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Agricultural scientists increased the American farmer’s competitive edge in this growing global marketplace with new research initiatives for small farms, solar energy, and energy conservation. They developed hundreds of improved varieties of fruits, vegetables, cotton, wheat and other crops (including carrot varieties with twice as much beta-carotene, an important nutrient). Scientists also made great strides in animal health by developing a
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Following the four year farm bill in 1965, the next farm bill to be passed by Congress was the Agricultural Act of 1970 followed by the Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act of 1973, and the Food and Agricultural Act of 1977. As you explore these farm bills, find the similarities and difference between the different laws during this time period and/or how these bills compare to past farm bills passed by Congress.
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International trade doubled during the 1970s. Early in the decade President Nixon devalued the dollar, which made American products more affordable overseas. This, along with bad weather in competing agricultural nations around the world, increased the demand for American agricultural exports.
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Farmers made up only 4.6 percent of the American workforce in the early 1970s, yet this tiny minority generated nineteen percent of the United States’ exports. At the same time they fed an unprecedented average of forty-eight people per farmer, many of those outside the United States. It was what American farmers had been striving for—a period of growth and prosperity.
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Today tractors are equipped with high-tech GPS systems and help increase food production on a significantly larger scale than ever before. Scientific discovery and technological inventions have been the key to agricultural success.
