Importance of chemistry in food and agriculture?

Question

Importance of chemistry in food and agriculture?

Answer 1

Agriculture is the control of a biological entity to produce a profitable product.  So it, like cooking, is nothing less than chemistry in action.  If one truly wants to understand agriculture, how it works, how to change it's path, then one must have a fundamental understanding of chemistry.  

Agriculture starts with seed germination, continues with photosynthesis and soil fertility, extends with phytochemical reaction to competition (aka weed, insect and disease control), then enters animal nutrition (feeding plant products formed from a variety of chemical reactions).  These are all a series of chemical reactions.

Many will disagree, but I have taught a lot of chemistry to 60+ year old farmers to help them adjust their management and increase their profitability.  They just didn't realize they were learning chemistry at the time.