1. THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY

2. INTRODUCTION  Agriculture can be looked at as a system. The important input are seeds, fertilisers, machinery and labour. In the agriculture industry there is a lot of ploughing, sowing, irrigation, weeding and harvesting.  Some of the products you get from the agriculture industry are crop’s, wool, dairy, and poultry products.

3. HISTORY  Agriculture in British Columbia was first developed to help feed the fur trade in 1811  Daniel Harmon started a garden at Stuart Lake, after that the Hudson Bay Company planted small gardens on Vancouver Island at Fort St James, Fort Fraser, and Fort George  Hudsons Bay Compan helped start the Puget’s Sound Agriculture Company and after that there was high demand for agriculture products  Railway production camps in the early 1880s had a domestic market for agriculture products

4. HISTORY  By the 1880s the Okanagan Valley had developed a fruit industry  In 1889 the British Columbia Fruit Growers Association was founded and it was the first formal organization of producers in the province  In 1923 a plan called on fruit growers to agree to sell for 5 years through a central agency.  This is a picture of the British Columbia Fruit Growers Association building in 1889

5. IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE  The Agriculture industry is a vital, interdependent component of BC’s economy  Agriculture is very important because it provides crops, wool, dairy, and poultry items  Agriculture is Canada’s most important single industry  The economic welfare of the whole nation is affected by the changes in farm income and purchasing power  Bc’s products are sold to other provinces and countries

6. IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE  Over 200 different commodities are produced on about 20,000 agricultural farms  Agriculture plays a critical role in the entire life of a given economy  Agricultural and fish products valued at over $2.7 billion are exported to 140 countries around the world  Food retail sales in British Columbia are over $15.7 billion each year  In addition to providing food and raw material, agriculture also provides Job opportunities to a large percentage of the population

7. PROBLEM  The agriculture industry faces the problem of the loss of land available for planting crops and maintaining animals for food production due to the world’s over population  Farm sizes shrink with each generation because more land is needed for people to live rather than for agriculture to flourish  Global community now faces a crisis in land and agriculture that places risk on the health, security and sustainability of our civilization  The world faces a food crisis because there are more mouths to feed than there are food sources  The more people there are, the fewer resources there are to meet basic needs

8. THE GOOD…  With technology companies are now able to produce food in ways where they don’t need the physical land or the organic processes  Regions are no longer forced to grow crops that are specific to the climate because of technology  Because of advances to architecture and construction the industry can house more animals in smaller spaces  Greenhouses  Solar power  Poultry farms  Mass slaughter houses

9. AND THE BAD…  Because of the way we are now housing poultry and cattle, the quality of the meat people are eating is poor  There are health benefits to eating according to our own climate, region and season and while it’s enjoyable to have tropical fruit in the winter it’s not healthy  More and more land is being used for condo development or big box stores which means land is being lost for agriculture and the economic state of small business farmers is bad

10. GLOBAL ISSUE  BC is in a fortunate position because of the number of natural resources and amount of available land, but globally the agriculture industry is in a crisis  Countries like China are running out of arable land because of the population growth and therefor face a inability to feed its people

11. GLOBAL ISSUE  There is food to feed everyone in the world but most often food sources are not reaching those in the most need  Regions have to bring in their food from other countries because of the lack of the available land are adding to the worlds pollution  This is a frater transporting food

12. SOLUTION  We could fix this issue by setting up charities for people who are in need  Regions should start growing all there own food instead of getting it imported if the food is not in season  Regions should stop importing food and the pollution rate will go down a lot  Everyone could have there own homestead in there backyard

13. SOURCES  BCAC:home-www.bcac.bc.ca  Agriculture-province of BC-www.Gov.bc.ca.agril  Aitc.cabc.bcs-agriculture  Horizons (pg 367-369)  Wikipedia