Originally posted by Hygro
Agricultural makes some since, especially considering we grow enough food to feed possibly even the entire world. . . However the few civs that are actually agricultural fit it a lot more than America as that's what the society was based on.
First, I don't have strong feelings on the civ traits one way or the other. That game is about fun and balance, not realism.
However, the importance of the "agricultural" trait for Americans interests me. Personally, I think the Great Plains in the middle of the U.S. not only defines our country but also is perhaps the greatest single resource explaining our relatively quick ascendance to being a world power.
In history, most countries have devoted a substantial portion of their economy and populace to growing food. In the old world, most arable land has been farmed for thousands of years and nutrients must be replenished through fertilizers, etc. to allow crops to be productive. However, the Great Plains of the U.S. had been buidling up topsoil (often up to 2 meters deep!) and nutrients for thousands of years. Thus, farmers were able to immediately and easily "mine" this incredibly productive soil. It's been said that in most countries 1 farmer feeds 10 people, but in the U.S. 1 farmer feeds 100. No other country has a comparable area of land that is so suited to grain agriculture. Ukraine has its steppes, but those are higher, colder, and generally less suited for wheat. Other new world countries generally were too cold or too covered in jungle to experience the agriculture boom of stored topsoil. The Central and South American civs had to work so hard at agriculture because jungle soils are essentially devoid of nutrients.
The bottom line is the boom in wheat production drove the develpoment of the cattle industry (cheap feed!), provided an enormous trade surplus, and freed up large portions of the population to develop industry, expand, make movies, build malls, etc.
Now that the productive top soils of the Great Plains are gone (remember the "Dust Bowl"), we have the economic power to use fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically modified crops to maintain the massive agricultural production.
The irony is that because productivity of our farmers is so high, we produce more food yet have fewer farmers per capita than any country in history. Does that make us "agricultural" civ or not?
