Agriculture is among the earliest, most enduring, and most fundamental domains of technology. Although associated primarily with the cultivation of food crops such as wheat, maize, and rice, the term agriculture covers a wide variety of activities, including animal husbandry, dairy production, fiber production (for example cotton, flax), fruit and wine production, and aquaculture, as well as the harvesting, storage, processing, and distribution of food and fiber commodities. Agriculture frequently is understood to include all forms of food, fiber, and subsistence production, including forestry and fishing, especially with respect to the organization of scientific research institutes and government regulatory agencies. For example, government ministries such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United Kingdom Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF), and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) have a responsibility for forestry and fisheries in their mandates. In all cases agriculture...