Postwar
After 1945, a continued increase in productivity that led to further increases in farm size, and corresponding reductions in the number of farms. Many farmers sold out and moved to nearby towns and cities. Others moved to a part-time operation, supported by off-farm employment. Conkin (2009) emphasized how new machinery—especially large self-propelled combines and mechanical cotton pickers—sharply reduced labor requirements in harvesting.
Second, electricity powered motors and irrigation pumps that opened up new ways to be efficient. Electricity also played a role making possible major innovations in animal husbandry, especially modern milking parlors, grain elevators, and CAFOs (confined animal-feeding operations) (Conkin, 2009). Advances in fertilizers and herbicides, (as well as insecticides, fungicides, antibiotics and growth hormones), reduced wastage due to weeds, insects and diseases.
Finally there were great advances in plant and animal breeding, such as crop hybridization, artificial insemination of livestock, and GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Further down the food change came innovations in food processing and distribution (e.g. frozen foods).
Read more about this topic: History Of Agriculture In The United States
Famous quotes containing the word postwar:
“Fashions change, and with the new psychoanalytical perspective of the postwar period [WWII], child rearing became enshrined as the special responsibility of mothers ... any shortcoming in adult life was now seen as rooted in the failure of mothering during childhood.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)