Agriculture



Agriculture is the cultivation of animals and plants to create products used to sustain and enhance human life.

Background
Agriculture is key to the growth of any society, with surpluses in food encouraging further development. The success and implementation of agricultural techniques depend greatly on the climate, culture, resources, and technology involved, in addition to the availability of reliable and pure water supplies. Before the Great War, agriculture was one of the major infrastructures affected by the Sino-American War, as less and less food availability led to nationwide riots in the United States. Although attempts were made by groups like the Vault-Tec Corporation to create "Farms of the future" and Vaults made to mitigate the global hunger crisis, riots continued to escalate as late as the week before the Great War.

Following the Great War, agricultural production in the United States was gravely affected, with all modern agrochemicals and industrial farming methods lost. Once humans began to reemerge and rebuild the land, the revival of agriculture rapidly followed. Such examples include sharecropper farming, the return of flora in certain regions via use of the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, and natural regrowth.

New California
During the 2100s, emergent agriculture was highly limited and prone to failure throughout the former state of California. Where agriculture was able to take root, it was limited to barely more than subsistence farming carried out by small villages or towns. The Water Merchants of the Hub would play an instrumental role in the delivery of water throughout the region, thus spurring on further agricultural development. The town of Adytum was unique at the time for being able to conduct hydroponic farming.

By the 2200s, with the rise of the New California Republic (NCR) and the elimination of various raider and super mutant threats, agriculture was allowed to grow further. Dedicated farms and ranches could now be maintained to feed the growing population. Unified behind the NCR, the citizens and communities of the region would finally gain a reliable source of food and water. In addition, groups such as the Republican Farmers' Committee lobbied to keep their interests at the forefront of lawmaker's priorities. However, projections by the Office of Science and Industry, as well as commentary from NCR military officials, speculate that current NCR agriculture may not be enough to feed the population within ten years, due to draining of aquifers, as well as lack of proper environmental conditions.


 * Agricultural sites
 * Arroyo: The town works within hunting, farming, and brahmin handling. They produce broc flower and xander root, and other vegetables. Additionally, they produce brahmin and gecko products. Hakunin grew hallucinogenic plants.
 * Boneyard: The town of Adytum produces their own food with hydroponic farms, and use chemical elements such as brahmin dung to create ammunition.
 * The Hub: The city refines and trades water, and additionally holds farms. In 2161, one farm had a donkey.
 * Klamath: The town produces and trades gecko meats and pelts, brahmin products, as well as plants and vegetables.
 * Modoc: A dedicated farming town, it produces brahmin foods and leather. It additionally produces crops, as well as fruits, such as apples. At one point, a woman named Rose created deathclaw omelettes.
 * New Reno: Myron produced jet in the Stables from brahmin dung.
 * Necropolis: The city uses a large water pump to sustain the city.
 * Shady Sands: Completely self-sufficient, the city irrigates local soil to support crop production, producing primarily maize and cabbage. They additionally drilled wells to provide water. The city is well-known for its brahmin farming, populated by many ranchers, agri-barons, and brahmin barons, producing brahmin foods and leather for trade.
 * San Francisco: The Shi are known to produce and trade seaweed, fish, and rice.
 * Vault City: The Vault produces medical items, such as stimpaks.

Capital Wasteland
The Capital Wasteland was a very precarious place for the development of agriculture. The area lacked a reliable source of clean water as the Potomac River was irradiated and hazardous to use. Hostile wildlife, not to mention bands of raiders and super mutants, also prevented the establishment of many large communities that could sustain agricultural endeavors.

Project Purity, constructed within the ruins of the Jefferson Memorial, would provide an answer to the Capital Wasteland’s water problem. Dr. Madison Li, along with Catherine and James, were instrumental in the initial development of the project. Project Purity was finally brought online sometime in late 2277, thanks to the efforts of the Lone Wanderer and the Brotherhood of Steel.

The Enclave had intentions of seizing Project Purity for their own genocidal ends. John Henry Eden, President of the Enclave, intended to introduce a modified strain of the Forced Evolutionary Virus into the purifier at the Jefferson Memorial that would kill any living thing which had been in any way affected by the radiation of the Capital Wasteland. Had the Enclave been successful, not only would the drinking water have become infected, ultimately any agricultural products grown with the same water would have been as well.

While Point Lookout consists mostly of dead trees around the swampland, the island also produces the punga fruit, a fruit considered sacred by local tribals that purge radiation and restore health. The tribals at the Ark & Dove cathedral have even cultivated them, producing a much better version known as refined punga fruit.


 * Agricultural sites
 * Anchorage Memorial: Before mercenary groups wiped out the facility, traders bred and butchered mirelurks for their meats.
 * Little Lamplight: The bodies of the adult humans dumped in the pools of the caverns created a cave fungus capable of being a viable long-term food source and decreasing radiation.
 * Point Lookout: The swampfolk cultivate the naturally growing Punga fruit. The local tribals have managed to refine the fruit, increasing their health effects. The region is also vibrant with yeast, leading to moonshining.
 * Rivet City: The only instance of farming in the Capital Wasteland, the science lab led by Madison Li used hydroponics farming to create herbs, potatoes, apples, pears, and carrots. Janice Kaplinski hoped to eventually be able to create broccoli.
 * Oasis: Within the Capital Wasteland is a large forest grove which is home to the Treeminders, as well as the Potomac River.

Mojave Wasteland
The lack of significant radiation from nuclear attacks, as had befallen other parts of the country, meant that agriculture in the Mojave Wasteland rebounded much more successfully than was possible elsewhere. Hoover Dam and Lake Mead provide ample fresh water for farms and ranches in the region, especially once the local infrastructure was repaired by the NCR following the First Battle of Hoover Dam in 2277.

The NCR Office of Science and Industry (OSI) took great interest in the region, hoping to learn new agricultural techniques to take back west to prevent potential food shortages. Responsible for overseeing farming efforts around New Vegas, the OSI branch set up their headquarters at Camp McCarran to oversee the NCR sharecropper farms and greenhouses. Part of these farming initiatives serves a political purpose alongside a humanitarian one, with Ambassador Dennis Crocker noting that the influx of crops will allow for additional sites to be established, resulting in more residents included to vote for New Vegas' annexation by the NCR.

Aside from large scale efforts, small farms were likewise successfully established in the arid Mojave Desert. Even before the Great War, efforts were underway to solve the global hunger crisis, such as with the research undertaken at Vault 22, which was "a fertile laboratory for experimentation on staple crops to maximize their potential." Scientists and horticulturalists worked to innovate and expand their understanding of agriculture, subsequently developed an effective fertilizer which improved crop production while also increasing crops' resistance to insects, drought, and disease. Director Thomas Hildern of the OSI had an interest in the vault, seeking someone to recover any potential agricultural data.

In Westside, citizens developed a system of sustainable agriculture. The Followers of the Apocalypse have long assisted with educating farmers on agricultural best practices, such as how to rotate crops, and in the Mojave the group continues to do so. The group and engineer Tom Anderson assisted Westside citizens in establishing the Westside Co-op, a small scale business based on an irrigation system, allowing the settlement to reach a stable level of self-sufficiency.

Farms are located on the outskirts of the Mojave, including those in Goodsprings, Wolfhorn ranch, Whittaker farmstead, Novac, Brooks tumbleweed ranch, Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm, Horowitz farmstead, the raided farmstead, and the Southern Nevada Wind Farm. In addition, the Boomers at Nellis Air Force Base had devised a successful irrigation, solar, and farming operation, ensuring their own sustainability by way of cultivating soy, legumes, vegetables, and grain.


 * Agricultural sites

The Commonwealth
Agricultural production in the Commonwealth is unhindered by environmental concerns, with access to arable lands and usable water readily available similarly to that before the Great War. Several pre-War tractors and tilling mechanisms are found in or around fields, alongside grain silos and combines.

Several settlements in the region are specifically dedicated to agriculture, such as Graygarden and Greentop Nursery, utilizing large greenhouses to grow crops. Several groups in the region cause concerns for the farmers, of being stolen from, intimidated or forced into handing over their crops to those who did not do the work, such as raiders or the Brotherhood of Steel.

Conversely, the Institute considers agricultural production a key priority and invests its resources in the Biosciences division, led by Dr. Clayton Holdren, to engineering and producing viable food stock for their staff.


 * Agricultural sites
 * Abernathy farm: A family farm that produces a significant crop output.
 * Breakheart Banks: A family farm overrun by super mutants shortly before October of 2287.
 * County crossing: A small farm situated on the outskirts of Boston that grows mutfruit.
 * Diamond City: The town contains a large farm in the eastern section with brahmin and a large variety of crops. A greenhouse can also be found in the town.
 * Finch farm: A family-run farm near an overpass that grows mutfruit and corn.
 * Graygarden: Completed before the war and staffed solely by modified Mister Handy robots, Graygarden boasts a significant agricultural output unrivaled by much else in the entire Commonwealth.
 * Greentop Nursery: A small settlement centered around a greenhouse.
 * Oberland station: A small farm growing tato plants by a railroad.
 * Somerville Place: A farm on the edge of the Glowing Sea growing corn plants.
 * Tenpines Bluff: A small settlement that farms tatos in the northern reaches of the Commonwealth.
 * The Slog: Run by ghouls and made from an old swimming pool to cultivate tarberries.
 * Vault 81: The Vault contains a hydroponics room run by Priscilla Penske, a biologist working to grow radiation-free food from mutated plants.
 * Warwick homestead: Built atop an old waste treatment plan that provided fertile soil to grow crops.

Appalachia
Many farms exist in the region, dotting the landscape that are situated between mountainous regions. The farms were small, family operations before the Great War. A pre-War shop providing supplies to Appalachian farmers, Lewis & Sons Farming Supply, which has since become a farmstead for Carol Putnam's family, is located in the Forest. Several bunkers in the region contain research on agriculture and sustainability completed by the former occupants. The Enclave also researched the topic via their research facilities.


 * Agricultural sites
 * Lewis & Sons Farming Supply

Appearances
Agriculture appears across all games of the Fallout series.