Agriculture early practices

Shifting cultivation, one of the first agricultural practices developed, is still widely used. In the early 1970s, about 36 million square kilometers of land were farmed under this system, producing food for about 250 million people. Each hectare (2.47 acres or... 

Initial studies examining the function of siderophores in the rhizosphere have focused on practical problems related to agricultural biotechnology. Early research suggested the involvement of siderophores in plant disease suppression by certain root-colonizing pseudomonads (2). Since then, it has become apparent that siderophore-mediated interactions are only part of the story of how microor-... 

With the coming of man, the disappearance of species and nKtabolites took a steep course, characterized by the non recovery of the diversity. Early man was a himter, particularly of large animals, but the greatest impact on biodiversity started with agricultural practices and the colonization of small islands it took a non linear treixl with the great ejq)editions of the Renaissance. 

Man has always exerted a heavy pressure on biodiversity. Evidence has accumulated that wherever the early human societies arrived, forest regressed, biodiversity was reduced, and the soil was eroded, while remedies were only sporadically applied (Moore 1998). Man appeared 100,000 years ago in his modem form, and was the main cause of the disappearance of the mammoth 11,000 years ago (Fig. 16.2). The practice of cutting and burning, introduced along with agriculture 7,000 years ago, resulted in extensive deforestation, which took a massive form about 300 years ago with the colonization of North America by the Europeans. 

Products of the petroleum industry have been used in agriculture for the control of pests practically since the initial recovery of oil from the earth. The early uses were as dormant sprays for deciduous fruit trees and for weed control. The development and expansion of petroleum products and petroleum chemicals in agricultural pest control fields have closely paralleled the technological development of the petroleum industry. 

By 1900 many analytical procedures were available. Dujardin-Salleron (France) not only codified these procedures but also produced the necessary equipment for them (I). Official methods of wine analysis were soon developed in France and many other countries, and our own Association of Official Agricultural Chemists began developing tentative and official methods of wine analysis as early as 1916 (2) these continue to the present (3). Official methods of analysis, both for reference and routine purposes, are given on the international field by the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (4) and by Amerine and Ough (5). For current American practices see Refs. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12a. For European procedures see Refs. 4, 9,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23. 

Atrazine and Oil In the western part of the Com Belt and the Great Plains, the agricultural extension service promoted the practice of applying a mixture of a lower rate of atrazine and oil in an early postemergence spray (when weeds hrst appeared). A highly refined crop oil was used, similar to that used in fruit-tree sprays. The practice was adopted extensively, especially in the Northern states to reduce the cost of herbicide treatment and lessen the potential for carryover. 

Occupational pesticide exposure holds a peculiar status within the field of occupational health and safety, both from a scientific and regulatory perspective. Methods for personal monitoring of dermal exposure first arose in the context of pesticide applications in agriculture, pioneered by scientists in the USA Public Health Service (Batchelor and Walker, 1954 Durham and Wolfe, 1962). These methods gained worldwide recognition in the early 1960s, and remain a component of exposure assessment practice today. This work pre-dated most personal monitoring methods that were developed for industrial workplaces. 

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