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Essays on early agriculture
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Essay about the advancement of technology in farming
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Farming started many years ago. Since technology blossomed, most farmers have changed over to technology. Farms and operations worked differently than those twenty to thirty years ago, primarily because of advancements in technology, including sensors, devices, machines, and other forms of technology. Today, people use forms of technology such as a robot, temperature or moisture sensors, and the GPS. These advanced devices allow businesses to profit more, efficient, safer, and more environmentally friendly. In “Renewing Husbandry,” Wendell Berry explains how technology has taken over farming rather than helping sustain a functional farm. He also describes the pros and cons of farming with technology. While he appreciates some of the advancements, …show more content…
A vital key to farming includes production. People want the most production for how much they pay. Speeding up production requires tractors and many other machines. Berry explains “The tractors and other mechanical devices certainly were saving the labor of the farmers and farmhands who had moved away, but those who had stayed were working harder and longer than ever.” (para. 5) Food has the tendency to produce quicker in stores for people in need of food, with greater production on farms. Individuals have a high demand for food in our country, people want more. A higher production rate controls food production occurrence. Furthermore, with higher production rates, the demand for harder labor occurs. Farming comes with a price, farming has forced farmers to work exhausting days in and out. Due to modern technology, machines help with the labor farmers endure. Berry explains, “It “saved labor,” “it conferred the prestige of modernity, and it was highly productive.” (para. 4) The improvement in technology has come far. With new machinery occurring, farmers no longer must worry about demanding work on their farms. The stress and breakdown of the human body no longer exist, due to the new productions of technology. With technology, production increases, while labor …show more content…
People left the United States because they believed other countries were more successful in farming. Due to farmers leaving, this has freed up spots for more jobs in America. Berry states, “Without husbandry, the agriculture of science and industry has served too well the purpose of the industrial economy in reducing the number of landowners and the self-employed. It has transformed the United States from a country of many owners to a country of many employees.” (para. 19) Science has opened multiple jobs for workers due to the creation of more technology. Technology creates the need for more workers. Because scientist needs people to use the machinery they have created, job openings have occurred. The employment rate has become scares in America, but with the opening of jobs individuals no longer have the desire to worry about unemployment. Because of the desire for more jobs, the industrial program authorized farmers to stop producing their own food. “The industrial program, on the contrary, suggested that it was “uneconomic” for a farm family to produce its own food; the effort and the land would be better applied to commercial production.” (para.14) If farming families stop producing their own food and quit farming, scientists have the ability to make more jobs available. They make these jobs by using the land farmers own and work on. On the land, scientist conduct
Wendell Berry writes in his book, “What are people for?” a thesis that modern culture is destroying the agricultural culture. He feels that technology is seen and used as the easy way to produce food faster and more efficiently. With this modern way of farming comes the idea that we need to work smarter not harder which is not always true. The goal is comfort and leisure and Berry feels that this is the reason for the down fall of the agricultural culture. He believes that hard work and pride in workmanship is more important than material goods and money. This was by no means a perfect society. The people had often been violent wand wasteful in the use of land of each other. Its present ills have already taken root in it. Even with these faults, this society appreciated the hard work of farming compared to the easy way of living today.
Joel Salatin’s family moved to Virginia in 1961, to a very poorly maintained farm. This farm was the family’s “clean slate” which they could make into whatever they wanted. His parents were the original unconventional small farmers. They began planting crops and building moveable fences and shelters for their livestock. With the help of Joel’s father William, the work that had progressed after his father’s death, in 1988 Polyface began to skyrocket in its’ growth. The idea of unconventional farming normally has a negative connotation, but Joel Salatin as an “out-of-the-box thinking process” (Polyfaces.com, video).
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. There were many acts passed to encourage the agricultural lifestyle still such as the Homestead Act of 1862, the Timber Culture Act of 1873, the Desert Land Act of 1877, and the Timber and Stone Act passed in 1878. As a result of these acts, farm income dropped and new machines and methods or systems to farm such as sharecropping and tenant farming became available and made it much easier to increase crop yields. The people who had the smaller farms, uncultivated land, or limited resources could not compete against the farms who were bigger, better, and more modernized with the new technology. After many people failed on the farms, they were seen heading to t...
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.
Berry describes the flaws of industrial products, the awful conditions in which domestic animals are kept, and the money-oriented attitude of patrons of the food industry. These facts, however, are not confirmed by any specific facts. The only concrete reference he mentioned was “bechemicled factory-fields that I have seen, for example, in the Central Valley of California”(Berry 14). There are no trustworthy documents, or photos, or convincing evidence to support his words, so we just have to trust him. Although Wendell Berry is a well-known writer, paying close attention to farming and agriculture themes in his works, he was more of an amateur in agronomy than a professional. Therefore, we should not consider his arguments as a reality of the
...o. “The Great Agricultural Transition: Crisis, Change, and Social Consequence of the Twentieth Century US Farming”. Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 103-124.
In recent history, farming in America has changed dramatically, and Naylor’s farm is representative of many in the American Corn Belt. Though it began growing a variety of crops and keeping livestock too, Naylor now only plants corn and soybeans. In Naylor’s grandfather’s days, the farm fed the whole family with just enough left over for twelve others. Now, Naylor indirectly feeds an estimated 129 people, but this does not mean his farm is any more successful. In fact, Naylor’s farm cannot financially support his family.
The idea of the family farm has been destroyed by large food corporations. As discussed in class, industrial farming typically leads to the mass produ...
The mid 19th century was an age of growth like no other. The term “Industrial Revolution” refers to the time period where production changed from homemade goods, to those produced by machines and factories. As industrial growth developed and cities grew, the work done by men and women diverged from the old agricultural life. People tended to leave home to work in the new factories being built. They worked in dangerous conditions, were paid low wages, and lacked job security (Kellogg). It is difficult to argue, however, that the economic development of the United States was not greatly dependent on the industrial revolution.
“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).
Our nation was founded on agriculture, and for hundreds of years we were able to migrate across the nation bringing our farming tools and techniques with us. Technology has driven populations away from rural areas towards industrialized cities. With money now being pumped into cities, rural farmers are suffering the most. Farmers are taking out large loans in order to sustain their farms, leading to debt and in some cases suicide. Patel spoke about a farmer in India whose husband took his life because he was unable to live with the amount of debt from his struggling farm. This man left his wife and chi...
Farmers are essentially the back-bone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production, (CSS statistics). Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits. Farmers are life-long slaves to these b...
It is estimated that 37 farmers leave the land every day to pursuit in different field (Herro 2006). The decline in rural farmers is from the consequences of industrialization of agriculture. Only 1 percent of the UK workforce is now employed on farm, compared to 35 percent in the last century (Herro 2006). Many of these workers are being weaved out by better technologies that can do the same work at a faster and more efficient rate. On the contrary, organic farming relies more on people for knowledge, daily monitoring, and production. A study by the Soil Association shows organic farming can potentially provide 32 percent more jobs per farm than conventional farming in the United Kingdom (Herro 2006). However, critics have argued that human labors will lead to higher food prices, which makes the shift infeasible. But while this may be true in developed country, a full scale shift to organic farming in developing countries, where labors are much cheaper than pesticides, can lead to a much higher profit for the farmers. Organic farming attracts younger employees than any other work industry. Currently, the average age for conventional farmer is 56 (Herro 2006). If a full scale shift to organic farming were to happen, it would draw a more vibrant and enthusiastic workforce who are food conscious than that older generations, setting up a platform
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.
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...