Category The World Around us

Grain in the form of wheat, corn (maize) or rice is the most important food crop in the world. As the basic ingredient of bread, wheat is grown throughout the world, often in very large quantities. Rice is grown in paddy fields throughout Asia, forming the basic foodstuff in that part of the world. Intensive farming methods mean that the amount of grain grown per hectare (the yield) in the USA is four times that produced from the same area in Africa.

Although there are thousands of edible plant species, only a relatively small number have been domesticated, i.e. converted to widespread usage by humans. Three crops—wheat, corn, and rice—provide nearly 60 percent of total plant calories that humans consume. Other major crops include potatoes, soybeans, cassava, sorghum, and legumes. The three top crops are grown worldwide, though certain regions are known for specific crops. For example, the United States supplies almost half of the world’s 800 million tons of corn annually, followed by China, Brazil, and Mexico. China, India, and the U.S. are the largest wheat producers, and almost 95 percent of all rice is grown in Asia. And, while 16 percent of total wheat production reaches the world’s markets, rice is primarily consumed where it is grown and only 5 percent makes it to the world market.

Wheat is one of the oldest cultivated crops, beginning around 10,000 years ago in the area known today as the “Fertile Crescent” between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Evidence suggests that wheat was used for making bread in Egypt by 5000 BC and its cultivation had spread to Europe by 4000 BC. Although the U.S. is the third largest wheat producer in the world, large-scale cultivation did not begin until the late 1800s when European settlement moved into the central plains. Today, approximately 700 million tons of wheat are grown annually around the world.

Corn (or maize) is thought to be a domesticated version of the wild cereal grass teosinte, and was likely cultivated between three and four thousand years ago in Mesoamerica. It is still one of the most common crops grown in the Americas. Only about one percent of the corn that is grown is eaten as whole or processed grain (sweet corn, corn chips, or tamales); more than 50 percent is used as animal feed—primarily for cattle, hogs, and chickens—and the remainder is consumed either as starch or in the form of corn sweeteners. More recently, an increasing amount of land area has been dedicated to growing corn due to the demand for ethanol, a corn-based fuel. In 2007, ethanol production became the second largest use of corn grown in the U.S. The sustainability of this use is controversial.

Rice continues to be a critical staple for nearly half of the world’s population, and for whom rice cultivation is the sole or primary source of food. Although rice is a good carbohydrate source, it does not provide adequate nutrition—an issue of increasing concern in the developing world where almost three billion people obtain most of their daily nutrients from rice. These populations can suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, most notably a lack of vitamin A.

Potatoes, cassava, beans, and other fruits and vegetables, however, provide humans with many essential nutrients. In the last two decades, the international trade in fruits and vegetables has become increasingly global and less tied to the seasons. The number of different types of fruits and vegetables on the world market has also expanded. As trade has grown, however, crops such as the banana, avocado, and cacao (for chocolate) are facing pressure from increasing worldwide demand, high disease rates, and land loss resulting from urbanization.

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In many developing countries, subsistence farming is a common way of life. Farmers will normally grow just enough to food to feed themselves and their families, occasionally selling or trading surplus produce at local markets. They will keep small numbers of animals, sometimes for their meat, but more often to work the land.

Subsistence farming, or subsistence agriculture, is a mode of agriculture in which a plot of land produces only enough food to feed the family or small community working it. All produce grown is intended for consumption purposes as opposed to market sale or trade. Historically and currently a difficult way of life, subsistence farming is considered by many a backward lifestyle that should be transformed into industrialized communities and commercial farming throughout the world in order to overcome problems of poverty and famine. The numerous obstacles that have prevented this to date suggest that a complex array of factors, not only technological but also economic, political, educational, and social, are involved. An alternative perspective, primarily from the feminist voice, maintains that the subsistence lifestyle holds the key to sustainability as human relationships and harmony with the environment have priority over material measures of wealth. Although the poverty suffered by many of those who have never developed beyond subsistence levels of production in farming is something that needs to be overcome, it does appear that the ideas inherent in much of subsistence farming—cooperation, local, ecologically appropriate—are positive attributes that must be preserved in our efforts to improve the lives of all people throughout the world.

Subsistence farming is a mode of agriculture in which a plot of land produces only enough food to feed those who work it—little or nothing is produced for sale or trade. Depending on climate, soil conditions, agricultural practices and the crops grown, it generally requires between 1,000 and 40,000 square meters (0.25 to 10 acres) per person.

A recognizably harsh way of living, subsistence farmers can experience a rare surplus of produce goods under conditions of good weather which may allow farmers to sell or trade such goods at market. Because such surpluses are rare, subsistence farming does not allow for consistent economic growth and development, the accumulation of capital, or the specialization of labor. Diets of subsistence communities are confined to little else than what is produced by community farmers. Subsistence crops are usually organic due to a lack of finances to buy or trade for industrial inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides or genetically modified seeds.

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The first farmers grew and cultivated crops in the Middle East around 12,000 years ago. Different varieties of wheat and barley were the main crops. They were grown, as they are today, to produce grain to make bread. Knowledge of farming spread from the region into Europe and Asia, while the native peoples of North and South America began farming around 7000BC.

“From what our current research reveals, the first indication for the earliest cultivation is 23,000 years ago on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel,” Dr. Ehud Weiss, professor of palaeoethnobotany at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the lead author of the study, told The Huffington Post in an email. “This is one of the most amazing finds a researcher can dream on. No one had previously imagined humans had started cultivating in such an early date.”

For the study, the researchers analyzed a 23,000-year-old hunter-gatherer campsite, which was discovered in 1989 at the archaeological site Ohalo II near the Sea of Galilee. They examined about 150,000 plant specimens at the site and noticed evidence not only of domestic-type wheat and barley, but also of weeds known to flourish in the fields of domesticated crops.

“The plant remains from the site were unusually well-preserved because of being charred and then covered by sediment and water which sealed them in low-oxygen conditions,” Weiss said in a written statement. “Due to this, it was possible to recover an extensive amount of information on the site and its inhabitants.”

The site also yielded flint tools that might have been used for harvesting cereal plants. Given the findings, the researchers concluded that the campsite is probably the earliest known example of small-scale farming. 

“While full-scale agriculture did not develop until much later, our study shows that trial cultivation began far earlier than previously believed, and gives us reason to rethink our ancestors’ capabilities,” Dr. Marcelo Sternberg, an ecologist at Tel Aviv University and a co-author of the study, said in a separate statement.  “Those early ancestors were cleverer and more skilled than we knew.”

Demand for food in the modern world means that the production of crops and livestock needs to be maximized. Many farms use a range of machinery and chemicals to practice what is known as intensive farming. Tractors plough fields and plant seed, while combine harvesters cut the crops at harvest time. Animal pests are controlled with pesticides, and weeds are destroyed with herbicides. Intensive farming methods often raise concerns about animal welfare, as livestock may be kept indoors in cramped conditions for long periods of time.

Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is a kind of agriculture where a lot of money and labour are used to increase the yield that can be obtained per area of land. The use of large amounts of pesticides for crops, and of medication for animal stocks is common. This is a contrast to traditional agriculture, which does not get as much output per area. When agriculture is intensified, this means that the amount of work needed goes up, until the worker is replaced by a machine. At that point, there will only need to be a few workers to operate the machines. Intensive farming has often been done as a response to rising population levels. It is criticised, because the standards of animal welfare are low. Intensive animal farming leads to increased pollution and to health issues.

Modern day forms of intensive crop based agriculture involve the use of mechanical ploughing, chemical fertilizer, plant growth regulators or pesticides. It is associated with the increasing use of agricultural mechanization, which have enabled a substantial increase in production, yet have also dramatically increased environmental pollution by increasing erosion and poisoning water with agricultural chemicals.

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