Agriculture is one of the main cornerstones of American history, from the Native Americans, to the tobacco fields of Jamestown, to our modern day lives. The United States agriculture system has gone through many changes, but few have been as important as the introduction of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of the New Deal and the later reversal of the act that came in the 1970s under the hand of Earl Butz, which remains in place today. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was put in place in 1933 to “rescue farmers from the disastrous effects of growing too much food” (Ganzel, Pollan 49). Butz’s plan, on the other hand, reversed the AAA and worked to drive down prices and increase the output of farmers (Pollan 52). The policies had both advantages and disadvantages, but it seemed as if everyone one benefited, more or less, from both.…
A red barn, with green pastures and cows roaming around happily; this is what enters most our minds when we think of farms, which is naïve. The truth is 90% of our food is industrially grown, where we feed cows through plastic tubes and give them antibiotics by the pint and corn is doused with chemicals. Michael Pollan, through “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” tries to open the eyes of the American people to understand this and to question what we are eating. Similarly, artist Nathan Meltz and the Reuters article “Monsanto replacing GMO canola seed in Canada” work to answer this all-important question by further analyzing our food production. Together, these various sources let the readers comprehend conventional agriculture through multiple lenses…
APUSH 1865-1900 Essay The period of time between 1865 and 1900 was one of great technological advancement; and, as a result, great agricultural advancement. As railroads were built throughout the country, transport for crops and livestock was able to be done with more ease and convenience. Innovations in farming equipment allowed for healthier crops and livestock, as well As new tools were invented, and old ones were innovated, the harvest of crops and maintenance of livestock became more efficient. With these advances came a spike in the profitability of agriculture.…
In Broken Heartland, Osha Gray Davidson argues the “farm crisis” and the pain it brought to communities in Iowa was only part of a longer decline of rural America brought about by failed governmental policy and the rise of industrial agriculture, which is turning once prosperous small towns into what he terms as “rural ghettos.” He argues that without a substantial course correction rural America will continue to decline and the residents of these rural ghettos, “bitter, desperate, and cut off from America’s cities” will increasingly turn to hate groups. Though Davidson writes as a journalist not as trained historian, Broken Heartland is an important historical work shining a light on growing problems in rural communities and the economic…
Michael Pollan's piece “Big Food Strikes Back” in October 9, 2016 The New York Times Magazine begins with critique of a lack of the discussion about food system during 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns. Nevertheless, the food topic—being multi-dimensional—is inevitably a part of a larger, and more discussed, themes such as public health, climate change, and nation's' energy requirements, to name a few. Furthermore, the author in this article pinpoints the U.S. food systems' problems. The production of monocrops, which are subsidized by the government, result in high emissivity of the greenhouse gasses and have shown a negative impact on public health and ecology.…
In the letter Farmer in Chief written by Michael Pollan in 2008, he states that we need a robust national dialogue on how we produce food in America. In his letter, Pollan argues that we cannot solve the three major crises of global warming, health care, and energy without first recognizing that our current food system has contributed to them and that in order to solve those issues we need to approach a new way of food production in America. Therefore, I strongly agree with Pollan's prescription regarding the American food, because although our current food system is cheap and affordable, the way Americans grow food takes up lots of energy, and some health issues, and environmental issues can be prevented by the type of food we consume.…
In states like Texas and California agriculture is one of their main source of income especially in the 60’s. There…
Farmers in the United States during the industrialization were impacted by problems that affected them. The farmers in America were beginning…
Berry begins his essay by giving a solution for how city people can bring new life to American farming and rural life. Berry’s solution is simply to “eat responsibly” (1). He elaborates on…
“Get big or get out” shook our nation in the 1970s as the ‘agribusiness’ boom spread in sweeping waves. Planting from “fence row to fence row” dandelions was replaced by corn and soybeans. Hands were replaced with complicated machines, time was replaced with fertilizers and varied crops by pesticides. Soil and worms were degraded to dust. Cows grazing in open pasture were replaced by concentrated-animal feedlot operations (CAFOs).…
America has made a lot of changes in the past on becoming more inventive, resourceful, and as well as industrialized. Due to the variations in how our food industries operate, small family-owned farms have rapidly vanished leaving us with large, industrialized productions that mass produce for the benefit of the Large Corporations. Americans expect to be able to have large quantities of food available for purchase at anytime and at a low price. Unfortunately in order to get that food to us at low prices, we have to sacrifice aspects of animal rights, human rights, the environment, and health.…
“The USDA’s mandate isn’t directly to promote health, but to promote agriculture and help farmers flourish economically.” Knopf makes this point to suggest the…
CSA’s and Farmers Market seem to be the preferred method according to Darby(2008), consumers seem to prefer locally grown over U.S grown, even when freshness is held constant and are almost willing to pay double for a product from a closer location. CSA’s and Farmers markets seem to be the historical flagship of local food systems and the numbers in the United States have grown significantly. (Brown) Since the makings of these CSA’s and Farmers Markets, they have become more popular among…
The government has even given the smaller farms more money to be able to produce their crops. “... $2.3 billion was set aside this year for specialty crops,...”(Source E) which means mainly only small farms produce specialty crops and received more money to do so. Unlike in past years, they only received $100 million. There has also been an increase in the amount of small farms there are because of the demand and the need for them that came with this movement. This is “reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans.”…
Farmers have been leaders in food for centuries. Without the production of agriculture, people would have ceased to exist. The food that farmers produce is heavily based on the geographical area they occupy. For example, farmers in Asia produce rice, farmers in South America produce coffee, and farmers in Idaho produce potatoes. Farming and agriculture brought man out of the age of hunting and gathering, and allowed civilizations to flourish because they no longer had to move around constantly and gather berries and fruits.…