STUDENT BACKGROUND -

Idaho's Largest Industry

What is Agriculture? Agriculture is the business of producing, processing, distributing and retailing food and fiber. Agriculture is also all of the businesses that provide supplies and services to the food and fiber system. Across Idaho you can find many examples of agriculture: growing crops, raising livestock, processing food, sawing lumber, arranging flowers, growing plants, raising animals, raising fish and logging are production operations.

In other words, production is that part of agriculture that produces raw material. Add all of these together and you learn that agriculture is a very big business in Idaho. In fact, Idaho produces a large amount of the nation’s bean, sweet corn and onion seeds and is number 1 in potato production.

Processing is taking a raw material and making a finished product out of it. The finished product may take many forms. For example, wheat can be made into flour, a cake mix, bread or spaghetti.

Distribution means carrying a product from one place to another. Trucks, planes, ships or rail cars can be used. Usually, products are first taken to a wholesale center and then transported to retail outlets.

Retailing is shoppers buying products. This may be at a grocery store, department store, lumber yard, florist, cafeteria or a nursery.

Major Steps a Raw Product Goes Through

How much food do you eat in a year?

The farmer receives more for unprocessed foods than for processed food. He gets more for hamburger than for bread.

The first farmers in America were the Native Americans. They taught the earliest settlers what they knew about raising corn and squash. Their method of fertilizing was unique; they planted a dead fish right along with the corn seeds. From the Native Americans, Europeans learned about popcorn. In turn, the Europeans—Pilgrims and Puritans—brought European seeds and methods to America. As the pioneers moved West, methods and crops changed right along with the move. Soil and climate decided for the people what their farms would produce. From humble beginnings, framing has grown to be a complicated science never dreamed of by our forefathers. Idaho’s farming history is really quite short. The reaper, metal plow, grain drill, cultivator, mower and threshing machine had already been invented. In other parts of the country, these inventions brought about the first industrial revolution in agriculture because their use was more efficient than hand labor. Better methods always enhance production. The first revolution involved animal power, while the second involved motorized machinery. The second revolution is still going on.

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