We dream about life at the farm, but how romantic is it really?
Agriculture, also called farming or husbandry, is the cultivation
of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber,
biofuel, medicinals and other products used to sustain and enhance
human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of
sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated
species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of
civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural
science. The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years,
and its development has been driven and defined by greatly
different climates, cultures, and technologies. However, all
farming generally relies on techniques to expand and maintain the
lands that are suitable for raising domesticated species. For
plants, this usually requires some form of irrigation, although
there are methods of dryland farming. Livestock are raised in a
combination of grassland-based and landless systems, in an industry
that covers almost one-third of the world's ice- and water-free
area. In the developed world, industrial agriculture based on
large-scale monoculture has become the dominant system of modern
farming, although there is growing support for sustainable
agriculture, including permaculture and organic agriculture. Until
the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of the human
population labored in agriculture. Pre-industrial agriculture was
typically subsistence agriculture/self-sufficiency in which farmers
raised most of their crops for their own consumption instead of
cash crops for trade. A remarkable shift in agricultural practices
has occurred over the past century in response to new technologies,
and the development of world markets. This also has led to
technological improvements in agricultural techniques, such as the
Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate which made the
traditional practice of recycling nutrients with crop rotation and
animal manure less important. Modern agronomy, plant breeding,
agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological
improvements have sharply increased yields from cultivation, but at
the same time have caused widespread ecological damage and negative
human health effects. Selective breeding and modern practices in
animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, but
have raised concerns about animal welfare and the health effects of
the antibiotics, growth hormones, and other chemicals commonly used
in industrial meat production. Genetically modified organisms are
an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in
several countries. Agricultural food production and water
management are increasingly becoming global issues that are
fostering debate on a number of fronts. Significant degradation of
land and water resources, including the depletion of aquifers, has
been observed in recent decades, and the effects of global warming
on agriculture and of agriculture on global warming are still not
fully understood. The major agricultural products can be broadly
grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific
foods include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meats and
spices. Fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw
materials include lumber and bamboo. Other useful materials are
produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels
and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants.
Over one third of the world's workers are employed in agriculture,
second only to the services sector, although the percentages of
agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased
significantly over the past several centuries
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