Market Sheep Meat Goat Project Record: Fill & Download for Free

15,000 years ago, Britain was an uninhabited peninsula of northern Europe covered under immense sheets of ice. The ice gradually melted, and people and animals moved back into the newly-uncovered landscape. The sea levels rose, and at some point between 8000 and 6000 BCE, Britain became an island.Those early inhabitants of the British Isles were nomadic hunter-gatherers, living in small family bands, using crude stone tools, and constantly moving from place to place. However, about 6500 years ago - in 4500 BCE, give or take a few centuries - a technological revolution occurred. Agriculture was introduced to the islands; people began farming and raising livestock. That allowed them to create permanent settlements, and even construct stone buildings. They developed more sophisticated artefacts, such as polished stone tools and pottery. The population increased dramatically, and people began to affect the landscape by man-made changes such as cutting down forests. This new era is called the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.A Neolithic landscape - half a dozen tiny, widely scattered farmsteads on the high ground, grouped around a central communal enclosure; with dense forests still untouched in the lowlands. (Maiden Castle, Dorset)Agriculture had first been discovered in the Middle East about two thousand years earlier. It spread, very slowly, through Europe via the Balkans and Danube valley. At this late date we don't know whether it was introduced to Britain by peaceful immigrants or violent invaders, or whether the local inhabitants saw what their Continental neighbours were doing and simply copied them. We do know it was a slow, gradual process, not an overnight change.The Neolithic Age in Britain lasted about 2000 years - a vast length of time that obviously would have included many changes and new developments, but since the people left no written records, we can only guess at them. We do know that the population increased dramatically for roughly the first half of the period, but then plateaued or even fell - there are signs of fields being abandoned and forests growing back where they had been cleared. Clearly there was a crisis of some kind, but we don't know what - civil war? Invasion? Plague? Famine? Culture also changed; most remarkably, houses were usually square in the early part of the period and round in the later. Ways of burying the dead also changed dramatically, from large communal tombs to smaller tombs for individuals.Most notably, the second half of the Neolithic era saw the building of the first of the great stone circles and monuments that are characteristically associated with prehistoric Britain. Not Stonehenge, however - while the site was in use during the Neolithic period, the great stones that still stand today were actually erected in the following era, the Bronze Age.The Avebury stone circle, the largest in Europe, was constructed in about 2600 BCE.Bronze and metalworking was introduced to Britain sometime around or after 2800-2500 BCE. As with agriculture, we don't know if it was brought there by immigrants or conquerors, or adopted by the locals through trade and imitation. The new technology led to some immediate changes - cutting down trees with a bronze axe was far easier and less effort than doing so with a stone axe, so timber was used more widely and more forests were cleared for agriculture. In other respects, though, there was a lot of continuity. People carried on building the same sort of houses and tombs, constructing stone circles the same way; there does not seem to have been any dramatic social change. They even continued to use stone tools for another couple of thousand years; metal tools seem to have been quite rare and expensive, and used for special purposes only.The so-called 'Early Bronze Age' in Britain came to an end around 1500 BCE, a thousand or more years later. This transition, by contrast, was a time of major changes - technology changed, the old stone circles were abandoned, people were now cremated instead of being buried, and there is evidence of a more hierarchical and warlike society organised into larger political groupings. Accordingly, this answer will focus on the period before 1500 BCE.The Neolithic village of Skara Brae in the OrkneysSo what was life like in Neolithic and early Bronze Age Britain?The first thing to note is that the population was, by modern standards, extremely low. Most early Neolithic settlements consist only of two or three houses; maybe a couple of dozen people at most. That would be one, perhaps two extended families. Skara Brae in the Orkneys, a village founded in about 3200 BCE and inhabited for around 700 years before being abandoned, had eight houses and was home to around 50 people - a metropolis by Neolithic standards. However, the large and elaborate tombs, enclosures and stone circles found all over the landscape would have needed many more than a few dozen people to build. It is likely, then, that the people from many different settlements cooperated to build these monuments. That in turn implies some form of organisation - a government - to coordinate all the people's activities; but we know nothing about the form it took.It is well-known that monuments such as Stonehenge often incorporate astronomical significance in their construction, such as the sun shining directly down the centre of the monument at sunrise, noon or sunset of one specific day of the year. A logical conclusion - but still only a guess - is that the people from the many surrounding small villages and settlements gathered together at the central monument on those days. Here they may have engaged in religious rituals, or political meetings, or set up a market for trade, or arranged marriages, or conducted funerals. We can only speculate.People in Neolithic times lived in different locations to those most populated by later inhabitants of the British Isles. River valleys offer the most fertile soil, but this is heavy and rich with clay, and difficult to work unless you have metal ploughs. The valleys were also usually heavily forested, which as already mentioned posed challenges for people who only had stone axes. Therefore, Neolithic people lived mostly on the hills and uplands, with few trees and thin soils, which were easier to work with their more primitive tools. The chalk downs of south-west England, such as Salisbury Plain, therefore seem to have been the centre of Neolithic population. The Orkneys in the far north of Scotland, today regarded as a rather bleak and remote region, also seem to have been a major population and cultural centre in those far-off days.(As a caution, though, it should be noted that it might be that we have found more remains of Neolithic settlement in the more unpopulated areas of Britain simply because their settlements in the more sheltered and fertile areas have been obliterated after 5500 years of constant habitation by others.)The discovery of bronze allowed for more deforestation and a spread of the population to the river valleys, but this process would not be complete until the much later introduction of the iron plough.'Stonehenge Man', reconstructed by modern forensic techniques from the remains of a man who died in Wiltshire, England about 5500 years ago.Although the people were widely scattered, they do seem to have travelled about frequently. We have already noted their construction of large communal facilities at central locations, but even longer-distance travel was known. Scientists recently examined the skeleton of a man who died, aged about 30, in approximately the year 3500 BCE in Wiltshire. From analysis of the strontium and oxygen content of his tooth enamel, they were able to determine that he was born in Western Britain - probably Wales, or maybe Devon - and was brought to the Wiltshire area at the age of two. However, his life involved frequent travel between the two locations - he returned to his birthplace at the age of nine, came back to Wiltshire two years later, and subsequently travelled back and forth multiple times during his teens. The researchers were also able to determine that he was well-fed - no signs of childhood malnutrition - and ate a diet that was high in meat and dairy products. It seems he came from a privileged, high-status family, perhaps nobles or priests. He was 1.72 metres tall (5'8") and of slender build. His cause of death is unknown - his skeleton was undamaged. He was buried in a large tomb that must have taken many people years to construct, and is still visible today.Most Neolithic people seem to have been smaller than this - the average height of the bodies we have recovered is 1.65 m (5'5") for adult males. Malnutrition, worn teeth from eating coarse, gritty food, and early-onset arthritis seem to have plagued them. It wasn't a happy life unless you were one of the elite. Death in childhood was common, and even those who survived infancy seem to have lived no more than 30 or 35 years on average. Only a tiny fraction of the skeletons that have been excavated show that the person managed to reach the age of 50.The people practised mixed farming. Wheat and barley were grown, and cows and sheep were domesticated, along with some pigs and goats. They had dogs as well. However, farming was supplemented by hunting as well - deer and fish, for example. The people of the Orkneys caught seals. The bow and arrow as well as the spear and axe were known to Neolithic people.Reconstruction of a Neolithic farming villageIt seems that shifting cultivation was practised, since crop rotation was unknown. That is, a family would farm a particular region for about 10-20 years until the soil became exhausted. They would then pack up and move on to a new location, build new houses for themselves, and farm the new place. Such practices were obviously only practical in regions with low population density and lots of free land for the taking.Tools were made of stone, as well as wood, bone and horn. One difference of the Neolithic Age compared to the previous eras was that these stone tools were much more elaborate, carefully polished with sand and water and grinding to a smooth surface. This gave them a better edge, and also allowed them to be re-sharpened several times before having to be replaced. The downside of polishing is that it is very labour-intensive; making such tools is a full-time job, which implies that Neolithic communities supported craftsmen who specialised in this task and traded their products to other people in return for food and other essentials.Neolithic people obtained the stone for tools by digging it from the ground - but by the later era they were actually mining it from underground. In southern England there are mineshafts 15 metres deep in the chalk downs, dug by stone-age people to extract flint. High-quality stone was also traded long distances.A highly polished stone axehead found in Kent. The stone was mined in Italy, however, proving that long-distance trade existed 6000 years ago. This axe was probably never used as a tool - it's undamaged - being instead valued for symbolic reasons of some kind.Pottery was introduced during this period. Early Neolithic pots were crude and heavy; by 3500 BCE finer containers with incised decoration were being made. During the Bronze Age, from about 2500 BCE, a very elaborate style of decorated cup was introduced from continental Europe, distinctive enough to give the name 'Beaker People' to the culture of that time.One of the famous 'beakers' from which the Beaker People were given their name. This pot is about 4500 years old.Metalworking came into the country from 2500 BCE onwards - mostly bronze, but also copper and gold. The ore was melted in furnaces made hot by bellows - but at this stage they were not yet hot enough to melt iron, and it would be another 2000 years before that metal came into use. Axes, knives and spearheads were made from bronze, though stone remained in use alongside it for many centuries.We don't know what sort of clothes people wore, but presumably they were made of animal hide - we can guess at this because we do at least still have the bone needles they used for sewing. They made ornaments such as necklaces, brooches and bracelets from bone and horn, and later from gold and copper too.A selection of beads made from polished jet and amber; they were probably threaded on a cord to make a necklace. Made in Yorkshire, and buried (with the axehead also shown) in a grave in northern Scotland in about 3600 BCE.People travelled on foot. Horses were not domesticated during the Neolithic, though they were hunted for food. At some point during the Bronze Age, around 2500-2000 BCE, people in Britain learned to harness horses to wheeled vehicles. However, boats were already in use even before the Neolithic.The earliest known boats were made of leather stretched over a framework of wood or bone, similar to the kayak or coracle still used in historical times. Dug-out canoes were a slightly later development; depending on the size of the tree used to make them these could be of considerable size, able to carry a heavy cargo or multiple passengers. By the Early Bronze Age, circa 2000 BCE, even larger boats were being made out of multiple planks fastened together, large enough to need 20 paddlemen and capable of crossing the sea between Britain and the Continent. The sail was not yet in use; these boats were propelled using paddles.This boat, made from a single large tree-trunk, was being use to carry stone from a quarry down the River Trent when it sank in about 1500 BCE. Similar boats had been in use for thousands of years by that time.Houses were normally made of wood, though in the treeless Orkneys stone houses were made from a much earlier date than the rest of Britain. As mentioned earlier, houses were usually rectangular, but after around 3000 BCE they were increasingly round in shape instead, until by the Early Bronze Age these 'roundhouses' were standard. Houses had a single large room, and the walls were usually made of wattle-and-daub - a lattice of wooden rods woven together and fastened to upright poles hammered into the ground at intervals, then coated with mud that was allowed to dry to make a windproof coating. Roofs were thatched or made of turf (in the Orkneys they used slate). An open fireplace provided heat and cooking facilities.A recent discovery - only four years ago - proved that Neolithic people knew how to make red, yellow or white paint out of minerals; and they used it to decorate the outside of their buildings. How common this practice was is unknown; the only example of it found so far is from (where else?) the Orkneys.Reconstructed Neolithic houses in Wiltshire.Ceremonial and monumental constructions were much more elaborate. The earliest types, known from around 4000 BCE onwards, were called chambered tombs or long barrows. These were structures made either from wood or large stone blocks, then covered over with piled earth. Inside the barrow were several individual chambers connected to a single entrance by a passage; there was a forecourt which might be paved or surrounded by standing stones outside the entrance. It is assumed that these were communal burial places for the surrounding communities, with each extended family burying its dead in one of the chambers. The forecourt outside was perhaps used for religious or funeral rites.Five hundred years later, the first 'causewayed enclosures' were built. These are large open-air enclosures, usually circular, surrounded by a ditch and bank. They are large enough for hundreds of people to congregate inside. Their purpose is unknown - they may have been temples, fortresses, markets, royal courts, or perhaps all of the above. Before the stone circles were built, Stonehenge was one of these enclosures. Such sites are often noted by having items buried in the ditch around them - human or animal skulls, pottery, axeheads, etc. This may have had a religious significance - perhaps as sacrifices or votive offerings.Standing stones and henges were introduced around 3300 BCE and continued to be built for the next 2000 years or so. Their purpose was presumably religious in some way, but that's only a guess (since it sometimes seems that whenever archaeologists can't work out the purpose of some impressive ancient structure, they assume it was religious!)Around 3000 BCE, there was a significant change in burial customs. The old communal tombs ceased to be built and maintained; instead we see round barrows. These were tombs for a single person, but their size shows they were constructed by the labour of many. The dead person was often entombed with valuable grave goods - tools, weapons, jewellery.This clearly shows that by the late Neolithic Age society had become more hierarchical than before, with a rich and powerful ruling class able to command the services of many ordinary people to build huge tombs for them. This was also the time of the great monuments and stone circles, which again suggests that this new powerful class of rulers had enough resources to embark on such major long-term projects.We all know what this is, don't we?So to sum up: as a Neolithic inhabitant of Britain you probably lived crammed into a flimsy wooden house along with the rest of your brothers and sisters, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, in-laws and dependants, in a small hamlet of no more than two or three other houses. You probably wouldn’t know many people older than about 35; white hair would be a rare sign of distinction. You'd live high on a windswept hillside, farming wheat and barley with stone hoes and bone sickles and tending your herds of cows and sheep. About once a generation, you'd pack up your things and move to a new home, building your house from scratch.You'd know other families who lived nearby, and perhaps once or twice a year you'd all gather at the central enclosure to watch the sun rise between the standing stones, and conduct religious ceremonies. These might involve sacrificing animals, or deliberately breaking or burying valuable items as an offering to the gods. Then you'd trade, hold festivities, discuss the years' events, and arrange marriages before going home again to work your fields. Maybe there'd be a local noble family - kings or priests or shamans - who organised things, enforced laws, and expected you to work for them a certain number of days per year or supply them with a certain amount of food from your own fields. The details of that, however, we don't know.

“What is the difference between yellow and white beef fat?” “Is it just the flavour?”There can be any number of reasons for this variation. Some very rough and I mean very rough conclusions can be drawn that yellow fat is more prevalent in grass fed cattle and older cattle. Taste wise, expect a lot of opinions, objectively there is no difference, carotenoids (source of the yellowness) are a pigment and flavor precursor.[1] It by itself has no flavor, I know already there will be people that say it does, subjectively remember we also “eat or taste with our eyes”.*Much of the following I am paraphrasing, the PDF links are at the end for exact perusal.Factors affecting fat colour include diet, inheritance, age, carcass fat depot, chilling regime and processing technique. Yellowness of fat is due to the presence of carotenoid pigments within adipocytes or to certain diseases. Beta-carotene, a major precursor of vitamin A, is the main contributing carotenoid pigment in beef fat although trace amounts of alpha-carotene and xanthophylls have also been found. The greater the concentration of carotenoids in the fat, the more intense is the yellow colouring. Many studies of fat colour have used subjective assessment of fat colour or laboratory methods to measure carotenoid concentration in a sample of excised fat. Advances in the technology of colour instruments have recently produced portable reflectance chromameters which measure in the three dimensional CIEL*a*b* colour space as recommended by CIE (1978). L* represents the surface lightness/darkness, a*, the redness/greenness and b*, the yellowness/blueness. b*-value is considered the ideal objective measurement of the Thus, the yellowness of a fat surface. The aim of this project was to quantify the relationship between objective measurement and subjective assessment of fat colour and also to investigate the sources of variation in subcutaneous fat colour of a beef carcass.Most of the carcasses having extremely yellow fat occured in aged cattle of the dairy breeds as findings in other studies have shown. This study does indicate the presence of very yellow fat in aged cattle as evidenced by the fat colour of Channel Island, British and other dairy breeds. Female cattle had yellower fat than castrates for the British breed cattle across all dentition categories. The effect of feeding grain, for finishing cattle,has been reported to reduce yellow colour in the fat as a result of the low beta-carotene content of grain. Our results confirmed this as whiter fat was recorded in British breed cattle in the grain fed categories when compared with those of the grassfed category at the same age as indicated by dentition. Longer periods of grain feeding have been shown to cause continual reduction in yellow fat colour. This effect was noted in the whiter fat of export feedlot cattle (in the feedlot for more than 100 days) compared with domestic feedlot cattle. The potential for reducing the yellowness of beef fat through dietary manipulation in the weeks/months pre-slaughter warrants further investigation.*This next sentence stands out because the Asian market demands primarily white fat, and has little tolerance for yellow fat deeming it inferior.It is particularly relevant for expanding export markets in Japan and the Pacific rim.Fat colour in healthy cattle, cream/yellow fat colour occurs when cattle graze green pasture. This results from the ingestion and absorption of yellow pigments that are present in plants. These pigments have been identified as carotenoids, with beta-carotene being the major component responsible for fat colour in cattle. The yellow colour of the carotenoids in green plants is not obvious because their colour is swamped by the large amounts of chlorophyll. However, carotenoids are relatively unstable and as soon as grass appears to have dried, their concentration is much reduced. Most grains contain only small concentrations of carotenoids. This is why fat colour decreases when cattle are fed in feedlots. Beta-carotene is only a minor component (about 5-8%) of the total carotenoids in plants. However, it is selectively absorbed, accounting for more than 80% of the yellow pigments present in beef fat. It should be stressed that beta-carotene is essential to maintain the health and performance of animals. Cattle grain fed for long periods without supplementation can have low vitamin A and carotenoid reserves, and their growth performance can be reduced. Presently, the only way of reducing fat colour of grass-fed cattle is to move them to a feedlot and feed them a grain-based (low carotenoid) diet for several months. This produces a satisfactory fat colour in most cattle, but not all animals will finish with acceptable fat colour. The eventual fat colour at the end of the grain-feeding period depends in part on the following factors, as well as days on feed and carotenoid concentrations of the diet:1. The yellowness of the fat of animals when they enter the feedlot2. The amount of fat that the animal puts on in the feedlot3. The rate of utilisation of carotene from body fat.Breed and nutrition may influence the first factor. Although there are well known differences in fat colour between certain breeds (Channel Island cattle, e.g. Jersey and Guernsey compared with Holstein/Freisian and beef breeds) colour can only develop if the carotenoid pigments are present in their diet. In addition, there appears to be a large difference between individuals of the same breed, even when they have grazed the same pasture, suggesting that individuals have different abilities to absorb, convert to vitamin A and deposit carotenoids in fatty tissues. These differences are not as great as those known to occur between cattle and some other ruminant species. Unlike cattle, sheep, goats and buffalo have white fat. Some of the difference may be explained by the greater conversion of dietary beta-carotene to vitamin A (a colourless compound) in the gut wall of sheep, goats and buffalo, thus leaving less intact carotenoid to be deposited. However, it is likely that other factors play an equally important role, in particular, the specificity of the absorption process in the gut. Nutritional setback can influence fat colour in cattle, as loss of depot fat results in the colour of the remaining fat becoming more intense. This is particularly so in older cattle that have been on changing planes of nutrition for many years. Factors such as dietary protein and fat intake increase carotenoid absorption, whereas any disease or condition of the gut, such as coccidiosis or acidosis, decreases absorption. The amount of fat an animal puts on in the feedlot is influenced by its breed, sex, and liveweight (at entry) and its growth rate. Excitable animals or animals that grow slowly for other reasons will not fatten; hence their initial fat colour is less diluted than that of cattle that grow and fatten normally. There appear to be individual animal variations in the rate of utilisation of carotene from fat, even in animals of the same age, breed and sex, growing at the same rate, on the same feed ration. The causes of these variations are not known. Intensity in fat colour may change during chilling and holding of meat. Chilling may influence fat colour in two ways: firstly, through surface drying (intensifying the colour of the external surface), which takes place immediately after skinning and washing; secondly, by cooling and solidifying the fat, the effect of which is to reduce colour intensity - however, the effect of temperature alone is temporary in that it can be reversed.sources of variation in subcutaneous fat colour of beef carcasseshttp://PDFwww.asap.asn.au › Walker90Beef fat quality - Meat Industry Serviceshttp://PDFwww.meatupdate.csiro.au › data › MEA...Footnotes[1] Carotenoids as Flavor & Fragrance Precursors

China has lot of agricultural land so they grow cereals there.We can see the vast agriculture and fishing activities as under:Agriculture in ChinaA farmer of the Hani minority, famous for their rice terraced mountains in Yuanyang County, YunnanWoman tractor driver in China depicted in a 1964 poster.Agriculture is a vital industry in China, employing over 300 million farmers.China ranks first in worldwide farm output, primarily producing rice, wheat, potatoes, tomato, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed and soybeans.HistoryThe development of farming over the course of China's history has played a key role in supporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world. Analysis of stone tools by Professor Liu Li and others has shown that the origins of Chinese agriculture is rooted in the pre-agricultural Paleolithic. During this time, hunter-gatherers harvested wild plants with the same tools that would later be used for millet and rice.[Remains of domesticated millet have been found in northern China at Xinglonggou, Yuezhang, Dadiwan, Cishan, and several Peiligang sites. These sites cover a period over 6250-5050 BCE.The amount of domesticated millet eaten at these sites was proportionally quite low compared to other plants. At Xinglonggou, millet made up only 15% of all plant remains around 6200-5400 BCE; a ratio that changed to 99% by 2050-1550 BCE.Experiments have shown that millet requires very little human intervention to grow, which means that obvious changes in the archaeological record that could demonstrate millet was being cultivated do not exist.Excavations at Kuahuqiao, the earliest known Neolithic site in eastern China, have documented rice cultivation 7,700 years ago.[Approximately half of the plant remains belonged to domesticated japonica species, whilst the other half were wild types of rice. It is possible that the people at Kuahuqiao also cultivated the wild type.Finds at sites of the Hemudu Culture (c.5500-3300 BCE) in Yuyaoand Banpo near Xi'an include millet and spade-like tools made of stone and bone. Evidence of settled rice agriculture has been found at the Hemudu site of Tianluoshan (5000-4500 BCE), with rice becoming the backbone of the agricultural economy by the Majiabang culture in southern China.There is also a long tradition involving agriculture in Chinese mythology. In his book Permanent Agriculture: Farmers of Forty Centuries (1911), Professor Franklin Hiram King described and extolled the values of the traditional farming practices of China.Farming method improvementsPloughing with a buffalo, HubeiDue to China's status as a developing countryand its severe shortage of arable land, farming in China has always been very labor-intensive. However, throughout its history, various methods have been developed or imported that enabled greater farming production and efficiency. They also utilized the seed drill to help improve on row farming.During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), two revolutionary improvements in farming technology took place. One was the use of cast iron tools and beasts of burden to pull plows, and the other was the large-scale harnessing of rivers and development of water conservation projects. The engineer Sunshu Ao of the 6th century BC and Ximen Bao of the 5th century BC are two of the oldest hydraulic engineers from China, and their works were focused upon improving irrigation systems.These developments were widely spread during the ensuing Warring States period (403–221 BC), culminating in the enormous Du Jiang Yan Irrigation System engineered by Li Bing by 256 BC for the State of Qin in ancient Sichuan.Ploughing with a motor plough, Yuxi, YunnanFor agricultural purposes the Chinese had invented the hydraulic-powered trip hammerby the 1st century BC, during the ancient Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).Although it found other purposes, its main function was to pound, decorticate, and polish grain that otherwise would have been done manually. The Chinese also innovated the square-pallet chain pump by the 1st century AD, powered by a waterwheel or oxen pulling on a system of mechanical wheels.Although the chain pump found use in public works of providing water for urban and palatial pipe systems,it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation canals and channels for farmland.During the Eastern Jin (317–420) and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589), the Silk Road and other international trade routes further spread farming technology throughout China. Political stability and a growing labor force led to economic growth, and people opened up large areas of wasteland and built irrigation works for expanded agricultural use. As land-use became more intensive and efficient, rice was grown twice a year and cattle began to be used for plowing and fertilization.By the Tang dynasty (618–907), China had become a unified feudal agricultural society. Improvements in farming machinery during this era included the moldboard plow and watermill. Later during the Yuan dynasty(1271–1368), cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved.While around 750, 75% of China's population lived north of the river Yangtze, by 1250, 75% of the population lived south of the river. Such large-scale internal migration was possible due to the introduction of quick-ripening strains of rice from Vietnam suitable for multi-cropping.The Qing, Ming and Yuan dynasties had seen the rise of collective help organizations between farmers.In 1909 US Professor of Agriculture Franklin Hiram King made an extensive tour of China (as well as Japan and briefly Korea) and he described contemporary agricultural practices. He favourably described the farming of China as 'permanent agriculture' and his book 'Farmers of Forty Centuries', published posthumously in 1911, has become an agricultural classic and has been a favoured reference source for organic farmingadvocates. The book has inspired many community-supported agriculture farmers in China to conduct ecological farming.People's Republic of ChinaMain article: History of agriculture in the People's Republic of ChinaA harvest in ChinaFollowing the Communist Party of China's victory in the Chinese Civil War, control of the farmlands was taken away from landlords and redistributed to the 300 million peasant farmers,including mass killings of landlords under Mao Zedong. In 1952, gradually consolidating its power following the civil war, the government began organizing the peasants into teams. Three years later, these teams were combined into producer cooperatives, enacting the socialistgoal of collective land ownership. In the following year, 1956, the government formally took control of the land, further structuring the farmland into large government-operated collective farms.In the 1958 "Great Leap Forward" campaign initiated by Mao Zedong, land use was placed under closer government control in an effort to improve agricultural output. In particular, the Great sparrow campaign had a direct negative impact on agriculture. Collectives were organized into communes, private food production was banned, and collective eating was required. Greater emphasis was also put on industrialization instead of agriculture. The farming inefficiencies created by this campaign led to The Great Chinese Famine, resulting in the deaths of somewhere between the government estimate of 14 million to scholarly estimates of 20 to 43 million.Although private plots of land were re-instated in 1962 due to this failure, communes remained the dominant rural unit of economic organization during the Cultural Revolution, with Mao championing the "Learn from Tachai" campaign. Tachai's semiliterate party secretary Chen Yonggui was among those outmaneuvered by Deng Xiaoping after the death of Mao: from 1982–1985, the Dazhai-style communes were gradually replaced by townships.Beginning in 1978, as part of the Four Modernizations campaign, the Family Production Responsibility System was created, dismantling communes and giving agricultural production responsibility back to individual households. Households are now given crop quotas that they were required to provide to their collective unit in return for tools, draft animals, seeds, and other essentials. Households, which now lease land from their collectives, are free to use their farmland however they see fit as long as they meet these quotas. This freedom has given more power to individual families to meet their individual needs. In addition to these structural changes, the Chinese government also engages in irrigation projects (such as the Three Gorges Dam), runs large state farms, and encourages mechanization and fertilizer use.By 1984, when about 99% of farm production teams had adopted the Family Production Responsibility System, the government began further economic reforms, aimed primarily at liberalizing agricultural pricing and marketing. In 1984, the government replaced mandatory procurement with voluntary contracts between farmers and the government. Later, in 1993, the government abolished the 40-year-old grain rationing system, leading to more than 90 percent of all annual agricultural produce to be sold at market-determined prices.Lotus seeds and roots are a major crop in Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, and Jiangxi provincesSince 1994, the government has instituted a number of policy changes aimed at limiting grain importation and increasing economic stability. Among these policy changes was the artificial increase of grain prices above market levels. This has led to increased grain production, while placing the heavy burden of maintaining these prices on the government. In 1995, the "Governor’s Grain Bag Responsibility System" was instituted, holding provincial governors responsible for balancing grain supply and demand and stabilizing grain prices in their provinces. Later, in 1997, the "Four Separations and One Perfection" program was implemented to relieve some of the monetary burdens placed on the government by its grain policy.As China continues to industrialize, vast swaths of agricultural land is being converted into industrial land. Farmers displaced by such urban expansion often become migrant labor for factories, but other farmers feel disenfranchised and cheated by the encroachment of industry and the growing disparity between urban and rural wealth and income.The most recent innovation in Chinese agriculture is a push into organic agriculture.This rapid embrace of organic farming simultaneously serves multiple purposes, including food safety, health benefits, export opportunities, and, by providing price premiums for the produce of rural communities, the adoption of organics can help stem the migration of rural workers to the cities.In the mid-1990s China became a net importer of grain, since its unsustainable practises of groundwater mining has effectively removed considerable land from productive agricultural production.Major agricultural productsCrop distributionAgricultural regions of Mainland Chinain 1986Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only 12.6% of its total land area can be cultivated. China's arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world's population.Of this approximately 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land, only about 1.2% (116,580 square kilometers) permanently supports crops and 525,800 square kilometers are irrigated.The land is divided into approximately 200 million households, with an average land allocation of just 0.65 hectares (1.6 acres).China's limited space for farming has been a problem throughout its history, leading to chronic food shortage and famine. While the production efficiency of farmland has grown over time, efforts to expand to the west and the north have met with limited success, as such land is generally colder and drier than traditional farmlands to the east. Since the 1950s, farm space has also been pressured by the increasing land needs of industry and cities.Peri-urban agricultureBok choy-like greens grown in a square outside of Ezhou railway stationsSuch increases in the sizes of cities, such as the administrative district of Beijing's increase from 4,822 km2(1,862 sq mi) in 1956 to 16,808 km2(6,490 sq mi) in 1958, has led to the increased adoption of peri-urban agriculture. Such "suburban agriculture" led to more than 70% of non-staple food in Beijing, mainly consisting of vegetables and milk, to be produced by the city itself in the 1960s and 1970s. Recently, with relative food security in China, periurban agriculture has led to improvements in the quality of the food available, as opposed to quantity. One of the more recent experiments in urban agriculture is the Modern Agricultural Science Demonstration Park in Xiaotangshan.Food cropsAncient terraced rice fields in Yuanyang County, YunnanPeanut harvest in Jiangxia, HubeiAbout 75% of China's cultivated area is used for food crops. Rice is China's most important crop, raised on about 25% of the cultivated area. The majority of rice is grown south of the Huai River, in the Zhu Jiang delta, and in the Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces.Wheat is the second most-prevalent grain crop, grown in most parts of the country but especially on the North China Plain, the Weiand Fen River valleys on the Loess plateau, and in Jiangsu, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces. Corn and millet are grown in north and northeast China, and oat is important in Inner Mongolia and Tibet.Other crops include sweet potatoes in the south, white potatoes in the north (China is the largest producer of potatoes in the world), and various other fruits and vegetables. Tropical fruits are grown on Hainan Island, apples and pears are grown in northern Liaoning and Shandong.Oil seeds are important in Chinese agriculture, supplying edible and industrial oils and forming a large share of agricultural exports. In North and Northeast China, Chinese soybeans are grown to be used in tofu and cooking oil. China is also a leading producer of peanuts, which are grown in Shandong and Hebei provinces. Other oilseed crops are sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, rapeseed, and the seeds of the tung tree.Citrus is a major cash crop in southern China, with production scattered along and south of the Yangtze River valley. Mandarins are the most popular citrus in China, with roughly double the output of oranges.Other important food crops for China include green and jasmine teas (popular among the Chinese population), black tea (as an export), sugarcane, and sugar beets.Tea plantations are located on the hillsides of the middle Yangtze Valley and in the southeast provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang. Sugarcane is grown in Guangdong and Sichuan, while sugar beets are raised in Heilongjiang province and on irrigated land in Inner Mongolia. Lotus is widely cultivated throughout southern China.Arabica coffee is grown in the southwestern province of Yunnan.Much smaller plantations also exist in Hainan and Fujian.Fiber cropsCotton growing in Yangxin County, HubeiChina is the leading producer of cotton, which is grown throughout, but especially in the areas of the North China Plain, the Yangtze river delta, the middle Yangtze valley, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Other fiber crops include ramie, flax, jute, and hemp. Sericulture, the practice of silkworm raising, is also practiced in central and southern China.LivestockChina has a large livestock population, with pigs and fowls being the most common. China’s pig population and pork production mainly lie along the Yangtze River. In 2011, Sichuan province had 51 million pigs (11% of China’s total supply).In rural western China, sheep, goats, and camels are raised by nomadic herders.In Tibet, yaks are raised as a source of food, fuel, and shelter. Cattle, water buffalo, horses, mules, and donkeys are also raised in China, and dairy has recently been encouraged by the government, even though approximately 92.3% of the adult population is affected by some level of lactose intolerance.As demand for gourmet foods grows, production of more exotic meats increases as well. Based on survey data from 684 Chinese turtle farms (less than half of the all 1,499 officially registered turtle farms in the year of the survey, 2002), they sold over 92,000 tons of turtles (around 128 million animals) per year; this is thought to correspond to the industrial total of over 300 million turtles per year.Increased incomes and increased demand for meat, especially pork, has resulted in demand for improved breeds of livestock, breeding stock imported particularly from the United States. Some of these breeds are adapted to factory farming.FishingMain articles: Fishing industry in China and Aquaculture in ChinaChina accounts for about one-third of the total fish production of the world. Aquaculture, the breeding of fish in ponds and lakes, accounts for more than half of its output. The principal aquaculture-producing regions are close to urban markets in the middle and lower Yangtze valley and the Zhu Jiang delta.ProductionIn its first fifty years, the People's Republic of China greatly increased agricultural production through organizational and technological improvements.However, since 2000 the depletion of China's main aquifers has led to an overall decrease in grain production, turning China into a net importer. The trend of Chinese dependence on imported food is expected to accelerate as the water shortage worsens.Despite their potential, desalination plants find few customers because it is still cheaper to over-utilize rivers, lakes and aquifers, even as these are depleted.As of 2011, China was both the world's largestproducer and consumer of agricultural products.However, the researcher Lin Erda has stated a projected fall of possibly 14% to 23% by 2050 due to water shortages and other impacts by climate change; China has increased the budget for agriculture by 20% in 2009, and continues to support energy efficiency measures, renewable technology, and other efforts with investments, such as the over 30% green component of the $586bn fiscal stimulus package announced in November 2008.ChallengesStrawberry fields in Yuxi, YunnanInefficiencies in the agricultural marketDespite rapid growth in output, the Chinese agricultural sector still faces several challenges. Farmers in several provinces, such as Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Liaoning, and Xinjiang often have a hard time selling their agricultural products to customers due to a lack of information about current conditions.Between the producing farmer in the countryside and the end-consumer in the cities there is a chain of intermediaries.Because a lack of information flows through them, farmers find it difficult to foresee the demand for different types of fruits and vegetables.In order to maximize their profits they, therefore, opt to produce those fruits and vegetables that created the highest revenues for farmers in the region in the previous year. If, however, most farmers do so, this causes the supply of fresh products to fluctuate substantially year on year. Relatively scarce products in one year are produced in excess the following year because like of expected higher profit margins.The resulting excess supply, however, forces farmers to reduce their prices and sell at a loss. The scarce, revenue creating products of one year become the over-abundant, loss-making products in the following, and vice versa.Efficiency is further impaired in the transportation of agricultural products from the farms to the actual markets. According to figures from the Commerce Department, up to 25% of fruits and vegetables rot before being sold, compared to around 5% in a typical developed country.As intermediaries cannot sell these rotten fruits they pay farmers less than they would if able to sell all or most of the fruits and vegetables.This reduces farmer’s revenues although the problem is caused by post-production inefficiencies, which they are not themselves aware of during price negotiations with intermediaries.These information and transportation problems highlight inefficiencies in the market mechanisms between farmers and end consumers, impeding farmers from taking advantage of the fast development of the rest of the Chinese economy.The resulting small profit margin does not allow them to invest in the necessary agricultural inputs (machinery, seeds, fertilizers, etc.) to raise productivity and improve their standards of living, from which the whole of the Chinese economy would benefit.This in turn increases the exodus of people from the countryside to the cities, which already face urbanization issues.International tradeTea leaves harvested in Muyu, Shennongjia Forest District, HubeiChina is the world's largest importer of soybeans and other food crops,and is expected to become the top importer of farm products within the next decade.In 2017, farmers in the providence of Donggaozhuang began selling yarn in an online marketplace owned by Alibaba Group. Many farmers later sold their farmland to focus on online sales as the access to global consumers yielded much more income then traditional farming.While most years China's agricultural production is sufficient to feed the country, in down years, China has to import grain.Due to the shortage of available farm land and an abundance of labor, it might make more sense to import land-extensive crops (such as wheat and rice) and to save China's scarce cropland for high-value export products, such as fruits, nuts, or vegetables.In order to maintain grain independence and ensure food security, however, the Chinese government has enforced policies that encourage grain production at the expense of more-profitable crops. Despite heavy restrictions on crop production, China's agricultural exports have greatly increased in recent years.So China feeds her citizens by growing crops and importing some rice after exporting industrial products.Thanksfor reading