5.4 The Second Agricultural Revolution

When did the 2nd Agricultural Revolution begin?

UK/Europe

New Inventions

• improved yoke, horse collar, plows

• Barbed wire

• Seed drill (dug precise holes, planted seeds, covered with soil)

• Reaper (cuts/gathers crops)

• Thresher (separates grains/seeds from their chaff/saw)

Reaper/Thresher

New Agricultural practices

Plowing deeper (better quality of soil)

Crop rotation (growing different specific crops in the same area to restore nutrients, slow down build-up of pests/pathogens)

Better soil Preparation/fertilizing methods (development of chemical fertilizers)

Improvement in crop and animal care (more scientific knowledge, selective breeding of animals)

Improved irrigation methods and field drainage (reclaiming land)

Development of national markets

Shift from communal land (feudal system) to individually owned plots

Enclosure movement (one large parcel of land owned by a single wealthier individual/family)

• in combination with better agricultural technology=fewer human laborers needed for farming (prompted massive rural-to-urban migration and European waves of migration to USA)

Huge increase in output (higher crop and livestock yields)

Better diets (more calories, varieties of food/nutrients)

longer life expectancies

Shift from DTM stage 1 to 2- significant drop in CDR

Reduction in amount of labor needed for farming: resulted in rural to urban migration, coinciding with stage 2 of DTM; and the development of modern industry - many displaced farmers moved to cities and began working in factories

Changes in land use patterns

Growth of larger-scale farms: basis for the modern “factory farm” development of monoculture (growing one single crop or raising one single species of animal)

Continiued transportation infrastructure devleopment

better quality b of roads (paving), canals

Coincides with European exploration

(globalization economy, mercantilism, colonialism)-agriculture as “business,” the Colombian exchange

• colonial lands integrated into global system of production/trade

• Development of “cash crop” system (profit-oriented; the commodification of food)