4.4.12.A--+Analyzing+management+practices+in+the+agriculture+business

Managing Agriculture in America
Agriculture is America's largest industry, employing over 20 million people in agriculture-related jobs. In 1935 there were 6.8 million farms in the United States and the average farmer produced enough food each year to feed 20 people. In 2002, there were an estimated 2.16 million farms and the average U.S. farmer produced enough food to feed almost 130 people.

  Pesticides play a very valuable role in sustaining our food supply. They have helped increase crop yields dramatically and have made inexpensive fruits and vegetables available for everyone. They can also cause harm to humans, animals, or the environment because they are designed to kill or in some negative way affect living organisms. This is why there are many lays, regulations, and policies about pesticides, to ensure that they are used correctly and that protection is provided for anyone who uses them. Theses are several groups respondsible for ensuring the safety of crops treated with pesticides.

> ("Agricultural Practices & Food Technologies")
 * The Environment Protection Agency (EPA): register/license pesticides for use in the U.S. and regulate their use; safety standard "reasonable certainty of no harm" applies to all pesticides used on food; sets tolerance levels on how much of a pesticide may be used on fod during growing and processing, and how much can remain on food
 * The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): Food Safety and Inspection Service monitors and enforces allowances on meat, poultry, and certain egg products; Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Pesticide Data Program, which tests products in U.S. food supply for any pesticides
 * The Food and Drug Administration (FDA): monitors and enforces EPA's allowances in domestic and imported foods and animal feeds shipped in interstate commerce