The Geography of Agriculture

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The Geography of Agriculture
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The Geography of Agriculture

• Agricultures Origins and History
• Classifying Agricultural Regions
• Developed Country Versus Less Developed Country
  Agriculture
• The Von ThÜnen Model and Location Analysis
• The Green Revolution
• Genetic Modification of Crops

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History of Agriculture

• Hunter-Gatherers
• Neolithic Revolution
• Domestication of Plants and Animals
• Diffusion of Agriculture
• Agricultural Industrialization
• The Green Revolution
• Hybrids, scientific application of fertilizer,
  pesticide, and water
• Modern Agribusiness
• Genetic Engineering of Crops

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Neolithic Revolution

• Primary effects
• Urbanization
• Social stratification
• Occupational specialization
• Increased population densities
• Secondary effects
• Endemic diseases
• Famine
• Expansionism

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• Origins of Agriculture

Which of these areas are considered cultural
hearths?
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• Contemporary Food Consumption

Is there a spatial relationship to the original
hearths?
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• Contemporary Food Production

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Agriculture is a global economy.
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Developed Countries Undercut Free Markets in
Agriculture

• Farmers in the developed world are paid an
  average of 2/3 more than the free market would
  provide.
• These subsidies to the worlds richest farmers
  directly damage the agricultural economies of the
  poorest nations.
• Despite this, the U.S. Congress and President
  Bush actually increased farm subsidies in 2002.

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Agricultural Revolutions

• Technology allows much greater production
  (surplus) with less human labor, but often has
  high social and environmental costs.
• Metal plows, Reapers, Cotton Gin
• Tractors (Internal Combustion Engine)?
• Combines
• Chemical Pesticides/Fertilizers
• Hybrid Crops
• Genetically-modified Crops

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AgribusinessThe industrialization of agriculture

• Modern commercial farming is very dependent on
  inputs of chemical fertilizer, pesticides,
  herbicides.
• Oil is required to make fertilizer and
  pesticides.
• It takes 10 calories of energy to create 1
  calorie of food in modern agriculture.
• Small farmer cant buy needed equipment and
  supplies.
• Fewer than 2 of U.S. population works in
  agriculture

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Classifying Agricultural Regions

• Commercial Agriculture
• Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
• Dairy Farming
• Grain Farming
• Livestock Ranching
• Mediterranean Agriculture
• Truck Farming

• Subsistence Agriculture
• Shifting Cultivation
• Pastoral Nomadism
• Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

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Subsistence Agriculture Regions
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Shifting Cultivation

• Vegetation slashed and then burned. Soil
  remains fertile for 2-3 years. Then people move
  on.
• where tropical rainforests. Amazon, Central and
  West Africa, Southeast Asia
• Crops upland rice (S.E. Asia), maize and manioc
  (S. America), millet and sorghum (Africa)?
• Declining at hands of ranching and logging.

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Pastoral Nomadism

• The breeding and herding of domesticated animals
  for subsistence.
• where arid and semi-arid areas of N. Africa,
  Middle East, Central Asia
• animals Camel, Goats, Sheep, Cattle
• transhumance seasonal migrations from highlands
  to lowlands
• Most nomads are being pressured into sedentary
  life as land is used for agriculture or mining.

Bedouin Shepherd
Somali Nomad and Tent
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Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

• Wet Rice Dominant
• where S.E. Asia, E. India, S.E. China
• very labor intensive production of rice,
  including transfer to sawah, or paddies
• most important source of food in Asia
• grown on flat, or terraced land
• Double cropping is used in warm winter areas of
  S. China and Taiwan

The Fields of Bali
Thai Rice Farmers
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Commercial Agriculture

• Value-Added
• Very little of the value of most commercial
  products comes from the raw materials
• adding value is the key to high profit margins

Roughly 6 of the price of cereal is the cost of
the grain.
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Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

• Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
• Where Ohio to Dakotas, centered on Iowa much of
  Europe from France to Russia
• crops corn (most common), soybeans
• In U.S. 80 of grain production is fed to pigs
  and cattle!
• Highly inefficient use of natural resources
• Pounds of grain to make 1 lb. beef 10
• Gallons of water to make 1 1b wheat 25
• Gallons of water to make 1 1b. beef 2500

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Dairy Farming

• Where near urban areas in N.E. United States,
  Southeast Canada, N.W. Europe
• - Over 90 of cows milk is produced in
  developed countries. Value is added as cheese,
  yogurt, etc.

Dairy Farm, Wisconsin
Von Thunens theories are the beginning of
location economics and analysis (1826)Locational
Theory butter and cheese more common than milk
with increasing distance from cities and in
West. Milkshed historically defined by
spoilage threat refrigerated trucks changed
this.
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Prairie Cereal Farming

• Where worldwide in semi-arid midlatitudes, but
  U.S. and Russia predominant
• Crops wheat
• winter wheat Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma
• spring wheat Dakotas, Montana, southern Canada
• Highly mechanized combines, worth hundreds of
  thousands of dollars, migrate northward in U.S.,
  following the harvest.

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Livestock Ranching

• Where arid or semi-arid areas of western U.S.,
  Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and Portugal.
• History initially open range, now sedentary with
  transportation changes.

Environmental effects 1) overgrazing has
damaged much of the worlds arid grasslands (lt 1
of U.S. remain!)? 2) destruction of the
rainforest is motivated by Brazilian desires for
fashionable cattle ranches
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Mediterranean Agriculture

• Where areas surrounding the Mediterranean,
  California, Oregon, Chile, South Africa,
  Australia
• Climate has summer dry season. Landscape is
  mountainous.
• Highly valuable crops olives, grapes, nuts,
  fruits and vegetables winter wheat
• California high quality land is being lost to
  suburbanization initially offset by irrigation

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Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming

• Where U.S. Southeast, New England, near cities
  around the world
• crops high profit vegetables and fruits demanded
  by wealthy urban populations apples, asparagus,
  cherries, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.
• mechanization such truck farming is highly
  mechanized and labor costs are further reduced by
  the use of cheap immigrant (and illegal) labor.
• distribution situated near urban markets.

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Plantation Farming

• large scale mono-cropping of profitable products
  not able to be grown in Europe or U.S.
• where tropical lowland Periphery
• crops cotton, sugar cane, coffee, rubber, cocoa,
  bananas, tea, coconuts, palm oil.
• What are potential problems with this type of
  agriculture? Environmental? Social?

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Making Sense of the Map of US Agricultural Regions
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The Green Revolution in Agriculture
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The Green Revolution in Agriculture
The term green revolution refers to the
development and adoption of high yielding cereal
grains in the less developed world during the
1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Very large short term
gains in grain output have allowed food supplies
to grow faster than populations, until very
recently.

• Green Revolution History
• Acreage and Yield Trends
• Technical Problems
• Ethical Issues

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History of Green Revolution
1943 Rockefeller Foundation begins work on short
stature hybrid corn in Mexico 1960s Hybrid
strains of rice, wheat, and corn show great
success in S.E. Asia, and Latin America. 1970
Head of Mexican corn program, Borlaug, wins Nobel
Peace Prize 1990s Growth in food supply
continues, but slows to below the rate of
population growth, as the results of
unsustainable farming practices take effect.
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Acreage and Yield Trends

• Gains were made by
• Dwarf varieties plants are bred to allocate
  more of their photosynthetic output to grain and
  less to vegetative parts.
• Planting in closer rows, allowed by herbicides,
  increases yields.
• Bred to be less sensitive to day length, thus
  double-cropping is more plausible.
• Very sensitive to inputs of fertilizer and water.

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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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Acreage and Yield Trends
Notice the trend in recent years is level or down.
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Technical and Resource Limitation Problems
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Technical and Resource Limitation Problems

• Heavy Use of Fresh Water
• High Dependence on Technology and Machinery
  Provided/Sold by Core Countries
• Heavy Use of Pesticides and Fertilizer (and
  associated pollution and waste)
• Reduced Genetic Diversity / Increased Blight
  Vulnerability
• Questionable Overall Sustainability

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Technical and Resource Limitation Problems
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Ethical Issues

• Starvation of many prevented, but extra food may
  lead to higher birth rates.
• Life expectancy in less developed countries
  increased by 10 years in less than two decades
  (43 in 1950s to 53 in 1970s).
• Dependency on core countries increased rich-poor
  gap increased.
• Wealthy farmers and multinational companies do
  well, small farmers become wage laborers or
  unemployed dependent.
• More at risk? More people malnourished/starving
  today than in 1950 (but lower as a percentage).
• U.S. spends 10,000,000,000 year on farm
  subsidies, damaging farmers and markets in LDCs.

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Agricultural Success?

• Our incredible successes as a species are
  largely derived from this choice, but the biggest
  threats to our existence stem from the same
  decision. Jared Diamond, 1999
• Emergence of new human diseases from animal
  diseases (i.e. smallpox, measles)?
• Dense urban populations allow spread/persistence
  of disease
• Lower standard of living for many people.
• Archaeological evidence of serious
  mal-nourishment among early farmers.
• Many modern impoverished and malnourished
  farmers.
• Famine virtually non-existent in hunter-gatherer
  societies.
• Increased susceptibility to plant blights and
  increased dependence on complex economic systems.
• Environmental degradation
• topsoil loss (75 in U.S.), desertification,
  eutrophication, PCBs in fish, DDT and other
  pesticides

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Biotechnology in Agriculture

• Cloning
• Recombinant DNA
• BT Corn Debate (transgenic maize)?

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Biotechnology in Agriculture

• Potential Benefits of Genetic Engineering of
  Crops
• Increased Yields
• Increased Nutritional Value in Some Staple Crops
  (e.g., Vitamin A added to Rice)
• Strong Political Resistance in Europe and Among
  Environmentalists Worldwide
• Concerns about Long Term Safety and Risks

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Future Challenges

• World Population Expected to Increase to 10-12
  Billion Before Stabilizing
• Food Production Already Exerting Extreme
  Environmental Pressures
• 25 of All Greenhouse Gas Release in U.S. is from
  Agriculture. Thats more than all transport.
• Much Soil is Already Badly Damaged
• Developed Countries Still Undermining 3rd World
  Agriculture with Subsidies and Taxes