The Impact of John DeereToday more and more people don't know where their food comes from. Humanity today lives in an era where technology is the main focus and rural lifestyle is becoming a thing of the past. The ability to produce food is so efficient and effective that some people don't even realize how the food gets to their plate. But in the 19th century this was not the case. In 1837, a man named John Deere changed agriculture forever. In human life, civilizations have made agriculture their main source of food. For as long as agriculture has existed, agricultural tools have been used to cultivate land. Scientists believe the first plows used date back to 4,000 BC. These plows were simply pointed sticks but, despite this, they were the pioneers of modern plows. In 3,000 BC the Egyptians invented a plow with a wider triangular part that turned more land into a wider furrow. As the population grew over time, more and more people moved to Europe. The soil contained much more moisture and required a lot of energy to pull the plows. The Dutch then invented an iron-covered moldboard that cut the earth much better and significantly reduced the power needed (Drache 2-3). When European settlers began to settle in America, they quickly realized that if they wanted to survive they would need to grow and produce crops. In 1648 the colony of Virginia had about 150 plowmen. Plows were very expensive and required a lot of power to pull them. In 1780 an Englishman named Robert Ransome patented a cast iron ploughshare. The cast iron share was much better because as it moved through the soil, the share became sharper. This greatly improved efficiency… by mid-paper…50 there were approximately 5.9 million acres under cultivation in Iowa and Illinois. By 1870 it had risen to 28.7 million acres (Deere). With technological advances, promoted by John Deere, the efficiency of the equipment has allowed more acres to be cultivated in much less time. And so Malthus was proven wrong that human population would exceed man's ability to grow food. But in his defense I'm sure he never imagined that an acre of land could be farmed with a 560hp John Deere tractor in about 3 minutes. Never before has it been possible to work one hectare of land in such a short time. Agriculture has changed dramatically over the last century and will certainly continue to improve. Precision agriculture is the way of the future and efficiency is key. John Deere made a real impact on agriculture and changed the life of every human being on earth.