In order to understand the importance of agriculture in our society we need to understand the massive and important purpose it serves. Agriculture feeds the world, and all the people in it. What does that even mean? How many people are there? How do we get the food to them?
The current world population in approaching 7.2 billion people. The growth of world population is growing exponentially with 124, 600 people added today. That's equivalent to the entire population of Muncton, NB - Everyday! 
At the current rates it is expected that the population will increase by an additional 1 billion people in just over a decade, and reach over 11 billion people by the end of the century. In addition to these staggering numbers there is the added effect of uneven distribution, with the vast majority of population growth occurring in developing countries. In Africa the current population of over 1 billion is expected to almost quadruple to over 4 billion by the end of the century. With growth like this it will be difficult for food production to keep up.Ideally everyone would be able to obtain their food from local sources. Living in Canada this task is made easier by the large amount of agriculture, and the relatively sparse population. In Manitoba there is just over 2 people per square kilometer, and the economy relies on agriculture. This means that there is a surplus of food, and we export lots to other areas of the world.
When population density increases it puts more strain on the land to feed the people, and if population is too dense the area cannot support all the people in the area. Looking at areas like the eastern United States and, southern Asia it is difficult to expect these areas not to rely on importing food from other areas.
