12. It is estimated that less than 1 percent of the total U.S. annual energy consumption is presently being used for fertilizer production, yet this still represents nearly 500 trillion BTUs. The production of nitrogen fertilizers, which requires approximately 25,000 BTUs to manufacture just one pound (454g) of nitrogen, represents more than three-fourths of the total energy used for all fertilizer production. Energy consumption values for phosphate and potassium fertilizer are estimated at 5,600 BTUs per pound. Energy use for the production of fertilizer is not the entire story. Energy is also required for transporting fertilizers to the dealer and then to the farm and for application. Energy use for transportation varies greatly, depending upon the fertilizer source being shipped, the methods of transportation and the distance traveled. Approximately 1,600 BTUs are required to move one ton of fertilizer one mile by rail or barge and nearly 4,000 BTUs to move one ton one mile by truck. Although fertilizers are expensive and consume large quantities of energy, they also help plants utilize the sun's energy more efficiently. Green plants capture energy from the sun by the process of photosynthesis and store energy as carbohydrates, oil and protein, which eventually are available for human and animal consumption. Quite often the maximum absorption of the sun's energy by plants is not attained without the use of fertilizers. A bushel of corn contains approximately 400,000 BTUs of energy; therefore, each pound of nitrogen must increase yields by 0.0625 bushels to return the amount of energy required to produce one pound of nitrogen (25,000 BTUs). Putting it another way, 6.25 bushels of corn contain as much energy as 100 pounds of nitrogen. Quite often a farmer can expect a 40 to 50 bushel increase in yield with 100 pounds of nitrogen. Thus it is easy to see that fertilizers are very very energy efficient, often resulting in a far greater return of energy than expended. - Millet (359 ABO-)

13. Corn is one of the plants that profited the most from hybridization, which greatly increased both its productivity and its vigour. Although corn has been eaten for more than 6,000 years, most of the hybridizing work took place only in this century. Only 1 percent of north American commercial corn was a hybrid in as late as 1935, but now virtually 100 percent of corn is a hybrid. - Millet (350 ABO-)

13. Barley was the very first cereal grain to be cultivated by man. Its use has been traced way back to Neolithic times. Now more than 70 percent of the world's farm land is planted in cereal grains, which provide humanity with more than 50 percent of its calories, either by our eating directly, or indirectly via livestock. - Millet (330 ABo-)

14. March is the start of California's most valuable farm export crop-- Almonds. Beginning early in March, toiling among the blooms are the " migrant workers" that will make or break this year's crop... the honeybees. The bees can do what no machine can replicate. But it can't be left to chance, as bees are too integral to the fortunes of California's $3 billion a year almond industry. Each March hundreds of beekeepers from all around the United States converge on the almond farms. Lasting about four weeks, it is the single largest such pollination effort on the entire earth. It takes 1.6 million hives, with 48 billion bees to adequately pollinate an almond crop about the size of Rhode Island. Without bees the almond industry does not exist. Fear struck when the mysterious malady known as colony-collapse killed many of the nations bee population. Between 2003 and 2009 the number of bee colonies in California plunged 26 percent. Due to the bee shortage prices the almond growers have to pay to rent bees have tripled to as much as $160 a hive. California growers will spend about $250 million on bees this year. - Millet (314 BO-)

15. The highly exceptional yields of apple orchards in America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries did not always go into cider. One writer of the period tells of feeding the large surpluses to hogs, and also of drying the fruit. Apples were cored, peeled and quartered, and then set outside in the garden on boards to dry, where they "were soon covered with all the bees and wasps and sucking flies of the neighborhood which accelerates the operation of drying". In this way, he wrote, the farmers were able "to have apple pies and apple dumplings almost the year round - Millet (279 BO-)