AGRICULTUREChapter 11 Notes

Bellringer

• What are 2 possible reasons why Americans today eat significantly more fast food & processed (factory-made) foods today than 50 years ago?

What Is Agriculture?

The purposeful tending of crops and raising of livestock in order to produce food and fiber

Economic Activities• Primary economic activities: Products closest

to the ground

• Secondary economic activities: Manufacturing of primary products into new products

• Tertiary economic activities: Services, connecting producers to consumers to facilitate trade

• Quaternary economic activities: Information or the exchange of goods

• Quinary economic activities: Tied into research or higher education

Arable Land

Bellringer

• Look at yesterday’s notes on the levels of economic activities.

• How are quaternary and quinary activities related to tertiary economic activities?

• Turn in Ch 11 homework!

Subsistence Agriculture

• Strict meaning: Farmers produce enough for themselves and their families and do not enter the cash economy at all

Subsistence Agriculture

• -

Shifting Cultivation• Shifting fields to find better land• Practiced primarily in tropical/subtropical regions• The Cycle:

1. Clear plot of existing vegetation2. Plant crops3. Gradual loss of fertility

•Loss of decaying vegetation•Leaching of nutrients

4. Abandon plot and begin again in a new location

• Variation in products by distance from the town, with livestock raising farthest away

• Use of land governed by cost of transportation

• First effort to analyze the spatial character of economic activity

Von Thünen Model (Late 1800s)

Third Agriculture Revolution(Green Revolution)

• Began in U.S. Midwest, then applied to less wealthy countries

• Increased technology in agriculture (fertilizer, pesticides, etc.)

• Invention of high-yield grains, especially rice, wheat, corn

Average Daily Calorie Consumption per Capita

Critics of the Green Revolution

• They say new technology has caused:

1.Soil erosion 2.Dependency on chemicals for

production3.Loss of control over seeds to

agribusiness4.More genetically modified (GM) crops

World Climates(Köppen Classification System)

World Agriculture

AgribusinessCommercial agriculture: • Large-scale farming and ranching

operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology

Example of “Fair Trade” Agriculture

• Fair trade Coffee: – produced by certified fair-trade farmers, who

then sell the coffee directly to foreign importers

• Guarantees a “fair trade price”• Purchase commitment by Starbucks and

other chains