Heather– And they are generally called commodities, right? 21. Striffler S. Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America`s Favorite Food. The Chinese have been busted out already for faking it and then you find this food right here in this country. INDUSTRIALIZATION or Industrial development describes the process of transition from an agricultural society, devoid of mechanization, to a society that is based on industry. I had realized that if there was anyone in Atlanta, the United States or virtually anywhere in the world who understood the breadth of the history, the politics of food, and about organic production altogether,  it was Rashid Nuri. One deals with irrigation that you’ve mentioned several times now that these hybrid genetically altered seeds require irrigation, but wouldn’t you need irrigation anyway? Rashid – So back to the farmer that would use the waste from his farm. In the late 1950s, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson exemplified government pressure to consolidate when he called on farmers to “get big or get out.”15. I know people who lived here as children and they told me there used to be a lot of fruit trees and a lot of trees that you could get food from that were growing wild in the metropolis and that this has disappeared. As you can see from all this impressive background, Rashid’s breadth of both the knowledge and analysis of the politics and history of food is significant. Rashid – Monsanto is a very large chemical company. The processes were time-consuming, making the available products very limited and expensive. In the same amount of time, a mechanized thresher can process 450 to 600 kg of rice, sorghum, or beans, or 1,500 to 2,000 kg of corn.8, Fertilizer applications on U.S. crops, 1964–92. – Mary Hendrickson and Harvey S. James Jr.18, Market share is the proportion of an industry’s sales earned by one company. We’ve lost that closeness to nature. Industrialization of American agriculture destroyed Thomas Jefferson's dream of The American Agrarian Virtue as he did not encourage manufacturing in the United States because he claimed it was subject to the person's whims and also dependent. Nadia – I’m curious about where you’re getting the elephant dung. People need food. Specialization aims to increase efficiency by narrowing the range of tasks and roles involved in production. It was an adult story but it began, “once upon a time” and I think that’s where we should begin. When the dust bowl in America happened before the Second World War, during the depression, there were a lot of factors that came together. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, 2013. So like I said, war is good for the economy. The soil is alive. Meat, milk, and egg production became largely separated from crop production and involved facilities that housed a single breed of animal, during a particular period of its lifespan, for a single purpose (e.g., breeding, feeding, or slaughter). That’s the principle ingredient we’re using. The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. You have different kinds of grasses that grow at different times of the year. Industrialization is the process by which an economy moves from primarily agrarian production to mass-produced and technologically advanced goods and services. This is why I talked about the science of the Newtonian mechanics that is of the thought and concept that we can dominate nature rather than be in harmony with it. The same thing happens out in the plains and the prairies where the grass grow. , “ The Relative Efficiency of Slavery: A Comparison of Northern and Southern Agriculture in 1860,” Explorations in Economic History, 8 (Spring 1971), pp. They built tunnels – they went underground and you still couldn’t see them. When and where did industrialized agriculture and ILOs come into being, and 2. Image credit: Michael Milli and Brent Kim. The soil is a living thing. They were not enriching the soil. If you’re raising chickens or if you’re raising cows I approve of that grassland. Industrial agriculture can pack an economic wallop hundreds of miles from its origin—just ask local governments and utility managers who must install expensive equipment to remove fertilizer by-products from public drinking water supplies. And with all due respect to my political colleagues who may be listening, the American political system is for sale. Between 1964 and 1976, total pesticide applications on major U.S. crops increased by 143 percent. Rashid – I’ll do the second one first. Agron J. Think about it. I just wanted to add this input. Farmers, once skilled in a breadth of trades, fell into more specialized roles. The Motley Fool. And every year you plant again, the plants and the insects become more and more resistant to all these chemicals. I am thinking of that because of what you say regarding the political elements in these big cities, especially and with you being an expert, I wonder if you could give a little more information on that? For economic growth of a agriculture dominated nation, there is need for restructuring of the national economy, decreasing the share of the agricultural sector in the GDP (gross domestic product ) and in the work force , and boosting the industrial sectors. Agriculture in the Industrial Revolution. Consolidation in agriculture is the shift toward fewer and larger farms, usually as a result of large farms getting larger and smaller farms going out of business. I have a hero and an anti-hero in agriculture. Is this unique to India right now or is this occurring around the globe. Over the same period, the average number of hogs per farm increased from 37 to 1,044. After the Second World War they had all this ammonium nitrate left over that you use for gunpowder. You’ve heard me say that if you build it they’ll come. But what did the Vietnamese do? That’s the best argument you could have for a vegetarian. And what happened is, rather than looking for ways to be in tune with nature and the core of nature, man got to the point where he thought he could control and dominate nature. Rashid – It really is quite simple. In just 12 years, between 1964 and 1976, synthetic and mineral fertilizer applications on U.S. crops nearly doubled, while pesticide use on major U.S. crops increased by 143 percent.10 The shift to specialized monocultures increased farmers’ reliance on these chemicals, in part because crop diversity can help suppress weeds and other pests.11,12, Chemical and pharmaceutical use also became commonplace in newly industrialized models of meat, milk, and egg production. San Antonio, TX: University of Missouri; 1996. 4  By comparison, just 17% of U.S. agricultural receipts were from non-meat food for people. Ikerd JE. Percentage of sales earned by the four largest companies in their respective industries.20,25 Earnings from food and agricultural industries have become increasingly concentrated among a small number of powerful companies. But the problem with that is this. Kirschenmann FL. This process gradually leads to a class of workers with some buying power who demand products, thus stimulating further production. Mechanization in agriculture greatly reduced the need for human and animal labor. And then you have US commercial farmers growing organic food as a market niche and their food is right next to the Chinese food so there’s a problem with that organic terminology. Instead, historians debated whether industrialization resulted from Sir John A. Macdonald’s National Policy of 1879 or under the Laurier government at the turn of the century. You can buy a politician. It’s oxymoric to me to have organic food at Walmart that was produced in China that would have an organic stamp on it. ), • Note #4: Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. We think this is a good chemical that we think ought to be able to come out to our people – to be sold to the people. 38 Schmookler suggests that “inventiveness,” measured by the number of patents issued, is related to changes in the demand for the output of the industry. Round-up  (see note #4 below) is a herbicide that kills all broad leaf plants. It is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. 6. The same people that are bringing the round-up into commercial agriculture. Heather – What do you mean ‘food as a weapon’? The brother talked about trees that used to be there. Atlanta’s OG of black farming, K. Rashid Nuri, at Truly Living Well’s Old Fourth Ward farm. Heffernan WD, Douglas HC. And the food and Drug Administration will not test to see if something is healthy. This approach was applied to nearly all facets of food production. The agricultural revolution paved the way for the Industrial Revolution, both by showing how the new ideas of science could be put to practical use and by freeing the manpower needed for factories. You’ve got all kinds of plants. Rashid had also lived and worked on agriculture issues in Africa and Asia for a number of years. Gustafson RH, Bowen RE. Vol Economic I. USDA Economic Research Service; 2006. You have to rotate the crops and then the boll weevil would say, “Oh man, what is this soybean doing here?” This is one of the ways you can fool insects is by rotating of your crops. You need more of it in order to get it done. So, since 2011, I have been interviewing Rashid once a month about agriculture and also opening the phone lines for listeners to ask questions about the topic at hand or organic production techniques, etc. The land has been destroyed. The water’s not just to go down to the roots, the water’s got to get the stuff up into the plants so it takes more to suck it up. Specialization was also applied to animal genetics, as selective breeding produced animals designed for a single outcome—large breast meat, for example, or increased milk production. Lesson B: Industrialization of Agriculture Agriculture has dramatically transformed over the last century. J Appl Microbiol. He who gives big bucks gets what he wants. 13. Henry Wallace was Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture and he also ran for president back in the 40s. Nadia – Rashid, I have two questions. Just like an audit that you get from an accountant, based upon the information that has been provided to us, we think this is a good audit. Rashid – Well, that’s a very good point. Whichever nutrient is available to the plants and then the minimum amount will determine that plant’s ability to grow. They invented round-up some years ago that is very efficient in keeping the broadleaf weeds out of the farmland. 2014. The biggest animals in the world – all they eat is grass. War is a very, very profitable enterprise. 4. Agricultural Productivity in the United States. In the early 1900s, more than half of Americans were either farmers or lived in rural communities.1 Most U.S. farms were diversified, meaning they produced a variety of crops and animal species together on the same farm, in complementary ways.2 Farmers were skilled in a wide range of trades and had autonomy over how to manage their crops and animals. Now, I will use BT but I don’t want a seed that has it in it. 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