Agriculture Farming

 

Agriculture is the art and science of tilling soil, growing crops, and raising livestock. Origins of farming, active production of beneficial plants or animals within an ecosystem created by humans. Agriculture involves preparing plants and animals products for human consumption and their distribution in markets.   

Some farms produce special crops and livestock, including alfalfa, corn, nursery products, emus, and fish. 

Many farm operations also support recreation activities, such as hunting and fishing. Many farmers around the world practice free-range chicken raising.  

Cropping systems differ between farms, depending on the resources and constraints available; the geography and climate of the farm; governmental policies; economic, social, and political pressures; and the farmers philosophy and culture. 

The sheer number of farms, coupled with the variety of commodities produced, makes describing typical operations difficult. For one thing, farmers rarely operate by themselves--the sheer scale of American farms requires large amounts of labor. 

Laws and customs generally mean the women and immigrants who make up most farms around the world are denied any authority to do their jobs. 

In many developing countries, independent farmers cannot afford the new technologies, and large corporations have taken over farming. In the 1940s, unsubsidised farmers in developing countries suffered the negative consequences of government policies which created artificially low world prices of agricultural products. 

By 1960, the majority of farms in the U.S. and other developed countries had been electrified. During that same time, average farm sizes more than doubled, as complex technologies made many aspects of the Illinois grain and food processing industry less labor-intensive. 

Along with the new machines came some major advances in agricultural techniques. Farmers throughout Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America continued to practice the older ways of farming. 

About 11,500 years ago, humans slowly learned how to plant grains and root crops, and settled into farming-based lives. 

In temperate environments, where ecosystems are predominantly prairies or meadows, highly productive year-round agriculture is the predominant agricultural system. High-tech agriculture involves crop rotation, requiring a knowledge of farmable terrain.

Technological advances have helped to equip farmers with tools and resources that allow farms to be more sustainable. These cutting-edge devices and precision farming and robotic systems will enable farms to become more profitable, efficient, secure, and sustainable. The report goes on to say that farms and farming operations will need to be managed in very different ways, mostly because of advances in technologies like sensors, devices, machines, and information technology.

With 10% of smallholder farmers leaving farming every year, and a current average age on the farm at 59, helping new farmers enter the field and successfully grow into the business is of critical importance to the future of U.S. agriculture. To help meet this challenge, the OEFFA Beginning Farming program provides the aspiring and early-career farmers--those who have been in agriculture 10 years or fewer--with the support needed to learn what it takes to enter agriculture and to grow their businesses. 

The goal of OEFFAs Begin Farming Program is to grow the number of successful sustainable and organic farmers in Ohio.   

During the 2022 growing season, budding farmers will once again be given an opportunity to train on Ohio farms as well as to work at seasonal farms as part of the seasonal Farm Workforce program. The 2022 Seasonal Farm Tours & Workshops series will launch in spring 2022, offering numerous opportunities for beginning farmers and established farmers alike to come together and learn from other farmers throughout the region.  

The 2014 Farm Bill expanded resources and created economic opportunities for military veterans who are interested in starting a career in agriculture, creating a new funding priority for training new farmers and agriculture rehabilitation programs geared specifically toward returning veterans, as part of the Starting Farmers and Ranchers Development program. 

The 2014 Farm Bill created a new Veteran Farmland Outreach Officer at USDA to help connect returning veterans to beginning farmers resources and to help guide them through the eligibility requirements of programs for participating in the farm bills programs. 

In support of these positions, NSAC has worked with Congress and USDA to establish and enhance a number of federal programs supporting beginning farmers and new farmers, such as the Starting Farmers and Ranchers Development Program, which remains the only federal program specifically dedicated to training the next generation of farmers, and the Farm Service Agencys (FSA) microloan program, which provides small loans to cover initial startup costs. NSACs advocacy in the most recent farm bill has resulted in innovative federal policies aimed at connecting farmers to farmland through the Transitional Conservation Reserve Program incentive program and the Farm Conservation Easement program. 

The mission of the Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation is to serve Californias residents by supporting farm production and encouraging practices that lead to net benefits for the environment through innovation, effective management, and science. 

Given the broad range of practices regenerative agriculture encompasses, finding a definition on which all parties can agree remains a challenge. This implies that the NASS needs to clarify for farmers what the place means in their definition of farm. 

Giving farmers clear direction regarding whether the farm is a facility, and whether data collection is consistent with the way they view and organize their farms, is important for reducing the confusion for respondents on how to report. 

The solution is to use farmers realities as the starting point, even though this reality is mostly formed by a farms history or legal, financial, or risk-management considerations. 

Farming has a perception problem, and many young people see it as poorly paid, unskilled labor. Agriculture, particularly agriculture, remains a dangerous industry, with farmers around the world still at a high risk for injury related to their jobs, lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, as well as some types of cancer related to chemicals used and long-term exposure to the sun.  

The "green credentials" of agriculture are in doubt, as farming is responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions, while a significant portion of the food already produced in the world goes to waste. Landless systems, which rely on feed sourced outside of farms, are representative of a decoupling of crop and livestock production that is most common among members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 

Intensive farming replaces labour with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, but causes increased water pollution, and usually involves subsidies to farms. Food surpluses allowed people to pursue other tasks not related to farming.  

Cited Sources

https://www.nap.edu/read/25260/chapter/6 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farming 

https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/agr/About/Pages/Facts-About-Illinois-Agriculture.aspx 

https://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/issues/farming-opportunities/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/agriculture 

https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/ 

https://beginfarming.oeffa.org/ 

https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2018/feb/agriculture-4-0--the-future-of-farming-technology.html 

https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-reason-we-are-running-out-of-farmers/ 

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/agriculture/