American agriculture has always been the moving power that pushed
America to what it could be and what it is today. With newer innovations
and new systems or conditions in the government and economy, came better
advancement in the field of agriculture and the product that resulted from it.
As the civil war closed and reconstruction came upon America came the
period of invention and new political policy effecting agriculture for better
and for worse.
Technology helped the farmers more than it ever had before. The period of
innovations and creation helped the farmers produce more crops and tend
their crops faster. This helped the farmers a great deal as it also allowed
them to plant more crops because the machines
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could cover more land at a shorter amount of time. The fact of speed and quality all wrapped in one also helped the economy side of agriculture. Another aspect of technology helping the farmers was that the railroad industry, which was booming at the time, allowed the farmers to put their goods on the rails and opened up new markets to the hard working citizens.
Much needed supplies from the
farmers could now be accessed from all over the country in just a couple of
days, far faster than it used to be. This period of technological advancement
helped much more than the agricultural field, it was a national frenzy.
As more farmers sent their goods through the railroad industry, the prices
went down for farming products which in return sent approximately 40% of
farmers into deep economical debt that would be considered impossible to
come out of. Sharecropping, as a result was at an all-time high at the end of
the century. New opportunities and old practices came upon the agricultural
industries as a result of the new railroad boom.
The 2 earlier points of railroad and agricultural economy all flow into how
the government reacted to the new uprising problem. The government at the
time favored the new railroad monopoly over the lower class farmers. This
favor of the front runner gave farmers limited trust in the government and if
anything money wise were to happen to the smaller industry of agriculture,
the government would not have their back. The government at the time only
cared about where the money was coming
from. Farmers at the time had new technology to deal with that made their job easier, but easier isn’t always better and with these common practices came lower income in return put the farmers in debt and with limited government back for the farmers, their field was one of the most taken advantage aspects in American history.
From the expanding of railroads country wide, to limiting laws on the goods farmers sold and transportation of the goods,to starvation of the economy, agriculture began to take its own shape from 1865 through to 1900 in the United States.
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.
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.
As Jensen points out, farming and industry accounts for the vast majority of total water usage in the world (477). The increasingly scarce resource is a necessary ingredient when growing food. Technology continuously improves to make it easier for farmers to grow crops while using less water. Scientists at the University of Georgia utilize what they term “variable rate irrigation” to let farmers automate the current systems of irrigation to water only the crops that need it (Gies). This is an example of retrofitting current farms, but there is a new way of farming coming to cities that reuses practically all of its water and stakes claim much less acreage in the process. The future of agriculture belongs to vertical and urban farming. These types of farms reduce the use of water, chemicals (such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides), soil and space (The Economist). These farms are so cutting edge that they are mostly in the experimental stages. Firms like Famgro farms are testing “stackable” farming systems that can scale with demand, even further reducing waste. Famgro’s stackable farms are ideal for cityscapes where land is at a premium; furthermore, reaping the added benefit of being in close proximity to the customers that they serve. Customers will enjoy high quality, fresh produce at only a slightly
... could easily and (more importantly) quickly move from farms to cities to be sold. Even livestock could be carried by freight to reach markets across the country.
As you walk to the other end of the stage and look out into the sea of blue and gold corduroy, you realize this it! This is the moment you’ve worked toward for the last four years. You’ve stayed long hours after school working on you record book, spent grueling hours memorizing speeches, experienced the joy of winning first place at a state CDE contest, and best of all you met so many amazing people and doors were opened to opportunities you never imagined. Finally, after all of your hard work, you’re receiving your State FFA Degree! All of this from making one simple decision your freshman year of high school, signing up for the FFA. What you didn’t realize at the time was that this wonderful organization would help you build leadership skills and teach life skills that you are going to need in the coming years.
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
A major issue among immigrants is the lacking of education. Immigrants already have a hard life and need help to improve life for themselves and for their families. The solution to help immigrants is the Farmer’s Program. This program is for immigrants to receive an education and work experience that will better their life and the community. Many immigrants are not familiar with english, math, and the understanding of life in America. With this program, they will receive an education and learn everything an immigrant needs to know about how to become an American citizen. Farmers and immigrant will both benefit from this program; farm owner will receive help with crops and immigrants will receive help with their new lives.
Agriculture is not all work and no play. Many advances can be made in the understanding of agriculture by making available a variety of methods to provide children with a hands-on experience and also educating all individuals about the importance of the practice. The ignorance of urban communities can be overcome with the help of organizations and people within the community. School visits, hands-on experiences, volunteers and organizations are just a few examples of the steps that can be taken to educate Americans about agriculture and close the gap between rural and urban populations.
Reduce the cost of vegetables and fruits and bring local farmers into the equation over large corporations.
United States fluctuated greatly. For most the war would bring great opportunity for those in the agriculture industry because of the access need for produce for the nations in europe such as Great Britain. For others the war could have been a bad turn of events for the agriculture production in the U.S because all of the young males were being deported for the war efforts. Most United States citizens supported these reasonings due to the fact that countries in europe would not be able to support agricultural production due to the war taking place inside of their home lands.
years ago, humans often had to fight and compete in order to obtain sources of nutrition which
Agriculture is quite possibly the most important advancement and discovery that humanity has made. It produces the one thing that we need the most: food. It has been around since 9500 BC, and can be the oldest sign of mankind’s acumen and the development and evolving of our minds and creations. Agriculture has been mastered throughout hundreds of years and is one of our most important resources on Earth, along with water and fossil fuels. Although the older farming methods from ancient times seem somewhat mediocre and barbaric, they were very ingenious and advanced for that time period. Over thousands of years, we have improved the way agriculture is used, how land is cultivated, the various techniques of farming and irrigation, and the tools and mechanics used. Numerous things that we see as aboriginal today, such as using a hand plow, were extremely contemporary in ancient times, and played key roles in the development of man and society, since quick labor was not abundant before this time. We are now extremely advanced in agriculture and irrigation and the tools used to farm and grow and harvest crops. We have learned from our past and ancestors how to grow and evolve in our methods and have advanced forward greatly.
People have depended on agriculture for years as the primary source of getting food. We have developed all kinds of ways to manipulate nature so what we can produce higher yield crops, more nutritious crops, bigger crops, crops that withstand cold, and farming equipment that allows us to manufacture these crops with relative ease. Why then are there five billion people being malnourished and forty thousand children dying each day from hunger? It seems as though world hunger is more a result of the lack of distributing the food properly than the lack of quantity. agriculture has turned into a high profit business and biotech companies like Monsanto are constantly trying to come up with better and more efficient ways of farming. Are they doing this to try to solve the world hunger crisis, or merely to make a profit?
...earch and extension, rural infrastructure, and market access for small farmers. Rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades, and now is the time to reverse this trend. Farmers in many developing countries are operating in an environment of inadequate infrastructure like roads, electricity, and communications; poor soils; lack of storage and processing capacity; and little or no access to agricultural technologies that could increase their profits and improve their livelihoods. Recent unrest over food prices in a number of countries may tempt policymakers to put the interests of urban consumers over those of rural people, including farmers, but this approach would be shortsighted and counterproductive. Given the scale of investment needed, aid donors should also expand development assistance to agriculture, rural services, and science and technology.