Saving American Agriculture
American agriculture has changed dramatically since the first days of mechanized equipment and large-scale crop production. “Many conceived of farming as a rewarding life . . . and a source of moral virtue” (Mariola, 2005). While presently, many view farming as purely economic in purpose. It has been stated that farming in America is decreasing more quickly than any other occupation.
Agriculture—it’s something that not very many people know much about. However, it is important for us to survive. Almost everything in our everyday lives is agriculture-related, from the food you eat to the clothes you wear.
Even though some people think modernizing is the key to a successful economy in the future, it doesn't mean that the farming industry should be reduced to the back burner when thinking about what is contributing to the ever-growing economy. My point here that agriculture is vital to America’s economy and should not altered should interest those who live in farming communities. Beyond this limited audience, however, my point should speak to anyone who cares about the larger issue of making sure agriculture is seen as an important asset that benefits citizens and other industries that utilize the products that are
Agriculture was the most important economic activity in America from the founding of Virginia in 1607 to about 1890. Although farming declined rapidly in relative economic importance in the twentieth century, U.S. agriculture continued to be the most efficient and productive in the world. Its success rested on abundant fertile soil, a moderate climate, the ease of private land ownership, growing markets for farm produce at home and abroad, and the application of science and technology to farm operations.
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” - Masanobu Fukuoka. That’s something people don’t understand about agriculture in the past, the present, and the future. Farming and agriculture is more than just planting a field and harvesting it, it’s a way of life. Generations molded and lived their life around farming. It’s a way to live, a way to make money, and a way to eat. So when you wake up in the morning and pour your cereal or throw your bread in the toaster, thank a farmer. For today, I’m here to talk about the Agricultural Revolution and how it transformed the way of life and triggered the Industrial Revolution.
Bethany Alvarez, 2/26/14
Modern American Agriculture: It’s Effects on Crops and Farmers
Corn has always been an essential to American agriculture. Yet the corn grown by our ancestors is unlike the corn we grow today; corn has changed in its quality, quantity, usage, and its inherent compromise. The age of industrialization provided new technology and techniques for farming. Agriculture became modernized in response to increased demand in the job and food markets.
With the continuous evolution of global industrialization and mechanization of agriculture since early 20th century, traditional farming that relied heavily on the labor of humans and animals has been gradually replaced by a modern form of capital intensive farming, considered more “efficient” through the application of science and engineering. Despite the fact that industrial agriculture has brought a rapid increase in world food production, it has also attracted criticisms and demands for a better form of agriculture. Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, and Vandana Shiva, the three environmental activists, have all claimed in their essays and speech that, industrialized agriculture has negative impacts on our environment, farming economy, and the survival of traditional farmers. They all call for a better kind of agriculture that is more sustainable, resilient with natural biodiversity.
Throughout his book, Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, describes his experiences in the industrial food industry, and explains how a simple, but foundational crop, such as commodity corn, can be processed and transformed into what we know as fast food. Throughout his investigative journey to discover the origins of his meal, however, Pollan discovers that the agrarian food culture depicted on industrial food packaging is inaccurate and that the industrial food industry has drifted far from society’s idealistic model of self-sufficient organic farming. Although the industrial food industry may be efficient in some ways, it is far from being self-sufficient. A farm in the industrial food industry is “on the bottom rung of the industrial food chain…using [the] land to produce energy and protein, mostly to feed animals. Corn is the most efficient way to produce energy, soybeans the most efficient way to produce protein” (“The Farm”, pg. 54). As opposed to this industrial farm, in an organic farm such as Salatin’s Polyface Farm, the food chain is represented by the symbiotic relationships between the land, the plants, and the animals, which allows it to be more self-sufficient than its counterpart. Where in the industrial food chain, corn is the basis of the farm, in the organic food chain, grass “is the foundation of the intricate food chain Salatin has assembled at Polyface, where a half dozen different animal species are raised together in an intensive rotation dance on the theme of symbiosis” (“All Flesh is Grass, pg. 126). When juxtaposing the two polar ends of the food industry, there is a clear discrepancy between the logic of human industry and the logic of nature. The differ...
History provides the opportunity to explore the origins of a topic or problem. The information from Agriculture and rural society after the Black Death provides an overview of agricultural and rural society’s agrarian issues; during the Middle-Ages these issues were centered around depopulation and social conflict (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.3-50). Problems in the economics of society in the medieval fourteenth century involved the decline of social status and labor services (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.73-132). Other examples are seen in change and growth describe of that in 1870, the Great Plains only had 127,000 people; six decades later in 1930, there were 6.8 million people; 74 percent of the population lived in non-metropolitan areas; from 1930 to 1940, there was a loss of 200,000 people; 75 percent of these counties lost populations from the Great Depression and severe drought, which had caused the abandonment of farms (Kandel & Brown, 2006, p.431). To understand these past experiences, the door to hindering issues must be opened to determine how agricultural sustainability forges change.
Factory Farmers: America’s Very Own Bullies
“We take care of animals, and the animals take care of us.” (Rollin 212). The preceding phrase is a policy that American farmers in the old west lived their lives by. Modern farmers live do not live their lives anywhere near to this phrase because they own factory farms, and the whole reason for having a factory farm is to fit as many animals in a small space as possible in order to maximize profit. Factory Farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) first appeared in the 1920s, right after Vitamins A and D, because if animals are given these vitamins in their diets, exercise and sunlight are not necessities for the animals to grow anymore (In Defense of Animals 1).