Why agriculture is important to me

Why agriculture is important to me

Agriculture

Agriculture is the world's most important industry. It provides us with all our food. It also supplies materials for two other basic needs, clothing and shelter. In addition, agriculture provides materials used in making many industrial products such as paints and medicines. About half the world's workers are employed in agriculture -far more than in any other industry. Agriculture is one of the world's oldest industries. It began to develop about 11,000 years ago in the Middle East. At that time, certain Middle Eastern tribes discovered how to grow plants from seeds and how to raise animals in captivity. By about 10,000 years ago, they had mastered these skills and begun to depend chiefly on farming food.

Lifestyle

Until the development of agriculture, people were nomadic, wandering from place to place in search of food. The development of agriculture meant that people could settle in the one place.

Painter of the burial chamber of Sennedjem

Infrared image of the above farms. To the untraine...

Satellite image of New Zealand in December 2002.

People began to settle and develop their farms along river and creek banks and the first communities began.

Farmers have very different lifestyles than city workers today. A farmer's day often starts around 4:30 or 5:00 am if they have to get up early to milk cows or feed animals. A farmer's life is also often controlled by the seasons and much more dependent on the weather. Although the life is hard, a lot of city people envy farmers and their outdoor work and closeness to nature.

Agriculture in Australia & New Zealand

In 1987 Farmland covered nearly 65% of Australia and nearly 60% of New Zealand. In both countries, more than 90% of the farmland is pasture or relatively dry grazing land and is an important producer of beef, lamb, mutton, and dairy products. Most of the cropland in Australia and New Zealand lies...