Social Studies Toby Treasure
Schott/Martain 4/17/14
How Has Farming Changed Over Time?
It is a fact that around Twenty two million American workers process, produce, and trade the nation's food and fiber. But around only 4.6 million of those american people live on the farms. Slightly less than 2 percent of the total U.S. Population ("Goodman"). This means that a lot of U.S farmers work at factories. This informational piece starts in the Middle Ages and goes all the way to farming today. Farming has changed a lot over time.
Farming has changed a lot over time, new technology has been invented, more food can now be produced, and more farms have opened. Most of the new technology that has been invented for farming was made to make farming faster. In the 18th century horses and oxen were used for power, hay and grain cutting was done with a sickle, cultivating by hoe threshing was done with a flail, ("Spielmaker"). A lot also happened in the 17th century; The scythe and cradle was introduced, the invention of cotton gin in 1793, Thomas Jefferson's plow with a moldboard with the least resistance tested (1794) ("Spielmaker"). A very common fertilization technique in the middle age was called "marling". The technique Marling is when a farmer would spread clay which contained lime carbonate on to their soil. This process restored the nutrients needed to grow crops. Some farmers also used manure as a fertilizer which they got from livestock they raised ("Newman"). Farmers had a spring and a fall crop....
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...grow more crops are a good thing but these fertilizers also make the food filled with chemicals ("Goodman 4"). A lot of good has happened though, farmers have enrolled a total of 31 million acres in the conservation reserve program to protect the environment and provide the environment and provide a habitat for wildlife. Inception in 1985, the program has helped reduce soil erosion by 622 million tons and restored more than 2 million acres of Westland ("Goodman 4").
As this informational piece says new inventions, injections, livestock, strategies for farming, and much more has changed a lot over time. Although a lot of new things has been invented and farming has become a lot faster, injections, factory farming, and much more has been invented that is not healthy for people. The question still stands, "has farming gotten better or worse over time?"
In the movie “American Meat” the writers discussed the difference between commodity farming and sustainable farming. The film does not give a balanced view between the two types of farming. The future of farming is sustainable farming. As seen in the movie, it is possible to sustain all of the American people while practicing sustainable farming methods.
After reading McKibben and Hurst’s articles in the book Food Matters, both authors present arguments on “industrial farming”, and although Hurst provides a realistic sense on farming, McKibben’s suggestions should be what we think about.
The Plight of the Late Nineteenth Century American Farmer From the early beginnings of America to well into the nineteenth century, America has been dominantly an agricultural country. Farming and the country life have always been a great part of the American culture. Thomas Jefferson even expressed his gratitude for the farming class by saying Those who labor on the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He, has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. The American culture was built upon farming and agriculture, but since the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slaves, things have changed dramatically to the American lifestyle. This time brought on the Industrial Revolution, which sparked many factories and new ways of transportation across America.
Farmers used to plant seeds by carrying the seeds in a bag and walking up and down the field throwing the seed. The reason this method was not very effective was because it did not give an even distribution, and much of the seed was wasted. Jethro Tull later invented a machine called the seed drill. The seed drill was pulled behind a horse. It was a wheeled vehicle containing a box filled with grain. As the horse pulled the vehicle, the wheel-driven ratchet sprayed the seed evenly over the field. The horse would walk up and down the field until it was all seeded. The seed drill was one of the most innovative products that came out of the Industrial Revolution, and it changed the way that we would see farming,
Agriculture was tremendously valuable to the lives of early Americans and the development of the country. It was among one of the top two most important aspects of American life, but was not quite as primary as the social and economic life. Some of the main crops grown by the earlier settlers included wheat, peas, corn, and tobacco. Farms were developed first in the Chesapeake region. Due to the abundant land and numerous streams in this region, the farm soil was richer and more ideal for farming. Farms in the northern colonies, especially New England, tended to be smaller due to smaller amounts of fields and land. Southern colonies were able to have much larger plantations and areas to plant crops. White indentured servants were sometimes hired in the earlier part of the 17th century, but black slaves became a common use of labor in the later decades of the 1600s. The New England and middle colonies in opposition, rarely hired slaves. The most abundant and common crop in every region was corn. “Every...
Farming in those days compared to today was much slower and strenuous. Inventing the seed plow was a huge breakthrough in those times. The creation made it easier for farmers to plow and produce more crops at a faster rate. Without the first invention of the seed plow, farmers throughout the years would find it harder to make a living and supply crops to suppliers. Animals play a big role in the agricultural process. Animals were used to pull the ploughs through the fields dropping the seeds and tilling the land for easier planting. Animals usually pulled the seed plow to help make the process go faster and efficient.(N.p., n.d. 2013).
There are now many conservation programs and measures. “A lot of people in agriculture here recognize that the programs implemented as a result of the Dust Bowl are having a really important effect on holding the soil in place,” ("When the Dust Settled") People in agriculture have listened to programs implemented since the Dust Bowl. They have changed
Many farmers are to blame for the abuse of the animals not the process. Factory farming indirectly helps the public better themselves by stimulation the economy and giving those in need of work jobs, also the process of factory farming has the potential to be more humane than how it is used. Without the proper regulation and supervision the abuse of the animals rises. This is why many feel that factory farming should be throw away and forgotten. But it is very helpful in many ways. Factory farming allows many to have jobs in places where many jobs are stable and an opening for an already filled job is very unlikely. Also, Factory farming if used properly can be “natural” for animals. Farmers do not have to abuse the animals nor inject them with antibiotics to make them grow unnaturally large muscle. Factory farming improves the economy, and allows the opportunity for technological advancements to happen. This type of farming should be kept and enhanced so it can feel morally right instead of
American agriculture was what made the United States so successful when it first settled. They were able to produce a large amount of cotton and the export it to most of the world, becoming a large producer of this product. The united States as improving and becoming a country of industry with new inventions, policies enacted by the government and the change in economy. Therefore it was not a big surprise when technology, government policy and economics changed, in the period 1850-1900; it also changed the agriculture industry too. Technology was a major impact on the Agriculture industry during this period.
Pre-industrial labor mostly consisted of farming and agriculture involving the entire family. In 1823, 97 percent of all Americans still lived in farms therefore the rural population and workforce was much larger than the urban population and workforce. The production and growing of food was used by the...
“The farm implement industry has profoundly shaped both American agriculture and the national economy. Of all farm implements, the tractor has had the greatest impact on rural life” (Robert C. Williams, qtd. in Olmstead).
Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.
The first people that started to depend on farming for food were in Israel and Jordan in about 80000 B.C.. Farming became popular because people no longer had to rely on just searching for food to get their food. In about 3000 B.C. Countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia started to develop large scale irrigation systems and oxen drawn plows. In about 500 B.C. the Romans started to realize that the soil needed certain nutrients in order to bare plants. They also realized that if they left the soil for a year with no plants, these important nutrients would replenish. So they started to leave half of a field fallow (unplanted). They then discovered that they could use legumes, or pulses to restore these vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, to the soil and this started the process known as rotating crops. They would plant half the field one year with a legume...
Farming has been an occupation since 8,500 B.C. On that year in the Fertile Crescent farming first began when people grew plants instead of picking them in the wild. Then nearly 5,000 years later oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs were domesticated. During the middle ages, the nobles divide their land into three fields. The reasoning for this was to plant two and leave one to recover. This was the start of crop rotation which is a big part of farming today. Burning down forest and then moving to another area is a farming technique used by the Mayans called Slash and burn. Mayan farmers also were able to drain swampy areas to farm them buy building canals. In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill and a horse drawn how that tilled the land. In Denmark they would plant turnips in the previously unplanted field. The turnips help restore the nutrients in the ground thus crop rotation is born. In England people began moving there fields closer to each other for a more efficient way of planting. Later in the 18th century selective breeding was introduce which made bigger, stronger, and more milk producing livestock. In the mid 1800’s a steam plough was invented. By the 1950 tractors, milking machines, and combines were used by almost farmers. The latest f...