AP Human Geo Notes Semester 2

The Geography of Agriculture

• Agriculture’s Origins and History

• Classifying Agricultural Regions

• The Von Thunen Model and Location Analysis

• The Green Revolution

• Genetic Modification of Crops

History of Agriculture

Neolithic Revolution

5 Features Distinguish Commercial and Subsistence Agriculture

• Purpose of farming

• Percentage of farmers

• Use of machinery

• Farm size

• Relationship of farming to other businesses

Agricultural Revolution

Technology allows much greater production(surplus) with less human labor, but often has high social and environmental costs

• Metal plows, reapers, cotton gin

• Tractors

• Combines

• Chemical Pesticides/Fertilizers

• Hybrid crops

• Genetically-modified crops

Subsistence Agriculture:

Commercial Agriculture:

Bid-Rent Theory

Intensive and extensive farming practices are determined in part by land costs.

• The price and demand for land changes as it gets further away from the market.

• maximizing profits.

• Being closer to the market increases potential for more customers.

• trade-off between accessibility and the cost of land.

Von Thünen’s Model

Emphasizes the important of transportation costs associated distance from the market

Explains the contemporary distribution of agricultural regions - dairy, horticulture, wheat, etc.

5.1 Introduction to Agriculture

What factors impact the type of agriculture grown around the world?

1. The Physical Environment

• Climate - Agricultural output is determined by bioclimatic zones. Includes amounts of precipitation

• Space/Landforms - is the land arable or non-arable? Mtn. ranges, deserts

• Soil/Nutrients - Are nutrients naturally occurring in the soil? If not, how are the nutrients supplied?

Environmental Possibilism: The physical environment can impact the ways in which human society develops, however humans can utilize technology in order to combat natural limitations.

• Climate - Greenhouses

• Space/Landforms - Terrace Farming, Clearing Trees & Vegetation

• Soil/Nutrients - Fertilizers, Slash & Burn Agriculture

• Water/Precipitation - Irrigation, Draining Wetlands

2. Economic Forces - The cost of land, labor and machinery

5.2 Settlement Patterns & Survey Methods

Rural Survey Methods

• Defining the boundaries of land ownership

Rural Settlement Patterns

• Clustered: Throughout European history, rural residents lived in groups of homes in close proximity to one another. 

• Farmland and pasture surround the settlement

• Share resources & community

• Have to walk farmland

• Metes and Bounds Survey Methods

• Dispersed: Major characteristic is that settlements are isolated and dispersed over the land area. 

• Reflective of individual values and ownership of land

• Township & Range Survey Methods

• Linear: Settlement is organized along a LINE - typically associated with a transportation system or physical feature like a river or coast.

• Long Lot Survey Methods

5.3 Agricultural Origins and Diffusion

Agricultural Hearths

Hearth: The geographic origin of a trait, characteristic, innovation or other concept. Where something is born

Domestication: The deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands

Agricultural Hearths: The separate locations in which groups of people began to domesticate plants and animals.

Independent Inventions: Occurs when a trait has many cultural hearths; the idea that the trait developed separately without being influenced by other cultural groups

Commonalities Among Agricultural Hearths

• Fertile soil in river valleys

• Availability of water

• Moderate climates

Historic Diffusion of Agriculture

1. Contagious Diffusion: Agriculture first diffused to surrounding areas through close contact

2. Immigration & Migration: Ex of relocation diffusion. As people migrate, brings food and ideas with them

3. Trade Routes: The Silk Road: Over 4,000 miles of trade routes, connected east to west

4. The Columbian Exchange: Exchange of goods from NA, Africa, Europe

5.4 The Second Agricultural Revolution

The First Agricultural Revolution - Neolithic Era

• When & Where: 12,000-10,000 years ago, Fertile Crescent

• Diffusion: Trade routes & the Columbian Exchange

Characteristics

• Origin of farming - First domestication of plants and animals

• Subsistence farming: Farmers grow the crops for their own consumption, not for sale

• Methods: Simple hand tools, manual labor

The Second Agricultural Revolution

• When & Where: 1750, Great Britain

• Diffusion: Through G. Britain into Europe and the US

Causes of the Second Agricultural Revolution

1. Industrial Revolution: The use of technology to increase production and distribution of agricultural goods

1. Cotton gin, seed drill, steel plough, barbed wire

2. High yields -> surplus of food -> population growth and longer life expectancy

3. More technology -> less manual labor -> decrease in the number of farmers

2. Enclosure Movement: Series of laws enacted by the British government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use which had previously been communal land used by peasant farmers. Resulted in:

1. Emergence of commercial agriculture

2. Fewer and larger farms -> decrease in farm owners -> improvements in farming techniques -> decrease in agricultural laborers

3. Urbanization: Mass migration of people into the cities to work in factories

Characteristics of the Second Agricultural Revolution

• Crop Rotation: Planting the same crop each year can deplete natural resources in soil. Farmers began to rotate crops to sustain fertility of soil

• Led to increased crop yields, experimentation with fertilization techniques

• Transportation Improvements & New Markets

• Trains and steamboats allowed farmers to ship their products further and at a lower cost.

5.5 The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution

• When & Where: 1950s-1960s

• Diffusion: Research of MDCS spread to developing countries in Latin America & Asia

Causes

• Massive population growth occurring in the 20th century - mostly in developing regions of the world

Characteristics

• Development of higher-yielding, disease resistance, faster-growing varieties of grains

• Hybrids & GMOs

• Double Cropping: Growing more than one crop per year

• Increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation techniques and machinery in developing countries

Positive Results

• Higher yields on the same amount of cultivated land

• Increased yields -> surplus -> sustain population growth -> begin exporting crops -> more wealth -> better farming technology -> more crops

• Led to self-sufficiency in developing regions

• Lower food prices - increased access

Negative Results

• Environmental Consequences

• Mass use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides ->  runoff in local water systems -> impact ecosystems, habitats, pollute water, poison animals

• Intensive double cropping system and aggressive irrigation -> soil erosion and salinization. 

• More machinery -> more use of fossil fuels -> air, sound & water pollution

• Loss of biodiversity

5.6 & 5.7 Economic & Spatial Organization of Agriculture

How do economic forces impact agriculture?

The Economy of Commercial Agriculture

Monocropping (Monoculture)

• The Cultivation of one or two crops rotated seasonally

• Allows for maximum efficiency

• Profitable for large corporate farms

• Puts small farmers out of business, can strip nutrients from the soil

• Supply & demand = If there is more supply than demand, price goes down

Agribusiness

• Large-scale system that includes production, processing, distribution, financial funding and research of agricultural products and equipment

Economies of Scale

• Large scale farming is cost effective due to lower bulk prices for farming supplies and technologies.

• Modern equipment, fertilizers, pesticides, GMO and hybrid seeds contribute to higher yields

Technological Advances

• Increases cost of operating farms but also increases efficiency of agriculture

• Increases carrying capacity of the land, higher yields

Commodity Chains

• Complex network that connects places of production with distribution to consumers

• Due to improvements in technology, agribusiness, and globalization farmers can raise crops and animals farm from their final markets

Bid-Rent Theory: The value of land is influenced by its relationship to the market. 

• Most desirable and accessible land is near the market and costs more money. 

• Least desirable and accessible land is located furthest from the market

5.8 Von Thünen’s Model

Von Thunen’s Model for Rural Agricultural Land Use

Assumptions

• Isotropic plane: All land is flat and the physical environment is the same everywhere

• No barriers to transportation

• Farmers using oxcarts to transport goods to market

Major Idea: 

• Transportation costs are proportional to the distance from the market

• The perishability of the product and transportation costs to the market factor into a farmer’s decisions regarding agricultural practices

The Limitations of Von Thunen’s Model

• Multiple market centers across the world today -> global supply chain

• Food preservation techniques such as tin cans and refrigeration

• Improved transportation infrastructure. 

• Government policies about land use or to encourage growth of a particular crop.

• Wood no longer a major source of heat or cooking

• Non-Isotropic Planes: Physical features impact the shape of the model.

• Speciality Farming: Regions of particular climates and soil types like Mediterranean agriculture are missing from the model