History of Agriculture

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History of Agriculture

• AGR 199

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The Question of FOREVER

• OR

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Agriculture Food

• Which came first??
• Food NOT agriculture
• - hunter / gatherers
• - small food plots
• - larger food production for subsistence
• - sellable food
• Agriculture over past 10,000 years

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Usable Land Area

• Oceans ¾ of earth (1/4 land mass)
• 1/8 is desert, swamp, artic, etc and cant be used
• Remaining 1/8 is where people live
• Slice this remaining 8th into 4 pieces, 3 of them
  are cities and unusable soil,
• The remainder is what we have left to farm.

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Early Civilizations

• Egypt Nile River agriculture
• Iraq Tigris-Euphrates Rivers
• Mexico Ancient Indian civilizations
• Europe Roman Empire

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Eras

• 1). Agriculture Eras (1600-1900s)
• 2). Industrial Era (1900 1970s)
• 3). Computer Era (1980 2000)
• 4). Biotechnology Era (2000 - ?)
• 5). Space ? ? ?

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Crop Origins

• Broad beans Europe
• Soybeans China Ben Franklin
• Corn North American/Central American
• Indians (Maize) Most common
• Squash Central So. America
• Tobacco So. America (Brazil area)
• Potato Andean Highlands (Peru/Ecuador)

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Crop Origins

• Tomato South and Central America
• Cotton Mexico area
• Peanuts Brazil (soil like Georgia)
• Temp, humidity, soil conditions
• Chocolate Aztecs, Used seed for currency

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Origins

• 1/3 of all crops originated in Americas
• Cattle Came to US in 1525
• 1609 First corn grown
• 1611 First wheat planted in Va.
• 1612 First tobacco by English Settlers

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Early Ag Developments

• Indians used fish and shells as fertilizer
• Grass, roots, ashes, etc as well
• Other forms of Fertilizer
• Manure
• Organic Matter
• Other Forms

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4 Principal Food Crops

• These 4 feed the world in order of greatest to
  least
• 1.) Rice
• 2). Wheat
• 3). Potatoes
• 4). Corn (Maize)

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6 Breadbaskets to the World

• 1). Central North America (Iowa, etc)
• 2). Middle East (Syria)
• 3). Asia (Manchuria)
• 4). South America (Argentina)
• 5). Eastern Europe (Ukraine old USSR)
• 6). Asia (Mongolia)

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AGR Developments

• 1701- Seed Drill
• 1786 Thresher (Wheat)
• 1793 Cotton Gin Invented
• 1797 Cast Iron Plow
• 1804 Canning
• 1831 McCormick Reaper invented

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AGR Developments

• 1837 John Deere Plow built (steel plow)
• 1839 Congress made 1st agricultural
  appropriation
• 1858 - Harvester
• 1874 Barbed wire invented
• 1892- Gasoline tractor produced

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Land in the 1700-1800s

• Land was sold for 1.00-1.25 per acre by the
  government to individuals
• 40-80 acres was sold at first
• Then determined that one needed 150 to stay
  profitable in the mid-west
• Late 1700s 96 of pop. Involved in agriculture

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An acre was / is ?

• The amount of land a man or Beast of Burden could
  plow in the late 1700s
• About the size of a football field
• 43,560 sq. ft.
• Cost 10.65 acre in 1900 in Calloway Co.
• Cost 2,500 acre in 2000 in Calloway Co.
• Cost 6,500 acre in 2011 in Calloway Co.

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Land Distribution Theories

• 1) . Alexander Hamilton
• - Large tracts of land (European)
• - Wealthy to have land, others to work for
• them
• - Maximize profit for Government at sale
• - Southern plantation style (European)

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Land Theories

• Thomas Jefferson
• - Small tracts of land (60-80 acres)
• - Everybody (family) gets a chance to own
• - Sold at reasonable prices (cheap)
• - Promote subsistence farming and
• more democratic state in U.S.
• - Eventually won out

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Land Development

• Hamlet Township 5000 acre pie shaped
  structure in North East Did not last long
• Plantations South large tracts owned by few
  families, slavery, commodity based
• on cotton, corn, tobacco
• Western U.S. 640 ac. Perfect squares

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Other Characteristics of Early Ag.

• Subsistence Farming
• Surveying became more common
• Recording of deeds of land description/ownership
• Fight for water rights in west
• Barbed Wire
• Cattle Barons

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History of Food Agriculture1800s

• Much of country on subsistence farms
• Robert Reid 1846, crossbred two different
  types of Indian Corn, Guordseed and Flint Corn
  and developed field corn.
• Heredity Gregor Mendel father of genetics,
  laws of heredity

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Robert Reid

• Utilized principles of heredity from his
  knowledge of Gregor Mendel father of genetics.
• One of the first agriculture and science
  integrators!

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U.S. Department of Agriculture

• 1862 The Department of Agriculture was
• established by President Lincoln.
• Washington wanted one even earlier
• Was called the Peoples Department
• Two Objectives in the beginning
• Distribute Seeds
• Gather, disseminate and distribute information

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Agriculture Higher Education

• 1862- Morrill Land Grant Act
• Established Land Grant Universities in States
• Primarily for Agriculture and Mechanics
• Texas A M, etc.
• Huge sums of land were granted to the states
• This was the study aspect of agriculture ed.
• 1890- Land Grants for African Americans

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Research

• 1887 Hatch Act
• Created the Agricultural Experiment Stations
• These were a research component attached to Land
  Grant Universities
• Modeled after German research stations
• Practical research for farmers and students- This
  was the research aspect of education
• Started with research on commercial fertilizers.

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1870s

• 53 of U.S. population involved in agriculture
• Average farm was 153 acres

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Agricultural Extension

• 1914 Smith Lever Act
• Created Agricultural Extension Service
• Attached to Land Grant Universities
• Carry information and research to the farmer
• Outreach aspect of education in agriculture

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1800s Transportation

• Turnpikes
• Canals
• Steamboats
• Railroads fast cheap
• Refrigeration beef industry
• Interstates Military,Germany, after WWII
• 1900s

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1890-1920

• Called Golden Age of American Farmer
• 1910 Agriculture was 31 of labor
• Good production for the most part
• Farmers were labor and management
• What are they now?

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Early 1900s in Agriculture

• 1916- Federal Farm Loan Act land banks
• 1926- Commercial hybrid seed corn
• 1920s Overproduction in agriculture
• 1929 Stock Market Crash
• Early 1930s- Dust Bowl
• 1933 Soil Erosion (Conservation) Service

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Prior to Depression

• Wheat acreage up 42 within 6 years.
• Wheat production up 27
• Wheat prices tripled!

• 1919 33 million more acres than 5 years
  earlier.
• Livestock were up 29 million head.
• Land was 5 times greater than 1900.

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Dust Bowl
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Aftermath of the Depression

• Diversified Farming
• Federal Farm Loan Act
• Marketing Acts
• Farm Credit Administration
• Soil Conservation
• The Beginning of Urban Sprawl

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American Farm Bureau

• 1919 American Farm Bureau Federation
• Founded to help formulate a national farm policy
• Conservative
• Believes in free trade among countries
• Supports all aspects of agriculture

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1920-30s

• WPA Works Projects Administration
• CCC Civilian Conservation Corps improving
  soil conditions
• 1920s Food, Drug and Insecticide
  Administration protected farmers from false
  labeling of chemicals, and consumers from false
  labeling
• Start of Social Programs and Work Programs

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Structured Ag Policy

• The three beginnings of organized farm policy
• American Farm Bureau producer side
• Agricultural Adjustment Act gov. side
• Farm Credit Administration financial side

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Ag Adjustment Act of 1933

• 1933- Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
• Roosevelt Administration
• Raised money from taxes on commodities
• bought by processors and consumers
• Cash relief payments to farmers for debt,
• farmers had to limit their production
• Goal was to raise prices by making commodities
  scarce
• Beginnings of modern day agricultural policy

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Mid 1900s in Agriculture

• Labor and Credit were scarce during WWII
• Women helped fill the gaps in agriculture WWII
• GIs did not return to the farm (suburbs)
• 1947- General Agreement on Tariffs/Trade
• (GATT)
• 1950s- Massive farm subsidies

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1950-1960s

• 1950 Farmers were 12.2 of labor force
• 1956- Food Stamp Program (social program)
• 1957 4 wheel drive vehicles
• 1960s Chemicals and fertilizers cause
  explosion in crop production

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Malthus Theory

• Thomas Malthus
• Predicted large scale starvation as the
  population grew faster than the food supply.
• Malthus was wrong!
• The advances in agriculture allowed food
  production to outpace the population explosion.

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Green Revolution

• 1950-1960s
• Norman Borlaug
• Creation of new varieties, higher yields
• Boosted by GENETICS, fertilizers, pesticides,
  technology and early biotech
• World wide boom in agriculture production
• Targeted Mexico, Brazil
• Thanks Norman!

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1960s

• Chemicals, fertilizers and genetics cause an
  explosion in crop productivity
• Known as The Green Revolution
• Agriculture was good
• Good access to capital ()
• Expansion mentality

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1970s Agriculture

• Farmers were 4.6 of labor force
• Large scale production-industrial agriculture
• Corporations
• Modest profits high commodity prices
• Large scale expansion
• Fence Row to Fence Row Philosophy (Its Back)
• Land prices soared!
• Late 70s interests rates soared (18 )

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1980s Agriculture

• CRASH! Did we not learn our lesson?
• 1981-82 Ag Economy Plunged
• Bankruptcy, foreclosures, auctions
• Land was to high, commodity prices plunged due to
  overproduction of the 1950, 60 70s
• People expanded too fast
• Rest of the 80s spent digging out of debt, for
  those left
• No-till farming became widely used

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1990s Agriculture

• 1993 NAFTA
• 1993- GPS adapted to agriculture
• Lots of mergers and integration after 1980s
• Agriculture was up and down for most commodities
• It depended on which commodity as to how
  profitable. Hogs 10c lb., cattle plummeted
• poultry rose, tobacco steady

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Agriculture Today

• 2 (1.8) involved in Production Agr. (U.S.)
• 20 involved in Agriculture/Agribusiness
• (U.S.)
• Food and Fiber ------ 1 U.S. Farmer Feeds 155
  people worldwide

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Modern Definitions

• Definition of Agriculture Biological Control of
  Plants and Animals for Human and Food Production
• Definition of a Farm (IRS) any entity that
  produces and sells 1,000 of commodities
• (no limits on land acreage)

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• How has Norman Borlaugs impact played a key role
  in the issues that the agriculture sector is
  currently facing?
• How has Agricultural Education from the 1700s
  until now, advanced the society?
• Why should we study and be aware of history?
  1920s? 1970s?
• Will there be more of this pattern in Agriculture?