Comprehensive Notes on the Geography of Agriculture

Geography of Agriculture

What is Agriculture?

  • Agriculture is the deliberate tending of crops and livestock to produce food, feed, and fiber.
  • Only half of the grains grown in the United States are used for human consumption.
  • The other half is used as feed for cattle. Both statistics are expected to decline due to the shift from fossil fuels to biofuel.
  • A 10-acre farm can support:
    • 60 people growing soy.
    • 24 people growing wheat.
    • 10 people growing corn.
    • Only two people raising cattle.
  • Only 2% of the American workforce is in agriculture, yet one farmer produces enough food to feed 135 people in a year.

Agriculture as an Economic Activity

  • Agriculture is a primary activity.
  • Manufacturing is a secondary activity.
  • Services are a tertiary activity.
  • The tertiary level is divided into:
    • Quaternary: information or the exchange of money or goods.
    • Quinary: research or education.

Before Agriculture

  • Everyone practiced hunting and gathering or fishing before the first agricultural revolution.
  • Hunting and gathering involves small bands of people living and moving together in seasonal migration or following the food supply.
  • Hunting and gathering societies historically work less than agricultural societies and have existed successfully for most of human history.
  • Agriculture relies on inventions such as tools, control of fire, diet changes and adapting to climate.

Hunters and Gatherers Today

  • Growing agricultural societies have pushed hunting and gathering societies to the fringes.
  • Some governments encourage resettlement of tribes.
  • Many live in harsh environments such as deserts (Australian Aborigines) or tropical rainforests (Yanomama in Brazil).
  • Many cultures and languages becoming extinct are found within these societies.

The First Agricultural Revolution

  • Carl Sauer believed plant domestication occurred in areas of plenty.
  • He hypothesized that Southeast and South Asia is the hearth of agriculture, about 14,000 years ago.
  • Tropical plants were domesticated in this area.
  • From this, root crops began, which would later be found in northwestern South America.
  • Agriculture is largely a product of independent invention.

Seed Crops

  • Domesticating seed crops is more difficult than root crops, involving seed selection, sowing, watering, and harvesting at the right time.
  • This began around 8,000-10,000 years ago.
  • Possible areas include the Nile River Valley and the Fertile Crescent, with the Fertile Crescent being the more accepted area.
  • Crops did not necessarily originate in the areas they are famous for. For example:
    • Corn originated in Central America and Southern Mexico.
    • Potatoes originated in the Andes Mountains of South America.
    • Bananas originated in Southeast Asia.

Animal Domestication

  • This is the deliberate tending of animals for human consumption or as beasts of burden.
  • It may have occurred before plant domestication, around 8,000 years ago.
  • Dogs and cats probably self-domesticated.
  • Animal domestication likely began around sedentary people, such as fishing societies and some hunter-gatherers.

Locations of Animal Domestication

  • Goats: Zagros Mountains
  • Chickens: Southeast Asia
  • Pigs: Numerous areas
  • Sheep: Turkey
  • Cattle: South Asia
  • Domesticated animals differ significantly from their wild counterparts.

Ongoing Animal Domestication

  • New animal domestication efforts continue in many areas.
  • Emus have recently been domesticated in North America.
  • Domestication attempts are occurring across the planet, such as with Eland in Africa.
  • Today, some geographers classify only five animals as successfully domesticated: cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses.

Subsistence Farming

  • Subsistence farming is growing food to survive.
  • A.H. Bunting is known for his work on subsistence farming, advocating for its preservation due to valuable social aspects:
    • Land often held in common.
    • Surplus is usually shared.
    • Accumulation of personal wealth is sometimes restricted.
    • Individual advancement at the cost of the group is limited.
  • Some subsistence farmers are sedentary, while others are nomadic.

Arguments Against Subsistence Farming

  • Some geographers and governments argue against subsistence farming.
  • A.N. Duckham and G. B. Masefield, in "Farming Systems of the World," argue that subsistence farmers should be forced to give up their land or switch to commercial agriculture for the sake of progress.

Shifting Cultivation

  • Found in tropical and subtropical zones.
  • Occurs where traditional farming was unsuccessful or plots were abandoned.
  • Tropical soil is not ideal for agriculture.
  • People usually live in central villages surrounded by worked parcels of land.

Slash and Burn Farming: Shifting Cultivation Type

  • Also called milpa agriculture or patch agriculture.
  • Trees are cut down, and vegetation is burned off.
  • The burned layer creates ash, which contributes to soil fertility.
  • There are debates on whether slash-and-burn farming is helpful or harmful to the planet and people.

Von Thunen’s Model

  • The central dot represents the central city or market.

  • Concentric rings represent different land uses:

    • Ring 1: Market gardening and dairying
    • Ring 2: Forest
    • Ring 3: Increasingly extensive field crops, grains
    • Ring 4: Ranching and livestock

  • The model illustrates that foods that can spoil quickly are located closer to the market.

Von Thunen's Observations

  • He lived during the Second Agricultural Revolution.
  • He observed land use changes based on market location, not soil or vegetation.
  • He noticed a concentric model around every market.
  • His model is credited as the first effort to analyze the spatial character of an economic activity.

Critics of Von Thunen

  • Some areas don't fit the model due to climate and soil influence.
  • Culture plays a role in land use.
  • Transportation costs also determine land use.
  • The global economy has changed things; it's sometimes cheaper to grow flowers in the Caribbean and sell them in New York City rather than growing them closer to NYC.

The Second Agricultural Revolution

  • New crops came to Europe from trade with the Americas.

  • Farming size increased due to government laws consolidating farms (e.g., Great Britain's Enclosure Act).

  • New technologies like the seed drill and advances in livestock breeding made the revolution possible.

  • This made the Industrial Revolution possible by creating a surplus of food which allowed people to work outside of agriculture.

  • The Industrial Revolution also brought agriculture to non-farmed areas, like the railroad bringing agriculture to the Great Plains of the U.S.

Alfred Weber’s Least Cost Theory

  • Explains where an industry locates to minimize costs and maximize profits.
  • Three categories of cost:
    1. Transportation: Lowest possible cost of moving inputs (raw materials) to the factory and moving the product to market. This is considered the most important factor.
    2. Labor: Factories reduce costs by locating near large supplies of cheap labor. A factory near cheap labor may not need to be close to inputs or the market.
    3. Agglomeration: Industries reduce costs by clustering in the same area, sharing talents, resources, costs, services, and facilities.

The Third Agricultural Revolution: The Green Revolution

  • Reading on the Green Revolution.

The GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms)

  • The Green Revolution saw the rise of GMOs.
  • GMOs are genetically engineered crops.
  • According to the Grocery Manufacturers of America, GMOs make up 75% of all processed foods in the U.S.
  • This is an ongoing topic.
  • Many countries have banned GMOs.
  • Others have embraced them.
  • Some say they are safe, others say they ruin organic crops.

Organic Farming Today

  • A pushback against GMOs has been the rise of organic farms.
  • These farms aim to decrease agriculture's impact on the planet.
  • They completely reject GMOs and minimize the use of pesticides and fertilizers.
  • Organic farmers try to limit the carbon footprint by localizing farming.

Shift From Subsistence Farming to Commercial Agriculture

  • Some countries have forced subsistence farmers to "modernize."
  • This modernization has had an impact.
  • In Latin America, there has been a dramatic increase in export crops or cash crops like coffee.
  • In Asia, the Green Revolution has had the greatest impact.
  • In Sub-Saharan Africa, total commercialized agriculture has increased, but overall agricultural exports have decreased.

Agriculture Vocabulary

  • Rectangular survey system (also called public land survey): U.S. government system for distributing land west of the Appalachian Mountains.
  • Township and range system: Rectangular land division system to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands.
  • Metes and bounds survey: Land surveying system east of the Appalachian Mountains, relying on descriptions of land ownership and natural features.
  • Longlot survey system: Land divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, and canals (Louisiana, Texas, and parts of Canada).
  • Primogeniture: Land passes through the eldest son (found in Germany).
  • Village Forms:
    • Linear village
    • Cluster village
    • Round village
    • Walled village
    • Grid village

More Vocabulary

  • Monoculture: Dependence on a single agricultural commodity.
  • Plantation agriculture: Large estate, usually owned by a single individual or family, organized to produce a cash crop.
  • Luxury crop: Non-subsistence crop such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco.
  • Livestock ranching: Raising domesticated animals for meat production and byproducts like leather and wool.
  • Mediterranean agriculture:
  • Agribusiness: General term for businesses that support the agricultural industry.