assigned in the United States by the U.S.Department of Agriculture. Since the
1940s, shifts in many areas of agriculture have occurred, resulting in larger, more
intensively utilized production units. For example, in 1970, the average dairy farm
in the United States had 19 cows, but by 2007 that number had risen to 128 cows
per farm. In some regions, particularly in western states, the increase was much
larger than the national average. The overall size of farms has increased substan-
tially as well. The size of the average farm in the United States increased from about
150 acres in the 1930s to more than 400 acres in 2002, although the total number of
farms in the United States has decreased steadily since the 1940s. Nevertheless,
non-family farms, that is, those corporately owned, account for only about two
percent of all farms in the country, although the corporate farms produce almost
14 percent of total agricultural output by value. Moreover, corporate farming is
particularly important in the production of meat and animal products. A handful
of corporations slaughter the great majority of livestock in the United States, and
in the case of beef, account for more than 80 percent of the output.
The emergence of agribusiness may be traced to the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution. It was only a short time before the mass-production techniques of the
factory began to be applied to the countryside. This was especially true in the case
of mechanization, with a steady progression of machines replacing both man and
animal power in the fields after 1820. The advent of steam-powered equipment
gave even greater momentum to the process of mechanization, since such
machines could do the work of many men, or several draft animals, faster and
more efficiently. This had the effect of drastically reducing the agricultural labor
force, as well as intensifying competition, as the relative prices of agricultural
commodities fell because of mass production. By the 1930s affordable commer-
cial fertilizers had become widely available in the United States, a development
that substantially increased yields. A decade later, advances in genetic science
and botanical engineering, still a major component of agribusiness, paid enormous
dividends in total production, especially the hybrids generated as a result of the
Green Revolution. Food production in many parts of the world skyrocketed, as
the new technology was married in many cases with advanced business strategies
and an expanding market. After the application of High Yield Varieties (HYVs) of
wheat and rice in India in the 1960s, the country has avoided major food shortages
for the past 50 years, in spite of a rapidly growing population.
Agribusiness today is characterized by technological innovations and mana-
gerial methods that have vastly increased production. An example of the former
is the technique of hydroponics, a technology that enables higher-value vegetables
to be grown intensively in large greenhouses rather than in agricultural fields.
There are multiple advantages to producing vegetables in this manner. First, the
greenhouse presents a closed environment that allows for easier control of insect
Agribusiness 3