The United States has long been a world leader in the production and exportation of cereal crops, especially corn. The ability of corn to withstand variations in climate and soils, combined with advances in hybridization, almost ensure the continued superiority of U.S. cereal production. Production of corn has risen from an average of 27 bushels per acre in 1900 to an expected average of 155 bushels per acre in 2008.
The United States is the top
The United States, the world’s largest exporter of wheat, was estimated in 2008 to produce 2.462 billion bushels. Although
Barley
The U.S. share of the world trade market for grain
Genetic
Mapping of the barley genome, scheduled to be completed by 2012, will lead to genetically modified barley seeds that not only are pest and disease resistant but also will improve malt quality. Despite the use of genetic modification in the United States for more than ten years and unceasing research to further it, the process continues to attract controversy. The controversy is not abated by the fact that crops are often grown to be more resilient and produce higher yields at the expense of their taste and nutritional value. That is, they are bred to be better commodities rather than to taste better.
As oil prices climbed during the early twenty-first century, researchers looked for the best means to make fuel from plants. Plants high in starch content, primarily corn and sorghum, can be turned into
As the ethanol production process is quicker and cheaper for plants high in sugar content–such as the sugarcane of Brazil–the United States has begun to integrate tropical maize into the corn grown in the Midwest. The maize stalks grow about 15 feet tall, compared to the 7.5-foot hybrid corn stalk; with fewer ears, maize contains more concentrated sugar in the stalk. The growth of corn for fuel raises concerns about the possibility of a decrease in the acreage devoted to production of corn and other grains for food; also, ethanol plants have been viewed as the impetus for the rising price of corn. Nevertheless, ethanol has been in production in the United States since 2001, and most automobile manufacturers equip new automobiles with the ability to use a 10 percent ethanol additive to gasoline. Some cities and states have passed laws requiring ethanol additives in an attempt to improve air quality.
Abdel-Aal, Elsayed, and Peter Wood, eds. Specialty Grains for Food and Feed. St. Paul, Minn.: American Association of Cereal Chemists, 2005. This collection of essays examines specialty cereal grains, including emmer wheat, waxy wheat, spelt, rye, sorghum, amaranth, and buckwheat, as foodstuffs and livestock feed. Blume, David. Alcohol Can Be a Gas: Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the Twenty-first Century. Santa Cruz, Calif.: International Institute for Ecological Agriculture, 2007. Aimed at the nonscientific reader, this reference book is a massive tome of information about alcohol–its production and viability for powering vehicles. Dongarra, Jack, ed. Cereals and Pseudocereals. New York: Springer, 2007. Looks at six international cereal crops and their possible use to prevent overemphasis on the reliable major cereal crops. Murphy, Denis J. People, Plants, and Genes: The Story of Crops and Humanity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. A thorough history of cereal crops and their effects on humanity, from earliest times to the present. Nicholl, Desmond S. T. An Introduction to Genetic Engineering. London: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Basic information for students concerning molecular biology and the manipulation of genes. Contains diagrams and maps.
Agribusiness
Agriculture
Alcoholic beverage industry
Colonial economic systems
Farm labor
Farm subsidies
Food-processing industries
Rice industry