The Role of Agriculture on the Economy

The Role of Agriculture on the Economy Alexis Fridenberg

I remember it like it was just yesterday. I was sitting on my grandparents' front porch on hot summer day, looking out in to their field where grandpa had been working since he woke up. I remember asking myself, why does he waste his time out there in their field and why he wastes his time growing food when we could just go to the store and buy all the foods they grow. Then one day I asked my grandpa why he goes out there and works all day and he answered me and said because he can sell his crops for money so other families can eat too. I never really understood why he wanted to sell his crops to other people until he explained it to me. He told me that not only does he sell his crops so other families can eat but, also because it helps our economy. I didn't know what an economy was at that time either so I decided to ask him and of course he explained to me what an economy was. Then I realized why he spends all day out in the fields and in the heat.

Agriculture is all around us and everywhere we go. Agriculture is a major part in our lives. Without agriculture there wouldn't be any crop production or livestock management. Without crop production and livestock management we wouldn't have meat, fruits, vegetables, milk, etc. Agriculture also plays an important role in our economy. Economics is the study of how we allocate a finite supply of resources. Agricultural economics, or agronomics, is the study of the distribution of resources and production of commodities in farming. Agricultural economics includes a number of specialty areas including agribusiness, agricultural policy, farm and ranch management, rural development, international development, natural resources and environmental economics, and agricultural marketing. It seeks to optimize the choices made by agricultural producers using economic principles, based on the recognition that land and resources are limited. Agriculture is a vital element of every economy because it is concerned with the production of food, which enables life to exist and grow.Since the 1700s, economists have examined issues of farm production, given the significance of agriculture as a source of national wealth. By the 1800s, agricultural economics had developed as a specialty within the larger field of economics. Although the agricultural sector has declined in many nations, agricultural economics remains a widely studied subject, exploring not only farm and ranch production, but also environmental issues, trade, economic development and more. Agriculture economics originally applied principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock. Since the 1970s, agricultural economics has primarily focused on seven main topics: agricultural environment and resources; risk and uncertainty; prices and income; market structures; trade and development; and technical change and human capital. The field of agricultural economics can be traced out to works on land economics. Henry Charles Taylor was the greatest contributor with the establishment of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Wisconsin in 1909. Taylor established the first university department dedicated to agricultural economics in the United States during his time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Another contributor, Theodore Schultz was among the first to examine development economics as a problem related directly to agriculture. The United States is one of the world's largest producers, consumers, exporters and importers of agricultural commodities. Fifty years ago, the United