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The history of agriculture in the United States covers the period from the first English settlers to the present day. In Colonial America, agriculture was the primary livelihood for 90% of the population, and most towns were shipping points for the export of agricultural products.
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. [1] Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in the cities.
The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis (1998) Conkin, Paul. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 (2008) Gardner, Bruce L. (2002). American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: How It Flourished and What It Cost. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00748-4. Hurt, R. Douglas.
"Introduction" in Hahn and Prude, eds. Essays in the social history of rural America (U of North Carolina Press, 1985) pp.3–24. Hurt, R. Douglas. "Writing Midwestern State Histories." Middle West Review 10#1 (2023): 195-201. excerpt; Merchant, Carolyn. The Columbia guide to American environmental history (Columbia UP, 2012).
It gradually spread across North America and to South America and was the most important crop of Native Americans at the time of European exploration. [119] Other Mesoamerican crops include hundreds of varieties of locally domesticated squash and beans , while cocoa , also domesticated in the region, was a major crop. [ 72 ]
Agricultural work varies widely depending on context, degree of mechanization and crop. In countries like the United States where there is a declining population of American citizens working on farms — temporary or itinerant skilled labor from outside the country is recruited for labor-intensive crops like vegetables and fruits.
The cultivation of crops alongside the rearing of animals for meat or eggs or milk defines mixed farming. [4] For example, a mixed farm may grow cereal crops, such as wheat or rye, and also keep cattle, sheep, pigs or poultry. Often the dung from the cattle serves to fertilize the crops. Also some of the crops might be used as fodder for the
Historically, rice production in the United States was connected to agriculture using enslaved labor in the American South, first planting African rice and other kinds of rice in the marsh areas of Georgia, South Carolina, and later in the Louisiana territory and Texas, frequently in southern plantations. For some regions, this became an ...