[sokoloff]

> Lawns cover 40 million acres, or 2%, of land in the US, making them the single largest irrigated crop we grow.

That's comparing (an estimate of the) total lawn area to only the irrigated portion of corn (around 17% of the 91 million acres of corn in the US). If less than 40% of lawns are irrigated (which seems entirely plausible), then turfgrass is not the largest irrigated crop by any measure.

Total for total, corn has more. Irrigated for irrigated, lawns have more iff ~39% or more of the total area is irrigated. I doubt that 2/5ths of all lawn area is irrigated, but good statistics on that were not readily findable (and certainly not cited in the article).

[TheBigSalad]

You'd have to think 90% or more of lawns are not irrigated or only occasionally watered by residents. I don't have actual numbers, but irrigation systems are an expensive luxury and not really needed in many parts of the country.