Fast FactsEconomic Activities

Agricultural RevolutionsVon Thunen’s Model

Agricultural Land Use and the Rural Sector

Correlates to Chapter 11

Farm Facts Roughly 22 million Americans produce, process & sell nation’s food Slightly less than 2% (4.6 million) are farmers Consumers spend about $547 billion for food originating on U.S. farms

and ranches Farmer’s share is roughly .23 cents per dollar Every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: about$6 million U.S.

products (grain, oilseeds, cottons, meats, vegetables) are consigned for export to foreign countries

Survey of young farmers: Computers are used on 83% of U.S. farms; nearly 75% have cell phones

17% of the American workforce, or 25 million jobs, were involved in some phase of agriculture, either growing, processing or distributing... making the food and fiber system the nation’s largest employer.

U.S. agricultural exports (excluding fish and forestry products) totaled $51.6 billion dollars and generated and additional $116 billion in business

Excluding farm labor, 444,000 people processed, packaged, stored, financed, marketed and shipped agricultural products.

Wisconsin Agriculture Farmers own 16 million acres of land – 44% of total land in Wisconsin Farmer Spending:

Off-farm labor: $.38Farmers & ranchers: $.19Packaging: $.8Repairs: $.5Rent: $4.5Transportation: $.4

Food Spending: disposable income U.S. 10% France 18% Germany 21% Japan 26%

It takes less than 40 days for most Americans to earn enough money to pay their food supply for the entire year (roughly $2,400)

Wisconsin Rankings

First:Cheese: 2.4 billion poundsCranberries: 3.6 million barrelsMink pelts: 778,000

Second:Butter: 383 poundsMilk: 22 billion poundsMilk cows: 1.23 million

Third:Carrots: 86,400 tonsPotatoes: 2.7 billion tons

Fourth:Maple syrup: 100,000 gallonsOats: 13 million bushels

World production

Rank

Country Production (109kg/y)[25]

1     India 114.4

2     United States

79.3

3     Germany 39.4

4     Pakistan 35.2

5     China 32.5

6     Russia 28.5

7     Brazil 26.2

8     France 24.2

9     New Zealand

17.3

10     United Kingdom

13.9

Global Rankings: Dairy Production

Classifying Economic ActivityPrimary : extractive sector; direct extraction of

natural resources from the environment; hunting and gathering, herding, fishing, mining, farming, lumbering,…

Secondary : manufacturing sector; processes raw materials & transforms them into finished industrial products; almost infinite range of commodities (toys, chemicals, buildings, …)

Tertiary : service sector; engaged in services (transportation, banking, education, …)

Quaternary: concerned w/ collection, processing, and manipulation of information & capital (finance, administration, insurance, legal services)

Quinary : require a high level of specialized knowledge or skill (scientific research, high-level management)

Rise of AgricultureAgriculture – the deliberate tending of crops and

livestock in order to produce food and fiber A recent innovation (12,000 yrs.) Permitted people to settle permanently with the

assurance food would be available (storage) Before farming - early communities improved

tools (sticks, baskets), weapons (clubs, spears), innovations (use of fire)

Metallurgy: separating metal from ores, developed prior to plant & animal domestication

Fishing – after Ice Age (12,000 – 15,000 yrs ago), coastal regions become warmer

Alternating periods of plenty and scarcity

Agriculture transformed way of life; exploited relatively small area of land intensively for given period of time (image of Ban Po, China

Challenges of New Way of Life•Dependency of fewer crops (like this picture in modern-day Turkey•Greater vulnerability to weather•Dependency on harvest time•Need for intense physical labor

Agricultural RevolutionsFirst Agricultural Revolution:

12,000 yrs ago (Neolithic Era) Fertile Crescent, China, N. Africa… Occurred nearly simultaneously in many areas around the

world; accompanied by a modest population explosion

Domestication – plants (Carl Sauer: first north of the Bay of Bengal), animal (about 40 species today) occurred after people became more sedentary

2nd Agricultural Revolution:Middle Ages through Industrial Revolution; major

population explosion Improved cultivation (seed drill, crop rotation),

harvesting, and storage

1st Agricultural Revolution

• Subsistence Farming – not for trade – Some are confined to small fields; may not own the

soil they till – Shifting cultivation (slash & burn) – ash aids in soil

fertility, abandon after a few years; 150 – 200 million people

• Von Thünen Model (1828)

• Spatial economics: location and land rent important are connected

• Concentric rings where crops dominate, transportation is a key factor

• R=Y(p-c)-Yfm• Farmer must maximize profit

1 – highly perishable; dairy, fruit

2 – forest (fuel & building material)

3 – less perishable; field crops, grains

4 – livestock, ranching (self-transporting)

“The Isolated State”

Von Thunen’s AssumptionsVon Thünen Model Assumptions Flat terrain Constant soils & conditions No barriers to transportation to

marketTransportation improvements

(canals, railroads)The theory is not the most

important element of von Thunen’s ModelThe analytical approach to distance

and location is what’s important (not the pattern of land use theorized)

Third Agricultural Revolutiona.k.a. “Green Revolution” Began in 1960s, still in progress today Based on higher yielding strains (wheat,

rice, corn) using genetic engineering (e.g. IR36 – rice)

Greatest impact in India, China Minimal impact in Africa (different crops,

poorer soils, lack of capital to invest, …)