AP HUG: Chapter 10 - Food and Agriculture

When did the agricultural revolution occur?

Around 8000 BC, the world's population began to grow at a more rapid rate. It's believe that the reason for sudden population increase was the agricultural revolution.

Most humans derive most of their kilo-calories through the consumption of...

Cereal grain, or simply cereal, which is a grass that yields grain for food. Grain is the seed from a cereal grass.

food security

Physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. - roughly 1/8 of the world's inhabitants do not have food security.

Crop Hearths:

Southwest Asia - Early crops: Barley, wheat, lentil, and olive. East Asia - Early crops: Rice and Millet. Sub-Saharan Africa - Early Crops: Sorghum, yams, millet, and rice. Latin America - Early Crops: Beans, cotton, potato, maize (corn).

Animal Hearths:

Southwest Asia - Early domesticated animals: Cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, and dogs. Central Asia - Early domesticated animals: Horses

Annual Cropping

fields are used every year and rotated between legumes and roots.

Dietary energy consumption

the amount of food that an individual consumes

Developing Countries Agriculture

- 1/2 of the people are farmers. - Developing countries are home to 97% of the world's farmers.

Von Thunen Model

- A model that explains the distance from the farm to the market influences the farmer;s choice of crop to plant. -Geographers use the model to help explain the importance of proximity to market in the choice of crops on commercial farms.

Hunter and Gathers today

- A quarter-million people, or less than 0.005 percent of the world's population still survive by hunting and gathering. - Contemporary hunting and gathering societies are isolated groups that live on the periphery of world settlement. Ex: Spinifex

Intensive Sustenance Agriculture With Wet Rice Not Dominant

- Agriculture in the interior of India and northern China. - Wheat, barley, millet, oats, etc. (Grains and legumes). - Land worked by human power and animals - Crop rotation.

Before the invention of agriculture:

- All humans probably obtained the food they needed for survival through hunting and gathering. - The group traveled around frequently.

U.S Advanced Technology

- Allows farmers to produce enough food for people at very high standard. - Fewer than 2% of people in U.S.A are farmers.

Truck farms

- Also called garden farming and specialty farming. - Grow many of the fruits and vegetables that consumers in developed countries demand. - The farms are highly efficient large scale operations that take full advantage of machines at every stage of the growing process. - They are willing to experiment with new varieties, seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs to maximize efficiency. - Labor costs are kept down by hiring migrant workers.

Johann Heinrich von Thunen

- An estate owner in northern Germany first proposed the Von Thuen Model in 1826. - According to the model, a commercial farmer initially considers which crops to cultivate and which animals to raise based on the market location. - The model can be scaled up for the national and global markets.

Diary Farming Process

- Diary farmers sell their milk to wholesalers who later distribute it to retailers. - Retailers then sell it to consumers in shops or at homes.

Expanding Fishing

- Aquaculture or aquafarming is the cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions. - The human consumption of fish and seas has increased from 27 million metric tons in 1960 to 110 metric tons in 2010. - Global fish production has increased from approximately 36 to 45 million metric tons. - Only 2/3 of fish caught from the ocean is consumed directly by humans.

Challenges for Farmers in Developed Countries

- Commercial farmers suffer from low incomes, because they are capable of producing more food than is demanded by consumers in developed countries. - Demand is stagnant in developed countries because of low population growth.

China communes

- Communist government organized agricultural producer communes which consisted several villages of several hundred people each. - The government hoped to promote agricultural efficiency, but in reality, productivity did not increase, so China dismantled the agricultural communes.

Types of crops grown in plantations:

- Cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, and tobacco. - Cocoa, jute, bananas, tea, coconuts, and palm oil.

Mixed Crops + Livestock Farming Benefits

- Crops fed to animal, in turn, the livestock supply manure to improve soil fertility to grow more crops. - Earns income from animal products. - Fields require less attention. - Reduce seasonal variations in income because livestock products can be sold throughout the year.

Developed v.s Developing Country on Farming:

- Developed Countries: a small commercial farmers can feed many people because they rely on machinery to perform work rather than on people and animals. - Developing Countries: Farmers do work with hands tools and animal power.

Agricultural Revolution Originated primary due to:

- Environmental factors - Cultural factors

mediteranean agriculture

- Every site practicing this form of agriculture borders a sea, and most are on west coasts of continents. - Prevailing sea winds provide moisture and moderate the winter temperatures. - Farmers derive a smaller percentage of income from animal products. - Most crops are grown for human consumption. - Crash Crops: Olives and grapes. - Approximately half of the land is used to grow cereals.

Challenges For Dairy Farming

- Face economic difficulties because declining revenues and rising costs. - Labor Intensive: Cows must be milked twice a day. - Winter Feed: Diary farmers face the expense of feeding the cows in the winter, when they may be unable to graze on grass.

What had aided commercial farming?

- Farm machinery made in the late 18th century. - Transportation improvements (railroads and trucks enable farmers to transport crops and livestock father and faster). - Scientific advantages to increase productivity. - Electronics (farmers use GPS to determine the precise coordinate for spreading types and amounts of fertilizers and for monitor plant fields).

3 Policies the U.S government use to solve the problem of excess productive capacity:

- Farmers are encouraged to avoid producing crops that are in excess supply. - The government pays farms when certain commodity prices are low. - The government buys surplus production and sells or donates it to foreign governments.

Farm Size

- Farms average 418 acres in the U.S.A compare to about 2.5 acres in China - As a result of the large size and the high level of mechanization, commercial agriculture is an expensive business,

Five Basic stages in the Intensification of Farmland:

- Forest Fallow: Field clear + utilized up to 2 years and left fallow for more than 20 years. - Bush Fallow: Fields cleared + utilized up to 8 years and left fallow for 10 years. - Short Fallow: Fields cleared and utilized up to 2 years and left fallow for 2 years for wild-grass to grow back. - Annual Cropping - Multi-cropping

Genetically Modified Food (GM)

- Human control selective reproduction of plants and animals in order to produce a large number of stronger, hardier survivors. - GM involves mixing genetic material of two or more species that would not mix in nature. - North America was responsible for 1/2 of the world's genetically modified foods, and developing countries-Latin America were responsible for the other.

The fundamental irony in agricultural patterns:

- In developed regions such as North America and Europe, farmers are encouraged to grow less food. - In developing regions, it struggle to increase food population to match the rate of growth in the population.

Four strategies have been proposed to increase the world's food supply:

- Increasing exports from countries with surpluses. - Expanding land area used for agriculture. - Expanding Fishing - Increasing the productivity of land now used for agriculture.

Food Prices

- The greatest challenge to world food supply in the 21st century has been food prices rather than food supply. - Food prices are doubled between 2006 and 2008, and remained at high level since then.

increasing productivity

- Invention and rapid diffusion of more productive agricultural techniques during the 1970s and 1980s is called the green revolution. - Introduced new higher-yield seeds. - Expanded use of fertilizers. Green Revolution allowed agricultural productivity to outpace population growth. >> "Miracle wheat seed" >> "Miracle rice seed" >> Miracle high-yield maize (corn)"

Sustainable Agriculture: Limited Use of Chemicals

- Involves application of limited if any herbicides to control weeds. - Farmers can control weeds with chemicals, but it would require additional time and expense. - Ridge tillage also promotes to decrease use of chemicals, which can be applied only to the ridges and not the entire field.

Why farming varies around the world?

- It related to the distribution of cultural + environmental factors across space. - Elements of the physical environment, such as climate, soil, and topography, set broad limits on agricultural practices.

Leading Regions for Importer of Food

- Japan - United Kingdom - China - Russia

Major Exporting Regions of Agricultural Products

- Latin America (Brazil and Argentina) - North America - Southeast Asia - South Pacific

Developed Countries Food:

- Leading source of protein is meat products. - Beef, Pork, Poultry.

Wheat

- Most important grain grown. - Can be sold at higher price than other grains such as rye, oats, and barley. - Can be stored easily without spoiling. - It is the world's leading export crop. - Developing countries accounted for more than 1/2 of world wheat production. - Largest Wheat Producer: China, India, U.S.

Nomads Choice of Animals:

- North Africa + Southwest Asia: Uses camel, sheep, goats. - Camel: Can go long periods without water, carry heavy baggage, and move rapidly. - Goats: Are tough + agile and can survive on any vegetation. - Sheep: Relativity slow moving + affected by climatic changes.

Increasing Exports from Countries with Surplusses:

- On a global scale, agriculture products are moving primarily from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere. - U.S remains the world's leading exporter of grain. >> 1/2 of the world's maize (corn) export. >> Global share has decreased from 18 to 19 percent in the 1970s to 10 to 11 percents in the 21st century because of more rapid increased in agricultural exports from Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Overfishing

- Overfishing has been particularly acute in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. - Because of overfishing, the population of large predatory fish such as tuna and swordfish has declined by 90%. - The UN estimates that one- quarter of fish stocks have been overfished and 1/2 fully exploited, leaving only 1/4 underfished.

Areas with the Largest Yields of Fishing

- Pacific Northwest and Asia's inland waterways. - China - Countries with extensive ocean boundaries: Chile, Indonesia, and Peru.

The UN attributes the record high food prices to four factors:

- Poor weather: especially in major crop-growing regions of the South Pacific and North America. - Higher demand: especially in China and India. - Smaller growth in productivity. - Use od crops as biofuels instead of food: especially in Latin America.

Commercial Gardening + Fruit Farming

- Predominantly type of farming in the southeastern U.S (long growing seasons and humid climate). - Commonly referred to as truck farming from the Middle English, truck, meaning "bartering" or "exchange of commodities". - Grow many of the following fruits + vegetables that consumers in developed countries demand: apples, asparagus, cherries, lettuce, mushroom, potatoes. - Commercial gardening, fruit farming, truck farming, and garden market are all the same thing.

Livestock Ranching

- Ranching is the commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area. - Will suited for semiarid or arid land (Dry). - Practiced in developed countries where vegetation is too sparse and soil too poor to support crops. - Historically, ranchers sought to move their cattle from Texas to Chicago, because the cattle were worth more money farther north. - Today, ranching has become part of the meat-processing industry where new methods of breeding and sources of water and feed are embraced.

Three principal practices distinguish sustainable picture (and, at its best, organic farming) from conventional agriculture:

- Sensitive land management - Limited use of chemicals - Better integration of crops and livestock.

Von Thunen Model Rings

- Specific crops are grown in different rings around the cities. 1st ring: Market-gardens and milk producers. Highly perishable foods. Ex: Milk 2nd ring: Forests. Items that are more difficult to transport. Ex: Wood 3rd ring: Various crops and pasture land. 4th ring: Spacious lands for animal grazing.

Challenges for Farmers in Developing Countries:

- Subsistence farmers must feed an increasing number of people because of rapid population growth in developing countries. - Subsistence farmers must grow food for export instead of for direct consumption due to the adoption of international trade approach to development.

Subsistence Farming and International Trade:

- Subsistence farmers must grow food for export instead of for direct consumption due to the adoption of the internal trade approach to development. - Consumers in developed countries willing to pay high prices for fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be out of season locally.

Sustainable Agriculture: Sensitive Land Management

- Sustainable agriculture protects soil in part through ridge tillage, which is a system of planting crops on ridge tops. - Ridge tillage is attractive for 2 reasons: lower production cost and greater soil conservation. - Ridge tillage features a minimum of soil disturbance from harvest to the next planning. - Ridge tillage have better yields while lowing the cost of production, but it requires more labor intensive.

miracle seeds

- The "miracle wheat seeds" are less sensitive to variation in day length, responded better to fertilizers, and matured faster. - To take advantages of the seed, farmers must use more fertilizer and machinery.

In response to the increasing global demand for food imports, the U.S passed what laws?

- The Public Law 480: the Agricultural, Trade, and Assistance Act of 1954. - Title 1 of the act provided for the sale of grains at low interest rates. - Title 2 gave grants to needy groups of people.

Where Undernourishment occurs?

- The UN estimated that 870 million people in the world are undernourished. - 99% located in developing countries. (India, China, sub-Saharan Africa). - Worldwide, the total number of undernourished people has not changed much in several decades.

Maize

- The leading crop in the world. - It is grown for purposes other than direst human consumption, especially for animal feed.

What the Von Thunen Model fail to do:

- The model assumed that all land in a study area had similar site characteristics and was of uniform quality. - Forgot that some characteristic could modify the shape of the rings because transportation cost change when products are shipped by water routes rather than over roads. - It also failed to consider that social customs and government policies influence the attractiveness of plants and animals for a commercial farmer.

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

- The most distinctive characteristic is the integration of crops + livestock. - Most of the crops are fed to animals instead of humans. - Devotes nearly all land areas to grow crops but derives more than 3/4 of its income from the sale of animal products. Ex: Beef and eggs. - Permits farmers to distribute the workload more evenly through the year because crops require less attention. - Involves crop rotation. - Important crops: Corns, soybeans

Nitrogen

- The most important fertilizer, is a ubiquitous substance. - China is the leading producer of nitrogen fertilizer. - European most commonly produce a fertilizer known as the urea, contains 46% of nitrogen. - The cheapest way to produce both types of nitrogen-based fertilizer is to obtain hydrogen from natural gas or petroleum. But, increase in price made it too expensive for farmers.

Diary Farming

- The most important type of commercial agriculture in the first ring outside the large cities because of transportation factors. - Ring surrounded a city from which milk can be supplied without spoiling is known as milkshed. - Improvement in transportation has permitted dairying to be undertaken father from the market (refrigerated railraod cars and trucks).

U.S.A farming

- The number of farmers declined dramatically in developed countries during the 20th century. - People were pushed away from farms by lack of opportunity to earn enough income. - People were pulled to higher-paying jobs in urban areas.

Main features that distinguish commercial agriculture and subsistence agriculture include:

- The percentage of farmers on the labor force. - The use of machinery. - Farm size.

Wheat Grain

- The principal cereal grain consumed in the developed regions in Europe + North America. -It is also the most consumed grain in the developing regions of Central + Southwest Asia, where its dry condition is suitable for growing wheat.

Rice

- The principal cereal grain consumed in the developing regions of East, South, and Southeast Asia. - It is the most suitable crop for production in tropical climates.

Agribusiness

- The system of commercial farming found in developed countries. The family farm is not an isolated activity but is integrated into a large food-production industry. - This occurred during the Third Agricultural Revolution (Green Revolution). Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

Expanding Agricultural Land

- Today, few scientists believe that further expansion of agricultural land can feed the growing world population. - Farmland in some regions is being abandoned for lack of water. - Other land degradation that makes land resemble a desert like cause by humans is known as desertification.

shifting cultivation Land ownership

- Traditionally land collectively owned by village. - Today, private individuals now one land, especially in Latin America.

Europe Crop Rotation

- Two field crop rotation system developed in Northern Europe as early as the 5th century. Ex: Crops planted in Field A , while Field B is left fallow. The following year, Field B is planted and Field A is left fallow. - Third and Four Field System introduced during the 18th century.

Characteristics of Intensive Subsistence Farming:

- Typical farm in Asia are small. - Most of the work is done by hand or with animal, rather than machines due to having a lack of money. - Can be divided between areas where wet rice dominants and areas where it does not.

The three leading cereal grains:

- Wheat, rice, and maize (corn). - Together they account for 90% of all grain production.

Southwest Aisa

- the hearth for the domestication of the largest number of animals that would prove to be most important for agriculture. - Inhabitants here may have been the first to integrate cultivation of crops with domestication of herd animals.

Agricultural Regions And Climate (Developing Countries)

-Pastoral nomadism: Dry climate - Shifting Cultivation: Tropical climate - Intensive subsistence agriculture (rice dominant): Warm mid latitude. - Intensive subsistence agriculture (rice not dominant): Cold mid latitude.

Four Principal steps for Growing Wet Rice:

1. Field preparation 2. Flooding 3. Transplanting 4. Harvesting

Reasons Africa oppose GM

1. Health Problems: Consuming too much GM foods may reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics. 2. Export problems: European countries, the main market for Africa's agricultural exports, require GM foods to be labeled. Europeans strongly opposed to GM. African farmers fear that they will lose European customers. 3. Increased dependence on the United States: Farmers fear that the companies would put "terminator" gene in GM seed to prevent farmers from replanting them and require them to purchase new seeds each year.

Consumption of food varies around the world, both in total amounts + source of nutrients, for three reasons:

1. Level of development 2. Physical conditions (Landscape, environment, climate). 3. Cultural preferences

6 Present Agricultural Regions in Developed World:

1. Mixed Crop + Livestock: In U.S Midwest and central Europe. 2. Dairying: Northeastern U.S, southeastern Canada, and northwestern Europe. 3. Grain: North-central U.S, South-central Canada, and Eastern Europe. 4. Ranching: The dry-lands of western North America, southeastern Latin America... 5. Mediterranean: Lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. 6. Commercial Gardening: Southeastern U.S and southeastern Australia.

5 Present Agricultural Regions in Developing World:

1. Pastoral nomadism: the dry-lands of Southwest Asia, North Africa, Central + East Asia. 2. Shifting Cultivation: The tropical regions of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia. 3. Intensive Subsistence: Wet rice dominant -concentration of East Asia and South Asia. 4. Intensive subsistence: Crops other than rice - concentrations of East Asia and South Asia. 5. Plantation: The tropical and sub-tropical regions of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia.

Pastoral Nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals. - It is adapted to dry climate. - It depend primarily on animals than crops for survival. - Some pastoral nomads obtain grains from secondary subsistence farmers. - More commonly, women + children tend to plant crops at a fixed location. - Nomads may hire workers. - Some nomads will remain a place and cultivate the land only when rainfall is abundant. - Today, pastoral nomadism is declining.

Plantation Farming

A large commercial farm in a developing country that specializes in one or two crops. - It's a legacy of colonialism. - Mostly located in the tropics and subtropics (Latin America, Africa, Asia). - Although generally situated in developing countries, the plantation is owned or operated by Europeans or North Americans, and they grow crops for sale primarily to developed countries, leaving the developing country no profit.

Sustainable Agriculture

Agriculture practices that preserve and enhance environmental quality. - Farmers practicing sustainable agriculture typically generate lower revenues than do conventional farmers, but they also have a lower cost. - An increasingly popular form of sustainable agriculture is organic farming.

Sustainable Agriculture: Integrated Crops and Animals

Attempts to integrate the growing of crops and the raising of livestock as much as possible at the level of the individual farm. - Sustainable Agriculture is sensitive to the complexities of biological and economic interdependence between crops and livestock: >> Number of livestock >> Animal confinement >> Management of extreme weather conditions >> Flexible feeding and marketing.

Plantation Situation

Because plantations are usually situated in separated settled locations, they must import workers and provide them with foods, housing, and social services.

shifting cultivation

Characterized by 2 characteristic: 1. Farmers clear land for planting by slashing and vegetation and burning the debris. 2. Farmers grow crops on a cleared field for only a few years, until soil nutrients are depleted. and then leave it fallow for many years so the soil can recover. - Farmers return to a fallow site as few as 6 years later or as many as 20 years.

Drug Crops

Crops that can be converted into drugs. Grown primarily in Latin America and Asia - Cocaine: Derived from coca leaf. Mostly grown in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia - Heroin: Derived from opium poppy plant. Mostly grown in Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos. - Marijuana: Produced from the Cannabis sativa plant. It is cultivated widely around the world. Mostly in Mexico.

Undernourishment

Dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity.

Developing V.S Developed Region Farming

Developing Countries: Farm products are consumed on or near the farm where they are produced. Developed Countries: Farmers sell what they produce.

Grain Farming

Distinguished from mixed crop and livestock farming, because crops are grown primarily for human consumption. - Farmers sell their output to manufacturers of food products, such as breakfast cereals and bread. - Most important crop: Wheat - Characteristics of Grain Farm: - Heavily mechanized - Farms large in areal extent - Oriented to consumer preferences.

subsistence agriculture

Found in developing countries. It is the production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer's family. Ex: Pastoral nomadism, shifting cultivation, intensive subsistence agriculture.

Double Cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field. - Common in areas with warm winters: southern China and Taiwan. - Rare in India

Benefits of GM

Higher yields, increased nutrition, and more resistance to pests. Genetically modified foods are also better tasting, at least to some palates.

Geographer Derwent Whittlesey

Identified 11 main agricultural regions, plus an area where agriculture was nonexistent.

Developing Countries Food:

Leading source of protein is cereal grains.

Commercial Farming Make Heavy Use Of:

Modern communications and information technology to stay in touch and keep track of prices, yields, and expenditures.

Ways Subsistence farmers increase the supply of food:

New farming methods are adopted. Land is left fallow for shorter periods. - Forest Fallow - Bush Fallow - Short Fallow - Annual Cropping - Multi-cropping

Origin of Agriculture

Origins of agriculture cannot be documented with certainty, because it began before recorded history.

Wet Rice

Rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth. - Most easily grown on flat land. Takes place in river valleys and delta - Wet rice occupies a small percentage of Asia's agricultural land but is the region's most important source of food. - Double Crop

Horticulture

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers-and tree crops form the commercial base of Mediterranean farming.

According to the Von Thunen Model, what Two factors does a farmer consider when deciding what to plant?

The cost of the land and the cost of transporting products to market.

agriculture

The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.

Intensive Subsistence Farming

The form of subsistence agriculture that feeds most of the people in developing countries. Intensive wet-rice farming is the dominant type of agriculture in the following places: Southeastern China, East India, and much of Southeast Asia.

Prime Agricultural Land

The most productive farmland.

crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil. - In colder climates, wheat and another crop is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall.

Agricultural Revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering.

How the World's Ocean is Divided

The world's ocean is divided into 18 major fishing regions: - 7 in the Atlantic Ocean. - 7 in the Pacific Oceans. - 3 in the Indian Ocean. - The Mediterranean.

multi-cropping

fields are used several times a year and never left fallow

Commerical Agriculture

found in developed countries, is the production of food primarily for sale off the farm.

Green Revolution

invention and rapid diffusion of more productive agricultural techniques during the 1970s and 1980s. - The revolution allowed agricultural productivity to outpace population growth. - The revolution involved two main practices: the introduction of new higher yield seeds and the expanded use of fertilizers.

Shifting cultivation and pastoral nomadism are forms of...

subsistence agriculture found in regions of low density.

Improved communication have encouraged:

the diffusion of some plants to varied locations around the world.