Agriculture Photos 農業照片

	Agriculture Photos 農業照片	Eric Hadley-Ives

Some photographs featuring scenes of agriculture and farm images.

When I was growing up in southern Orange County in the 1960s and 1970s, there were orange orchards covering many areas of the landscape. It was easy to ride my bike or take a short trip in our car out to wild areas and parkland. Laguna Beach was a short drive away on a tiny two-lane highway. When we moved to Indianapolis, there were still many woods and farms within the city limits (Mayor Richard Lugar, later a Senator from Indiana, had wisely consolidated most of Marion County into the City of Indianapolis). Now when I return to the scenes of my childhood I find only housing developments, shopping malls, wide freeways and and parking lots. The farms and orchards are gone, and so are most of the woods. I like to see people living in lovely houses, and our economies should provide affordable and comfortable housing, but I am concerned that in many parts of the world the physical growth of cities is destroying rural life and farmland. Many times, it seems to me, the demand for larger homes and big yards are being met, but the demand for affordable housing is being neglected, and people are ignoring the advantages of high-density urban living. I favor more high density housing and a return to city living where people can walk or ride bikes to their schools and workplaces. When we wisely use a mix of high density, medium density, and low density housing and retail space it is possible to provide more efficient public transportation. This page shares some images from rural areas or farmland, and is a celebration of the beauty of agriculture.


	Here a little boy is riding his red wagon down a road. Behind him you can see the wheat growing in a field.	Fruit for sale in the Farmers' Market in Hillsdale, a neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Blueberries, plums, and blackberries sold by the pint.


	Outer Island Road in Grand Island in Yamhill County, Oregon. That is a lovely walnut tree on the right side of this image.	Here is a view to the west looking across a cornfield on Grand Island, Oregon. It's dusk, and the coastal hills are silhouetted against the pale western sky.


	In Oregon and Taiwan people are concerned about urban sprawl and the presevation of good agricultural land. Here in Tamshui, in northern Taiwan, a rice field lies between a park (to the left) and the school and apartment buildings (in the background and to the right). The rural farm and the densely populated urban areas coexist, for now. If the Taiwanese shared the landscape use preferences of America, where people prefer single detached houses with yards, would there be any fields left now? And what of the future of farmland surrounding growing metropolitan areas such as Portland, Oregon? Will the rich fields of the Willamette Valley someday disappear like the wonderful orchards that once grew where the cities of Silicon Valley and Contra Costa County in California now grow?	On the left is a rice field. On the right are the school grounds, where children play. The children will eat the nourishing rice and then exercise, run, and play basketball on the recreation area which lies adjacent to the field. By wise land use practices that emphasize dense living areas and keep farmland in production, the Taiwanese try to create a balance of environments in their tiny and densely populated island. But as the Taiwanese become wealthier and come to rely more on private automobiles for their transport, what will happen to the remaining agricultural fields? Will these fields of lovely rice plants someday give way to streets, houses, and shops?


	A healthy bunch of table grapes hanging on the vine at the Stephens Farm on Grand Island, Oregon.	A close up view of the early morning sunlight shining upon a bunch of grapes, nearly ripe.


	A row of wheat, planted merely to catch particles of soil and add to the farmland, preventing erosion when the Willamette River rises during the winter rains.	The farmer and his grandson are watering the young peach tree saplings. In a few years the grandson will be a teen-ager, and the trees will bear luscious and fragrant peaches.


	Shortly after dawn, the dew catches the sunlight, which glistens and sparkles as it is caught and refracted in the dewdrops.	These little shoots will grow up to catch soil in the flooding Willamette, and will do the work of adding to the farm's topsoil. This August morning they only catch water and sunshine.


	These corn stalks reach skyward in the morning sun. The corn (maize) is ripening on these stalks. This is sweet corn, for humans to eat, and not for cattle feed.	These young rice plants are full of life and vigor. The homes and the school that surround the rice field are also full of life and joy.

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