 85
Jan 18, 2017
Why doesn't lumber count?
+1
Level 47
Jan 18, 2017
Looks like I need to get into the nut business. All of the huge growth since 1997 has been there (Almond, pistachio, walnut).
+1
Level 77
Jan 19, 2017
With what I see in the stores, how is kale not on here. Kale seems to be in damned near everything now.
+1
Level 71
Apr 23, 2017
Guess I don't know much about U.S. crops - really expected oats to be on the list. And sugarbeets and sorghum? Who knew?
+1
Level 60
Feb 22, 2018
Yeah I tried oats too and was surprised when it wasn't on there. But then, I guess I haven't seen very many oat fields here in America.
+2
Level 70
Oct 14, 2017
Sitting here eating almonds. Missed almonds.
+1
Level 82
Oct 14, 2017
By volume I'm sure they wouldn't make the list but they are so overpriced they slide in on cash value.
+1
Level 82
Oct 14, 2017
Most undervalued crop in the world? Pretty sure it's the humble banana.
+1
Level 47
Feb 22, 2018
In South Dakota, there is pretty much is corn, soybeans, and cows. I got corn and soybeans and didn't know where to go next
+1
Level 47
Jan 12, 2019
I'm surprised peanuts and carrots aren't on this list.
+1
Level 60
Jan 18, 2019
Surprised about the peanuts, too. And peaches. I don't think one should consider tobacco food.
+2
Level 79
Feb 6, 2021
I wouldn't count cotton as food either, but the quiz is not about food, it is about crops. Not all crops are food.
+1
Level 51
Feb 6, 2021
I don't think hay would count as HUMAN food either, so I think it's obvious that this is about crops, not food.
+1
Level 82
Apr 5, 2021
You could make a salad from tobacco leaves. They actually have a lot of protein and nutritional value. Of course you'd probably also die from nicotine poisoning.
+3
Level 71
Jun 11, 2019
o.O America is nuts!
+1
Level 82
Apr 5, 2021
What about pumpkin spice?
+1
Level 67
Apr 5, 2021
I didn't try mushrooms because of the caveat, lol
+1
Level 71
Apr 5, 2021
What's the difference between cotton and cottonseed?
+1
Level 93
Aug 4, 2021
Made me wonder too. Maybe something to do with use, cottonseed being used for oil but cotton being used for cloth?
+2
Level 64
Apr 5, 2021
I had no idea we were in a pistachio renaissance.
+1
Level 79
Apr 6, 2021
How the hell did I not think of lettuce? I eat it every day! Yikes.
+1
Level 60
Apr 9, 2021
most recent source is from 1997 ?!?!?!?!!?
+1
Level 69
Sep 28, 2021
The caveat is misleading. It says a crop is a plant and then mushroom (most definetely not a plant) is one of the answers.