By now you've read the headlines: Global population reaches seven billion. We've been watching the numbers tick upward for years, but just like that, it's come and gone, and our attention is trained to the next milestone—nine billion.

We are expected to have 9 billion mouths to feed in just 40 years, and as recent reports of record exports show, incremental increases in wealth among the global population result in greater demand for safe and healthy food.

A study released by Crop Life America, titled, The Contribution of Crop Protection Products to the United States Economy, conducted by agronomist Mark Goodwin, draws out the various socio economic impacts of the crop protection industry in the U.S.

It's no secret, said Crop Life America president and CEO, Jay Vroom, at a press conference announcing the results of the study, that this country is suffering from high unemployment and low consumer confidence, and both are taking a toll on the economy. But the mirror image of all that bad news, he said, is what's going on in American agriculture.

Fortunately, an adoption of science-based solutions over the years has led to improvement in agriculture and an increased awareness of what that means for the world population and the planet.

In his study, Goodwin focuses on how everyday consumers—and the country in general—benefit from the use of crop protection products and increased production.

For starters, he said, the use of crop protection practices generates $82 billion at the farm gate—value that later ripples through 20 industries in the U.S., resulting in an increase of $166.5 billion in economic output. Further, that economic activity puts $33.9 billion in payroll in the hands of 1.05 million domestic workers throughout these 20 industries.

These products have not only enabled farmers to grow crops where before it was impossible, but they are now growing four times as muchfood on the same land base as more than a century ago. In just 50 years, for example, wheat yields have gone from 16 to 46 bushels per acre.

"Data from the report," reads CLA's news release, "finds that while every state received a positive economic spin-off from the use of crop protection products, nine states can each count 30,000 or more full-time employee equivalents that exist owing to the spinoff benefits of the additional crop produced as a result of crop protection product usage."

Though most accounts of the state of our economy are filled with pessimism and uncertainty at best, agriculture is always the asterisk, Goodwin said. It is the one thing still booming where other industries are failing.

Agriculture has always had this staying power, but in the past, it has been overlooked by people in urban areas who perceive agriculture as a legacy career rather than something they could pursue on their own.

But the ability to drive agriculture's success to other sectors is increasing and creating good, high paying, and diverse jobs all across the country. And as long as we continue to encourage this success bymaintaining these responsible practices and sound farm policy, we could be looking at a rural-America-led recovery.