Isaiah Gage Thunder

Ms. Barthel

Comp. III/IV

November 9

Farming 101

In the United States there are 2,042,220 farms over 900.2 million acres, and the average

farm size is 441 acres, as stated by the 2017 Census of Agriculture (Farms and Farmland). All

around the world, it is important to have farmers of all different types. They are important

because they supply food for people, fuel for vehicles, and feed for animals. The United States

uses many different types of gardening and each region modifies these methods to produce the

best crop possible to then be imported and exported throughout the world. There are many

different types of farming which have their own benefits and drawbacks.

Conventional farming is the use of seeds that have been genetically altered using a

variety of traditional breeding methods, excluding biotechnology, and are not certified as organic

(Miller). There are many positives to conventional farming, such as allowing farmers to produce

at lower costs and gain a higher profit, making conventional farming a lucrative method. Since

the cost of farming is low, they can produce many crops for the demand food supply. The farmers

produce crops at a lower price so they can sell them at low price (Miller). Farming helps to give

people opportunities for jobs like delivery truck drivers, laborers, and farmhands, and also helps

producers of fertilizers. Farming actually requires a lot of quick thinking and intelligence.

Farmers need a strong head for business because the agricultural world is changing (The Pros

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and Cons). With all of these advantages, it can be easy to overlook the number of downsides. It is

important, however, to address them.

Farmers often use chemicals on the crops to help them grow and kill weeds. This is a

problem because, when they are spread, animals and people can eat them (Miller). When using

pesticides, farmers end up killing off insects that help out with pollination. To get a high quality

crop, farmers are destroying our environment with their chemicals (Besana). Some believe that

organic farming is better for people than conventional farming.

Organic farming is an agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century in

reaction to rapidly changing farming practices (Howe). An advantage is that organic food is free

of contamination like pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. Diseases have been linked back to

chemically grown food. Normally food tastes better when it is grown organically because these

fruits and vegetables have a higher quality of soil nutrition (Howe). Organic food has more

nutritional value compared to conventional farming because they do not have modified

ingredients. These products, including neem, caraway oil, seed fennel, quassia, and rjania, are

chemical-free and use natural products to take care of the plants (Rinkesha; Staff). These are the

many benefits of organic farming, but there are also drawbacks.

In the long run of organic farming, the life of soil goes away because the plants use up all

of the nutrients from the soil. It will also take time to remove weeds from the fields before

planting. Organic farming requires a lot of time for weed control, crop observation, and labor in

general (Howe). Organic farming takes a lot of time, money, patience, and commitment. More

skills are needed for organic farming, like close observation of the crops, the best natural farming

systems, and how to make high productivity (Rinkesha). Organic products are expensive because

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organic farms do not produce as many crops as conventional farms do (Rinkesha). Organic

farming is a common gardening technique when it comes to at-home gardens.

Both techniques of conventional and organic farming are used in peoples’ at-home or

personal gardens. Some positives of gardening skills are that it helps people calm their minds,

work out tension, and release a little anger and frustration. Along with mental health, gardening

can also help with physical health. It helps with painful joints and flexibility (Dyer). Even though

physical activities are good for the body, gardening can be hurtful to the body.

With gardening, there are some drawbacks of the hard work. Some are that people can get

sick by bacteria that can be in the soil. Gardening can make your body painful because of

kneeling, stomping, and digging. Farming also costs money because a person needs to buy

equipment like seeds, soil, pots, and fertilizer (Dyer). Much like an at-home garden, community

gardens are similar in the way that they produce food for those who help create it.

As stated by Study.com, a community garden is a shared, semi-public space where people

in the surrounding neighborhood share the work and harvest of maintaining a garden space for

growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or even livestock (McGuire). Creating a garden increases

social bonds among neighbors and people of diverse backgrounds. People can develop new skills

and learn about food, nutrition, agriculture, and sustainability. Some benefits include reduced air

pollution, recycling of organic waste, and more habitat for pollinators like bees. Community

gardens help get fresh vegetables and fruits to the gardeners and other members of the

community (Dilonardo). Sometimes having a community garden can help improve cities and

neighborhoods. There is often lower crime rate in cities that have a community garden

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(Dilonardo). For the most part, community gardens are beneficial to the community, but there are

some drawbacks of this type of garden as well.

There needs to be enough money for the government to pay for a community garden. The

government does not always feel the need to fund these grants, as they feel that other programs

take the lead over community gardens. People are driving to the garden and using more fuel and

hurting the environment. At times, these gardens have been known to excluded people of color

from helping out (Dilonardo). Community gardens are normally produced in larger cities, but

they have become less used because of the cultivation of urban gardens.

Urban gardening is a type of garden that is in big cities like New York, Chicago, and Las

Angeles. These cities are like this because they do not have yards or extra space to plant

traditional gardens (Myers). Sunlight and drainage are also important. When people garden, they

need a place to grow the plants, like widow boxes, patios, and balconies with hanging baskets

(Myers). Getting food locally is sometimes fresher because it is closer to consumers. Seasonal

vegetables are grown by local urban farmers to lower the price of produce. If cities had more

urban farmers, it would be helpful to the sewage system and also help to prevent flooding

(Epstein). According to Global Citizens,“If cities were covered with the greenery of urban farms

instead, this water could be absorbed back into the soil to prevent run-off naturally” (Epstein).

Existing buildings are used for windbreakers in urban settings. Plants grow better when wind is

not blowing them sideways. Raised gardening beds are good because it is easy for gardeners to

take care of. Urban growers can use vertical space for their plants (Engels). These advantages do

not come without additional drawbacks.

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 In urban settings, sometimes soil can be full of arsenic, lead, and heavy metals, which can

be bad for the produce. These bad parts need to be removed before planting anything. This is

very expensive to the community. People are still going hungry because of the demand of urban

agriculture (Epstein). On roof tops, people need to worry about too much wind, sun, water, and

weight. There is a lot of work that goes into urban gardens. If a person is not motivated to

keeping up with their garden, it will be unsuccessful (Engels). Unlike urban farms, agroforestry

needs a lot of room to grow.

According to the definition from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),

agroforestry represents, “land-use system and technologies where woody perennials (trees,

shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as

agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal

sequence” (Slavikova). This is a system that uses trees throughout farms, pastures, orchards, and

other tree forests. In the midwest, agroforestry is mainly used for wood to burn, shelter belts,

windbreaks, and to help block crops from extreme weather (Slavikova). An advantage of

agroforestry is to improve wildlife and their habitat. Trees are important for keeping clean

groundwater, helping with runoff from fields, and helping hold the soil together with their roots.

Trees also help to prevent pollution (Slavikova). In our environment, agroforestry can make

options for food production and other raw products like fruits, vegetables, and woods

(Slavikova). Trees can block people from seeing inside houses. They also offer shade so people

can have shade in the yard. Planting trees helps animals and insects for protection and source of

food (T’s Trees). There will always be a need for trees in our environment, but there are also

some difficult parts of starting a tree farm.

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 The main disadvantage of agroforestry is the time it takes to grow the shrubs and trees to

make money. It takes a lot of money to start agroforestry farms because they take a long time to

grow and make a profit on. The cost depends on the type of trees and wood that the farmers want

to plant. These farmers need to have the knowledge of agroforestry systems (Slavikova). Roots

can also grow where they are not supposed to be, like in house foundations. This results in

breaking pipes and causing cracks in sidewalks. Trees attract pests like termites, rodents, mice,

and ants. These can sometimes make it into peoples homes (T’s Trees). Trees grow slowly and

some may take 30 years to reach their full size (T’s trees). There are not only benefits and

drawbacks to agroforestry, but there are also some for fruit trees as well. These benefits and

drawbacks are for agroforestry as a whole, but there are more specific pros and cons that should

be noted for fruit trees.

There are fruit trees located all around the world, and here are some benefits of growing

them. There are many different types of fruit trees, like apple, peach, and banana, all around the

world. Having fruit trees is good because they have a lot of produce. Fruit trees produce fruits for

many years (Davis). Fruit directly from a tree can be delicious and nutritious. This fruit is

chemical-free when it is grown at home. Fruit trees give shade in the summer in the yard (Great).

Fruit trees have similar drawbacks that agroforestry does.

Trees can be expensive to buy from the start. Fruit trees also take up more room than the

typical vegetable garden in the yard. It can take about a year before the trees can produce

anything (Davis). People cannot grow any type of fruit anywhere in the world because of the

temperature that is needed to grow them. Growing fruit trees requires lots of space and room to

grow. Fruit trees require a lot of maintenance, like spraying pruning and cleaning up dropped

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fruit and fallen leaves (Great). These traditional ways of gardening are being changed a the new

type of gardening called hydroponics.

Hydroponic gardening does not use soil; the plants grow in water. Soil is typically used to

give nutrients and minerals to the plants and also give support to hold themselves in place.

However, soil is not required to have plants grow; they can get nutrients in other ways.

Hydroponic gardeners put nutrients in the water reservoir under the plant. The plants are set up

so they can water themselves. Hydroponics can grow different types of plants (Nate). Some of

the advantages are that people can make better use of space and location, save water, and

effectively use nutrients. These plants have no weeds, fewer pests and diseases, and a better

growth rate over traditional gardening. Like organic farming, there is less use of insecticide and

herbicide, so this leaves the plants chemical free (Dyer Hydroponics). Hydroponics is a stress-

relieving hobby, but there are also challenges that come with this type of gardening.

A hydroponic garden requires time, experience, and technical knowledge. Additional

struggles with this type of gardening involved possible system failures, including water electrical

risks. Hydroponics gardens are expensive to get started and there is a long wait on a return of

investment (Dyer Hydroponics). All of these many different types of gardening techniques are

produced in different places around the United States.

“The United States is a market leader in many of the world’s major crops” (U.S Crop).

The largest crop grown is corn, and the next largest is soybeans. The average number of bushels

of corn is 14 billion. For soybeans, the U.S. annually produces 4 billion bushels. Most of these

crops are grown in the Midwest. In addition, oats are also a major crop in the Midwest. Farmers

produce 53 million bushels. The third largest crop is wheat, which is grown in the Midwest, the

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east coast, and the northern boarder to Canada. There are many different types of wheat that can

be grown. The most common type of wheat is hard red wheat. They produce, on average,

1,246,000 bushels. For all other types of wheat (soft red, durum, hard white), an average of 603

million bushels is produced (US Crop). Each of these crops are grown in many different places

and are exported within and outside of the United States.

“Over one year, the United State grew more that 14.42 billion bushels and 366 million

metric tons of corn, but 14.3 percent of the production was exported to more than 37 percent

different counties” (Corn). Different regions of the United States have multiple import and

export channels. Mexico is one of the top three United States corn export destinations. The

second one, Japan, receives 25 percent. The third, Colombia, gets 9 percent (Corn). Some of the

top countries that import into the United States are Mexico at 44 percent, Canada at 12 percent,

and Chile at 8 percent. Mexico imports tomatoes, avocados, peppers, and grapes. Canada imports

potatoes, cucumbers, and cranberries (Johnson). Imports from Chile are apples, berries, fruit

juices, plums, and cherries. Overall, 48.8 percent of all fresh fruit is imported and 24.5 percent of

all fresh vegetables are imported into the United States (Johnson). The main exports from the

United States into Canada have an average value of 3,465000. Mexico averages $711,000 in fruit

and vegetable exports (Fresh Fruits). These major imports and exports in the United States

heavily impact the economy of these countries in addition to that of the United States.

The United States uses many different types of gardening and each region modifies these

methods to produce the best crop possible to then be imported and exported throughout the

world. There are many different types of farming which have their own benefits and drawbacks.

If a person would want to begin their own farm or garden, they should start with getting research

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on their type of garden or farm. Some research that people should do is to look at the benefits

and drawbacks of farming. From here, they will begin to farm in a way that is best suited for

their environment. In addition to personal farms and gardens, people produce large quantities of

produce that is imported and exported through the United States. Without the farming industry,

the United States would have to rely more on other countries for their produce. As stated

previously, the United States keeps most of their produce within the country but also contributes

by exporting to other countries. This in small part explains the way farming impacts the produce

industry throughout the world.

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Besana, Joshua. “The Disadvantages of Conventional Farming.” GreenAsGreenery, 27 Oct.

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“Corn.” U.S. GRAINS COUNCIL, 29 Sept. 2020, grains.org/buying-selling/corn/.

Davis, Jonathan. “Fruit Trees and Backyard Farming.” Try Backyard Farming, 27 Feb. 2019,
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Urban Settings.” The Permaculture Research Institute, 27 July 2017,
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growing-urban-settings/.

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