Having lived in rural America all of my nearly twenty-two years of life, I take pleasure in sitting down to dinner and knowing exactly where the food I am about to consume comes from and I hope that we will continue to produce enough to feed ourselves. The steak came from an Angus steer raised on our farm, the potatoes and corn a family friend grew in his garden, and the apples in the dessert came from a local orchard. Sure, not everything I put in my mouth comes from a source I have direct contact with, but at least I have some knowledge of the food industry. However, the average American has no idea where their food comes from. They go to the local supermarket and stock up on the plastic-wrapped meat in the freezer or go to the local fast food restaurant for a burger. My agricultural background makes me proud to understand where my food comes from and to possess the ability to support myself and not depend entirely on a trip to the grocery store if possible. With this knowledge I chose the question of whether the world will be able to cope with its exponentially expanding population and be able to feed itself in the near future. Considering that the first humans to interact with agriculture were hunter-gatherers, I believe the industry has come a long way in the domestication of plants and animals and with technology that has made farming easier. Moving from hunting and gathering, crops would only be planted near a water source for irrigation. It was only with the industrial revolution that agriculture itself really changed, when mechanization, where beasts of burden were once used, was able to increase production. New tools have allowed us to spend less time on the fields and focus on introducing tactics... middle of paper... Organization of culture (2009). Global Agriculture towards 2050. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdfJones, J.D. (2011). Why genetically modified crops? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0345McLure, J. (2012, August 31). Genetically modified foods. Researcher CQ, 22, 717-740. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/U.S. Department of Agriculture (n.d.). 2007 Census of Agriculture. Retrieved from http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/Fact_Sheets/Farm_Numbers/farm_numbers.pdfWorld Hunger Education Service (2013). Facts and statistics on world hunger and poverty in 2013, by the World Hunger Education Service. Retrieved from http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm