Chapter Introduction

Two types of contemporary agricultural landscapes.

(Left: Michael Busselle/Corbis; Right: Jim Wark/AirPhoto)

Every one of us depends, either directly or indirectly, on agriculture for our survival. It is easy to forget that urban-industrial society relies (none too securely) on the food surplus generated by farmers and herders and that without agriculture there would be no cities, universities, factories, or offices.

Agriculture, the tilling of crops and raising of domesticated animals to produce food, feed, drink, and fiber, has been the principal enterprise of humankind throughout recorded history. Even today, agriculture remains by far the most important economic activity in the world, using more land than any other activity and employing about 40 percent of the working population. In some parts of Asia and Africa, more than 75 percent of the labor force is devoted to agriculture. North Americans, on the other hand, live in an urban society in which less than 2 percent of the population work as agriculturists. Europe’s labor force is as thoroughly nonagricultural as North America’s. Nearly half of the world’s population, however, continues to live in farm villages.