Agriculture

Agriculture is a broad term that covers all aspects of the growth, cultivation, labor, equipment, processing, trade and transportation of plants, fungi, animals and any other life form that humans use for beverages, food, fiber or other use. Viticulture is a branch of agriculture, known as agronomy, the technology and science of producing plants. In addition to agronomy, which includes organic farming, agriculture also includes animal husbandry, which is a definition of agriculture based on the type of food being produced. It is also possible to define agriculture based on the industry such as aqua or mari-culture, fishing and forestry or the type of farming such as; apiculture (bee-keeping), dairy or orchardy.

When humans began farming and learning about agriculture, they experienced exponential developments, not only in farming crops and livestock, but also in education, art and music. Prior to the development of agriculture, humans were hunter-gatherers and moved frequently to maintain a food supply. When they developed agricultural practices they settled down, applied soil management, irrigation, growing and cultivation techniques to plants to grow foods and learned how to grow different plants in different conditions for the best harvests. They were also able to develop food preservation techniques, including fermentation, which is the foundation of wine making. Agriculture is what makes viticulture possible as a sub-specialty, as people were able to domesticate wine grape vines and learn specifically how to grow and cultivate the vine to produce juicer grape varietals to make the best wine.