The role of the farmer has always been an important one. Two hundred years ago, 95% of American workers were farmers. Agriculture is 62. ______. America’s biggest industry. Today, less than 3% of American workers are farmers. Yet agriculture still is America’s biggest industry, it employs more workers than any other industry, and it produces more food than Americans can consume enough to make the United States the world’s largest importer 63. ______. of agricultural goods. American farmers used to grow only enough food to feed their families and animals. Now each farmer grows enough to feed 78 other people. American farmers produce more today because they have to use modern farm and business methods. This means they have to know more 64. ______. than ever before. They still learn about soil, the weather, harmless insects, 65. ______. and plant and animal diseases, but they also must learn about economics, international trade, and even computers. It has said that farming in America 66. ______. today is three fourths paper work and one fourth physical labor. Because of this, American farmers now are able to work for more years. In the past, most were old and tired of by the time they were about 40. Today , 67. ______. however, the average age of the American farmer is 48 -five years older than the averag6 age of other American workers. Almost all new farmers in the United states have completed at most 12 years of schooling, and many 68. ______. young Americans study agriculture at a state university. The federal government provided with the establishment of these schools in a law signed 69. ______. by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. Today there is a so-called land-grant university in each state. The land-grant law also created the cooperative extension service. This is a series of local .offices around the country that informs farmers about the latest developments in agriculture. American 70. ______. farmers also get information from the many agricultural publications in the United States, Farmers also join organizations which they and their families 71. ______. can exchange information.