Reflecting on the Past Century of Ag Innovation

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

When we talk about agricultural innovation, many people might think of robots or lasers. But it’s also important to acknowledge the many innovations in agriculture that are so common today they are often taken for granted. Retired Smithsonian Institution curator Peter Liebhold describes some of the innovations in the early 20th century that propelled American agricultural productivity to where it is today.

Liebhold… “ Gasoline-powered vehicles, combines, tractors. It's also the notion of fertilizer. It's the notion of pesticides. It's the notion of hybrids, hybrid animals, hybrid seeds, all very critical. Agriculture transformed from being extensive, where if you want more food, you plow up more land, to being intensive, where you start to increase yield per acre. The advent of lightweight tractors in the beginning of the 1900s was made possible by factories making on assembly lines inexpensive equipment. The price continually dropped, became affordable so that many farmers could buy it and help revolutionize agriculture. Many different aspects of agriculture were affected by the advent of electricity. Dairy parlor without electricity would be completely different.”

It’s incredible to consider how much innovation has changed agriculture over the past 100 years.