Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuels, medicinal plants and other products used to maintain and improve human life. Agriculture was the key development in the emergence of sedentary human civilization, where the breeding of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by very different climates, cultures and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale mono-culture has become the dominant agricultural method.
Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agro-chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological advances have in many cases increased crop yields, but at the same time they have caused widespread ecological damage and negative effects on human health. Selective breeding and modern animal husbandry practices have also increased meat production, but concerns about animal welfare, environmental damage (such as massive drainage of resources such as water and feed fed to animals) have increased, global warming, the destruction of jungle waste products that are in disarray) and the health effects of antibiotics, growth hormones, artificial additives and other chemicals commonly used in the industrial production of meat. Genetically modified organisms are a growing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global problems that are encouraging debate on several fronts. Significant degradation of land and water resources, including depletion of aquifers, has been observed in recent decades, and the effects of global warming on agriculture and agriculture on global warming are not yet fully understood. However, entomophagy would solve most of the above problems and could begin to gain popularity among Western society.
The main agricultural products can be grouped in large quantities in food, fibers, fuels and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meats and spices. The fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and linen. Raw materials include wood and bamboo. Other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. More than a third of the world's workers work in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although the percentages of agricultural workers in developed countries have declined significantly in recent centuries.
