Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
By 1830, ~10,000 settlers of European descent had migrated to the area, driven
by high land and low grain prices in the East, the opening of the Erie Canal in
1825, and the introduction of fruit trees. Most settlers were New Englanders (Gray
1996) and they first occupied the prairie and oak openings that had been farmed by
the Potawatomi they displaced.
Rudy et al. (2008) describe six agricultural periods in southwest Michigan that
define present-day agriculture. The first is the largely extensive development period
that occurred prior to 1898 when land was cleared, drained, and farmed, mainly
for the production of wheat for human consumption and hay for draft animals. The
second is the 1899-1919 Golden Age of Agriculture marked by expanding interna-
tional markets with their high grain prices and the introduction of new techniques
for crop cultivation and animal breeding brought to farmers by the university-based
Cooperative Extension Service.
The Agricultural Depression began ca. 1920 as a result of national overpro-
duction following the return of European agriculture after World War I, and
persisted throughout the Great Depression. It was exacerbated by mechaniza-
tion and tractor-driven increases in productivity that at the same time opened
to row-crop production pasturage that had been formerly used to feed draft ani-
mals. Agricultural Fordism (1941-1973) followed the Agricultural Depression
and was marked by agriculture's increased need for capital goods such as trac-
tors, hybrid seeds, and pesticides as well as by farm families' shift to a consumer
orientation. Together, these trends encouraged agricultural intensification and, in
particular, simple monoculture rotations and a near-singular focus on increasing
productivity. The average farm size in this period grew from ~35 to ~60 ha (~90
to ~150 acres).
The period 1974-1989 found southwest Michigan farm operators squeezed
between a continued downward trend in real prices for agricultural commodities
and increasing production costs. The difference was relieved to some extent by
government payments, which by the 1990s constituted >50% of net farm income.
Southwest Michigan farmers also responded with strategies that included greater
off-farm income and market opportunities for more diverse foods including
organic and specialty crops. Even so, crop agriculture in the region was and
remains grain dominated: in 2007 ~81% of cropland in the 17-county area was
used to grown corn (47%), soybean (29%), and wheat (5%) (USDA 2009).
Forage (11%; commonly alfalfa) and vegetables and orchards made up most of
the remainder.
Globalization since 1990 marks Rudy et al.'s (2008) sixth major period, one in
which rural agricultural dynamics are shifting rapidly. By the late 1900s, agrifood
systems had an increasingly global scope with important local consequences. In
southwest Michigan, as elsewhere, this has exacerbated tensions between agricul-
tural production and environmental conservation as well as struggles over the social
and environmental consequences of, in particular, exurban sprawl, agrichemical
use, and industrial animal production. The local landscape now is a mixture of
cultivated and successional fields, woodlots dominated by northern hardwood trees,
private residences, and lakes and wetlands.
