Institutional formation of US agricultural innovation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the institutional and political factors that have supported the growth and industrialization of US agriculture. The USA has become a landmark, either by authority or evidence, for global agricultural development since the detailed statistical reports of the Department of Agriculture in the second half of the 19th century. The cumulative learning resulted in a key role as inductor of the “Green Revolution” during the 1960s in developing countries such as Brazil. Historical data show updated multiple institutions, organizations and hierarchical structures to provide technological changes and supply new products, boosting the country to global scientific hegemony in several related sectors. This article contributes from the Brazilian point of view to the literature that analyzes the changes of agriculture in the USA, and the respective relevance of scientific and technological development to other countries with a scale in the production of food, energy and the like.