Spruill 1 Andrew Spruill K.

Hudgins English III 11/15/12 Benefits and Changes of Farming in America America survives with the help of farming. Farming has seen so many changes throughout the centuries that there is no way that the everyday challenge of farming can still be the same. Farming, a vital part of America's economy, has evolved in a much more modernized system. Farming has revolutionized significantly over the last two centuries, Since the end of WWII, American Agriculture has been dominated by the process of industrialization. (Ikerd, John) Farming has moved from oxen and horses for power, primitive plows, and all other work done by hand. (Historical Timeline) Farming has changed to air-conditioned tractors and combines that all functions of the piece of machinery are completed at the push of a button. The amount of labor it took to farm was almost unimaginable. Farmers had huge families to try and help them with the daunting task of raising a crop. For example, in the 1820's it took 250-300 labor hours to produce a mere 100 bushels of wheat. (Historical Timeline) Today that amount of wheat is a miniscule amount that might accidentally be spilled. Some people disagree with the fact that farming in America is becoming less labor intensive and that there are less farmers around, but statistics show otherwise. Statistically, farming has changed by leaps and bounds in the last century. American farms are becoming more industrialized and therefore they are able to encompass more land. The hobby farmer is hardly able to survive. Take this statement, The dramatic expansion of

Spruill 2 industrial agriculture has made it increasingly difficult for small family farms in the US to stay in business. (Family Farms) With farms increasingly growing, the smaller farmers are being forced out of business. This is shown with this statement, According to farm aid, every week 330 small farmers are being forced to leave their land. (Family Farms) That is an alarming rate for America to be losing small family farms. In the 1940's there were over 6.1 million farms (The Corruption) and today there are only 2 million farms. Of those 2 million only 565,000 are family farms. (Family Farms) The ever-falling number of farms is very concerning to local communities. Family Farms play a valuable role in the preservation of America. Family Farmers serve as responsible stewards of the land. Unlike Industrial agricultural operations, which pollute communities with chemical pesticides, noxious fumes and excess manure. Small family farmers live on or near their farms and strive to preserve the surrounding environment for future generations. (Family Farms) Farms also take a big part in supporting rural communities. The farmers provide jobs to the community by employing locals. Farms support local business because more that not farmers buy their goods from their local supply store. (Family Farms) Farmers also strive to form a connection with community members. They feel the need to try and preserve the necessary connection between the consumer and the producer. (Ikerd, John) Small and medium sized farms are very beneficial to America. They are often the ones who grow the vegtables or produce meat. Small farmers are also able to do a better job taking care of their waterways and drainage. Williams, Tad This necessary connection between the farmer and the consumer has been prevalent for many years.

Spruill 3 The value of farmers has been instilled for many generations, even since America's founding fathers were around. These men saw the great importance of agriculture. George Washington wrote, Agriculture is the most useful, the most healthful, and the most noble employment of man. I know of no pursuit in which more important service can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture. (Agriculture Profound Benefits) Thomas Jefferson wrote, Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, and tied to their country. These men recognized the value of farms in their country and felt it was a necessity to advocate for farmers. Farming is Americans main provider of food. Whether it be grains or livestock farmers provide it for their communities. Farmers try to streamline their operations trying to keep the price to the consumer of food as low as possible. For example, The crop protection industry's primary aim is to enable farmers to grow an abundant supply of food in a safe manner and prevent prices from rising exponentially. Tools such as herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides reduce crop losses both before and after harvest. These also increase crop yields. Food production processes benefit from continual advancements in agricultural technologies and practices; in fact, a population now nearly twice as large has more food available per capita than 40 years ago. (Increasing Food Production) A great attempt is made to keep the prices of these products as low as possible. Without farmers large or small, there would be no food for Americans or any country. The people of today's America take for granted being able to run to the store and pick up meat or produce necessary to fix meals. Just seventy years ago people had to farm to survive.

Spruill 4 Farmers had huge families to feed, which they had to have to have enough farm labor, and the only way they could afford to feed their family was to farm. This statement illustrates it all, Americans no long have the hands-on knowledge of agriculture and the farm life they once did. Farming and caring for food animals are now remote concepts to a vast majority of our population. (Agriculture's Profound Benefits) Americans do not have to endure the task of farming so many people have no clue what it takes to make the food that they use to prepare meals for their family. There is a huge misconception of the value of modern day farmers. When people think of farmers in the 1930's, they think of a farmer working his fields every day with a hoe and shovel. When they think of modern day farmers, people think someone riding around in a tractor farming. What people see on the surface with modern farming is the easy part. The difficult part is the task of jumping through the hoops trying to ensure that all requirements are met. While the farmers of the 30's and 40's had 10 acres to look after, today's farmers have 2,000 acres to tend to. The farmer has to keep the chemistry of the fields right to grow crops to their maximum potential. The complexity of modern day farming far under estimated, Modern agriculture is not only about ensuring our nation a safe, affordable food supply. It is also helping decrease reliance on the middle east, using resources in the Midwest instead to create clean renewable fuels. (Agriculture's Profound Benefits) Farmers are not only trying to make money for themselves they are trying to use the benefits in our country to conduct business. The farmer not only tries to do things to the best benefit of the country, but they hold the responsibility of feeding the people of America. The number of people the farmer is responsible for has significantly changed in the last 70 years. This quote exemplifies the increased responsibility of the farmer, In 1940, the

Spruill 5 average farmer fed only 22 people; today an average farm feeds 139 people. (Williams, Tad) This is yet another example of the increasing value of the farmer that is not being recognized. The overall face of agriculture is significantly changing from what it was years ago. The average age of the American farmer is raising at an alarming rate. This statement is an example of the issue prevailing, One thing we need to be concerned about in America is how many people are actually going to be able to farm, and how we replace those who are retiring and those who pass away. The average age of the farmer in America today is 57 today. We had a 30 percent increase in the number of farmers over the age of 75 and a 20 percent decrease in the number of farmers under the age of 25. The input cost seems to be going up each and every day, and young people see that as a very major issue and a challenge. With agriculture evolving over the course of time, the careers in seem to be broadening to many different options that students can get that be the agro-business or agro-science. (America's Future very large agriculture involved in, whether

Farmers)

These things are just what is happening in American agriculture. The young people planning to pursue a career in agriculture no longer long to be farmers. The field of agriculture has been expanded to such a diverse field with so many different avenues that those are taking all the people pursuing agriculture. This is causing the significant increase in the average age of the American farmer. Only the steel magnolias are still farming, and a small percentage of their offspring are filling their shoes. This decline can be related to the expansion in the field of agriculture. This vast expansion in the field of agriculture is providing an enormous variety and amount of jobs to Americans.

Spruill 6 The benefits of agriculture are infinite. Many aspects Americas economy, workforce, and food supply are contributed in one way or another to agriculture. These are not the only things benefiting by a long shot. The countries shift in reliance to the midwest is prevailing greatly, Modern agriculture is not only about ensuring our nation a safe, affordable food supply. It is also helping decrease reliance on the middle east, using resources in the midwest

instead to create clean renewable fuel. Agriculture is also revitalizing and reshaping rural America as an exciting, vibrant place to operate businesses and raise (Agriculture's Profound Benefits) Agriculture has taken a huge role in our country. The midwest part of our country is producing many of the products we have to now receive from imports. Farmers have striven in the last decade to reform their operation to try and produce the necessities. Whether farmers are having to produce crops that they have never before produced, or they are bringing back crops that they raised in the past that they thought they had phased out for good. Also, although the majority of the population in rural American communities aren't farmers, farmers make it possible for people to experience the ideal rural american life that many people enjoy living. It is up to the few farmers left in this country to provide a supply of food, provide jobs to the country, and preserve a way of life adored by many. Along with positive changes, farming has faced many detrimental changes that have caused American farmers a great deal of suffering. The changes to agriculture are apparent, In order to achieve the economic efficiencies from large scale, specialized, production; we have seen fewer farmers and much larger farms. We now see the final phase of consolidation, the corporate take-over of farming. (Ikerd, John) Farming used to be an unimaginable amount of farmers scatted all throughout America. Those small farmers have gone away due to as the quote families.

Spruill 7 said, corporate take-over. Small family farmers are faced with competition that they can not beat they're fighting a losing battle. In Pamlico County, just recently there has been an enormous corporate land purchase topping four thousand acres. The going rate was $3,200.00 an acre for farm land. That corporation needing to turn money from coal mines around paid $5,400.00 an acre for every acre. That purchase instantly raised the what seemed fathomable price for land to most local farmers, to an amount that no one can touch. That purchase takes away the land that the people of Pamlico County, who are farmers, live and survive on. This company who farms over 50,000 acres east of the Mississippi, will not be purchasing all of their products locally. All of their products will be shipped in from their headquarters up north. Pamlico County, which once was overflowing with small town farmers, is just another example of the drastic change of the farming industry. With the corporate take-over of agriculture, there is no future for the young farmer hoping to return home to the family farm and build themselves up to become a successful business man and an asset to their community. For example, Very few young people become farmers today, and half of all United States farmers are between the ages of forty-five and sixtyfive. While only six percent of all United States farmers are under the age of 35. (Family Farms) This is yet another horrid shift in the future of agriculture. Years ago, every son that was raised on a farm was expected to either stay or go to college and return home to continue the farming legacy. Today, there is no future for those young farmers. They are facing these large corporations that they, being a young farmer trying to build a reputation with landowners and other business people, cannot defeat. The land that their family once called theirs is being sucked up and ripped away form them. These young farmers and their parents have always been closely tied to their land to preserve the bounties that it supplies, but these corporate farmers lose that

Spruill 8 closeness to the land and don't fully appreciate the value of it that a dollar sign cannot be put on. (The Corruption of American Farming) The struggling young farmer has to be started off with a large sum of money to be able to compete with the corporate farmer who's bank account is in a totally different league than any small-farmer can imagine. (The Corruption of American Farming) With young farmers seeing no future in agriculture they are choosing not to carry on the family legacy and their family farm is too being consumed by the corporate farmer. There are a few misconceptions among Americans, Some people argue that bigger farming is better to their community, because it has more jobs to offer and uses more supplies. (The corruption of American farming) That is a far cry from correct. The large scale farmer most of the time never sees the farmland he has purchased and owned. He has farm managers who have employees who keep an eye on things. He never enters the community in which that farmland resides. He has no clue about the people there. All of his employees aren't from there. They are flown from the headquarters to the farms to work. All of these things are just more fuel to the fire of the young generation to make the decision not to become a farmer. In conclusion, without farmers America would be a metropolis of unemployed starving people with no clothes, and a demolished environment. Farming produces food and materials necessary to make clothes. Farming also creates jobs, not only for farm hands but for business owners who provide services to farmers. They also keep America clean. Farmers are stewards of the land because it is their lively hood and it is their only option for a space to produce their crop.

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Works Cited "Agriculture's Profound Benefits on America." US House Of Representatives, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. <http://fortenberry.house.gov/index.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=3396&Item id=>.

"America's Future Farmers Already Dropping Away." NPR. N.p., 27 Feb. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2011/02/27/134103432/Americas-Future-Farmers-AlreadyDropping-Away>.

"Family Farms." Sustainable Table. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/familyfarms/>.

"Historical Timeline- Farm Machinery & Technology." Growing A Nation. Ag Classroom, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farm_tech.htm>.

Ikerd, John. "Why Is Farming Important." Missouri.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://web.missouri.edu/ikerdj/papers/WhyFarming.html>.

"Increasing Food Production." Crop Life America. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.croplifeamerica.org/crop-protection/benefits/increase-food-production>. Williams, Tad, and John K. Fellow. "The Corruption of American Agriculture." Americans For Democratic Action Education Fund, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://s242798577.onlinehome.us/media/TadFinal.pdf>.