Agriculture in the United States
History
Main article: Agricultural history of the United States
European agricultural practices greatly affected the New England landscape, leaving behind many physical foot prints. Colonists brought livestock over from Europe which caused many changes to the land. Grazing animals required a lot of land and food to sustain them and due to grazing, native grasses were destroyed and European species began to replace them. New species of weeds were introduced and began to thrive as they were capable of withstanding the grazing of animals, whereas native species could not.
The practices associated with keeping livestock also contributed to the deterioration of the forests and fields. Colonists would cut down the trees and then allow their cattle and livestock to graze freely in the forest and never plant more trees. The animals trampled and tore up the ground so much as to cause long-term destruction and damage.
Soil exhaustion was a huge problem in New England agriculture. Farming with oxen did allow the colonist to farm more land but it increased erosion and decreased soil fertility. This was due to deeper plow cuts in the soil that allowed the soil more contact with oxygen causing nutrient depletion. In grazing fields, the large number of cattle in the New England, the soil was being compacted by the cattle and this didn't give the soil enough oxygen to sustain life.
In the U.S., farms spread from the colonies westward along with the settlers. In cooler regions, wheat was often the crop of choice when lands were newly settled, leading to a "wheat frontier" that moved westward over the course of years. Also very common in the antebellum Midwest was farming corn while raising hogs, complementing each other especially since it was difficult to get grain to market before the canals and railroads. After the "wheat frontier" had passed through an area, more diversified farms including dairy cattle generally took its place. Warmer regions saw plantings of cotton and herds of beef cattle. In the early colonial south, raising tobacco and cotton was common, especially through the use of slave labor until the Civil War. In the northeast, slaves were used in agriculture until the early 19th century. In the Midwest, slavery was prohibited by the Freedom Ordinance of 1787.
The introduction and broad adoption of scientific agriculture since the mid nineteenth century has made a large improvement in the USA's economic growth. This development was facilitated by the Morrill Act and the Hatch Act of 1887 which established in each state a land-grant university (with a mission to teach and study agriculture) and a federally funded system of agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension networks which place extension agents in each state.
Soybeans were not widely cultivated in the United States until the 1950s, when soybeans began to replace oats and wheat.
Significant areas of farmland were abandoned during the Great Depression and incorporated into nascent national forests. Later, "Sodbuster" and "Swampbuster" restrictions written into federal farm programs starting in the 1970s reversed a decades-long trend of habitat destruction that began in 1942 when farmers were encouraged to plant all possible land in support of the war effort. In the United States, federal programs administered through local Soil and Water Conservation Districts provide technical assistance and partial funding to farmers who wish to implement management practices to conserve soil and limit erosion and floods.
Major agricultural products
| 1. | Corn | 256,900,000 |
| 2. | Cattle meat | 11,736,000 |
| 3. | Cow's milk, whole, fresh | 78,155,000 |
| 4. | Chicken meat | 15,006,000 |
| 5. | Soybeans | 65,800,000 |
| 6. | Pig meat | 8,574,000 |
| 7. | Wheat | 63,590,000 |
| 8. | Cotton lint | 3,968,000 |
| 9. | Hen eggs | 5,141,000 |
| 10. | Turkey meat | 2,584,000 |
| 11. | Tomatoes | 12,275,000 |
| 12. | Potatoes | 20,820,000 |
| 13. | Grapes | 6,126,000 |
| 14. | Oranges | 10,473,000 |
| 15. | Rice, paddy | 9,034,000 |
| 16. | Apples | 4,242,000 |
| 17. | Sorghum | 10,446,000 |
| 18. | Lettuce | 4,490,000 |
| 19. | Cottonseed | 6,073,000 |
| 20. | Sugar beets | 27,760,000 |
Crops
Value of production
| Major Crops in the USA – 1997 (in US$ billions) |
|
|---|---|
| Corn | $24.4 |
| Soybeans | $17.7 |
| Wheat | $8.6 |
| Alfalfa | $8.3 |
| Cotton | $6.1 |
| Hay, other than alfalfa | $5.1 |
| Tobacco | $3.0 |
| Rice | $1.7 |
| Sorghum | $1.4 |
| Barley | $.9 |
Yield
U.S. agriculture has a high yield relative to other countries. The yield was (in 2004):[6]- Corn for grain, average of 160.4 bushels harvested per acre (10.07 t/ha)
- Soybean for beans, average of 42.5 bushels harvested per acre (2.86 t/ha)
- Wheat, average of 43.2 bushels harvested per acre (2.91 t/ha, was 44.2 bu/ac or 2.97 t/ha in 2003)
Livestock
Goats, horses, turkeys and bees are also raised, though in lesser quantities. Inventory data is not as readily available as for the major industries. For the three major goat-producing states (AZ, NM, and TX) there were 1,200,000 goats at the end of 2002. There were 5,300,000 horses in the United States at the end of 1998. There were 2,500,000 colonies of bees at the end of 2002.
Farm type or majority enterprise type
Farm type is based on which commodities are the majority crops grown on a farm. Nine common types include:- Cash grains includes corn, soybeans and other grains (wheat, oats, barley, sorghum), dry edible beans, peas, and rice.
- Tobacco
- Cotton
- Other field crops includes peanuts, potatoes, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, broomcorn, popcorn, sugar beets, mint, hops, seed crops, hay, silage, forage, etc. Tobacco and cotton can be included here if not in their own separate category.
- High value crops includes fruits, vegetables, melons, tree nuts, greenhouse, nursery crops, and horticultural specialties.
- Cattle
- Hogs
- Dairy
- Poultry and Eggs
Governance
Main articles: Agricultural policy in the United States and Agricultural subsidy
Agriculture in the United States is primarily governed by periodically renewed U.S. farm bills. Governance is both a federal and a local responsibility with the United States Department of Agriculture
being the federal department responsible. Government aid includes
research into crop types and regional suitability as well as many kinds
of subsidies, some price supports and loan programs. U.S. farmers are
not subject to production quotas and some laws are different for farms compared to other workplaces.Labor laws prohibiting children in other workplaces provide some exemptions for children working on farms with complete exemptions for children working on their family's farm. Children can also gain permits from vocational training schools or the 4-H club which allow them to do jobs they would otherwise not be permitted to do.
A large part of the U.S. farm workforce is made up of migrant and seasonal workers, many of them recent immigrants from Latin America or aliens working under work permits. Additional laws apply to these workers and their housing which is often provided by the farmer.
Employment
In 1870, 70-80 percent of the US population was employed in agriculture. As of 2008, less than 2 percent of the population is directly employed in agriculture.In 2010, there were 1,202,500 farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers and an estimated 757,900 agricultural workers were legally employed in the US. Animal breeders accounted for 11,500 of those workers with the rest categorized as miscellaneous agricultural workers. The median pay was $9.12 per hour or $18,970 per year. In 2009, about 519,000 people under age 20 worked on farms owned by their family. In addition to the youth who lived on family farms, an additional 230,000 youth were employed in agriculture.
Agriculture safety and health
Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries. Farmers are at high risk for fatal and nonfatal injuries, work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, chemical-related illnesses, and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun exposure. In an average year, 516 workers die doing farm work in the U.S. (1992–2005). Every day, about 243 agricultural workers suffer lost-work-time injuries, and about 5% of these result in permanent impairment. Tractor overturns are the leading cause of agriculture-related fatal injuries, and account for over 90 deaths every year. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommends the use of roll over protection structures on tractors to reduce the risk of overturn-related fatal injuries.Farming is one of the few industries in which families (who often share the work and live on the premises) are also at risk for injuries, illness, and death. Agriculture is the most dangerous industry for young workers, accounting for 42% of all work-related fatalities of young workers in the U.S. between 1992 and 2000. In 2011, 108 youth, less than 20 years of age, died from farm-related injuries. Unlike other industries, half the young victims in agriculture were under age 15. For young agricultural workers aged 15–17, the risk of fatal injury is four times the risk for young workers in other workplaces Agricultural work exposes young workers to safety hazards such as machinery, confined spaces, work at elevations, and work around livestock. The most common causes of fatal farm-related youth injuries involve machinery, motor vehicles, or drowning. Together these three causes comprise more than half of all fatal injuries to youth on U.S. farms.
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