History of agronomy
The history of Agronomy; agronomy is the science and technology of using plants for food. Agronomy and agriculture has been around for many years. It is believed to have started over 10,000 years ago. Agriculture is the heart of a society, without the help of agriculture a society will not be able to grow. Evidence points to the Middle East as the site of the earliest planned harvesting of plants. (Wikipedia). The Egyptians were some of the first people to set up forms of agriculture with a form of setting up rows to grow there plants and new ways to harvest them (Wikipedia). Agriculture helps a society be able to grow and be strong, agriculture is the heart of a society because these are the jobs that help feed the people. Many early civilizations depended on there agriculture to thrive and become a huge empire, for example the Mayan empire used many forms of agriculture to harvest there food for there society. The title "inventors of agriculture" would fall to the Sumerians, starting ca. 5,500 BC. Intensive farming allows a much greater density of population than can be supported by hunting and gathering, this shows the evolution from a hunter and gather society that only finds small amounts of food by luck to a new more sophisticated society that can grow there own food at a manageable rate, this is what agriculture adds to a society. (Wikipedia)
Growth and economics
The future of agriculture and agronomy is not as strong as it used to be. Increased productivity and structural change in the farming sector has contributed to the decline in
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farm employment since 1935, the decline is expected to continue for the near future. (Rural Conditions and Trends, Vol. 10, N...
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...po probably has one of the best agriculture science departments in California but because of this it is one of the hardest to get it into. I personally see myself attending either University of California Davis, or California State University Fresno.
Works Cited
http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_agriculture.htm
http://careers.stateuniversity.com/pages/47/Agronomist.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agronomy
http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/TMI/HCS210/HortOrigins/NEOrigins.html
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/rcat/rcat102/rcat102c.pdf
http://www.mccr.net/mccr/minernotes/trends.html
http://farmindustrynews.com/mag/farming_year_3/
http://www.freshexpress.com/products/productselect.asp?cat=CL
http://www.taylorfarms.com/
http://www.careerplanner.com/DOT-Job-Descriptions/AGRONOMIST.cfm
http://www.univsource.com/agri.htm
“The development of agriculture was a radical change in humans’ way of life.” (Stearns, 2) It set the basis for faster change in human societies. Metalworking allowed farmers to work more efficiently. The development of languages increased the chances of civilizations because people were able to communicate with each other. Record keeping and innovated technology also brought people together because they began discovering new things about the society.
Ganzel,Bill “farming in the 1930s” Wessels living history farms. 2003. Web. 19 Nov. 2013 http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/farminginthe1930s.html
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.
Many policies on farm and agriculture has impacted the way food is grown in America. For example hedge funds, described in page 11 of Foodopoly have essentially driven the prices of land in America and worldwide. This has resulted in farmers having to either cut down costs and make due with lesser land, or be forced out of business. Along with pollution to environment, this policy along with many others results in the situation described in page 12, with lesser farmers working to supply the nation (from 6.8 million to under 1 million). Most often, farmers sell their products are low prices to pay off land that is priced higher...
“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.
The effect from both the Dust Bowl drought and the Great Depression made it hard on farmers in the early 1900’s; it was hard for farmers to produce crops (“The Ultimate AP US History”). Farmers with small businesses were forced to end
...o. “The Great Agricultural Transition: Crisis, Change, and Social Consequence of the Twentieth Century US Farming”. Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 103-124.
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
“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).
“Everyday, everyone is affected by agronomy. The food you eat, the coffee you drink, the ethanol-based gas in your car, the grass on the golf course, the natural fibers of the clothing you wear-are all products of agronomy and the work of agronomists.”(Illinois State University) An agronomist even finds the best way to plant and harvest any source of food. Agronomy is a science in which an agronomist views agriculture in an integrated perspective.(Agronomy.org)
Cipolla calls it the first great economic revolution (Cipolla 18). The development of agriculture leads to the development of communities, city-states, civilizations, and other settlements. The social structure that formed around agriculture brought about the possibility of specialization within a society, since not everyone had to hunt and gather all the time. Instead of living in an ecologically sustainable manner like the hunter/gatherers, people started living in an economic manner (Southwick 128). Specialization enabled the development of social institutions such as religion and government, and agriculture necessitated the development of irrigation.
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.
...as greatly advanced in the past 200 years thanks to mechanical tools replacing manual labor. It is the most important industry and will forever remain the base of our economy. Humans have constantly been trying to make it easier and quicker to produce crops, from wooden ploughs to pesticides. Agriculture is easily one of the most important and obvious signs of humanity and its adaptation and evolvement over thousands of years.
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...
Lambert, Tim. A Brief History of Farming. Local history. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov 2013.