Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
shows a tractor plowing a crop field. Worker overseeing cotton gin, ca. 1940s. Agriculture is a major industry in the United States, which is a net exporter of food. [1] As of the 2017 census of agriculture, there were 2.04 million farms, covering an area of 900 million acres (1,400,000 sq mi), an average of 441 acres (178 hectares) per farm.
The history of agriculture in the United States covers the period from the first English settlers to the present day. In Colonial America, agriculture was the primary livelihood for 90% of the population, and most towns were shipping points for the export of agricultural products. Most farms were geared toward subsistence production for family use.
Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture [ 1 ] "U.S. agricultural policy—often simply called farm policy—generally follows a 5-year legislative cycle that produces a wide-ranging “Farm Bill.”. Farm Bills, or Farm Acts, govern programs related to farming, food and nutrition, and rural communities, as well as aspects of ...
Northern highbush blueberry. A number of popular and commercially important food plants are native to the Americas.Some are endemic, meaning they occur naturally only in the Americas and nowhere else, while others occur naturally both in the Americas and on other continents as well.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production, works to assure food safety, protects natural resources, fosters rural communities and works to end hunger in the United States and internationally.
The US is the world's largest producer of corn. [8] According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average U.S. yield for corn was 177 bushels per acre, up 3.3 percent over 2020 and a record high, with 16 states posting state records in output, and Iowa reporting a record of 205 bushels of corn per acre.
In South America, agriculture began as early as 9000 BC, starting with the cultivation of several species of plants that later became only minor crops. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 8000 BC and 5000 BC, along with beans, squash, tomatoes, peanuts, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs.