scertained. Standards of quality, size, and packing were established for various fruits and vegetables to aid in wholesale marketing. Among the first to be standardized were apples, citrus fruits, berries, and tomatoes. Improvements in storage, processing and transportation also increased the widespread ability of the market farm products. The use of cold storage warehouses and refrigerated railroad cars were complemented by the introduction of refrigerated motor trucks, rapid delivery by airplane, and the quick-freeze process of preservation in which farm produce also reached practical application for many perishable foods.Since the 1970s high technology farming, including new hybrids for wheat, rice, and other grains, better methods of soil conservation and irrigation, and the growing use of improved fertilizers has led to the production of more food per capita. Not only in the United States, but in which of the rest of the world. United States farmers, nevertheless, still have the advantage of superior private and government research facilities to produce and perfect new technologies. New services of technologies in the 1990s are further improving crop production. Precision farming, site-specific farming, utilizes global positioning systems (GPS) and geographical information systems (GIS) in the satellite collection and transmission of data to create yield maps during harvest. Farmers use the yield maps as they plant and fertilize their crops the following season. This increases crop production while reducing the use of both fertilizers and fuel. GPS also helps farmers observe with environmental regulations when applying fertilizers and pesticides. Biotechnology is also increasing agricultural productivity. In recent years farmers have begun producing a new, genetically engineered oil seed crop that grows from canola, to yield lauric oil, which comes from coconuts.Since World War II modern farming methods have been spr...
