Agriculture

Agriculture

• the science of farming, including growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool and other products.

FUN FACTS

• 2.2 million farms dot America’s rural landscape. About 97 percent of U.S. farms are operated by families – individuals, family partnerships or family corporations.
• Farm and ranch families comprise just 2 percent of the U.S. population.

MORE FUN FACTS

• Today’s farmers produce 262 percent more food with 2 percent fewer inputs (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.), compared with 1950.
• In 2010, $115 billion worth of American agricultural products were exported around the world. The United States sells more food and fiber to world markets than we import, creating a positive agricultural trade balance.

FACTS

• Farmers and ranchers receive only 16 cents out of every dollar spent on food at home and away from home. The rest goes for costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution. In 1980, farmers and ranchers received 31 cents.
• U.S. farm programs typically cost each American just pennies per meal and account for less than one-half of 1 percent of the total U.S. budget

FACTS

• Farming began around 10,000 B.C. during the First Agricultural Revolution, when nomadic tribes began to farm. Additionally, this is when the eight so-called “founder crops” of agriculture appeared: 1) emmer wheat, 2) einkorn wheat, 3) hulled barley, 4) peas, 5) lentils, 6) bitter vetch, 7) chick peas, and 8) flax.n
• The Industrial Revolution led to faster and more efficient farming technology, which helped usher in the Second Agricultural Revolution from 1700 to 1900 in developed countries. Many less developed countries are still experiencing the Second Agricultural Revolution.g

FACTS

• Subsistence farmers are farmers who produce the food they need to survive on a daily basis. They are farmers who raise enough food for themselves and their families. The food is not intended to be sold in a market
• Fruit farming began sometime between 6000 and 3000 B.C. Figs were one of the first cultivated fruit

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