ABSTRACT
Food products such as bread, milk, meat, fruits, vegetables, sugar, and so on originate from farms. These are either produced directly on farms as fresh produce or processed further to give them various shapes/names, but all are agricultural produce. Farmers grow food crops that they harvest, store, and transport to markets or to processing plants for preservation and transformation into a variety of food products. Farming entails the use of natural resources, land, and water to produce food for human and animal consumption. This basic concept of farming has remained unchanged over time; yet agriculture has been witnessing changes since man learnt to grow crops and started rearing animals. In this century alone, new technologies and methods have been developed that have greatly increased the variety of agricultural inputs available to farmers and also enhanced the productivity of farming. As a result, today’s rapidly growing global population is being fed by a constantly declining population of farmers. The pace of change taking place in agriculture has been different for different regions in the world. Whether in developed economies or underdeveloped nations, there has been increased reliance on the use of machinery to improve operating efficiency, and on natural and synthetic chemicals both to fight pests and diseases and enhance crop growth. These technologies not only affect the food farmers grow but also impact the environment. Consequently, farmers have multiple and complex responsibilities: to supply primary agricultural products with acceptable levels of man-made chemicals in large enough quantities at affordable prices, and to minimize any damage caused to the environment. Agricultural processes are becoming more complex due to increased demand for food for the growing population. There has been an increase in the use of chemicals, as farmers need fertilizers to supplement natural soil nutrients, antibiotics to prevent animal diseases, and pesticides to protect crops against animals, insects, weeds, and various microorganisms. All these chemicals, which are passed on to the food produced on the farms, contribute to making this food unsafe. The primary objective of food production was to produce sufficient quantities of food at affordable prices, but as awareness about health issues and productivity in agriculture has increased, the consumer has begun to focus more attention on the quality and safety of the food and the way in which it is handled and produced.
