Agriculture

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Agriculture
Debra Troxell, NBCT
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The development of agriculture led to widespread
alteration of the natural environment

• Id major centers of domestication of plants and
  animals and patterns of diffusion in the 1st Ag.
  Revolution
• Early hearths
• Patterns of diffusion (Columbian Exchange)
• Explain the connection between physical geography
  and ag. Processes
• Ag. Regions are influenced by the natural
  environment
• Populations alter the landscape (terraces,
  irrigation, deforestation, draining wetlands) to
  increase food production

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Major agricultural regions reflect physical
geography and economic forces

• Id agricultural production regions associated
  with major bioclimatic zones
• Analyze the economic forces that influence
  agricultural forces
• Explain the spatial organization of large-scale
  commercial agriculture and agribusiness

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Agricultural Hearths 1st Agricultural
Revolution
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Carl Sauers beliefs on domestication

• Domestication probably did not develop in
  response to hunger
• Starving people must spend every waking hour
  searching for food
• Started by people who had enough food to remain
  settled in one place
• Did not occur in grasslands or river floodplains
  because of thick sod and periodic flooding
• Must have started in regions where many different
  kinds of wild plants grew
• Started in hilly district areas, where climates
  change with differing sun exposure and altitude
• Vegetative Planting 1st (transplanting part of
  actual plant) then Seed Planting

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Plant Domestication

• Perennial wheat article

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• Subsistence Agriculture
• Found in LDCs
• Commercial Agriculture
• Found in MDCs
• Distinguishing features
• Purpose of farming
• of farmers in the labor force
• Use of machinery
• Farm size
• Relationship of farming to other businesses

Rubenstein p. 330-333
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Diffusion along Trade Routes

• Columbian Exchange
• Responsible for Diffusion of ideas, farming
  methods and crops
• Resulting in Globalization
• European Colonization Replaced Indigenous
  Agriculture and Spread Cash Crop Production

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Arable Land

• Would you expect MDCs to have a lot of arable or
  not much? Why?
• LDCs? Why?

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Arable Land by Country
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Percent of Labor Force engaged in Agriculture
Rub. Map 331
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Rub. Map 331
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World Regions of Primarily Subsistence
Agriculture On this map, India and China are not
shaded because farmers sell some produce at
markets in equatorial Africa and South America,
subsistence farming allows little excess and thus
little produce sold at markets.
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LDC Shifting Cultivation

• Characterized by
• Slash and burn agriculture
• Using field for only a few years
• Extensive land use
• Cleared land called Swidden or ladang, milpa,
  chena or kaingin
• Crops
• SE Asia rice
• S America maize cassava
• Africa millet sorghum

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Why is Shifting cultivation expected to diminish
in the 21st century?
Reason Explanation
Technological Advancements fertilizers hybrid seeds pesticides Leads to increased Yields and food Quality Leads to sedentary farming
Expanding / growing populations Less available land Higher Physiological and Agricultural density Reduced Soil Fertility
Development of Commercial Agriculture Profit motive More Efficient Plantation and agribusiness
Competing land use activities (login ranching etc. Take away from shifting cultivation
Changing Gov. and environmental policies Control deforestation Restrictions on land rights or usage Limiting Carbon emissions
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LDC Pastoral Nomadism

• A form of subsistence agricultural
• Extensive land use
• Located in semiarid lands of N. Africa, Middle
  East, Central Asia
• Only 15 million people are pastoral nomads but
  use 20 of Earths land area
• Transhumance

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LDC Intensive Subsistence Agriculture w/wet rice

• Intensive farmers more work more intensively to
  subsist
• Areas of high population density resulting in
  less land available/farmer
• Some are wet rice areas
• Some have double cropping (2 harvests/yr)

Online Simulation http//3rdworldfarmer.com/
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LDC Intensive Subsistence Agriculture wet rice
not dominant

• Areas with low precipitation
• Crops wheat, barley, legumes, etc.
• Crop rotation
• Common in China

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Role of Women

• Food Production
• Food gathering
• 80 Rule 80 of food eaten on African table is
  grown by women.
• Types of food prepared consumed
• Produced on the farm
• Corn tortillas, bread, vegetables

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LDC Plantation Farming

• A large farm that specializes in one or two
  crops cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber
  tobacco
• Extensive land use
• Usually in subtropics
• Usually in areas of low population density must
  import workers

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LDC Plantation Farming

• Rubber Trees
• Area 700 miles on each side of equator
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vKB5wdmbcI3o
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwOOTF8vu6ps

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MDC Mixed Crop Livestock

• Most common form of commercial ag in US
• Most crops are fed to animals rather than for
  human consumption corn or soybeans common
• Uses crop rotation

Rub. Map 343
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MDC Dairy Farming

• Once only in MDCs, now more common in S E Asia
  
• India is the 1 producer
• Must be close to market milkshed
• Improved transportation and refrigeration have
  increased milkshed radius

Rub. Map p. 344
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MDC Grain Farming

• Crops grown primarily for human consumption
• Grains are wheat, corn, oats, barley, rice,
  millet, etc.
• Stores easily transported a long distance
• N. Am prairies worlds breadbasket

Rub. Map 346
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MDC Livestock Ranching

• Commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive
  area
• Range wars caused by enclosures
• Introduction of new cattle breeds
• Ranching USA, Spain, Portugal, Argentina,
  southern Brazil Uruguay

Rub. Map 348
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MDC Mediterranean Ag.

• S. Europe, N. Africa, w. Asia, California,
  central Chile, sw. Australia
• All of the above borders seas, most on west coast
  off continents
• Mostly horticulture fruits, vegetables, and
  flowers commercial tree crops
• Most of worlds olives grapes produced in Med.
  areas

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MDC Commercial Gardening

• Predominant in SE US
• Aka truck farming (truck was a Middle English
  word for bartering)
• Highly efficient large-scale operations
• New England has specialty farming limited but
  increased demand among affluent, ex asparagus,
  strawberries, etc.

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Agricultural Regions

• By Derwent Whittlesey, 1936
• 11 main agricultural regions
• 5 in LDCs
• 6 in MDCs
• including 1 where ag is nonexistent

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Koppen Climate System
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Koppen Classification System of Climates
http//www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/tex
tbook/climate_systems/climate_classification.html

• Climate Types
• 1. Humid Equatorial Climates (Tropical Class A)
• Af no dry season
• Am Short dry season
• Aw dry winters (S.W. Florida)
• 2. Dry Climates (Dry Class B)
• Bs Semiarid
• Bw Arid
• 3. Humid Temperate Climates (Temperate Class C)
• Cf no dry season
• Cw dry winter
• Cs dry summer
• 4. Humid Cold Climates (Cold Class D)
• Df no dry season
• Dw dry winter
• 5. Cold Polar (tundra and ice) (Polar Class E)
• 6. Highland Climates (Vertical)

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1. Humid Equatorial Climates 2. Dry Climates 3.
Humid Temperate Climates 4. Humid Cold Climates
5. Cold Polar 6. Highland Climates (Vertical)
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The development of agriculture led to widespread
alteration of the natural environment

• Explain the advances and impacts of the 2nd Ag.
  Revolution (about 1750 in England)
• New technology and inc. food production led to
  better diet, longer life and more people
  available for factory work

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2nd Agricultural Rev.

• 1750-1900 with the Industrial Rev.
• Increased productivity
• More food with less farmers
• Esther Boserup - agric. output depends on the
  pop. - Anti-Malthusian
• 5 stages of intensification of farmland
• 1. forest fallow, 2. bush fallow 3. short fallow
  4. annual cropping 5. multicropping (intertillage)

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Would you
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End world hunger if you could?
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Approve of changing farming methods to produce
enough food to end world hunger?
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Support a type of seed that had a much
higher-yield crop?
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Support a type of seed that had a shorter growing
season allowing 2 crops a year?
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Support technology that allowed vegetables to be
more nutritious (like extra Vitamin A)?
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Support technology that allowed vegetables to
have longer shelf life increasing profits for
the company?
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Use technology to ensure meat tainted with e-coli
not be sold in stores?
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Use radiation to kill e-coli?
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Eat beef that had been treated with radiation?
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Eat Food modified in a laboratory?
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eat Food grown from seeds, when the seeds were
modified in a laboratory?
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feed Food grown from seeds, when the seeds were
modified in a laboratory to your children?
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feed Food grown from seeds, when the seeds were
modified in a laboratory to your children if they
were starving to death?
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Eat Corn that repels pests making pesticides
unnecessary?
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Eat Genetically Modified vegetables?
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The development of agriculture led to widespread
alteration of the natural environment

• Analyze the consequences of the Green Rev. on
  food supply and the environment
• Began with the development of high-yield seeds
  resulting in the increased use of chemical and
  mechanized farming
• Positive consequences of the Gr. Rev. include
  inc. food production and a relative reduction in
  hunger at the global scale
• Negative consequences of the Gr. Rev. include
  environmental damage resulting from irrigation
  and chemical use and the cost of technology and
  seeds

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Green (3rd) Revolution

• Invention and quick diffusion of agricultural
  techniques during 1960s-80s
• Main techniques
• Genetic Engineering
• Higher-yield seeds Norman Borlaug
• Drought/disease resistance
• Quicker growing season (double-cropping)
• Expanded use of fertilizers
• Need tractors, irrigation pumps other machinery
  to take full advantage
• Replaced older grains and beans for rice and wheat

NOT
BUT
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The Third Agricultural Revolution 3 Phases

• Mechanization,
• chemical farming with synthetic fertilizers, and
• globally widespread food manufacturing

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Mechanization

• Replacement of human labor with machines
• Tractors, combines, reapers, pickers, since late
  1800s

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Chemical Farming

• Application of synthetic fertilizers to the soil
• Also herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides
• Important environmental impact

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Food Manufacturing

• Adding economic value to agricultural products
  through a range of treatments
• Processing, canning, refining, packing, packaging

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The Third Agricultural Revolution

• The Green Revolution
• Began in the 1960s
• Scientists created IR36an artificial rice
  plant
• By 1992 IR36 was the
• most widely grown
• crop on Earth

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The Green Revolution

• New high-yield hybrid varieties of wheat and corn
  were developed and diffused
• Disastrous famines of the past have been avoided
• Asia saw a two-thirds increase in rice production

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Define Genetically modified
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• GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms)
  is most commonly used to refer to crop plants
  created for human or animal consumption using the
  latest molecular biology techniques.

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Advantages of GM

• Pest Resistant
• Drought Resistant
• Improved nutrition
• Herbicide resistant
• Cold tolerant
• Pharmaceutical inclusive

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Want food packing to clearly indicate if food has
been GM?
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Perceived Dangers of GMs

• Pollen from GMs could blow onto other plants and
  endanger wildlife
• Create pesticide resistant pests
• Herbicide resistant GMs could crossbreed with
  weeds creating super weeds
• Patented GMs could increase costs for farmers
  creating more have and have-nots
• Introduce new allergens into foods

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Acreage and Yield Trends
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Acreage and Yield Trends
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Acreage and Yield Trends
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Negatives of the Green Revolution

• New hybrids required use of chemical fertilizers
  and pesticides
• Can lead to reduction of organic matter in the
  soil
• Many small-scale
• farmers lack resources
• to acquire these
• chemicals and the seed

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Organic Movement

• No chemical pesticides, fertilizers
• Natural solutions sustainable
• Locavore movement
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vl2LBICPEK6wsafeac
  tive
• Store Wars
• Happy Cows
• Meatrix
• Corn Producers
• Small Scale https//www.youtube.com/watch?vGjD8UR
  aGe88

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Role of Women
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Blue Revolution

• New technology (motorized boats, processing
  technology, etc.) affecting fisheries
• Aquaculture the growing of aquatic creatures in
  ponds on shore or in pens suspended in water

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• Agribusiness
• is when agricultural activities are integrated
  into the food production industry, so farmers
  have close ties with other businesses.  
• They do this through the use of modern
  communication and information technology.  
• Industrial agriculture
• is sometimes called factory farming because it
  more closely resembles manufacturing than
  farming.  
• Crops and livestock are standardized so that
  growing time is minimized, but yields and
  therefore profits are maximized.  
• The standard size allows for mechanization of
  processing at large scale (mass production) using
  assembly line concepts (reducing labor as well).
•  This is particularly true for poultry production
  which is no longer closely tied to the land.  

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or

• Industrial agriculture refers to how the crops
  and animals are raised (like a factory...therefore
  they are called factory farms).
• Agribusiness refers to the structure of the
  farming industry or sometimes called corporate
  farming.

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Debt for Nature Swap

• The concept of debt-for-nature swaps was first
  conceived by Thomas Lovejoy of the World Wildlife
  Fund in 1984 as an opportunity to deal with the
  problems of developing-nation indebtedness and
  its consequent deleterious effect on the
  environment

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Issues Related to Changing Nature of Contemporary
Ag.
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Large-scale Agribusiness

• Resulting in complex commodity chains linking
  production and consumption of agricultural
  products

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Changes in food production and consumption
present challenges and opportunities

• Interdependence among regions of food production
  and consumption
• Explain issues related to the changing nature of
  contemporary ag.
• Explain issues related to the location of
  food-production facilities
• Explain the changing role of women in food
  production and consumption

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• Technological improvements have changed the
  economies of scale in the ag. sector

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• Food is part of global supply chain products
  from less developed low-latitude regions (e.g.
  coffee, bananas) are often consumed globally

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Patterns of Global food distribution are affected
by political systems, infrastructure, and
patterns of world trade

• No alcohol and pork production in Middle East
• Brazil nut production in Bolivia
• European Union standard for safe consumption
• Starvation caused more by distribution issues
  than total production
• Sub-Saharan Africa vs. N. Korea

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Food Miles

• 100 yrs ago it took 1 calorie of fossil fuel
  energy to produce 1 calorie of food.
• Now 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce
  1 calorie of food
• http//www.pbs.org/e2/teachers/teacher_309.html

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Food Deserts
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Food Desert