Agriculture & Food: Credo Reference

AGRICULTURE IS THE practice of cultivating plants and herding animals for food, fiber, and other products. Agriculture is the single largest land use in the world and it is the single greatest employer. Nearly 38 percent of the earth’s land area is in agriculture. In 2004, more than 2.6 billion people, or 42 percent of the world’s population, were engaged in agriculture. 10,000 years ago, only a trivial fraction of the earth’s surface was dedicated to agriculture. Since then, agriculture has replaced prairies, wetlands, forests, and other ecosystems, allowing the global population to exceed 6.3 billion. Agriculture features prominently in many debates linking environment and society. It is blamed for reducing biodiversity, polluting aquatic ecosystems with eroded soils and toxic chemicals, and contributing to global climate change. Agriculture is also at the center of the debate about genetically altered food, trade, and globalization. Developing more sustainable agricultural systems will be required to reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment and provide enough food for the…

Throughout the world, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, and other dairy products, have been central elements of food production. Over the centuries improvements in cattle breeding and nutrition, as well as new dairy techniques, led to the increased production of dairy goods. Hand-operated churns and separators were used to make butter and cream, and those close to a barnyard had access to fresh milk.

Any large, ruminant, even-toed, hoofed mammal of the genus Bos, family Bovidae, including wild species such as the yak, gaur, gayal, banteng, and kouprey, as well as domestic breeds. Asiatic water buffaloes Bubalus, African buffaloes Syncerus, and American bison Bison are not considered true cattle. Cattle are bred for meat (beef cattle) or milk (dairy cattle).

Potato or white potato, common name for a perennial plant (Solanum tuberosum) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family) and for its swollen underground stem, a tuber, which is one of the most widely used vegetables in Western temperate climates. Evidence of the domesticated potato, which is native to South America, has been found at a 12,500 year-old archaeological site in Chile. The potato was cultivated by the Incas in the Andes, and in pre-Columbian times its culture spread widely among Native Americans, for whom it was a staple food.

surface layer of the earth, composed of fine rock material disintegrated by geological processes; and humus, the organic remains of decomposed vegetation. In agriculture, soil is the medium that supports crop plants, both physically and biologically. Soil may be from a few inches to several feet thick.

Soil erosion refers to the removal of soil materials from their original location and their subsequent transport to another location through the action of wind, water, ice, biotic processes, or human activities. Under most natural conditions, soil-forming processes and soil erosion are in equilibrium. When the balance between these two forces is upset through the removal of the natural cover, soil erosion can accelerate and result in loss of the soil's capacity to support vegetation or in the soil's complete removal.

Substance containing some or all of a range of about 20 chemical elements necessary for healthy plant growth, used to compensate for the deficiencies of poor or depleted soil. Fertilizers may be organic, for example farmyard manure, composts, bonemeal, blood, and fishmeal; or inorganic (synthetic or artificial), in the form of simple compounds, mainly of nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, which have been used on a very much increased scale since 1945. Compounds of nitrogen and phosphorus are of particular importance.

Farming without the use of synthetic fertilizers (such as nitrates and phosphates) or pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides) or other agrochemicals (such as hormones, growth stimulants, or fruit regulators). The use of any form of genetically modified crops, animals, or ingredients is also banned. Organic farming uses techniques commonly used in agriculture before the development of synthetic chemicals, drugs, and genetic modification, including frequent crop rotations with periods of fallow; natural fertilizers; free-range farm animals; smaller herd sizes; encouraging beneficial insect population growth; and increasing the diversity of crop species.