The Geography of Agriculture

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The Geography of Agriculture

• agriculture deliberate growing of crops or
  raising of animals
• Why study agriculture?
• Much of Earths dedicated to farming
• Only 2 in U.S. engaged in farming
• Half of people in LDCs depend on farming
• Huge impact on the environment
• Our entire way of urban-industrial life based
  upon commercial farming

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A. First Agricultural Revolution

1. Transition away from hunting gathering
2. Domestication of plants animals
3. Fertile Crescent (S.W. Asia) about 12,000 years
   ago
4. Wheat, barley, sheep goats along Tigris
   Euphrates Rivers

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• Domestication of plants animals probably
  emerged as an extension of food gathering
  activities of hunting gathering societies.

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CORN
RICE
POTATO
WHEAT
MILLET
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B. Intensive vs. Extensive

• 1. intensive agriculture uses large inputs of
  labor capital on smaller areas of land
• - high yield per unit area of land
• - fertilizers
• - water management
• - activity of half the worlds population
• - rice alone feeds 2.8 billion Asians every day

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• 2. extensive agriculture large areas of land
  less labor input
• - yield per unit area is low populations are
  low
• Systems of production
• - subsistence (for survival)
• - commercial (for sale)

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C. Types of Subsistence Agriculture

• Shifting cultivation (swidden agriculture) a
  type of subsistence farming found in tropical
  rain forest areas
• also called slash-and-burn or milpa
• cutting, burning (fertilizes clears pests),
  then planting
• 5 of world (Amazon, Congo, Indonesia)

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• Nomadic Pastoralism a form of extensive
  subsistence agriculture
• animal herds are moved from one forage area to
  another in patterns of migration
• mostly in arid grasslands
• milk, cheese, meat, wool, skins

Wodaabe of The Sahara
Tibetan herdsmen
Tunisian goat herder
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• transhumance a form of pastoral nomadism where
  stock is moved to the lowlands in the winter
  highlands in the summer

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• What type of agricultural activity is depicted
  in each of the slides?

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Fruit!

• Labor intensive or capital intensive?
• Intensive or extensive land use?
• Commercial or subsistence?
• Sedentary or nomadic?
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vCvgRhp14TY0

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Wheat
Labor intensive or capital intensive? Intensive
or extensive land use? Commercial or
subsistence? Sedentary or nomadic? http//videos.h
owstuffworks.com/discovery/35514-howstuffworks-sho
w-episode-7-midwestern-wheat-farmers-video.htm
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Fishing

• Labor intensive or capital intensive?
• Intensive or extensive land use?
• Commercial or subsistence?
• Sedentary or nomadic?
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vO66W62mmrr0
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vJBDNmeREMdk

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Cattle Ranching
https//www.youtube.com/watch?vGLETAdwgQn4