The Economic Viability of American Agriculture Essay -- Agricultural E

The Economic Viability of American Agriculture â€Å"Hey mom, what is for supper tonight?† â€Å"Oh I don’t know son, what do you feel like eating?† â€Å"Well, I think I would really like to eat some steak and mashed potatoes and maybe some green beans; but first off we could start with a nice fresh salad and finish up with a rhubarb pie.† â€Å"That all sounds great son, but unfortunately all we have here is the steak; I’ll have to go to the store and see what I can find.† Later that evening the supper the family had was exactly how the son wanted it to be: the steak, potatoes, green beans and the rhubarb pie to top it off. Where do you think all of these products come from? They all can be traced back to the very importance of the world’s agriculture. We sometimes may take for granted that whenever we want a specific product we can just go to the store and purchase it. All we do is buy it and then consume without even thinking of all the hard work and time that went into the making of that specific product. This proves how valuable agriculture is to the American population; it is basically the sole provider as a food source, no matter what size the farm is. Nowadays farming is starting to become harder and harder for the men and women who call it their jobs. They have less land and fewer resources to use and they have more mouths to supply. This poses a major question; is agriculture still economically viable? Through out the rest of this paper there will be certain points that will be able to prove if agriculture really is economically viable. Such points will include the size of the farm and the types of crops that are grown there. Another point that will be touched on is how well agriculture is publicized and how well the surro... ... same time. As an American attitude, agriculture needs to stay economically viable because of its importance to the human race. Bibliograhpy Sonja Brodt, Gail Feenstra, Robin Kozloff, Karen Klonsky, Laura Tourte, â€Å"Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California†, Agriculture and Human Values (2006) Vol. 23 Pg. 75-88 Charles A. Francis, â€Å"Greening of Agriculture for Long-Term Sustainability†, Agronomy Journal September-October 2004 Vol. 96 Num. 5 Steven C. Blank, â€Å"Producers Get Squeezed up the Farming Food Chain: A Theory of Crop Portfolio Composition and Land Use†, Review of Agricultural Economics Vol. 23 Num. 2 Pg. 404-422 James W. Richardson, David P. Anderson, Edward G. Smith, â€Å"Can We Save the Traditional Family Farm?† Agricultural and Food Policy Center, Department of Agricultural Economics. February 2001.