Is American agriculture the first in the world?

American agriculture ranks first in the world.

I. Agricultural characteristics

1, American agriculture is the largest in the world, equipped with the latest modern technology and high efficiency.

① The total agricultural output, the output of many important agricultural products and the total export amount rank first in the world. The total export of agricultural products in the United States accounts for 20% of the world, ranking first; Grain exports account for 40% of the world, ranking first; Corn exports account for 70% of the world, ranking first; Soybean exports account for 67% of the world, ranking first; Cotton exports account for 26% of the world, ranking first; Wheat exports account for 37% of the world, ranking first; Meat exports account for 7.4% of the world, ranking first.

② The whole agriculture has been fully mechanized, and the labor productivity ranks first in the world. In 1960s, the picking of tomatoes, cotton and cherries was mechanized. The agricultural population in the United States accounts for about 1.9% of the total population, and the agricultural labor force accounts for 2. 1% of the total employed labor force in the country. The average agricultural products produced by each labor force can be consumed by nearly 100 people. American agriculture can not only meet domestic demand, but also export 1/3 ~ 2/5 of agricultural products, accounting for about 20% of the total foreign exchange income, which has played a great role in improving the balance of payments and foreign trade of the United States.

③ Biotechnology and electronic information technology are widely used. American bioengineering research has developed rapidly since 1970s and is in the leading position in the world. There are more than 200 enterprises engaged in biotechnology development, and they are currently committed to transforming many laboratory research results into applied technologies. In planting, they have cultivated various new varieties with special characteristics by changing genes, such as cold tolerance, drought tolerance, alkali tolerance, herbicide resistance, pest resistance, easy management and harvesting, nitrogen fixation, rich in protein and special flavor. Computers have become a powerful means of agricultural production and management in the United States. 1983, there are 65,000 farms in the United States using computers, which have developed rapidly in recent years. Farmers use computers to find the best production mode and business model, use computers to manage money, and solve various problems in production through regional information networks. Agricultural machinery equipped with microprocessor can greatly save fuel and improve work efficiency. Fully automatic and computer-controlled unmanned agricultural machinery is also under development. The combination of computer and electronic sensor has fundamentally changed the production management technology of planting and animal husbandry. There are more than 200 computer software companies serving agriculture, and they are developing.

2. American agricultural production and capital are increasingly concentrated, and the control of monopoly capital on agriculture is increasingly strengthened. The total number of American farms has decreased from more than 6 million in the 1930s at 19 to 2.058 million at 1997. A large number of small and medium-sized farmers went bankrupt. At present, large-scale farms, which account for less than110 of the total number of farms, produce more than 60% of commercial agricultural products. Many industrial, financial and commercial monopoly companies are increasingly involved in agricultural production and the processing, storage and sales of agricultural products, forming many large-scale "agricultural-industrial joint ventures" and controlling most farms.

The fate of agricultural products is closely related to the instability of the market. The most serious problem of American agriculture is overproduction, and the output and price are extremely unstable. American agriculture is highly commercialized, almost all agricultural products are put into the market, and almost all needed agricultural machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, feed, seeds and grain are purchased. Historically, the development of American agriculture could not be separated from foreign markets. For nearly half a century, the competition in the world agricultural products market is fierce. Except during the war and the years after the war when demand was strong, and the years of poor harvests around the world, a large number of agricultural products in the United States often appeared "surplus", which caused price fluctuations and bankrupted a large number of small farmers.

4. The structure of the agricultural sector in the United States is relatively comprehensive, and the planting industry has been fully developed as a basic agricultural sector. The United States has/kloc-0.87 million hectares of cultivated land and 240 million hectares of pasture and grassland. In recent years, the proportion of planting and animal husbandry in the agricultural output value of the United States is similar (196, planting accounts for 54% and animal husbandry accounts for 46%). American agriculture has absorbed advanced technology from many parts of the world. In addition to the traditional agriculture in western Europe (planting wheat, pasture and livestock) brought by British immigrants, they also learned the cultivation of corn from Indians, while the Spanish introduced the techniques of animal husbandry and citrus cultivation. Corn and wheat are the most important grains in America. Cash crops are mainly soybeans, cotton and tobacco. Forage also plays an important role in planting, and the production of vegetables and fruits is also very developed. Animal husbandry mainly focuses on cattle, pigs and chickens.

5. American agriculture is highly specialized. Including individual farm specialization and obvious regional specialization. Agricultural regionalization and specialization is a common phenomenon in developed countries, but it is more prominent in the United States. On the one hand, the specialization of agricultural regionalization in the United States shows that the regional distribution of a single agricultural sector and a single agricultural product is highly concentrated; On the other hand, in the departmental structure of each region, the proportion of major specialized departments is very high. After World War II, the regionalization of agriculture has obviously deepened. Not only wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, rice, animal husbandry and animal husbandry are concentrated in the most favorable natural and social conditions, but also the cultivation of cows and chickens, vegetables and potatoes that farmers used to produce to meet their own consumption has been changed to large-scale operation by professional farms in some areas. There are nine obvious agricultural specialization areas in the United States.

6. American agriculture is causing serious pollution to the environment. The biggest pollution brought by agriculture is water pollution, including sediment, salt, chemical fertilizer, pesticide and farmyard manure, and various pollution sources account for 50% of surface water pollution. Soil salinization and agricultural irrigation have become increasingly serious problems in arid areas of western China. In at least 26 states, current farming methods have caused some pesticides to seep into groundwater. In California, it was found that traditional agricultural practices made 22 different pesticides flow into groundwater. Nitrate (mainly farm fertilizer and synthetic fertilizer) brought by agriculture has been found in drinking water, and its content has exceeded the safety standards of several States.

7. The organization form of agricultural production in the United States is mainly family farms, and the other form is agricultural cooperatives. Agricultural production in America has always been dominated by family farms. Although with the development of productivity, the number of American farms has decreased and the scale has expanded, this has not changed the fundamental characteristics of family farms as the main form of production organization. So far, agricultural cooperatives have a history of more than 65,438+000 years. They are mainly organized by family farms on a voluntary basis and have the nature of collective ownership, which has played an important role in safeguarding the interests of agricultural workers and promoting agricultural modernization. Agricultural cooperatives can be divided into three categories: supply and marketing cooperatives, service cooperatives and production cooperatives, of which the first two categories account for the vast majority.

Second, the composition of the agricultural sector American agriculture is mainly composed of planting and animal husbandry. Planting: Grain production includes: corn planting, wheat planting, sorghum planting, oat planting, barley planting and rice planting. Cash crop production includes: soybean planting, cotton planting, tobacco planting, pasture planting, vegetable and fruit planting. Animal husbandry: mainly raising cattle, pigs and chickens.

Third, the composition and distribution of specialized agricultural areas.

1. Cheese Belt: the south and northeast of the Great Lakes.

2. Corn belt: south of the cheese belt in the central United States.

3. Wheat belt: middle (winter wheat) and north (spring wheat) of the Great Plains.

4. Cotton area: the area south of 35 north latitude.

5. Mixed agricultural area: between cotton belt and corn belt.

6. Mountainous grazing and irrigated agricultural areas: Rocky mountains, plateaus and basins in the west.

7. North Pacific wheat and forest animal husbandry area: north of 40 degrees north latitude.

8. Fruits, vegetables and irrigated agricultural areas in the South Pacific: California. Subtropical crop belt: Gulf Coast and Florida.