Georgic Odyssey

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Agriculture in America

  • Model Farm, Amoss, Harford County
  • It is practically impossible to find someone in animal agriculture that does not have a tremendous amount of respect for the animals in their care. But slim profit margins and public demand for safe, nutritious, inexpensive food sometimes put the realities of human society and the ideals of a humane society at odds. Years ago, many commodity organizations used to complain that consumers were not aware of what went into producing their food, and that consumer ignorance was a tremendous problem. Today the opposite concern is often the case: commodity organizations worry that consumers want to meddle in how food is produced, by dictating the terms under which animals and plants are raised. .
  • There was a time when having chicken for dinner was a hard-earned treat; today chicken is one of the cheapest and most available sources of animal protein in the supermarket. In the last 60 years, the cost of producing a pound of chicken has decreased by almost 90 percent. As a result, per capita consumption of chicken has more than tripled. Today U.S. farmers raise nearly 9 billion broilers?the typical meat chicken?per year. Maryland is 12th in the nation in broiler production, and one-third of Maryland?s cash farm income comes from raising chickens..
  • According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong correlation between level of income and consumption of animal protein in a society. The United States has some 97 million cattle?less than 10 percent of the world?s cattle inventory?yet it produces nearly 25 percent of the world?s beef supply. With yearly U.S. per capita consumption about 65.9 pounds in 2005, beef is the number-one animal protein consumed in the United States..
  • The pork industry has undergone tremendous change in recent years, moving from a network of many small independent producers to a small number of large confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Over the last 30 years the number of small hog operations has decreased by 86 percent, and less than 3 percent of all hog farms produce more than half of all hogs. The CAFOS, also called ?factory farms,? raise concerns about animal welfare, water quality, and public health. It has also become a land-use issue in recent years, with communities fighting against the establishment of these hog finishing facilities. The controversy raises the question of when farming crosses the line and becomes factory production..
  • Farming has always been hard work, inspiring a continuous development of labor-saving devices and engineering innovations. In the 1960s John Deere released the New Generation series of tractors. Thoughtfully designed and well built, they were vastly more powerful than the models they replaced. Because they enabled farmers to dramatically increase the amount of land worked in a day, they had a direct impact on farm size in the United States. One of the most popular tractors of all time, the John Deere 4020 tractor from that era continues in use on farms throughout America. Advances in agricultural engineering, one aspect of the Green Revolution that took place between WW II and the mid-1960s, led to the dramatic increase in food production worldwide. During the nearly 24 hours of daylight in Palmer, Alaska?s brief midsummer, farmers bale hay late into the night in a race against to get everything done before summer ends. The round-baler was a technological innovation that made it possible for one man to do a job that required a crew of people a generation ago.
  • Early humans gathered available food from the forest. Today, there are some things that can still only be gathered, such as certain types of mushrooms. In northern Alaska, morels live among the roots of the trees. Morels are a mycelium ? the main part of the organism lives underground in tiny webs near the roots of the host tree. When it is time to reproduce, or if the tree dies, the mycelium produces a mushroom in order to release spores and to go find other living trees. After fire burns, when large areas of trees have been killed by fire, there will often be mushroom blooms, including the valuable and highly-sought morels. Morel mushrooms are very difficult to cultivate and are most efficiently gathered in the wild. When large forest fires in devastated Alaska in 2004 , large morel blooms followed in 2005. Like a modern day goldrush, vanloads of ?shroomers? from all over the Pacific Northwest converged on northern Alaska, to gather and load up mushrooms. Pickers can earn as much as $8.00 a pound on the wholesale market and wild stories abound of brutal turf wars between rival groups of hunters in the forest.
  • George Washington Carver of the Tuskegee Institute believed in the value of taking education to the people. To this end, in 1906 he created the Jessup Agricultural Wagon, named after the New York financier who funded it. The Jessup Wagon traveled through rural communities in central Alabama to educate African-American farmers about techniques that would increase their productivity and profits. The Jessup Wagon was one of the early precursors to the Cooperative Extension model. Today, Tuskegee cooperative extension agents still serve communities throughout central Alabama , bringing university research to the people, just as Dr. Carver had advocated..
  • The University of Arizona is working to propagate ancient varieties of beans?such as spotted lima and orange pima lima beans?historically grown by Pima Indians in the region. According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, 63 percent of native American crop varieties have disappeared from cultivation since Europeans arrived on the continent. It is natural for farmers to want to plant crop varieties that produce the greatest yields or are best suited to the current marketplace, but when all farmers work toward the same goal, varieties with other attributes are left by the wayside. These varieties are known as ?heirloom? crop varieties. While they may lag behind in yields, they often make up for it in other traits such as flavor or texture. They also are an important source of genetic diversity and are often preserved by seed banks and organizations such as Native Seeds/SEARCH. .
  • Throughout the United States today, more than 4,000 organized farmers? markets dot the landscape, about double the number a decade ago. The Ferry Plaza Farmers? Market in San Francisco, the nation?s largest all-organic farmers? market, draws up to 15,000 customers a week and features a wide variety of certified organic produce, meats, and prepared foods. However, farmers? markets still account for less than 2% of U.S. retail produce sales overall . But additional types of marketing for the farmer are growing in popularity. On the retail side are pick-your-own farming and CSAs ( Community Supported Agriculture ), in which customers prepay the producer before the growing season begins. On the wholesale side, farmers can sell directly to grocery stores and restaurants, venues that offer good outlets for ethnic and other specialty crops..
  • Over the past twenty years, the total number of wineries in the nation has doubled, with wineries located in all 50 states. Grapes are the highest value fruit crop in the country and the sixth largest crop overall. Vineyard prices in Sonoma County, California peak at $85,000 an acre; in nearby Napa County, vineyards peak at $180,000 an acre, representing the nation?s most expensive agricultural land. Currently, there are more than 7,000 brands of wine sold in the United States..
  • In the central valley of California, raisins are dried in the fall. In September, Thompson seedless grapes are harvested and laid on paper trays, which are essentially sheets of brown paper placed directly on the ground in the vineyards, and allowed to dry. As long as it does not rain, everything is fine; the grapes will dry into raisins, and then they will be ready to be gathered up for cleaning and packaging. But a single shower can ruin a whole years effort in an afternoon..
  • Farming is the second most dangerous occupation in America. More than 700 farmers and ranchers are killed each year on the job. While tractor accidents account for the greatest number of fatalities, fruit farms have the highest rate of injury for workers. Strawberry pickers in Watsonville, California cover up even in the hot sun to avoid exposure to agricultural chemicals and toxic substances. While machinery hazards are the most obvious threats to farmers, environmental concerns and chemicals represent slower and more insidious threats to their health. In order to prevent exposure to chemicals, fruit pickers are encouraged to protect themselves by covering up..
  • Mexicans feed America. Spread across all 50 states, Mexican farm workers are involved in the production of almost every imaginable agricultural commodity, from blueberries in Maine to bananas in Hawaii. Even field corn, which is planted and harvested mechanically, depends on migrant labor. Corn plants must have the top tassels removed by hand to harvest seeds for producing hybrid breeds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that nearly half of all farm workers are undocumented. In 1942, labor shortages caused by WWII led to the establishment of the Bracero Program, which brought contract workers from Mexico north to work in the agricultural industry. The program, intended as a short-term emergency measure, lasted until 1964 and led to a dependence on inexpensive Mexican labor for the agricultural industry in California and much of the nation..
  • The Salinas Valley in Monterey, California is the number one vegetable-producing region in the nation. During the summer months, 80% of the nation?s lettuce is produced here. In winter months, lettuce and salad production moves to Yuma, Arizona. Between these two regions, virtually all our salad greens are produced. Situated near the coast and bisected by the Salinas River, this valley enjoys special climatic conditions In the mornings there is always a fog that comes into the valley and keeps it cool, and it does not burn off until about 11:00 o?clock. The cool, foggy morning conditions are perfect for growing lettuce and other cool-season vegetables. John Steinbeck referred to it as ?the valley of the world;? and used it as the setting of his novel East of Eden.
  • Not many people want to find a bunch of insects at the bottom of their salad bowl. Although often maligned, agricultural chemicals have been an important part of the Green Revolution - the tremendous increase in worldwide food production that took place after WWII. Unfortunately, overuse of agricultural chemicals can lead to the development of resistance in the pests and weeds that they were originally designed to control. As a result, programs such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are used to reduce the amount of agricultural chemicals applied. In the case of herbicides, author Victor Davis Hansen has noted that there are three unpleasant options for the control of weeds: either the application of toxic chemicals in the form of herbicides, the consumption of fossil fuels for mechanical means, or the exploitation of human labor for manual control. Application of herbicides on salad greens like these in California is carefully regulated and monitored. .
  • To meet the needs of a growing urban population in the arid Southwest, dairy farms are becoming increasingly urbanized. Dry-lot dairies efficiently house cattle in large shaded lots in arid regions where there is no grass for grazing. Visalia, California is at the center of the nation?s most productive agricultural county in terms of revenues. But because of its poor air quality and high unemployment, Visalia has also been named one of the worst places to live in America. Life magazine sent John Steinbeck to the area in 1938 to research an article on migrant farm workers that later became his famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath..
  • A study twenty years ago by the New Mexico State University found that the quality of the forage produced was the biggest factor in determining land values for ranch prices in New Mexico. Today, that has changed; the quality of the view from the ranch is likely to be a bigger determining factor in the land?s value. The cow/calf operation on the Pacific coast in Big Sur, California has one of the best views of any pasture in the country, looking out over the ocean and cliffs of Big Sur..
  • Farmers like to think of themselves as the first environmentalists. Because they, more than anyone, depend on the health of the earth for their livelihoods, they value their stewardship of it. But many farmers engage in intensive farming practices?striving for the greatest crop yield per acre by spending money on labor, fertilization, pesticides, etc.?which often produce unintentional environmental consequences. Nutrient runoff, soil erosion, and chemical contamination all potentially threaten our environment. Following the dust bowl of the 1930?s great strides were made in soil conservation and erosion control. Still, in Fresno, California, dust pollution from farmers working the dry soil of the San Joaquin Valley contributes mightily to producing an air quality that ranks third worst in the nation..
  • Corn is America?s largest agricultural commodity (also its first!). There are currently more than 92 million acres of corn in the United States, and it appears in virtually everything we eat. It is not only eaten by us directly and fed to the animals we consume; it appears in virtually all of our food as a sweetener, coloring or flavoring agent, or as a preservative. According to the author Michael Pollan, nearly a quarter of all products found in the grocery store contain corn in some form; a four-ounce hamburger represents nearly two pounds of corn consumed by a beef cattle, and a 32-ounce soda contains nearly 1/3 pound of corn in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Also, corn increasingly powers our cars in the form of ethanol. Although an abundance of cheap corn has been largely responsible for our dependence on it, demand for corn in ethanol production is raising its price for the first time in decades. .
  • Palm Beach County, Florida is the third largest agricultural county in the nation in terms of output, and most of it is built on the drained marshes of the Everglades. The high organic matter and carbon content of the soil is causing the soil to vanish at an alarming rate. The large amounts of carbon in the soil that mixed with oxygen were previously encased in water when they were part of the Everglades. These are now exposed to air and mixing with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, so that effectively the soil is evaporating. Sugar cane is one of the most protected agricultural commodities and high fructose corn syrup is one of the most highly subsidized. Proving that like any foraging mammal, sweetness is what we value most in our food. .
  • The $147 billion dollar horticultural or green industry is one of the fastest growing segments of American agriculture, and Kerry?s Bromeliad Nursery is one of the largest orchid production facilities in the world. Technological innovations pioneered by owner Kerry Herndon have taken what was once a rare and expensive plant and made it into a commodity that can be sold in discount stores for less than $20. Kerry?s Bromeliad Nursery is one of the largest orchid production complexes on the planet; at any given time there are more than 5 million orchids in production in their 2.8 million square foot production space in Homestead, Florida, one of the largest greenhouse production facilities in the world. Sixty-five percent of the nation?s potted plants are produced in Florida, and Kerry?s Bromiliad Nursery is responsible for virtually every discount-store orchid sold in the eastern United States..
  • The Mauna Kea Banana Plantation in Pepeekeo, Hawaii is the largest banana farm in the United States, with most of their production shipped to other Hawaiian islands for consumption. Bananas are picked green in the field and after washing are packed into containers. Just prior to their arrival on store shelves, ethylene gas is released in the containers to ripen the bananas, so they appear yellow when seen in the store. Nationally, imports of fresh fruits and vegetables are on the rise. Nearly 40 percent of US fruit is imported, and the percentage of vegetables imported into the US from other countries increased 265% between 1980 and 2001. Bananas account for 22% of US fresh fruit consumption, and account for 60% of our fruit imports because they need the very wet tropical conditions only found in a tiny portion of the nation. .
  • Blackfoot, Idaho is the center of Idaho?s potato country, and home to an area that is dedicated to the production of the Russet Burbank potato - the large, perfectly-shaped potatoes that are commonly found as restaurant baked potatoes or fast food French fries. When potato harvest time comes, stores and schools are closed so that citizens can become seasonal laborers for the potato harvest. Fifty years ago the average farm size in the Blackfoot area was about 200 acres; today, most potato operators farm thousands of acres or more with the aid of millions of dollars of equipment. .
  • In 1862, Congress passed the Morrell Act, which established the land-grant university system, whose main object was ?the teaching of agriculture.? But beyond that, there was a lot of debate as to what ?teaching agriculture? meant, with academics arguing that it should be for scientific research, such as the composition of soils, and farmers in the community seeking practical knowledge, such as how to plow a straight row. The resultant controversy is called the Ivory Silo debate, which raged until 1887, when the academics won, both through the Hatch Act, which in addition to prohibiting racial discrimination when it came to agricultural education, set up the agricultural experiment stations, and the 1890 extension of the Morrell Act, which defined agriculture as a science. Undaunted, the practical knowledge side set up what were known as ?Farmers? Institutes? in many states, including Maryland, and in 1915 Congress brought these under the land-grant system in the form of the Smith-Lever Act, which created the Cooperative Extension Service, which put agents in each county of the nation to disseminate practical knowledge based on university research to the agricultural community..
  • Transgenic, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), combine genes from different living things to create traits not possible with traditional breeding . Most of the transgenic plants developed in commercial production so far have benefited producers more than consumers ? these plants are either tolerant to herbicides or toxic to insects, which aids the producer but has little direct benefit for the consumer. Transgenic plants, first commercially cultivated in 1996 and tested extensively, represent a technology that causes controversy. A significant number of consumers continue to raise issues regarding the safety of GMO?s and the ethics of manipulating and patenting forms of life. A larger issue is whether consumers have a right to know if they are eating GM products. As author Barbara Kingsolver states ?Our Culture is not unacquainted with the idea of food as a spiritually loaded commodity. We?re just particular about which spiritual arguments we?ll accept as valid for declining certain foods.? Informational asymmetry between producers and consumers generally benefits those products that can be produced most cheaply and labeling of GMO products is strongly opposed by the industry.
  • Running a slaughterhouse is expensive, mired in regulations, and considered to be an unappealing business by many young people. In recent years, the number of small and medium-size processing facilities has been on the decline, with huge processors becoming the source of much of our meat. In 1996, 79 percent of cattle were slaughtered in only 22 plants.* By 2005, four companies had gained control of the processing of most of our beef and pork and over half of the broiler chickens; these large processors want to deal with large producers to ensure a steady supply of product. The fates of small processing facilities and small farmers are similarly tied together, with the decline of small processors reducing the market for small producers in under-served areas..
  • Wheat
  • The term ?organic farming? was coined in 1940 by Walter Northbourne , who compared the entire farm to ?a single living organism.? Organic farming is more than just eschewing the use of chemicals, but rather a farming system that looks at the health of the land as well as the health of the products produced on it. Organic foods are increasingly popular with consumers, who cite concerns about health and the environment, along with a preference for less processed, more ?natural? food. Although organic foods currently account for only 2 percent of food sold nationally, sales of such products are growing at a rate of 20 percent a year?far out-pacing traditional foodstuffs. .
  • English Orpington Buff rooster Chicken
  • Organic does not necessarily mean small. As the demand for organic products has grown, so has the size of farms producing organic food. Ed Fry of Chestertown, Maryland has approximately 1,300 acres of organic corn, soybeans, alfalfa, sweet peas and oats, and employs nine people in his operation. The products produced by Fry are largely used as feed for organic milk production, and some are processed for human consumption; a few of his vegetables even end up in the farmers? market..
  • The idea that herbivores should eat grass shouldn?t seem radical, but due to a combination of subsidies and surpluses the grain feed lot?where meat animals are fed corn and soybeans?has become the norm over the last generation. In 1984 a Mississippi farmer named Alan Nation visited New Zealand where he saw farmers raising sheep and cattle in pastures. Nation realized that grazing animals on pasture had benefits for animal, humans, and the environment; he returned home to found a magazine called The Stockman Grass Farmer, which became the bible for a new movement in management-intensive grazing, also known as rotational grazing..Management-intensive grazing is not just about leaving animals in the field all day; it focuses on the nurturing and care of productive pastures. Thus, grazers refer to themselves as ?grass farmers,? with animals being a by-product of good stewardship of the grass. If the feed lot is an animal city, then management-intensive grazing represents a new urbanism, where animals graze at high stocking rates simulating the type of grazing and land use naturally practiced by large herds of migratory herbivores. Advocates of pasture-raised livestock promote grass-fed meats as being higher in omega-3 fatty acids and better for the environment..
  • As America?s population becomes more diverse so does our diet, creating a market for specialty and ethnic vegetables such as the tomatillo, used in salsas by Mexican Americans. Various eggplants, greens, squashes, chili peppers, and melons provide new markets and new opportunities for small farmers near urban areas.
  • Maine low-bush blueberries grow wild in the rocky, acidic soils of coastal Maine. The blueberries are difficult to cultivate, but they can be managed where they grow naturally for high production. Native Americans realized this, and used controlled burning to manage the blueberry fields and keep out competition from weeds and trees. Today, blueberry farmers continue to use mowing and herbicides in addition to burning to keep the fields clear. If left to their own devices, the blueberry fields would eventually grow up in woody plants and trees, competing with the blueberries. Low-bush blueberries are high in anti-oxidants and are a smaller, drier berry than the high-bush varieties, and as a result they are commonly used in baked products, such as blueberry muffins.
  • Young farmers are increasingly rare in agriculture. The average age of farmers in the United States is 55. Less than 6% of farmers are under 35. At the other end of the age spectrum, farmers are reluctant to retire; more than a quarter of all farm operators are over 65. A University of Illinois study found that farmers are twice as likely as to continue working beyond 65 than people in other occupations. Labor-saving technologies allow older farmers to continue to be productive, well into their 80s in some cases. This phenomenon, combined with the tremendous cost of getting into farming, limits opportunities for young people to take over the family farm. An increase in the age of novice farm operators can be seen as a ?Cincinnatus Effect?. Like the Roman general Cincinnatus, who returned to the plow after his time at war, many individuals return to the family farm after a full career and retirement from a job in the city. This is especially prevalent in areas like Oklahoma, where low land values and low taxes allow families to keep their farm until someone is ready to take it over and farm again. These older farmers are often well-off and come back to the farm with capital and well-developed ideas of what they want to do, generally making them excellent farmers..
  • In the mid-1980s, the Monsanto Corporation released recombinant bovine growth hormone for cattle, an artificial formulation of a naturally occurring hormone, which when injected into diary cows produces increased milk production, with the idea of increasing profitability for farmers. Newton postulated that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the adoption of the new milk production technology has produced a backlash from consumers concerned about what goes into their food and as a result has given rise to the organic milk industry. In Maine today, for example, nearly a quarter of all diary farms are now producing milk organically, often at a greater profit than they would have made by using hormones. In this case, technology developed to increase profits succeeded in a way no one could have predicted..
  • Belzoni, Mississippi is the catfish capital of the world. The combination of warm weather, soils well-suited for ponds, and access to transportation that brings feed from the Midwest has led to the creation of a booming aquaculture industry for farm-raised catfish. Harvesting catfish is a messy job, requiring workers with cranes and nets to wrestle with thousands of wriggling catfish in the early dawn hours, before the fish are loaded into trucks and taken to processing plants. Most catfish is raised in the Mississippi delta and consumed in the south and Midwest, with lower rates of consumption in coastal areas where sea fish are in greater supply and in greater demand. .
  • The 65-mile long Centennial Valley in southwest Montana is largely desolate except for grazing cattle and abandoned homesteads. However, 100 years ago it was home to nearly 500 people, who moved there in the belief that they could make the area agriculturally productive. During the 1860s and ?70s a series of unusually wet years coincided with the population expansion into the West, and gave rise to the belief that ?the rain would follow the plow? ? that by tilling the soil and planting crops, moisture from the ground would be released into the atmosphere and return as rain. When homesteading laws opened the Centennial Valley to settlers in the 1890s, more than 100 families moved in. After three years of hot dry summers and brutally harsh winters, most had left with what possessions they could carry, leaving behind a valley that today feels largely unspoiled, where cattle graze at a stocking rate of one cow to every 40 acres. Throughout the history of American agriculture, well-intentioned mistakes have been made, not only in climatology but through the introduction of a myriad of non-native plant species that have turned out to be invasive weeds, and miracle chemicals that have had negative long-term consequences..
  • Cowboys are an American icon, and they are absolutely essential to the operation of the Matador Cattle Company?s 6,500-acre Beaverhead Ranch in Montana; however, although they are an icon, they are not a typical fixture for today?s cattle producers. In fact, almost half of all cattle are raised in small herds east of the Mississippi River, and the largest cattle ranch in the United States is on the big island of Hawaii. Also, cattle are as often raised as edible pets or for status as they are for economic reasons. In fact, almost half of beef producers are part-time farmers, and cow-calf operations are typically the least profitable type of farm, according to the USDA. While nearly 35% of all American farms are classified as beef cattle operations, the most of any type of farm in the United States, they have the lowest income of any type of farm, with the majority of beef cattle farms run by part-time farmers whose farming income represents less than 20% of their total income. Nearly a quarter of all cattle operators consider themselves retired. As a result, the cattle supply is often insulated from price sensitivity, as many producers will continue to raise cattle without expectation or need of profit..
  • The Chile Institute at the New Mexico State University breeds different varieties of hot peppers. Their aim is to create new varieties with different traits, such as colors and flavors; habanero peppers, which are milder in flavor than traditional peppers, are one example of a new variety. Many domesticated plants and animals have been cross-bred and hybridized to create new varieties that express different desirable traits. The Chile Pepper Institute is an international non-profit organization dedicated to preserving chile germplasm and researching chile pepper diseases..
  • In Brooklyn, New York, Maritza Rodriguez and her husband Pedro run a stand at the Winsor Terrace Farmers? Market. The Rodriguez live in a Brooklyn apartment, and three days a week they drive their van out to a small plot of land that they rent in Orange County, New York, where they farm vegetables that are in demand among New York?s Hispanic population. Often they will sleep in their van out at the farm and bring the produce back to their home in New York to sell it. While many multi-generation farming families have left farming, discouraged by lack of opportunity, there is a growing population of new farmers who come from other parts of the world to the United States and see tremendous opportunities in agriculture..
  • On a rooftop in New York City, lettuce is grown for restaurant salads in the streets below. Hydroponic production grows plants in water, using water to get food and nutrients to the plants where they are grown without soil or where soils do not exist. This project in New York City not only produces salads for restaurants, but it also serves as a youth program that teaches children about science and plant life in a community where pavement and buildings reign..
  • While the majority of U.S. farm operators are older white males, the American farmer is becoming more diverse than you might think. Dan Miyasako is a third-generation Japanese-American farmer in eastern Oregon, in a community of Japanese-American farmers. In California, Sikhs and Armenians grow raisins and new Hmong farmers raise produce, while in Orange County, New York, Korean-Americans are acquiring farmland. Since 1997, the number of African-American farmers has begun increasing again, after years of precipitous decline, and the number of women who are principal farm operators is increasing. While many long-time farmers see stagnation and become discouraged because they see no future in farming, new immigrants see opportunity and the promise of more success than they have realized at home.
  • Raising seeds is painstaking work. Plants and their pollinating insects must be carefully managed and tended to produce fertile seeds of known parentage. The western Snake River Valley offers the perfect conditions for alfalfa, vegetable, and corn seed production. A dry, mild climate largely free of diseases, with plenty of water for irrigation. . Canyon County Idaho produces 95 percent of the nations sweet corn seed. The amount of labor involved in seed production keeps farm sizes relatively small and in turn sustains main street communities here while rural towns in other parts of the country struggle to survive.
  • In 1776, Thomas Coke of Norfolk, England inherited a large estate at Holkham, but had absolutely no idea what to do with it. He invited a number of local agricultural experts to gather and give him advice. These became known as the Holkham Sheep Shearings, and from 1778 to 1821 they were an annual event that grew in popularity and significance until they were probably the most important agricultural conference in the world, drawing travelers from America and Europe who came to hear to hear lecturers in agricultural science, see new processes demonstrated and learn about the latest inventions in the world of agriculture. The dissemination of knowledge that the Holkham Sheep Shearings afforded was an important part of the agricultural revolution in England and the precursor to the modern agricultural field day, such as Ag Progress Days at Penn State University. Today, annual agricultural field days include demonstrations of the latest technologies, processes, breeds and inventions, exactly as the Hoholkam Sheep Shearings did 200 years ago. .
  • The produce market in Leola, Pennsylvania is a gathering place for the Amish, or Plain people, to sell their products to the rest of the world. In the fall of every year, most of the produce shifts from vegetables to pumpkins, ornamental corn, and other seasonal commodities primarily used for decoration and display in the booming agritourism industry. With over 5,000 farms, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has more farms than any other county in the nation, with an average farm size of only 77 acres (the national average is 446 acres). The Amish population is thriving and expanding into surrounding states as available farmland in the Lancaster area is crowded and unavailable..
  • The New Holland Sales Stables in New Holland, Pennsylvania is one of the most important livestock auctions in the country, due to its proximity to the northeast urban population. Twelve percent of all goats slaughtered in the United States will pass through this sale ring at New Holland, and 1.6% of all federally inspected sheep slaughtered in the United States pass through here. For sheep and goats, the New Holland market has national significance due to its proximity to the northeast region of the United States, where the greatest demand for sheep and goat products is located. Although 80% of all sheep are raised in the west and processed by four major packers, the prices set at New Holland are the benchmark that others look at. Because of the high prices at Eastertime, lambs from as far away as New Mexico will arrive in New Holland by the truckload for the Easter lamb sale. Auctions are an important way in which agricultural commodities are marketed; for small farmers, the auction is both a direct outlet for selling their products as well as the measure that sets prices for products sold privately..
  • On the Micronesian island of Pohnepei, divers collect naturally occurring black-lipped pearl oysters from the reefs around the island. Divers seek those that will likely produce the finest black pearls. Then breed and raise them in a cultured pearl aquaculture facility. Thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia, early humans selected wild seeds they had gathered from local grasses and began cultivating and selecting those that were biggest in size and with good yield and taste, and saving and planting the best of them, thus domesticating grains, and giving birth to agriculture as we know it. This exact same process of domestication is taking place in Pohnepei, where the oysters? offspring will be farmed in floating nets for a pearl aquaculture project sponsored by the College of Micronesia.
  • Many small farmers found the route to increasing income by transforming their production into value-added products. Kate and David Dallam produce soap, cheese and ice cream from their dairy farm in Creswell, Maryland, and retail them through Broom?s Bloom Dairy, their ice cream shop. They are part of a movement that has adapted to low commodity prices and increasingly urbanized suroundings by processing their own products and selling directly to their neighbors. .
  • According to the American Farmland Trust, America loses two acres of farmland to development every minute. From 1992 to 1997, over six million acres of farmland were developed, an area equivalent to the entire state of Maryland. Much of that development takes place in the form of suburban sprawl. Over the past twenty years, the acreage per person for new housing has almost doubled; during the period from 1982 to 1987 the US population grew by 17%, and the amount of urbanized land grew by 47%. Often the greatest threat to farmland comes from people who want to live surrounded by it..