History of agriculture

The History of Agriculture is the story of humanity's development and cultivation of processes for producing food, feed, fiber, fuel, and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. The knowledge and skill of learning to care for the soil and growth of plants advanced the development of human society, allowing clans and tribes to stay in one location generation after generation has existed for more than 10,000 years.

Threshing machine from 1881

Origins of agriculture

Agriculture is believed to have been developed at multiple times in multiple areas, the earliest of which seems to have been in Southwest Asia. Pinpointing the absolute beginnings of agriculture is problematic because the transition away from purely hunter-gatherer societies, in some areas, began many thousands of years before the invention of writing. Nonetheless, archaeobotanists/paleoethnobotanists have traced the selection and cultivation of specific food plant characteristics, such as a semi-tough rachis and larger seeds, to just after the Younger Dryas (about 9,500 B.C.E.) in the early Holocene in the Levant region of the Fertile Crescent. There is much earlier evidence for use of wild cereals: anthropological and archaeological evidence from sites across Southwest Asia and North Africa indicate use of wild grain (e.g., from the ca. 20,000 B.C.E. site of Ohalo II in Israel, many Natufian sites in the Levant and from sites along the Nile in the 10th millennium B.C.E.). There is even early evidence for planned cultivation and trait selection: grains of rye with domestic traits have been recovered from Epi-Palaeolithic (10,000+ BC) contexts at Abu Hureyra in Syria, but this appears to be a localised phenomenon resulting from cultivation of stands of wild rye, rather than a definitive step towards domestication. It isn't until after 9,500 B.C.E. that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax. These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on PPNB sites in the Levant, although the consensus is that wheat was the first to be sown and harvested on a significant scale.

By 7000 B.C.E., sowing and harvesting reached Mesopotamia and there, in the super fertile soil just north of the Persian Gulf, Sumerian ingenuity systematized it and scaled it up. By 6000 B.C.E. farming was entrenched on the banks of the Nile River. About this time, agriculture was developed independently in the Far East, probably in China, with rice rather than wheat as the primary crop. Maize was first domesticated, probably from teosinte, in the Americas around 3000-2700 B.C.E., though there is some archaeological evidence of a much older development. The potato, the tomato, the pepper, squash, several varieties of bean, and several other plants were also developed in the New World, as was quite extensive terracing of steep hillsides in much of Andean South America. Agriculture was also independently developed on the island of New Guinea.

The reasons for the development of farming may have included climate change, but possibly there were also social reasons (e.g., accumulation of food surplus for competitive gift-giving as in the Pacific Northwest potlatch culture). Most certainly, there was a gradual transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies after a lengthy period during which some crops were deliberately planted and other foods were gathered in the wild. Although localised climate change is the favoured explanation for the origins of agriculture in the Levant, the fact that farming was 'invented' at least three times elsewhere, and possibly more, suggests that social reasons may have been instrumental.

File:Ancient egyptian farmer.gif

Ancient Egyptian farmer

Full dependency on domestic crops and animals did not occur until the Bronze Age, by which time wild resources contributed a nutritionally insignificant component to the usual diet. If the operative definition of agriculture includes large scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and use of a specialized labour force, the title "inventors of agriculture" would fall to the Sumerians, starting ca. 5,500 B.C.E. Intensive farming allows a much greater density of population than can be supported by hunting and gathering, and allows for the accumulation of excess product for off-season use, or to sell/barter. The ability of farmers to feed large numbers of people whose activities have nothing to do with material production was the crucial factor in the rise of standing armies. Sumerian agriculture supported a substantial territorial expansion, together with much internecine conflict between cities, making them the first empire builders. Not long after, the Egyptians, powered by farming in the fertile Nile valley, achieved a population density from which enough warriors could be drawn for a territorial expansion more than tripling the Sumerian empire in area.^{[citation needed]}

Ancient agriculture

Sumerian agriculture

Sumerian Harvester's sickle, 3000 B.C.E. Baked clay. Field Museum.

In Sumer, barley was the main crop, but wheat, flax, dates, apples, plums, and grapes were grown as well. Mesopotamia was blessed with flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers but floods came in late spring or early summer from snow melting from the Turkish mountains. With Salt deposits under the soil, all of this made Mesopotamia very hard to farm [2]. The earliest known sheep and goats were also domesticated and were in a much larger quantity than cattle. Sheep were mainly kept for meat and milk, and butter and cheese were made from the latter. Ur, a large town that covered about 50 acres (20 hectares), had 10,000 animals kept in sheepfolds and stables and 3,000 slaughtered every year. The city's population of 6,000 included a labour force of 2,500 cultivated 3,000 acres of land. The labour force contained storehouse recorders, work foremen, overseers, and harvest supervisors to supplement labourers. Agricultural produce was given to temple personnel, important people in the community, and small farmers.

The land was plowed by teams of oxen pulling light unwheeled plows and grain was harvested with sickles in the spring. Wagons had solid wheels covered by leather tires kept in position by copper nails and were drawn by oxen and the Syrian onager (now extinct). Animals were harnessed by collars, yokes, and headstalls. They were controlled by reins, and a ring through the nose or upper lip and a strap under the jaw. As many as four animals could pull a wagon at one time. Though some hypothesize that Domestication of the horse occurred as early as 4000 B.C.E. in the Ukraine, the horse was definitely in use by the Sumerians around 2000 B.C.E.

Aztec and Maya agriculture

Agriculture in Mesoamerica dates to the Archaic period of Mesoamerican chronology (8000-2000 B.C.E.). During this period, many of the hunter gatherer micro-bands in the region began to cultivate wild plants. The cultivation of these plants probably started out as creating known areas of fall back, or starvation foods, near seasonal camps, that the band could rely on when hunting was bad, or when there was a drought. By creating these known areas of plant food, it would have been easier for the band to be in the right place, at the right time, to collect them. Eventually, a subsistence pattern, based on plant cultivation, supplemented with small game hunting, became much more reliable, efficient, and generated a larger yield. As cultivation became more focused, many plant species became domesticated. These plants were no longer able to reproduce on their own, and many of their physical traits were being modified by human farmers. The most famous of these, and the most important to Mesoamerican agriculture, is maize, which became the single most important crop in all of Mesoamerica. Maize is storable for long periods of time, it can be ground into flour, and it easily turns into surplus for future use. Maize became vital to the survival of the people of Mesoamerica, and that is reflected in their origin, myths, artwork, and rituals.

The second most important crop in Mesoamerican agriculture is the squash. Cultivated and domesticated before maize, dated to 8000 B.C.E. in Oaxaca, the people of Mesoamerica utilize several different types of squash. The most important may be the pumpkin, and its relatives. The seeds of the pumpkin are full of protein, and are easily transportable. Another important member of the squash family is the bottle gourd. This fruit may not have been very important as a food source, but the gourd itself would have been useful as a water container. Another major food source in Mesoamerica are beans. These may have been used as early as squash and maize, but the exact date of domestication is not known. These three crops form the center of Mesoamerican agriculture. Maize, beans, and squash form a triad of products, commonly referred to as the "Three Sisters," that provided the people of Mesoamerica a complementing nutrient triangle. Each contributes some part of the essential vitamin mix that human beings need to survive. The other benefit that these three crops have is that planting them together helps to retain nutrients in the soil.

Many other plants were first cultivated in Mesoamerica; tomatoes, avocados, guavas, chilli peppers, manioc, agave, and prickly pear were all cultivated as additional food resources, while rubber trees and cotton plants were useful for making cultural products like latex balls and clothing. Another culturally important plant was the cacao. Cacao beans were used as money, and later, the beans were used for making another valuable product, chocolate.

The Aztecs were some of the most innovative farmers of the ancient world and farming provided the entire basis of their economy. The land around Lake Texcoco was fertile but not large enough to produce the amount of food needed for the population of their expanding empire. The Aztecs developed irrigation systems, formed terraced hillsides, and fertilized their soil. However, their greatest agricultural technique was the chinampa or artificial islands also known as "floating gardens." These were used to make the swampy areas around the lake suitable for farming. To make chinampas, canals were dug through the marshy islands and shores, then mud was heaped on huge mats made of woven reeds. The mats were anchored by tying them to posts driven into the lake bed and then planting trees at their corners that took root and secured the artificial islands permanently. The Aztecs grew corn, squash, vegetables, and flowers on chinampas.

Roman agriculture

Roman agriculture was highly regarded in Roman culture, built off techniques pioneered by the Sumerians, with a specific emphasis on the cultivation of crops for trade and export. Romans laid the groundwork for the manorial economic system, involving serfdom, which flourished in the Middle Ages. By the 5th century Greece had started using crop rotation methods and had large estates while farms in Rome were small and family owned. Rome’s contact with Carthage, Greece, and the Hellenistic East in the 3rd and 2nd centuries improved Rome’s agricultural methods. Roman agriculture reached its height in productivity and efficiency during the late republic and early empire.

Latifundia increased in popularity in the late Republican era. Elite Romans were able to buy land for peasant farmers who could no longer sustain their lands. Starting in the 2nd century B.C.E. ( 200 B.C.E.) the Punic Wars peasant farmers for called to fight for longer periods of time.

Cows provided milk, oxen and mules did the heavy work on the farm. Sheep and goats were cheese producers, but were prized even more for their hides. Horses were not important to Roman farmers, most were raised by the rich for racing or war. Sugar production centered on beekeeping. And some Romans raised snails as luxury items.

There was a massive amount of commerce between the provinces of the empire, all the regions of the empire became interdependent with one another, some provinces specialized in the production of grain, others in wine and others in olive oil, depending on the soil type. Greek geographer Strabo considered the Po Valley (northern Italy) to be the most important economically because “all cereals do well, but the yield from millet is exception, because the soil is so well watered. The province of [Etruria] had heavy soil good for wheat. Volcanic soil in Campania made it well-suited for wine production.

In addition to knowledge of different soil categories, the Romans also took interest in what type of manure was best for the soil. The best was poultry manure, and cow manure one of the worst. Sheep and goat manure were also good. Donkey manure was best for immediate use, while horse manure wasn't good for grain crops, but according to Marcus Terentius Varro, it was very good for meadows because "it promotes a heavy growth of grass."

Some crops grown on Roman farms include wheat, barley, millet, kidney beans, pea, broad bean, lentil, flax, sesame, chickpea, hemp, turnip, olive, pear, apple, fig, and plum.

Roman law placed high priorities on agriculture since it was the livelihood of the people in early Rome. A Roman farmer had a legal right to protect his property from unauthorized entry and can even use force to do so. The Twelve Tables lists destroying someone else's crop as punishable by death. Burning a heap of corn is also a capital offense.

The vast majority of Romans were not wealthy farmers with vast estates and farmed for a profit. In the Roman Empire, a typical family of 3.25 persons would need between 7-8 iugera of land to meet minimum food requirements (without animals). If a family owned animals to help cultivate land, then 20 iugera is needed. There would not be a surplus production on this farm. Although lucky peasants who had land on good soil might be able to manage a small surplus, about 20% of the harvest. The annual consumption of grain in peasant families may be between 105-185 modii (singular modius see Roman measures). Under the figures calculated by Varro and Columella, poor peasants may be able to produce 16-25 modii of wheat per iugerum and 20-30 modii of barley.

Chinese agriculture

The unique tradition of Chinese agriculture has been traced to the pre-historic Yangshao culture (c. 5000 B.C.E.-3000 B.C.E.) and Longshan culture (c. 3000 B.C.E.-2000 B.C.E.). Chinese historical and governmental records of the Warring States (481 B.C.E.-221 B.C.E.), Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.E.-207 B.C.E.), and Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) eras allude to the use of complex agricultural practices, such as a nationwide granary system and widespread use of sericulture. However, the oldest extant Chinese book on agriculture is the Chimin Yaoshu of 535 C.E., written by Jia Sixia.

Terraced rice fields in Yunnan province

For agricultural purposes, the Chinese had innovated the hydraulic-powered trip hammer by the 1st century B.C.E. Although it found other purposes, its main function to pound, decorticate, and polish grain that otherwise would have been done manually. The Chinese also innovated the square-pallet chain pump by the 1st century AD, powered by a waterwheel or an oxen pulling a on a system of mechanical wheels. Although the chain pump found use in public works of providing water for urban and palatial pipe systems, it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation canals and channels for farmland.

During the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 B.C.E.), two revolutionary improvements in farming technology took place. One was the use of cast iron tools and beasts of burden to pull plows, and the other was the large-scale harnessing of rivers and development of water conservation projects. The engineer Sunshu Ao of the 6th century B.C.E. and Ximen Bao of the 5th century B.C.E. are two of the oldest hydraulic engineers from China, and their works were focused upon improving irrigation systems. These developments were widely spread during the ensuing Warring States Period (403-221 B.C.E.), culminating in the enormous Du Jiang Yan Irrigation System engineered by Li Bing by 256 B.C.E. for the State of Qin in ancient Sichuan.

During the Eastern Jin (317-420) and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), the Silk Road and other international trade further spread farming technology throughout China. Political stability and a growing labor force led to economic growth, and people opened up large areas of wasteland and built irrigation works for expanded agricultural use. As land-use became more intensive and efficient, rice was grown twice a year and cattle began to be used for plowing and fertilization.

By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China had become a unified feudal agricultural society. Improvements in farming machinery during this era included the moldboard plough and watermill. Later during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved.

Indian agriculture

Paddy field in South India

Evidence of the presence of wheat and some legumes in the 6th millennium B.C.E. have been found in the Indus Valley. Oranges were cultivated in the same millennium. The crops grown in the valley around 4000 B.C.E. were typically wheat, peas, sesame seed, barley, dates and mangoes. By 3500 B.C.E. cotton growing and cotton textiles were quite advanced in the valley. By 3000 B.C.E. farming of rice had started. Other monsoon crops of importance of the time was cane sugar. By 2500 B.C.E., rice was an important component of the staple diet in Mohenjodaro near the Arabian Sea.

The Indus Plain had rich alluvial deposits which came down the Indus River in annual floods. This helped sustain farming that formed basis of the Indus Valley Civilization at Harappa. The people built dams and drainage systems for the crops.

By 2000 B.C.E. tea, bananas and apples were being cultivated in India. There was coconut trade with East Africa in 200 B.C.E. By 500 C.E., eggplants were being cultivated.

Agriculture in the Middle Ages

Serfdom became widespread in eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages owe much of its development to advances made in Islamic areas, which flourished culturally and materially while Europe and other Roman and Byzantine administered lands entered an extended period of social and economic stagnation. As early as the ninth century, an essentially modern^{[citation needed]} agricultural system became central to economic life and organization in the Arab caliphates, replacing the largely export driven Roman model. The great cities of the Near East, North Africa and Moorish Spain were supported by elaborate agricultural systems which included extensive irrigation based on knowledge of hydraulic and hydrostatic principles, some of which were continued from Roman times. In later centuries, Persian Muslims began to function as a conduit, transmitting cultural elements, including advanced agricultural techniques, into Turkic lands and western India. The Muslims introduced what was to become an agricultural revolution based on four key areas:

• Development of a sophisticated system of irrigation using machines such as norias (newly invented ^{[citation needed]} water raising machines), dams and reservoirs. With such technology they managed to greatly expand the exploitable land area.
• The adoption of a scientific approach ^{[citation needed]} to farming enabled them to improve farming techniques derived from the collection and collation of relevant information throughout the whole of the known world^{[citation needed]}. Farming manuals were produced in every corner of the Muslim world detailing where, when and how to plant and grow various crops. Advanced scientific techniques allowed leaders like Ibn al-Baytar to introduce new crops and breeds and strains of livestock into areas where they were previously unknown.
• Incentives based on a new approach to land ownership and labourers' rights, combining the recognition of private ownership and the rewarding of cultivators with a harvest share commensurate with their efforts. Their counterparts in Europe struggled under a feudal system in which they were almost slaves (serfs) with little hope of improving their lot by hard work.
• The introduction of new crops transforming private farming into a new global industry exported everywhere ^{[citation needed]}including Europe, where farming was mostly restricted to wheat strains obtained much earlier via central Asia. Spain received what she in turn transmitted to the rest of Europe; many agricultural and fruit-growing processes, together with many new plants, fruit and vegetables. These new crops included sugar cane, rice, citrus fruit, apricots, cotton, artichokes, aubergines, and saffron. Others, previously known, were further developed. Muslims also brought to that country lemons, oranges, cotton, almonds, figs and sub-tropical crops such as bananas and sugar cane. Several were later exported from Spanish coastal areas to the Spanish colonies in the New World. Also transmitted via Muslim influence, a silk industry flourished, flax was cultivated and linen exported, and esparto grass, which grew wild in the more arid parts, was collected and turned into various articles.

Renaissance to Industrial Revolution

The invention of a three field system of crop rotation during the Middle Ages, and the importation of the Chinese-invented moldboard plow^{[citation needed]}, vastly improved agricultural efficiency.

After 1492 the world's agricultural patterns were shuffled in the widespread exchange of plants and animals known as the Columbian Exchange. Crops and animals that were previously only known in the Old World were now transplanted to the New and vice versa. Perhaps most notably, the tomato became a favorite in European cuisine, and maize and potatoes were widely adopted. Other transplanted crops include pineapple, cocoa, and tobacco. In the other direction, several wheat strains quickly took to western hemisphere soils and became a dietary staple even for native North, Central and South Americans.

Agriculture was a key element in the Atlantic slave trade, Triangular trade, and the expansion by European powers into the Americas. In the expanding Plantation economy, large plantations producing crops including sugar, cotton, and indigo, were heavily dependent upon slave labor.

Storage silo

By the early 1800s, agricultural practices, particularly careful selection of hardy strains and cultivars, had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages and before, especially in the largely virgin soils of North and South America.

The 18th and 19th century also saw the development of glasshouses, or greenhouses, initially for the protection and cultivation of exotic plants imported to Europe and North America from the tropics.

Experiments on Plant Hybridization in the late 1800s yielded advances in the understanding of plant genetics, and subsequently, the development of hybrid crops.

Increasing dependence upon monoculture crops lead to famines and food shortages, most notably the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849).

Storage silos and grain elevators appeared in the 19th centuries.

Recent history

Industrial agriculture is a modern form of farming that refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. The methods of industrial agriculture are technoscientific, economic, and political. They include innovation in agricultural machinery and farming methods, genetic technology, techniques for achieving economies of scale in production, the creation of new markets for consumption, the application of patent protection to genetic information, and global trade. These methods are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of the meat, dairy, eggs, fruits, and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced using these methods of industrial agriculture.

The birth of industrial agriculture more or less coincides with that of the Industrial Revolution in general. The identification of nitrogen and phosphorus as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers, making possible more intensive types of agriculture. The discovery of vitamins and their role in animal nutrition, in the first two decades of the 20th century, led to vitamin supplements, which in the 1920s allowed certain livestock to be raised indoors, reducing their exposure to adverse natural elements. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines facilitated raising livestock in larger numbers by reducing disease. Chemicals developed for use in World War II gave rise to synthetic pesticides. Developments in shipping networks and technology have made long-distance distribution of agricultural produce feasible.

Agricultural production across the world doubled four times between 1820 and 1975 to feed a global population of one billion human beings in 1800 and 6.5 billion in 2002. During the same period, the number of people involved in farming dropped as the process became more automated. In the 1930s, 24 percent of the American population worked in agriculture compared to 1.5 percent in 2002; in 1940, each farm worker supplied 11 consumers, whereas in 2002, each worker supplied 90 consumers. The number of farms has also decreased, and their ownership is more concentrated. In the U.S., four companies kill 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 57 percent of pigs, and produce 50 percent of chickens, cited as an example of "vertical integration" by the president of the U.S. National Farmers' Union. In 1967, there were one million pig farms in America; as of 2002, there were 114,000, with 80 million pigs (out of 95 million) killed each year on factory farms, according to the U.S. National Pork Producers Council. According to the Worldwatch Institute, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.

According to Denis Avery of the Hudson Institute, Asia increased its consumption of pork by 18 million tons in the 1990s. As of 1997, the world had a stock of 900 million pigs, which Avery predicts will rise to 2.5 billion pigs by 2050. He told the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley that three billion pigs will thereafter be needed annually to meet demand. He writes: "For the sake of the environment, we had better hope those hogs are raised in big, efficient confinement systems."

Challenges and issues

While industrial agriculture strives to lower costs and increase productivity, the methods of industrial agriculture also have unintended consequences. The degree and significance of these unintended consequences is subject to debate, as is the question of the best way to deal with these consequences.

Animals

"Confined animal feeding operations" or "intensive livestock operations" or "factory farms," can hold large numbers (some up to hundreds of thousands) of animals, often indoors. These animals are typically cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens. The distinctive characteristics of such farms is the concentration of livestock in a given space. The aim of the operation is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost.

Food and water is supplied in place, and artificial methods are often employed to maintain animal health and improve production, such as therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements and growth hormones. Growth hormones are not used in chicken meat production nor are they used in the European Union for any animal. In meat production, methods are also sometimes employed to control undesirable behaviours often related to stresses of being confined in restricted areas with other animals. More docile breeds are sought (with natural dominant behaviours bred out for example), physical restraints to stop interaction, such as individual cages for chickens, or animals physically modified, such as the de-beaking of chickens to reduce the harm of fighting. Weight gain is encouraged by the provision of plentiful supplies of food to animals breed for weight gain.

The designation "confined animal feeding operation" in the U.S. resulted from that country's 1972 Federal Clean Water Act, which was enacted to protect and restore lakes and rivers to a "fishable, swimmable" quality. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified certain animal feeding operations, along with many other types of industry, as point source polluters of groundwater. These operations were designated as CAFOs and subject to special anti-pollution regulation.

In 24 states in the U.S., isolated cases of groundwater contamination has been linked to CAFOs.^{[citation needed]} For example, the ten million hogs in North Carolina generate 19 million tons of waste per year.^{[citation needed]} The U.S. federal government acknowledges the waste disposal issue and requires that animal waste be stored in lagoons. These lagoons can be as large as 7.5 acres. Lagoons not protected with an impermeable liner can leak waste into groundwater under some conditions, as can runoff from manure spread back onto fields as fertilizer in the case of an unforeseen heavy rainfall. A lagoon that burst in 1995 released 25 million gallons of nitrous sludge in North Carolina's New River. The spill allegedly killed eight to ten million fish.

The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and dead animals in a small space poses ethical issues. Animal rights and animal welfare activists have charged that intensive animal rearing is cruel to animals. As they become more common, so do concerns about air pollution and ground water contamination, and the effects on human health of the pollution and the use of antibiotics and growth hormones.

One particular problem with farms on which animals are intensively reared is the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Because large numbers of animals are confined in a small space, any disease would spread quickly, and so antibiotics are used preventively. A small percentage of bacteria are not killed by the drugs, which may infect human beings if it becomes airborne.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), farms on which animals are intensively reared can cause adverse health reactions in farm workers. Workers may develop acute and chronic lung disease, musculoskeletal injuries, and may catch infections that transmit from animals to human beings.

The CDC writes that chemical, bacterial, and viral compounds from animal waste may travel in the soil and water. Residents near such farms report nuisances such as unpleasant smells and flies, as well as adverse health effects.

The CDC has identified a number of pollutants associated with the discharge of animal waste into rivers and lakes, and into the air. The use of antibiotics may create antibiotic-resistant pathogens; parasites, bacteria, and viruses may be spread; ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorus can reduce oxygen in surface waters and contaminate drinking water; pesticides and hormones may cause hormone-related changes in fish; animal feed and feathers may stunt the growth of desirable plants in surface waters and provide nutrients to disease-causing micro-organisms; trace elements such as arsenic and copper, which are harmful to human health, may contaminate surface waters.

Crops

The projects within the Green Revolution spread technologies that had already existed, but had not been widely used outside of industrialized nations. These technologies included pesticides, irrigation projects, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

The novel technological development of the Green Revolution was the production of what some referred to as “miracle seeds.” Scientists created strains of maize, wheat, and rice that are generally referred to as HYVs or “high yielding varieties.” HYVs have an increased nitrogen-absorbing potential compared to other varieties. Since cereals that absorbed extra nitrogen would typically lodge, or fall over before harvest, semi-dwarfing genes were bred into their genomes. Norin 10 wheat, a variety developed by Orville Vogel from Japanese dwarf wheat varieties, was instrumental in developing Green Revolution wheat cultivars. IR8, the first widely implemented HYV rice to be developed by IRRI, was created through a cross between an Indonesian variety named “Peta” and a Chinese variety named “Dee Geo Woo Gen.”

With the availability of molecular genetics in Arabidopsis and rice the mutant genes responsible (reduced height(rht), gibberellin insensitive (gai1) and slender rice (slr1)) have been cloned and identified as cellular signalling components of gibberellic acid, a phytohormone involved in regulating stem growth via its effect on cell division. Stem growth in the mutant background is significantly reduced leading to the dwarf phenotype. Photosynthetic investment in the stem is reduced dramatically as the shorter plants are inherently more stable mechanically. Assimilates become redirected to grain production, amplifying in particular the effect of chemical fertilisers on commercial yield.

HYVs significantly outperform traditional varieties in the presence of adequate irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizers. In the absence of these inputs, traditional varieties may outperform HYVs. One criticism of HYVs is that they were developed as F1 hybrids, meaning they need to be purchased by a farmer every season rather than saved from previous seasons, thus increasing a farmer’s cost of production.

Sustainable agriculture

The idea and practice of sustainable agriculture has arisen in response to the problems of industrial agriculture. Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities. These goals have been defined by a variety of disciplines and may be looked at from the vantage point of the farmer or the consumer.

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices; accepting some of the methods of industrial agriculture while rejecting others. Organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach; while chemical-based farming focuses on immediate, isolated effects and reductionist strategies.

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture is an example of this holistic approach. Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) is a practice in which the by-products (wastes) from one species are recycled to become inputs (fertilizers, food) for another. Fed aquaculture (e.g. fish, shrimp) is combined with inorganic extractive (e.g. seaweed) and organic extractive (e.g. shellfish) aquaculture to create balanced systems for environmental sustainability (biomitigation), economic stability (product diversification and risk reduction) and social acceptability (better management practices).

New technologies

A tractor ploughing an alfalfa field

With the rapid rise of mechanization in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the form of the tractor, farming tasks could be done with a speed and on a scale previously impossible. These advances, joined to science-driven innovations in methods and resources, have led to efficiencies enabling certain modern farms in the United States, Argentina, Israel, Germany and a few other nations to output volumes of high quality produce per land unit at what may be the practical limit.

The development of rail and highway networks and the increasing use of container shipping and refrigeration in developed nations have also been essential to the growth of mechanized agriculture, allowing for the economical long distance shipping of produce.

While chemical fertilizer and pesticide have existed since the 19th century, their use grew significantly in the early twentieth century. In the 1960s, the Green Revolution applied western advances in fertilizer and pesticide use to farms worldwide, with varying success.

Other applications of scientific research since 1950 in agriculture include gene manipulation, and Hydroponics.

New criticisms

Though the intensive farming practices pioneered and extended in recent history generally led to increased outputs, they have also led to the destruction of farmland, most notably in the dust bowl area of the United States following World War I.

As global population increases, agriculture continues to replace natural ecosystems with monoculture crops.

In the past few decades, western consumers have become increasingly aware of, and in some cases critical of, widely used intensive agriculture practices, contributing to a rise in popularity of organic farming and an ongoing discussion surrounding the potential for sustainable agriculture.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 6, Part 2. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.

For through overview of Roman farming, KD White's Roman Farming is an excellent resource. It compiles information from Roman authors and addresses all aspects of Roman agriculture. There are detailed charts of soils, agricultural terms, animal husbandry in Rome, system of crop rotation and many others. The Romans had a remarkable array of farming equipment. For anyone wishing to learn more specifics about farming equipment KD White's book on Farm Equipment of the Roman World would prove very helpful. The book includes diagrams of Roman farming equipment. Paul Erdkamp's The Grain Market in the Roman Empire provides a through details of the farming economics and ancient marketing.
Buck, Robert (1983), Agriculture and Agricultural Practice in Roman Law, (Franz Steiner Verlag Gmbh Wiesbaden)
Erdkamp, Paul (2005), The Grain Market in the Roman Empire, (Cambridge University Press)
Cato the Censor (1933), Columbia University Records of Civilization: On Farming, translated by Ernest Brehaut (Columbia University Press)
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, On Agriculture (Res Rustica), (Loeb Classical Library)
White, KD (1970), Roman Farming (Cornell University Press)
White, KD (1975) , Farm Equipment of the Roman World (Cambridge University Press)

• Marcel Mazoyer, Laurence Roudart, A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006, ISBN 1583671218
• Bernard Stiegler, Take Care. A philosopher's perspective.

Further reading

Government regulation

• Brief History of CAFO Regulations - from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture

Commissions assessing industrial agriculture

• National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Independent commission studying the effects of intensive animal production

Proponent, neutral, and industry-related

• Journal of Extension, article on case studies of the impact of large scale agriculture
• US Farm Bureau, Farm and Ranchers association
• Coalition to Support Iowa Farmers
• Dairy Today magazine
• USDA food safety
• Purdue University food science extension

Criticism of factory farming

• Anti-agricultural FAQs on Factory Farming
• Fatal Harvest - The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture
• Ask For Change resources for consumers
• A critique of factory farming
• FactoryFarming.com
• Cruelty to Animals: Mechanized Madness - Article with links to photos and videos of factory farming
• foie gras production - Video of Foie Gras production
• Husbandry Institute Promoting sustainable, responsible, and ethical animal husbandry
• Information about factory farming from The Humane Society of the United States
• Inside the California Egg Industry: An Undercover Investigation - Video of hens in battery cages at various intensive egg farming facilities. (2/4/06)
• The Meatrix - a parody of The Matrix
• The Meatrix 2: Revolting - the second installment of the Meatrix parodying The Matrix
• Meet Your Meat - a PETA-produced factory farm tour narrated by Alec Baldwin
• Factory Farms Blamed for Spread of Bird Flu
• See inside an egg factory farm
• See inside a chicken factory farm
• One of PA's largest egg farms charged with animal cruelty
• TorturedbyTyson.com - Undercover investigation of a Tyson Foods processing plant

Philosophy

• Take Care, Bernard Stiegler. A philosopher's approach to the questions raised by industrial agriculture

Further reading

• Columella's Res Rustica in Latin Complete text in Latin at The Latin Library
• Columella's Res Rustica in EnglishBooks I‑IV in English translation at LacusCurtius
• Latin text of Varro Rerum Rusticarum de Agri Cultura
• Pliny the Elder's Natural History [3]

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