Duties of an agriculturalist

Focusing on yields, food per acre, using technical tried and tested methods, clean rooms or greenhouses to reduce or eliminate pest and disease, chemical nutrients and preservation for market, are the duties of agriculturalists.

Such scientists, who produce foods and medicines, are responsible for population health, nutrition and wellness, at an affordable cost.

Hence, the best technology must be used along with constant research, labs and market testing, and to scale-up development to meet market demand.

Shameful

It would be a shameful waste for produce to spoil, be damaged or stolen, after so much care, between harvest and consumption.

The agriculturalist, moving beyond simply farming also focuses on market supply and demand data, yields of produce grown in the measured space, cultivating large acreage with a small footprint employing vertical geographies among other methods.

Large acreage crop farming requires nutrients ploughed into the top-soil, seed germination, seedling transplanted from nursery to open environment beds and motorised equipment to boost efficiency.

Animal farming similarly requires nutrients, feed, medicine and water, reproductive services and space for muscle development. Improving production now requires a smaller footprint, constructing a multi-level building with utilities, supplied and distributed, to manage temperature airflow, lighting requirements and water movement, to be competitive worldwide.

Eliminating pest and disease was nature’s job. However, to feed a growing, mostly motionless, population, mankind started using researched and developed chemicals to kill pests and/or ward off disease.

Protecting produce

The use of clean room and/or greenhouse technology allows a greater percentage of success in protecting food produce. Nature was solely responsible for survival of the fittest animal and plant life. Most pesticides and medicines in use were developed solely for its stated purpose, but not researched for the effects on human health. It is the clean room effect which is best for human health.

Nutrition is there to improve grow-time quantity and harvest the best quality produce, using specific nutrients and feed compounds with developed chemicals.

Nutrients, found in the natural food chain meant that farms had to grow or buy and store two or more products.

For example, growing corn to feed chickens, while using animal and plant waste to make fertilizers. The manufacture of scientifically tested animal and plant feeds is economically scaled to efficiently reduce cost and give the best grow results in each stage of development.

Preservation methods have traditionally been limited to a combination of refrigeration, pre-cooked, sauced and packaged. Keeping the agriculturalist engaged straight through to consumption, is wise.

– Terrance A. Jennings