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See also: Farms & Farmers
AGRICULTURE
Peppers, avocados and amaranths were being grown in the Americas as early as 8,000 B.C.
The Egyptians believed that the god of agriculture, Osiris, taught humans how to make beer.
About 99% of today's agricultural production depends on only 24 different domesticated plant species. Of those, rice, wheat and corn account for most of the world's caloric intake.
Stephen A. Goff & John M. Salmeron, Scientific American, August 2004
Agriculture generates 20% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
One-fourth of the world’s beef and nearly one-fifth of the world’s grain, milk and eggs are produced in the U.S.
With modern methods, one acre of land in the U.S. (about the size of a football field) can produce:
• 42,000 lbs. of strawberries
• or 11,000 heads of lettuce
• or 25,400 lbs. of potatoes
• or 8,900 lbs. of sweet corn
• or 640 lbs. of cotton lint
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