AGRICULTUREChapter 11

What Is Agriculture, and Where Did Agriculture Begin?

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

Economic Activities The generation of wealth across the globe is better

illuminated by focusing on how goods are produced, not simply what is produced

Central Amer. v North American

Guatemala: 23% GDP (agriculture), 50% of population employed in agricultural production

Tertiary: 35% of labor force, 58% of GDP

Greater proportion of labor force in agricult.

Contrast w/ USA

Less than 2% involved in agricult. Production

Thousands in tertiary agricult. Activities

1950: 1 farmer fed 27, now 1 farmer feeds 135

Hunting, Gathering, Fishing Predates agriculture

North America – diversity

Oak forests: harvest nuts – collected and stored by natives

Pacific Ocean – salmon fishing

Great Plains – bison

Far north – caribou migration

Alaska / Russia - Aleut hunted large sea mammals

Availability of resources determined population sizes

Arable Land

The First Agricultural Revolution

South and Southeast Asia: Root crops, up to 14,000 years ago

Southwest Asia (the Fertile Crescent): Seed crops, about 10,000 years ago

The Fertile Crescent Beginning of planned cultivation of seed

crops Enlargement of plants from seed selection Generated a surplus of wheat and barley First integration of plant growing and

animal raising Crops to feed livestock

Livestock to help grow crops

Animal domestication Began in Fertile Crescent (c. 8000 years ago)

Relatively few domestic animals

Continuing efforts at domesticating animals usually not very successful

Rise of Agriculture •Agriculture – 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

1st 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

The Fertile Crescent

Modern Hunters-Gatherers

Pressure to change in globalized economy

Studied and mapped groups

San of Southern Africa

Aboriginals of Australia

Indigenous peoples of Brazil

Groups in Americas, Africa, Asia

Subsistence Agriculture Strict meaning: Farmers produce enough for

themselves and their families and do not enter the cash economy at all

Today, usually sell small amounts in the market Characteristics

Land held in common

Surpluses shared with everyone

Personal wealth accumulation restricted

Individual advancement at expense of group limited

Subsistence Agriculture

Shifting Cultivation Shifting fields to find better land Practiced primarily in tropical and subtropical

regions Cycle

Clear plot of vegetation

Plant crops

Loss of fertility

Loss of decaying vegetation Leaching of nutrients

Abandon plot and begin again in a new location

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

How Did Agriculture Change with Industrialization? Second Industrial Revolution: A series

of innovations, improvements, and techniques used to improve the output of agricultural surpluses New tools

Advances in livestock breeding

New fertilizers

Started before the Industrial Revolution

Von Thünen Model 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 1 – highly

perishable; fruit, dairy

2 – forest (fuel & burning material)

3 – less perishable; field crops, grains

4 – livestock, ranching (self-transporting)

Application of Von Thünen Model

Chinese village– Land improvement (by adding organic material) close

to village

– Land degradation (lots of pesticides and fewer conservation tactics) farther from village

- Communal agriculture (e.g. China) – collective farms (resulting in the significant displacement of rural people)have mixed results; farming re-privatization is currently under way

Wealthy countries Underlying principles on larger scale

Use of faster, higher capacity transportation

Application of Von Thünen Model

Von Thünen Model Assumptions

–Flat terrain

–Constant soils & conditions

–No barriers to transportation to market

•3rd Agricultural Revolution

–a.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, …)

Third Agriculture Revolution(Green Revolution)

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

Invention of high-yield grains, especially rice, with goal of reducing hunger Increased production of rice

New varieties of wheat and corn

Reduced famines due to crop failure

Most famines today due to political problems

Impact (in terms of hunger) greatest where rice is produced

Third Agriculture Revolution(Green Revolution)

•Green Revolution (revisited) –Not just higher yielding seeds – chemical fertilizers, insecticides, irrigation, machinery, hybridization (disease-resistant)

–Conditions for success – money, political stability, independent (not subsistence)farmers, transportation, market economy, cultural acceptance, education,…

–Conditions that limit success – decline in soil quality, pollution (water), increased costs of fuel & fertilizer, lack of equality(women unable to receive credit), crushing debt (individual & national), climatic factors(erosion, desertification), loss of biodiversity,…

Opposition to Green Revolution

Vulnerability to pests

Soil erosion

Water shortages

Micronutrient deficiencies

Dependency on chemicals for production

Loss of control over seeds

Genetically modified (GM) crops

Average Daily Calorie Consumption per Capita

Landscapes and Rural Settlements

Dwelling Types

–Unchanged-Traditional – layout, construction, and appearance have not been significantly altered by external influences

–Modified-Traditional – new building materials used, no change to original structure or layout

–Modernized-Traditional – materials and layout have been changed (multiple bathrooms, two-car garage, …)

–Modern – reflects advanced technology, practicality, comfort, affluence, suburbanization (most common in US)

•Building Materials

–Typically reflect what is locally available

–Wood, brick, stone, wattle (tightly woven sticks & poles plastered w/ mud), grass and brush

N. American folk housing

North American Folk-Housing Regions

–Fred Kniffen studied three principal housing types (New England, Middle Atlantic & “Tidewater South” of the Lower Chesapeake); diffused South & West

–Ranch house – evolved in California in1920s; diffused eastward (first through Sunbelt, then to other regions); designed for balmy climate & outdoor living (cultural symbol)

–Maladaptive diffusion – negative

•Ranch house diffused to areas with greater extremes in temperature (north);image over practicality

•New England style diffused into Hawaii

Ranch Style house

What Imprint Does Agriculture Make on the Cultural Landscape?

Cadastral systems – method of land survey through which land ownership and property lines are defined

• Township and Range System (rectangular survey system): Based on a grid system that creates 1-square-mile sections

• Designed to facilitate movement of non-Indians across the interior of the country

• Homestead Act – sections of land, 160 acres, given to homesteaders after five years, and after they have improved the land

• Metes and Bounds Survey: Uses natural features to demarcate irregular parcels of land (common along eastern seaboard)

• Long-lot Survey System: Divides land into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals (Maritime provinces, Quebec, Louisiana, Texas)

What Imprint Does Agriculture Make on the Cultural Landscape?

Primogeniture – all land passes to the eldest son – plots tend to be larger

- the norm in N. Europe, and areas colonized by Europeans

Dominant Land Survey Systems in the U.S.

What Imprint Does Agriculture Make on the Cultural Landscape?

Villages – traditional farm village life still common in India, Subs. Africa, China, SE Asia

- US… dwindling: less than 2% of population works in agriculture

- traditional village farms: farmed surrounding land or services for the farmers,

Close connection to land

Livelihoods directly or indirectly tied to farming

Farming reflected historical and environmental conditions

Dispersed Settlements : land is intensely cultivated by machine rather than by hand

US Midwest

Nucleated Settlements: the most prevalent rural residential pattern in Agriculture

Houses grouped together I tine clusters or hamlets

Slightly larger clusters are called villages

Nucleated and Dispersed

What Imprint Does Agriculture Make on the Cultural Landscape?

Rundling - the round village (East African)

- typical among ranching communities

- Slavic farmer-herdsmen and Germanic settlers

Walled villages – afforded protection from marauders

- still exist in rural areas of contemporary countries

Grid villages – more modern arrangements

- in LDC this type of village introduced by colonizers

- agrarian villages remain one of the most common forms of settlement on earth

- 50% of the worlds population lives in villages

- China 60%

Rundling, Walled, Grid

Agricultural Villages

What Is the Global Pattern of Agriculture and Agribusiness?

Commercial agriculture: Large-scale farming and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology

• Roots in colonial economic system

• Today, global production made possible by advances in transportation and food storage

Agribusiness and the Changing Geography of Agriculture

Agribusiness: Businesses that provide a vast array of goods and services to support the agricultural industry

Spatial concentration of agricultural activities

Relationship to subsistence farming Privileged large landowners

Government organization of agriculture

Impact of markets

Loss of Productive Farmland

Farmland in danger of being suburbanized as cities expand

World Agriculture Plantation crops

Ties to governments

Cotton and rubber

Luxury crops

Commercial livestock, fruit and grain

Mediterranean agriculture

Illegal drugs

World Agriculture – Neo Malthusian

•Possible Risks Toward a Food Crisis:

–Population change - >70 mil. per year

–Climate change – wide fluctuations (storms,…)

–Water supply – water tables are falling

–Energy costs – energy & fertilizer (chemical)costs rise together

–Lack of alternative sources – fish stocks are declining rapidly

–Colonial systems (neocolonialism) – many states have maintained cash-crops

–Loss of farmland – rich and poor countries

–Changing food preferences – meat products increasing in demand (12X grain to feed cattle than providing equivalent nourishment)

Koppen Climate Classification Map provides a means of understanding the distribution

of climatic regions : areas with similar climatic characteristics

A climates: hot or very warm, generally humid

B climates: desert and steppe

C climates: humid temperate, dry summer, Medit.

D climates: cold

World Climates(Köppen Classification System)

World Agriculture

Plantation agriculture

Colonial legacy- persists in poorer, primarily tropical, countries with subsistence farming

Plantations have outlasted the period of decolonization

Many are owned by European or American corporations

1940s & 50s – attempts at ag. reform in Guatemala

United Fruit Co. in Guat. was very concerned (owners included the Dulles brothers: sec of state and CIA director)

CIA used the fear of communism to topple the government in order to avoid the competition that would have occurred if peasants were given their own land to farm

Every person, with the exception of President Eisenhower, involved in the decision to oust the Guat. government had ties to United Fruit

Plantation agriculture

Cotton and Rubber

Cotton expands during industrial revolution b/c increased capacity brought down prices making it affordable in more markets

European industries prospered as cheap raw materials were converted into items sold in domestic and foreign markets

Today cotton in competition with synthetic fibers

Rubber originally manufactured from rubber tree sap (now most is synthetic)

Early 1900s rubber boom: Manaus, Congo Basin (tropical tree), transplanted to SE Asia which later dominated nearly 90% of all production

Invention of automobile increased demand

WWII Japan took control of Pacific which led to the development of synthetic rubber to meet demand

Plantation agriculture

Luxury Crops: tea, cacao, coffee, tobacco Coffee first domesticated in Ethiopia Coffee is the second most valuable

commodity traded after oil US buys more than ½ of all coffee

sold on world markets Typically grown on large

multinational plantations Picked by local laborers who are

paid low wages

Fair Trade Agriculture Fair trade coffee: Shade-grown coffee

produced by certified fair-trade farmers, who then sell the coffee directly to coffee importers

Guarantees a “fair trade price” Over 500,000 registered farmers Produced in more than 20 countries Often organically grown Purchase commitment by Starbucks and other

chains

Goes beyond coffee: bananas, chocolate, soccer balls, flowers, tea

Commercial livestock Largest areas of commercial agriculture

lie outside tropics – in the mid latitudes Livestock ranching – meat, leather, wool

US, CAN, MEX, East Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa

Ranching on the periphery – Thunian pattern, refrigeration has overcome the issue of perishability

Subsistence Agriculture Three types

Intensive crop and livestock farming Intensive subsistence farming: rice Intensive subsistence farming: wheat &

other crops

SE Asian subsistence farming plots are often located adjacent to plantation farms

Most SE Asian farmers are subsistence

Mediterranean Dry summer climates Grow grapes, olives, citrus fruits, figs,

dates Are popular and tend to fetch high

prices

Illegal Drugs High demand for drugs in the core farmers in periphery find it more

profitable to grow poppies, coca, or marijuana than standard food crops

World Agriculture •Nutrition & Diet

–~ 1/6 of the world is malnourished(around 33,000 people starve to death daily)

–Causes: 1) Failure of distribution systems, 2) Inability of people to pay food costs, 3) Traditional cultures that favor males

–Balanced diet: Adequate caloric intake(World Bank-2,500, UN-2,360), dietary balance (many people lack enough protein in diet, “hidden hunger”) –protein deficiency in first three years causes permanent damage

Avoiding a Food Crisis 1) Formulate population policies, 2) Sustain Green Rev., 3) Expand farmlands, 4)Stimulate local production, 5) Encourage land reform (farmers who

own their land cultivate it more carefully) 6) Improve food distribution, 7) Develop alternative sources

(aquaculture), 8) Better control ocean fishing, 9) Reduce meat consumption, 10) Promote social change(women &

children are most malnourished)

Medical Geography –Diseases typically have cores, diffusion

routes, and affect vast regions –Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) – reflects

overall health of a society (diarrhea & malnutrition are leading killers of children worldwide);27 countries still have IMR >100

–Child Mortality Rate (CMR) – deaths b/w 1-5yrs, still high in much of Africa & Asia

–Life Expectancy – reported very low in areas with high IMRs and/or CMRs

–“Graying” of populations – 600 million people age 60 and older - increasing

Infant Mortality

Life Expectancy

Disease 1013 main types:

1)Infectious – parasites; 65%of all illnesses,

2)2) Chronic (Degenerative) –longevity or age; long-term deterioration,

3)Genetic (Inherited) – chromosomes & genes –Epidemic – outbreak in a region –Pandemic – spreads around the world –Endemic – disease particular to a region –Agents – worms, insects, viruses, bacteria,… –Reservoir – pop. w/ a large # of hosts –Non-vectored disease – spread through contact, no intermediate host (vector) –Vehicle – mechanical vector (water, food,…

Disease 101 •Vectored Infectious Diseases: –Malaria – worldwide, but not at higher

latitudes; mosquitoes (vectors); fever &chills (kills b/w 2-3 million yearly)

–Sri Lanka used DDT (pesticide) to eliminate malaria; DDT is carcinogenic: trade one problem with another

Disease 101

–Yellow Fever – tropical/near-tropical areas; mosquitoes (vectors); fever w/ aches &vomiting; can color eyes and skin yellow(jaundice)

–Sleeping Sickness – source in West Africa; Africa’s wildlife act as reservoirs; fever w/swelling of lymph nodes; inflammation can go to brain & spinal cord (lethargy)

African Sleeping Sickness

Non vectored Diseases –Direct transmission through:

1) bodily contact, 2) contamination of food or water(fecal

matter), 3) contamination of air (saliva)

–Cholera – source in India; diarrhea &dehydration (death can be convulsive);hygiene prevents it (e.g. boil water)

–Influenza – source in China; transmitted from birds to pigs, from pigs to humans; 1918 –pandemic (20-30 million died worldwide)

–AIDS – source in tropical Africa; spreads through exchange in bodily fluids; people can carry HIV for years w/ no symptoms;1980 – 200,000; 2002 - >40 million

Diffusion of Cholera

Influenza Vectors

Chronic Diseases

–Occur over time; often concentrated in urban/ind. cores (infectious in periphery)

–U.S. top four causes of death: •4) Lung diseases (5%) •3) Stroke (23%) •2) Cancer (23%) •1) Heart Disease (31%) •Genetic Diseases: –Result from gene mutations or accidents

to chromosomes (radiation, viruses) –Down’s Syndrome, Galactosemia (lactose

intolerance)