Agriculture Facts
Agriculture Facts
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| Interesting Agriculture Facts: |
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| Farming as a method of agriculture began approximately 10,000 years ago as nomadic tribes turned to farming during the First Agricultural Revolution. |
| The first eight crops to be farmed are referred to as 'founder crops' and included flax, chick peas, bitter vetch, lentils, peas, hulled barley, einkorn wheat, and emmer wheat. |
| The Second Agricultural Revolution occurred between 1700 and 1900 in industrialized countries but it is still occurring in some lesser developed countries today. |
| The Third Agricultural Revolution occurred in the late 1900s. It is also known as the Green Revolution, and this type of agriculture includes biotechnology, chemical fertilizers, genetically modified crops, and industrial farming practices. |
| Farmers who practice subsistence farming only produce the food they will need for their families. These farmers do not grow food to sell at markets. |
| One of the first fruit crops to be cultivated were figs, which began being farmed between 6000 and 3000 BC. |
| Shortly after agriculture began to be practiced, plows were invented in the Middle East. The first plow was called an ard and was made of tree branches that had been sharpened. |
| The ard is considered to be one of the most important inventions in terms of its ability to help advance society. |
| The first irrigation systems, built in approximately 7000 BC in Mesopotamia, included canals that were more than a mile long and as wide as ten feet. |
| Arabs created a windmill in 644 AD that made it possible to pump water to irrigate crops. |
| The number one fruit crop in the world is bananas. Bananas are grown in more than 100 different countries. |
| There are more than 6,000 types of apples grown around the world. China grows more apples than any other country. |
| In the 1880s the tractor was invented, which made it possible to plow fields more efficiently. Today tractors are used for plowing, planting, mowing, moving dirt, and harvesting. |
| The majority of livestock in the United States is produced on factory farms. These are referred to as CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). |
| The world's largest CAFOs can house as many as 125,000 chickens at any given time. |
| There are approximately 2.2 million farms located in the United States alone. |
| Farms have grown in size since the 1940s when the average farm grew enough food to feed 19 people (not including their own family), to be able to feed 144 people in 2006. |
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