AP human geo unit 5

A Historical Perspective

• Today’s farmers grow more agricultural products on less land than ever before in human history – done through a mastery of increasingly advanced technology, transportation and techniques of farming

• Farmers compete with one another in a global market (need to be aware of crop prices and policies around the world) In US only 2% of population is involved with farming as a full-time occupation (million involved in the transportation, production, distribution of agricultural products – it’s a multi-billion dollar industry

A. First Agricultural Revolution

• Origin of agriculture predates recorded history

• Agriculture  is the raising of animals, or growing of crops to obtain food for primary consumption by the farm family or for sale off the farm

• Shift from hunting and gathering societies (depend on migratory animals, wild fruit and berries) to planting crops changed the course of human history – 1st Agricultural Revolution allowed humans to form settled societies and to avail themselves of a more reliable source of food

• More stable food source global population began to grow and it created a self-perpetuating cycles of population growth; societies grew more complex, so did the labor, job specialization arose along class and gender lines, societies organized around the growing season

• In addition to plant domestication, animal domestication (process of taming wild animals for human benefit) became common and changed diets of people (cows, pigs, chickens) – also social effects (taming the horse allowed for formation of large scale Eurasian steppe nomad societies , such as Mongol Empire, loomed over settled agricultural societies as a potential military threat

B. Second Agricultural Revolution

• From 1750 to around 1900 the developed world experienced the Industrial Revolution (movement from handmade good to machine made goods) – innovations in metalworking, textiles, etc. – included agriculture – 2nd Agricultural Revolution – used technology provided by the Industrial Revolution to increase production and distribution of products (fields could be double/triple in size but still worked by same among of labor) – increased productivity allowed human population to increase on both a local and global scale (some less developed countries are still in the 2nd Agricultural Revolution)

• Impacts – cotton gin (did the work of dozens of people, but made slavery more highly practiced, ensuring decades of further human misery for African Americans); wheat harvested by machines, corn using technological forerunner to the combine; all created social effects  - factories built, RR’s, faster ships, new canals to transport Ag products (get to market before spoilage), market grew and expanded outward, created wealth and incredible economic inequality and labor strife

• Effect on rural areas – more people left the farm, less work being done manually, moved to urban area to find factory jobs – US population shifted from rural to urban

• Increase in food production corresponded with the first wave of human population growth (population began to climb the S-curve)

C. The Green Revolution

• Began latter half of the 20th century – 3rd Agricultural Revolution - commonly referred to as the Green Revolution – involves the rise of industrial farming (mass production of agricultural products – family owned farms become things of the past with the rise of corporate agribusiness)

• Began in early 1940s but did not take off until the 1960s (started with Norman Borlaug, an agricultural specialists – worked with wheat production in Mexico – now use agricultural science to improve crops)

• Key innovation was the hybridization of crops and animals, as well as the use of chemical fertilizers – both bad revolutionary impacts on food production (selective breeding created hybrids of plants/animals and increased use of chemical fertilizers)

• In US began on a massive scale in 1960s – scientists crossbred varieties of wheat, corn and other products (ex. Wheat traditionally grown in dry climates (too much moisture meant crop would spoil in the fields) hybridization, modern wheat strains can resist spoilage) 

• Biotechnology known as genetic engineering – is alerting the DNA of plants and animals to create Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) – can create new or altered species that were previously difficult (if not impossible) to achieve (ex developing chickens to produce more meat, coaxing rice to produce extra vitamins) – 1st entered the market in 1994

• Greatest feat with genetic modification of rice (1st modified in the Philippines and diffused Asia – now heartier and can be grown more quickly) – helps feed more people (also have double and triple cropping – growing of two/three crops per year)

• Some against GMOs make the case that resulting food is unsafe & causes problems in humans (like more allergies in children) – led to mandatory labeling of GMO products in several countries

• Organic Farming has grown over the past two decade (it uses natural processes and seed that are not genetically altered)

D. Fourth Agricultural Revolution

• Food is grown and sold locally, reducing transportation costs; fertilizers and pesticides are minimized, heirloom plant seeds used instead of modern hybrids (can result in diversity of flavor and texture, but get lower crop yield)

• Began really in 21st century, small urban gardens date since Ancient Egypt (during WWI US government encouraged “victory gardens”)

• vertical farms key aspect – crops grown indoors in vertically stacked layers (rely on hydroponics – plants grow in water rather than soil, artificial sunlight using LED lights)

• Drawbacks – urban farm more expensive, air pollution, is it economically and environmentally sustainable, requires more energy

E. The Next Agricultural Revolution?

• Debate over GMOs not stopped biotechnology research – plants, animals, even humans may be re-engineered in ways that might once have seemed impossible

• CRISPR “crisper” genome editing technique allows for a kind of “molecular scissors” – target specific areas for deletion or insertion (2017 Chinese created leaner pigs survive better at lower temps, saving heating costs and offering consumers healthier pork) – precision genetic engineering has limitless potential in the modification of agricultural products

II. Agricultural Hearths

• Carl Sauer – critic of environmental determinism and started the field of cultural ecology (humans had power over their environment and not a product of their environment) – mapped out agricultural origins (hearths) 

A. Hearths of Vegetative and Seed Planting and Animal Domestication

• Vegetative Planting – means removing part of the plant and putting it it the ground to grow a new plant (ex hosta plant – cut a hosta in half and replant both sides

• seed agriculture – means taking seeds for existing plants and planting them to produce new plants (most common)

• Developed in 3 main areas: 

1. Central American and NW South America – grew manioc (sometimes called cassava), sweet potato, arrowroot; domesticated animals turkeys, llamas, alpacas – done by Aztecs, Mayans, Incas

2. West Africa – major Ag products yams and palm oil; animals - cattle, sheep, goats – diffused through Old World and European explorers brought them to the New World - major industry in US

3. Southeast Asia – root crops (taro, banana, palm trees); animals – dogs, pigs, chickens

B. Hearths of Seed Agriculture

• 4 main hearths

1. Southern Mexico – crops (squash, beans, cotton) – diffused to rest of North America over time

2. Northeastern Africa – crops (coffee) in Ethiopia diffused to West Africa and eventually to South America with the slave trade

3. Northern China – crop (millet – grain crop that possess more calories than wheat)

4. Northeastern India – crop (Rice after arriving via trade routes; Wheat) – rice and wheat important staple crops that feed the world

III. Agricultural Regions and Patterns of Change

• cultivation  regions – are those that specifically deal with agricultural production (not find farm/cattle in urban area)

• Agricultural regions are typically rural settlements (can be dispersed (spread over large area); nucleated (clustered in tightly packed area) – use building material common in their region)

• Village form refers to layout of the rural settlement: cluster (dwellings nucleated); grid (dwelling sorted along rectangular street grid); round (dwelling surround an area for animals, acting as a pen); walled (settlement if fortified for protection against attacks)

• Agricultural landscape – land we choose to farm and what products we choose to farm

A. Subsistence Farming

• Subsistence farmers produce the food they need to survive on a daily basis (they depend on the crops that they grow and animal products they raise for daily sustenance)

• Types of Subsistence Farming:

1. Shifting cultivation – involves moving of crops to new field after several years of depleting nutrient in original field (tropical areas where soil is porous but shallow, soil erodes quickly); slash and burn agriculture (clear land of vegetation by burning it, puts nitrogen into the soil, which is nutrients needed by plants) – puts rainforest and other ecosystems at risk (farmers constantly moving to clear more land)

2. Crop rotation – planting of different types of crops each year o replenish the soil with nutrients used up by the previous crop (ex farmer planting corn year one, soybeans the next, and back to corn on same field)

3. Pastoral nomadism – involves moving animals on a seasonal basis to areas that have necessary resources to meet the needs of the herd (transhumance – moving herd to higher elevations in summer and lower elevations in winter); usually practiced in arid climates (Sahara Desert in North Africa; Gobi Desert in Mongolia and Northern China) – herds include (camels, sheep, goats) typical family can survive on 10 camels and approximately 50-100 sheep and goats (may trade animals products for wheat, barley); Pastoral nomadism and Shifting cultivation are known as Extensive Subsistence Agriculture (not require much labor, but criticized for causing soil erosion, water degradation and other environmental problems) 

4. 4. Intensive Subsistence Farming – more work is needed to obtain same level of production – ex wet rice (grown in rice sawahs (flooded fields) it requires planting and harvesting each stalk by hand– very time consuming and labor intensive (wheat, barley – require large amount of human and animal labor for production) aided by few tools (hoes, rakes)

5. 5. interillage – clearing of rows in the field through the use of hoes, rakes and other manual equipment (machinery too expensive) – most of the world practices subsistence Ag in one form or another (mostly in under- developed countries)

B. Commercial Farming

• Commercial farming involves mass production of specialty crops for sale off the farm, requires use of machinery, practiced in the US and Europe (and other developed areas)

• Produces crops at reduced rate and sells them at increased costs, tend to be large farms (thousands of acres) – use technology and machines to run successfully (genetic engineering has led to increase production regardless of weather)

• Types of Commercial Farming:

• 1. Mediterranean Agriculture – climate dry summer and cool, moist winter; crops – grapes, dates, olives; found – parts of California, portions of Australia 

• 2. Dairy Farming – highly mechanized in recent years (milking barn, hooked up to mechanical milkers, pump the milk into large, cooled containers, picked up by milk truck (usually every other day), typically has a contract with a milk or dairy  company, needs to be done fairly close to a major market

• 3. Mixed Livestock with Crop Production – in this type of farming, cows, grown for meat and other products, are fed with crops (including corn/soybeans) grown on the same farm (majority of corn/soybeans grown not for human consumption but cattle feed – found in the Midwest 

• 4. Livestock Ranching – appears in developed countries, done on the fringes of productive land (feeding livestock down by allowing animals to roam fields w/out assistance, need large area), found in the western portion of the US (also in Brazil, Australia, and Central Asia) 

• 5. Specialized Fruit Production – orchards in SW and SE US and along Atlantic coast (in Arizona irrigation provides water to the arid region) – produce fruit crops like oranges, lemons, limes, peaches, berries, apples

• 6. Plantation Agriculture – occurs in less developed countries and usually involves production of one crop (sold to developed countries) like bananas, sugarcane, coffee, cotton, common in tropical areas (involves interaction between core countries and periphery countries – core countries rely on periphery countries for their raw materials of agricultural products)

• 7. Truck Farms – refers to farms where farmers produce fruits and vegetables for market (use mechanization to produce large quantities of fruits and vegetables, sold to processors (ex JollyGreen Giant plants in MN receive their products from truck farms)

• 8. Suitcase Farms – migrant workers provide cheap, abundant labor source, work on the farm during the day and leave at night; led to rise of agribusiness – mass production of agricultural products (Cargill – constantly trying to find better ways to grow crops and improve their distribution systems to improve profits), it’s a form of large-scale commercial agriculture and led to the rise of agricultural industrialization – increased mechanization of the farming process to boost profits and productivity (farms becoming larger and geared toward production of specific products – instead of 100 head of cattle, many famers have 5,000; instead of one farmer owning a farm, a group of people runs the operation like a business)

• 9. Grain Farming – mass planting and harvesting of grain crops (wheat, barley, millet), use a lot of land due to demand for abundant production to meet dietary preferences of more developed countries, done in drier climates (Great Plains, North European Plain – known as breadbaskets) – known as staple grains (barely, wheat, millet) due to the large percentage of the world population depending on these for survival

IV. Von Thunen’s Model of Agricultural Land Use

• 1826 Johann Heinrich von Thunen developed his model of agricultural land use (sometimes called agricultural location model)

• States that the productivity of the land (the farmer’s net profit) can be calculated ahead of time; the formula considers potential yield of a given crop, the market price per unit of that commodity, and how expensive it is to ship the commodity to market (if farmer grows products that don’t fit the model, the farmer will lose out on profit opportunities due to increased costs of production and transportation)

• The model revolves around specific agricultural markets and only applies to commercial agriculture  (assumes that farmers sell all of their agricultural harvest); describes six concentric rings around the market (products weight determines where the farmers must be in relation to the market

A. Market-Gardening Activities

• Includes various heavy, bulky products such as melons and vegetables

• Need to be close to market 2 reasons: 1. too far away, take to long to get to market and spoil 2. cost of transportation

• Agricultural areas around urban areas devoted to fruits/vegetables due to cost of producing these products, high cost of land near the urban center, need cheap transportation to offset this expense

B. Dairy Farming

• Trucks must cool the dairy products adding to the cost of transportation (milk spoil rapidly must be relatively close to large urban areas)

C. Livestock Fattening

• The deliberate adding of weight to animals (cow, pigs) to increase their sale price 

• Cost of transportation is high due to weight of animals, but doesn’t need to be done on a daily basis; farmers only bring livestock to the slaughterhouse to sell several times per year

• feedlots are farms that specialize in fattening cattle/hogs and may have thousands of head (downside – runoff waste may contaminate local watersheds, the smell)

E. Commercial Grain Farming

• The selling of wheat, corn, millet and other grains (transfer process from ground to market can be done fairly quickly due to machinery) – simply combine the field and put the seed in the truck (combines – separate seed from the shaft of plants)

• After harvesting commercial grain sent to market and sold to producer (makes a product – like bread),product sold to wholesaler, who resells to grocery store, where consumer can buy – called the food chain (also known as the commodity chain) – which describes the process food goes through to get from the primary sector (resource-based) of the economy to the tertiary sector (service-based)

F. Livestock Ranching

• Uses the most land per farm of any of the zones in the model (farmers can afford the extra land because of their distance from the urban market area)

• Cattle graze freely; transportation to the market occurs sporadically throughout the year

G. Nonagricultural Land Use

• Last part of the model really isn’t a zone – distance to market is so vast that the farmer cannot produce or profitably sell agricultural products

H. Discussion of von Thunen’s Model

• In all zones costs of products are carefully balanced to account for both distance and weight (milk needs to be cooled during its journey – cost of refrigeration is offset by the shorter distance)

• Model assumes that all land has the same quality of soil, land is similar physically, climate is similar, and equal political structure (any variations could cause increase in transportation costs)

• How well does Von Thunen’s Model hold up today? Lets look at a map of the US (assuming that populous New York City is the market, would the model hold up?). The answer is yes and no

V. Economic Systems and Activities

• Type of economic system in which a farmer operates directly affect the farming system’s degree of technology and mechanization (less developed countries, farmers usually practice some type of subsistence agriculture – involves more manual labor and less mechanization)

• physical environment of a society influences its economic activities – the adaptive strategies that human adopt to thrive in given region would influence a society’s economic activities (ex Alaska not able to support citrus fruit orchards, but the weather would spur the sale of heaving jackets or snowmobiles)

• Farming today different than years past (farmers once sold products to the elevator (often a cooperative “co-op” whose members were the farmers in the community, and sold harvest to processors) – Today – technology and mechanization allow more production and that is hurting the small farmer (must conglomerate or face extinction) – led to farm crisis (farmers are too productive, causing supply to exceed demand for many products, meaning lower prices and less revenue for farmers– forcing small farmers out of business)

• Opposite end of the spectrum farmers who live or have lived close to urban areas and as those areas expand farmers able to sell land for high profit

VI. Agriculture and Gender

• Women in the 1st Agricultural Revolution – played a key role by gathering roots and plants – also created job specialization (performed job of caring for children)

• Women in the 2nd Agricultural Revolution – labor saving devices freed up women from regular toil in the fields, many moved to cities in search of factory work, some turned to social movements (temperance, anti-slavery, women’s suffrage

• Women in the Green Revolution – places like India and SE and East Asia the social effects were dramatic, rural women disproportionately affected by the job losses created by automation

• Women in the 4th Agricultural Revolution – rise of urban farming created new business opportunities 

VII. Agriculture in the United States

A. Early European Settlements

• 1st successful English settlement Jamestown, VA 1607 (poor agricultural practices nearly doomed this colony)

• 1621 Plymouth, MA befriended Native American who assisted them with agricultural practices

• Diffusion of cattle (milk and food) help with growing population; horses used to assist in plowing land

• canals helped to link fertile Midwest regions to market on the east coast

• Westward Migration – Europeans planted crops using the metes and bounds system (uses the land’s physical features to describe ownership claims – metes used traditional distance measurements/bounds uses more general features like rivers); RR brought new immigrants to the Midwest and West (Homestead Act 1862 created to establish settlement on the Great Plains) – used the township & range system (broke land into square mile tracts known as sections, settlements were often dispersed around the township); survey pattern from French settlers who used long lots along the rivers in Louisiana (used rivers as primary source of transportation) lots extended back from the rivers – each made a lasting impact on the landscape

B. US Agriculture Throughout the 20th Century

• agrarianism (agrarian politics) was an important political faction throughout US history - supported policies that advance the needs and interests of farmers (after WWII US more urbanized and farmers lost political power) – ethanol industry one of the few notable aspects of agrarian interests

• 1910 geographer Fredrick Jackson Turner stated that the US had reached its Manifest Destiny (to settle land from coast to coast)

• 1929 Great Depression, economic downturn combined with droughts (Dust Bowl of the 1930s) – forced millions off the Great Plains – moved west to California (climate perfect for fruit production)

• overgrazing led to arid regions becoming desert (known as desertification = herds of animals graze land, not receive enough moisture, land becomes barren and desert like); Southern Sahara regions have experience soil erosion and loss of farmland due to expanding desert

C. Future of US Agriculture

• New farms hardly resemble the farms of the past – aquaculture – the farming of fish for sale off the farm (raised in pools); substitute for traditional fishing as the ocean’s populations are depleting

• Forestry (replant million of tree to ensure sustainable yield – to produce a crop for years to come

• creative destruction  – removal of what nature originally produced in a particular location to grow what is desired (with genetic engineering farmers grow crops where they previously could not, earns more profit 

• Business of Farming – processor prefer to buy from one mass producer or farmer to achieve more uniform quality – led to huge feedlot operations; also created a “just-in-time” method of delivery, where products arrive at grocery store just before consumers purchase them (keeps products fresh) - Large corporate farms and feedlots under pressure to clean up their operations due to environmental concerns

• Future of Small Farms – to stay profitable family farms have started to incorporate sustainable farming techniques (ridge tillage, pest management, limited use of pesticides and herbicides, using mixed crop and livestock operation) – able to get more money per pound; also take advantage of the “local food” movement – many people important to support local farmers – created locavores – people who consume products grown or raised close to them

VIII. Agriculture and the Environment

• Ag as a whole criticized in the past for not being environmentally friendly in its practices (pesticides) – shift in thinking from how can society produce enough food to how can society produce food in such a way the ensures an environmentally friendly sustainable yield

• Ag has a role in area of alterative sources that are renewable (corn can be converted to ethanol – where most profit comes from – means less for feeding people)

• Midwest runoff from animals and fertilizer from fields goes into rivers and streams 

IX. World Crop Regions

• Number one factor in terms of productivity is climate (determines what type of agricultural is practiced)

• Developing world still practice (shifting cultivation – tropical rainforest regions; pastoral nomadism – semi-arid regions); developed country (level wealth and incorporation of technology)

• planned economy – government-controlled economy (government dictates to farmers the quantity and type of agricultural products they can produce – result poor agriculture (North Korea)

• collective farm (often linked with planned economy) – workers are not paid with money, instead receive share of the crop

A. Global Rundown

• US leader in corn production (raise livestock and food source); increasingly being used in ethanol (40%)

• South America – in Brazil use sugarcane to make ethanol

• Eastern Europe – wheat is major product (Bread building block on most diets) – EU has strict policies regarding growing food across Europe (soil conservation techniques, regulations on use of pesticides and GMOs)

• Africa – sorghum and millet (high calorie energy sources) – need to increase food production to match population growth

• Asia – rice staple crop (China has “noodle-line” difference in regional climate dictates crops – north of noodle line (wheat); south of noodle line (rice)