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One thing remains the same about agriculture today as it did centuries ago is farm families owning and operating farms. Whether if it is your next door neighbor or a farm miles away from you. Farmers and their families are working hard to bring healthy and affordable food to our economy.

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Today, people can grow their own food at home. You could plant a garden at home to grow your own food, and see what it is like to plant fruits and vegetables.

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Farms are growing in size because of increased efficiency. In the past, cows had to be milked by hand, and it took a long time to do this. But today, cows are milked with special machines that take less time to milk the cow and fewer people have to spend time milking. This allows farmers to milk more cows, and produce more milk.

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Over 200 years ago, 90 percent of the U.S. population lived on farms and produced their own food to eat. But today, only two percent of the population produces the food, including fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy.

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A good economy. During the mid 1970s, economic factors were good — interest rates were relatively low, so farmers could borrow cheaply. People in foreign countries wanted American food and had the money to pay for it.

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The 1980s was a period when thousands of families lost their farms because of low farm prices and overwhelming debt. Farming was in a crisis. For a period of time it was almost impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the television without facing images of farm auctions and foreclosure sales.

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Debts piled up. With less demand and lower prices for their products, many American farmers had no way to pay back the banks for the loans they had taken out. Many people had to borrow even more money, hoping that better crops and prices would rescue them. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

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Foreign markets dried up, driving prices down further. In 1980, Russia invaded Afghanistan. The U.S. protested, and President. Jimmy Carter stopped the shipment of farm products to Russia in response to the invasion.

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In 1940, one American farmer produced enough food to feed 15 people; by 1960, one farmer could feed 65 people.

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New machines, crops, pesticides and irrigation resulted in greater efficiency — it took fewer farmers to produce the same amount of food in the 1970s.

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One major factor was advancements in the technological of farming

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The Southeast's worst summer drought on record took a severe toll on many farmers.

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For the first time since the 19th century, Europeans & Japanese began to purchase significant acres of farmland.

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                               * Farm Economy 1978 *

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                               * Farm Economy 1978 *

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- Total population: 227,020,000
- Farm population: 6,051,000
- Farmers 3.4% of labor force
- Number of farms: 2,439,510; average acres: 426
- Irrigated acres: 50,350,000