Methodology

The original definition of agriculture comes from the Latin words “ager” (field, land) and “cultura” (cultivation, care). Essentially it means “the cultivation of fields”. Historically, food and beverage production is the main task of agriculture. Today it is much more and provides not only food from crop production, animal husbandry, forestry and fishery. Non-food products like raw materials for clothing, timber, biomass for technical and industrial production are important as well. Agriculture includes the production, processing and trading of products. The utilization is the final step of the value and product chain. Agriculture plays an important role in the economy and culture of any society of the world.

Farming is a subset of agriculture that specifically refers to the practical activities of growing crops and raising animals. It is often used to describe the day-to-day operations carried out by farmers. It includes plowing, planting, watering, fertilizing, harvesting, feeding, and caring for livestock. It is focused on the direct production of food and non-food products.

Without people, no agriculture and farming. Today, nearly one billion men, women and children produce with hard work food and drink for around eight billion people every day. A human success story. And the world's population continues to grow. Global resources are limited and must be utilized sustainably. and nearly one billion active people in farming. Agriculture and landscapes have developed and continue to develop all over the world.

It sounds easy to know what is meant with food and agriculture. Everyone has heard of agriculture, needs food every day and has an opinion on both. But there is much more to the world of food and agriculture than most of us realize. Firstly, not everyone has seen the diversity of the world of food and agriculture. Secondly, food and agriculture are complex systems that have evolved over thousands of years and are different for each agroecological and socio-economic framework (Figure below). Agriculture is practiced under the respective conditions, mainly to pro-duce food, but also other products. This has given rise to amazing cultures all over the world: cultivated landscapes, agri- and aquaculture, food culture, rural culture and others.

Figure: Model of an agriculture system in a holistic dimension (Rahmann 2000)

Production, processing, trade and utilization are part of agriculture activities, which are self-contained. In subsistence agriculture, production and utilization are high, while processing and trade is low. In fully integrated food systems, production takes place on the farm, while pro-cessing, trade and utilization are outsourced and carried out by specialized companies. Only a very small proportion of this part of the value chain is carried out on the farm.

Figure: The value and product chain of food systems (Rahmann 2023)

Value chains segregate food production from processing, trading and utilizing. This is in high developed food and agriculture systems the case: agriculture is focusing on production, off-farm is processing, trading and utilizing. But all four actions are done on-farm, more or less. In sub-sistence agriculture (e.g., nomadism, backyard farming), the whole value chain – from production to consumption – is carried-out on-farm, with or without processing. To achieve the aim of this book to give an overview of the world of food and agriculture, the holistic model of New Farming Systems Research and Development (NFSR+D) is used (Rahmann 2000).

The NFSR+D model leaves the farm with the processing, marketing and utilization of agricultural products. The recycling of materials is part of the value chain. Storage, transport and trade take place at all levels, from local to global. Today, this is referred to as the ‘food system’, although it does not include non-food production.

The classification of agriculture systems depends on the target. In this book the "land size / yield" relation is used.

Facts

The 'World of Food and Agriculture' should be easy to understand, yet scientifically sound. To this end, figures from publicly accessible sources (e.g. the FAOstat) , scientific publications or credible sources are used. In order not to extend the scope of the book too far, links are provided to these sources on the Internet, which can be used for further research. For simple facts, reference is also made in particular to Wikipedia (english version) , which is a credible source for further self-research, is constantly being improved in scope and quality and offers unique swarm knowledge. The scientific community is also significantly involved in its creation, including the author. Other weblinks are proved in quality of information and can be trusted. Many scientific publications and own research results are used to ensure reliable data and facts. ChatGPT  and DeepL  have been used for checking information and English language. The English language has been used for the book, because it is the lingua franca  today. With the Google browser Chrome it is possible to get a translation into the most spoken languages.

Photos

Humans think of the world in images (imaginations). Photos are snapshots, but each of them tells the story of a subjectively perceived, temporally and spatially defined situation. They help us to understand, remember and imagine. That is why photos are the most important document and content of this book.

All the photos in the book were taken by the authors by chance, and where not planed in advance. Gerold has made more than 100,000 photos, made in every country in the world over a period of about 50 years (1980-2027) and 15 years of traveling and/or working abroad, together or alone (in the years from 1978-2027). He made more than 250 tours abroad as agricultural scientists, some for only a few days, some for months and even years. Some tours were private and others business travels to work, doing research, evaluations, teaching, train-ings, attending conferences, joining excursion or just visiting friends. Many tours have been done together with Klaudia, Gerolds wife. Additionally, Klaudia did many tours on her own as well.

Over the time, the type of photography, the quality and the content have changed considerably. Before the turn of the millennium, the authors only had analog cameras, with which he could only take a few photos, long time only black and white, later colored, and which were only available after development in a commercial photo-laboratory, long time after they have been made. At the beginning of the 21st century, the first and ever-improving digital cameras appeared, and the photos became instantly ready. Now it was possible to take more photos, view them directly on location and analyze them. When the first good photos could be taken with smartphones in the second decade of the 21th century, the number of images and their quality increased. Many photos in the book were taken in the last 25 years, when the idea for this book was born. Before that, there had already been some photos from home and few from the travels. Many trips abroad had a focus on agriculture, but not on photography, it was more about gaining of practical experience.

All photos presented have global coordinates  (longitude and latitude). They can be found using one of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)  as much as accurate. Today, you can easily find out where the photos were taken using the digital footprint with location information for each photo. This was not possible before digital photos and footprints. The global position of those photos was found using Google Earth , sometimes after hours of searching. The reality of today is different from when the photo was taken.

Buildings, landscapes and uses are constantly changing. For some older photos, the location has been estimated as accurately as possible. Please excuse mistakes and let us know to correct.