1. Agriculture and Agribusiness Chapter 1

2. What is Agribusiness? ► All operations involved in the manufacture and distribution of farm supplies  Production operations on the farms  Storage, processing, and distribution of the resulting farm commodities and items

3. The Big Picture ► Agribusiness companies provide input supplies to the farmer. The output from farmers is taken by agribusinesses and process, market and distribute the products

4. Agriculture Industry

5. The Cheeseburger

6. Life Before Agriculture ► People looked for food  Learned to fish  Fire

7. Early Ag Development ► Raise crops ► Domesticate animals ► People were no longer nomads

8. Bronze Age ► 3,000 BC ► Started using metal to cultivate larger areas of land faster ► Nile River used for irrigation ► Wheel discovered ► World population rose from 3 million to nearly 100 million

9. Iron Age ► 1,000 BC ► Iron hand tools and plows ► Mondey developed to trade excess crops

10. The Middle Ages ► 400-1500 AD ► Crop rotation, harness (switch from oxen to horses), selective breeding

11. Farming and Agribusiness in America ► Organic fertilizer ► Rice 1 st grown in US ► George Washington created an experimental farm ► Thomas Jefferson experimented with seeds and livestock

12. After the American Revolution ► Surveying ► Cotton Gin ► Vaccines ► Cast iron plow ► Interchangeable parts developed so people could fix equipment

13. Ag and Industrial Revolution ► Many inventions (steam engine, railroads) and people left farms to work in cities ► Cars ► Crop rotation ► Seed drill ► Reaper ► Threshing machine ► Steel plow ► Barbed wire ► Gas tractor

14. 1 st ½ of 20 th Century ► Panama Canal opened ► Smith Hughes act ► Cooperative Extension Service ► Hybrid Seeds ► Then the Dust Bowl and Depression

15. Because of Depression ► Gov paid farmers for using soil conservation practices ► Soil conservation service ► FFA ► High crop yields ► Gov paid for more reserve and education ► Antibiotics used for animals

16. Last ½ of 20 th Century ► AI ► More production ► Electric fences ► Pesticides ► Futures ► Computers

17. Success ► 1 farmer feeds 150 people ► US feeds less than 9% of income on food ► exports