Farm

The alternative to the longstanding American food policy of “cheap and lots” is to eat locally, eat seasonally and eat organic. Filmmaker Bonnie Bucqueroux and her dog Schmoopsie look at the sustainable agriculture movement, including a visit to Michigan State University’s Student Organic Farm, where Dr. John Biernbaum discusses the options people have to grow their own food or to buy from local growers.

Duration : 0:9:54

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Is our agriculture lacking something? Or is it fine going the direction that it is going? What direction do you think that our agriculture is headed? Are there ways that we could improve the production of agriculture? What are they?

American agriculture is the most efficient industry in the world. Manufacturing takes lessons from it. The thing that would provide the greatest benefit is to permanently end farm subsidies.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers a holistic approach to the production of sustainable food grown in urban areas. In this story, we learn of one urban farmer who successfully uses the CSA model to produce long-term sustainable crops that are fresh, cost efficient to produce, environmentally friendly, and that offers local members a stake in the harvest crops. Recipes from the episode: Oven Roasted Tomatoes & Herbs; Spanish Eggplant Salad; and Caponata Pasta

Duration : 0:4:7

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I know Athena is goddess of war craft, agriculture, industry and much more, but I need more info on agriculture and industry. I’ve researched but haven’t found detailed examples of how she got named goddess for those two aspects. I need specific examples of her help with agriculture and industry? What exactly did she do to get named goddess of that??

Thank you for your help

Being a Goddess of wisdom (and thus Logic) — Athena was inventive!!

Tradition ascribes to her the invention of the plough, the rake/hoe and the bridle (thus making the taming of horses possible (agriculture!). She is industry personified — she invented weaving, pottery, even navigation. Take a look at this website and Link ….. the statements are supported by citiations of ancient sources. I have cut & pasted a section where the author explains why Athena is connected to industry & agriculture below:

Athena was a goddess in whom power and wisdom were harmoniously blended. She seems to have been a divinity of a purely ethical character….. her power and wisdom appear in her being the protectress and preserver of the State and of social institutions. Everything, therefore, which gives to the State strength and prosperity, such as agriculture, inventions, and industry, as well as everything which preserves and protects it from injurious influence from without, such as the defense of the walls, fortresses, and harbours, is under her immediate care.

As the protectress of agriculture, Athena is represented as the inventor of the plough and rake: she created the olive tree, the greatest blessing of Attica, taught the people to yoke oxen to the plough, took care of the breeding of horses, and instructed men how to tame them by the bridle, her own invention. Allusions to this feature of her character are contained in the epithets boudeia, boarmia, agripha, hippia, or chalinitis. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1076; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 520; Hesych. s. v. Hippia; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 402; Pind. Ol. xiii. 79.)

Besides the inventions related to agriculture, others also connected with various kinds of science, industry, and art, are ascribed to her, and all her inventions are not of the kind which men make by chance or accident, but …one which …require thought and meditation. Ancient authors claim Athena invented numbers (Liv. vii. 3), the trumpet (Böckh, ad Pind. p. 344), the chariot, and navigation. [Aethyia.] In regard to all kinds of useful arts, she was believed to have made men acquainted with the means and instruments necessary for practising them, such as the art of producing fire.

Athena was further believed to have invented nearly every kind of work in which women were employed, and she herself was skilled in such work : in short Athena was a great patron both of the useful and elegant arts. Hence she is called erganê (Paus. i. 24. § 3), and later writers make her the goddess of all widom, knowledge, and art. As the goddess who made so many inventions necessary and useful in civilized life, Athena is characterized by various epithets and surnames, expressing the keenness of her sight or the power of her intellect, such as optiletis, ophthalmitis, oxuderkês, glaukôpis, poluboulos, polumêtis, and mêchanitis.

What is so different about the northern environment that affected the lateness of the spread of agriculture?

Agriculture spread north about as soon as climate for agriculture allowed fairly reliable crop growing. This was of course a long time after the glaciers retreated.

Discovery-News.com: Produce is being grown in the most unlikely place. Discovery News’ Matt Danzico takes a tour through New York City’s sustainable agriculture barge.

Check out more science news at http://www.discovery-news.com

Duration : 0:3:28

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I am planning to take up agriculture specifically hulticulture, what are the job opportunities for me?

Well, one opportunity is starting your own business. With a horticulture degree, you’d have the knowledge to open a nursery, grow organic vegetables, plant an orchard, etc. Some successful farm businesses offer internships and "apprentice" positions, so there are opportunities to learn from the ground up too.

Backyard Market Gardening by Lee Foreman covers the basics of how to start your own organic veggie operation.

Argriculture in California – from grapes to raisins http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/89503/California

Duration : 0:3:20

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I am doing a project for Production Agriculture and the topic of the essay is "How agriculture has changed over the past ten years." I am personally stumped as to what should be included within this essay. I wanted to say something about how there are less farms, but of greater size. But I need more than that, Techniques, Processing, Distribution, etc Please help. Easy ten points!

Marv has a great answer but I’m going to improve on it some and a few extra’s. Guidance systems have been one of the main changes. With the GreenStar system from John Deere you can operate the machine without worrying about overlapping. This removed the need for markers on implements which in turn made it possible for larger equipment to be able to go over more ground in less time. Also the guidance system along with greater accommodations in the cab of equipment made driver fatigue a thing of the past. You can trust me on that because I’ve drove with and without guidance systems and it’s alot easier than fighting the steering wheel for 14hours. Also like I said the overlapping cut out because the satellite guidance are accurate down to one inch, which is great. Say you were cutting beans with a 35 foot header which is huge and you over lap 2 feet every pass. Well that doesn’t seem much but over 5,000 acres it’s alot of extra passes, and in farming time equals money.

Also like he said genetically modified crops to withstand drought, diseases and pests. Everything we plant nowadays the seed comes coated in pesticide, and fungicide to help it survive until the plant emerges. Also, a new thing in cotton is called layby cotton. Now, in the past you could only spray herbicide over the top of cotton only twice in it’s growth cycle, after that it would start to kill the cotton itself. What that means is after you spray over the top twice the only way to kill weeds after that is to come in with hooded sprayers which keeps the chemical under the plant and this takes time, because you only do 6 or 12 rows at a time instead of when your over the top spraying you can carry up to 48 rows at a time. That’s the reasoning behind the name layby cotton, because you can take about a week or two during the growth cycle and not have to worry about the weed getting taller than the plant and not being able to kill it.

You are right too there are less farms nowadays but they are larger in size. This is because of the prices on everything are up, and the small time family farmer just can’t get by anymore so they are forced to sell. Take the price of cotton for example. Cotton costs $600.00 a bag, and one bag will only plant 20 acres. Liquid fertilizer is $4.00 a gallon. Round-Up herbicide is $50.00 a gallon.

I don’t think the processing and distribution has changed much, at least where I live because the same places we carry our crops too have been around for 15 years, and they are still doing it the same way as 10 years ago.

Explain me about it.
Like, I need more disadvantages of today’s agriculture, and plus points of ancient agriculture. But a little bit of good points of today’s agriculture is also needed
I need the answer immediately, if keralites know the answer to this question, please answer in shuddha malayalam.

There are only few advantages when it comes to ancient agriculture. Aside from the important fact that it may seem less costly, but there are also times when the ancient way is more costly than the modern way.

Imagine how long it took farmers of ancient times to cultivate their lands? It will take days to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and wait months for harvesting. The last one may still be the same but the first two now a days come a lot easier with agricultural equipment.

Our need for food may have tickled the brains of those who pioneered the inventions to make farming a lot easier. In the last few centuries a lot of advancements have been made to improve agriculture.

The developments of technologies led to combine or portable machines that help the farmer do harvesting with ease by cutting, threshing, and separating the produce while mowing across the field.

Though it may seem costly, it is still more efficient as it does not take too much effort on the farmer. Generally, using equipments also saves time.