AP HUG: Chapter 12 (AMSCO) - Development of Agriculture

agriculture

The process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock for consumption and trade.

Hybrids

The process of breeding together two plants that have desirable characteristics. - For hundreds of years, humans have been creating plant hybrids from local varieties available to them. - The Green Revolution scientists focus their attention on grains.

Hunting and Gathering

The earliest ways that people obtained food to eat.

Columbian Exchange

The global movement of plants and animals between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.

The Major hearths of agriculture led to _______.

the first urban centers.

Terrace Farming

- One of the earliest human alterations of the landscape. - Farmers build a series of steps into a side of a hill to create flat land.

Geographer Carl Sauer

- One of the first to argue that agricultural hearths were independently established at various times and locations. - He thought the first hearths were located in areas with high biodiversity on the edge of forests.

Deforestation Drawbacks:

- Result in soil erosion, decrease rainfall, desertification, and global environmental damage. - Also leads to increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change.

The Hearths for the First Agricultural Revolution:

- Southwest Asia - East Asia - South Asia - Africa - the Americas

First Agricultural Revolution

- The origin of farming - Marked by the first domestication of plants and animals. - Much of the farming during time was subsistence farming.

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods. Began in Great Britain in the 18th century.

slash and burn agriculture

All vegetation in an area of forest is cut down and burned in place, is likely one of the earliest agricultural practices. - The method requires people to move regularly, which is also known as shifting cultivation.

Southwest Asia (Fertile Crescent) Crops

Barley, wheat, olives, oats, lentils, and rye. Diffused to: North America, Southern Europe, Central Asia.

Terracing benefits and drawbacks

Benefits - Planting, tending, and harvesting crops is physically easier for farmers. - The land collects rainfall rather than allowing it to run down a sloped hillside. The water helps sustain crops. - The reduction in water running down the hillside reduces soil erosion. Drawback: - If terraces are not carefully maintained, a heavy rainfall can cause disastrous and deadly mudslides.

Slash and Burn Agriculture Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits: - The ash provides some soil nutrients, and the land can be farmed for a few years before the soil becomes depleted and the plot is abandoned. - On small-scale, environment can recover quickly. Drawbacks: - On large-scale, this might seriously damage the environment.

Two Regions of the U.S Use Irrigation Extensively:

California, particularity the Central and Imperial Valleys. Nebraska to northern Texas.

subsistence farming

Farmers focus on raising food they need to live.

Commercial Agriculture

Farmers focus on raising one specific crop to sell for profits. - Happen in the modern era.

East Asia Crops

Rice, soybean, and walnut. Diffused to: North Central Asia and Korean Peninsula.

Mesoamerica Crops

Squash, maize (corn), potato, sweet potato, peppers, and cassava. Diffused to: North America and South America.

Where Green Revolution is the most successful?

The Green Revolution was most successful in Latin America, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

irrigation

The process of diverting water from its natural course of location to aid in the production of crops. Earliest irrigation: People carrying buckets of water from a river to pour onto plants. By 6,00 B.C.E: civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt used organized strategies (digging canals and creating earthwork) to manage water resources. 19th and 20th centuries: The successful use of large-scale irrigation contributed greatly to feeding growing population.

Deforestation

The removal of large tracts of forests. - Occurs mostly in Southeast Asia, parts of Africa, and rain-forests of South America.

How farmers try to increase farm production:

The use of irrigation, terrace farming, deforestation, desertification, and the drainage of wetlands.

Hybridization and GMO

They are different from one another.

Sub-Saharan Africa Crops

Yams, sorghum, cowpeas, coffee, and African rice. Diffused to Western Africa and North Africa.

Enclosure Acts

a series of laws enacted by the British government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use that had previously been common land used by peasant farmers.

GMO

- A process by which humans use engineering techniques to change the DNA of a seed. - Fist used in the 1970s. - They have been developed to increase yield, or to resist diseases or the chemicals used to kill weeds or pests.

Reasons Green Revolution failed throughout Africa:

- Africa has a greater diversity of climate and soils than other places. - Africa has many regions with harsh environmental conditions. - Africa is so large, and so lacking so sufficient transportation infrastructure, that the cost of investment in research and development and transportation were very high. - Africa's staple crops are not always included in research seed hybridization programs.

How did Green Revolution affect economic changes?

- As research and production increased, so did the cost of production. - Machinery, seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides became more expansive and the cost was passed on to farmers in the developing world. - The profit margin decreased.

Second Agricultural Revolution

- Began in the 1700s. - Used advances of the Industrial Revolution to increase food supplies and support population growth. - Benefited from the seemingly continuous innovations in mechanization. - Improved knowledge of fertilizers, soils, and selective breeding practices for plants and animals.

Third Agricultural Revolution

- Began in the 1960s, included the Green Revolution. - Also included agribusiness models of companies controlling the development, planting, processing, and selling of food products to the consumer.

How did Green Revolution affected population?

- During the Green Revolution, the world's population was doubled. - Most growth was in the poor countries on the periphery of the global economy.

Enclosure Act Affects

- Farms became larger, production became more efficient, producers raised crops to sell for profit rather than for their own consumption. - People were forced off the land to create a workforce for the growing factories. - People who lost their traditional way of life suffered greatly.

Norman Borlaug

- Father of the Green Revolution. - His research was successful in turning Mexico from a wheat-importing country to one that was self-sufficient and even had a wheat surplus. -Increased wheat and maize yield worldwide, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize

Diffusion of the First Agricultural Revolution

- First settlements grew into the first civilizations, large societies with cities and powerful states. Civilization brought increased trade, larger empires, and conquest. - As societies grew wealthier, people had time to specialize in their work and even develop new occupations and technologies. - Over thousands of years agriculture spread widely and led to increased trade among cultures.

Positive Impacts of the Green Revolution

- Increased global food production. - Increased yields. - More food led to reduce hunger, lower death rates, and a growing population. - Helped to create high rates of investment in both the public and private sectors. - Lowered food prices, so people can afford food, which helps reduce the amount of hunger.

Negative Consequences of the Green Revolution

- Increased yields and the application of human-made fertilizers put a strain on the land. - The intensive use of land and irrigation led to soil erosion and drained the natural nutrients on the land. - New technology required vast amounts of fossil fuels, which can cause pollution.

Problems Irrigation Can Cause:

- It can disrupt the natural drainage of water + reduce the normal regeneration of soils caused by natural flooding. - It can result in desalinization, which can result in decreases in crop yield and soil fertility. - It can pump too much groundwater to the surface that it causes land subsidence- the collapse of land resulting from the removal of underground water that supports top surface land.

The Result for Second Agricultural Revolution

- It resulted in fewer, larger, and much more productive farms, which caused a decrease in the number of farm owners and an even drop off in the need for agricultural laborers. - By the late 19th century, an increased number of displaced farm laborers led to farmers and other rural residents migrating to urban centers in Europe and the United States.

Drained Wetland

- People drained wetlands to provide more farmable land. - In most case, this recovered land is rich in nutrients. Drawbacks: - The reduction of biodiversity in both plants + animals. - Wetlands often act as natural filters that protect and promotes surface water and groundwater quality.

What influenced what people grown and raised in agriculture?

- Physical features (climates, soils, and land forms of a place). - Also heavily influenced by the nearness of the market.

Physical Geography and Agriculture

- Physical geography features such as climate, soil types, and land-forms, influence how people farm in a region. - As agriculture and technology have progressed and advanced throughout history, so have attempts by humans to alter the natural environment. - Flat land are good for farming.

What caused the Third Agricultural Revolution?

- Starting in the mid-20th century, science, research, and technology generated a Third Agricultural Revolution.

3 Great Leaps For The Evolution of Agriculture:

- The First Agricultural Revolution. - Second Agricultural Revolution. - Third Agricultural Revolution.

Green Revolution

- The advances in plant biology that began in the mid-20th century. The development of higher-yielding, disease-resistant, faster-growing varieties of grains. - It allowed more farmers to double crops and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides in developing countries in Asia and the Americas. - Encouraged the use of GMO, hybridization, and machinery.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FMO) reported the following yields increases:

- Wheat: 208% - Corn: 157% - Rice: 109% - Potatoes: 78%

How Does Green Revolution Impact Gender Roles In Developing Countries?

- When Green Revolution were introduced, it was the men who usually benefited and who were given decision making power. - Men operated machinery and were educated on newer methods of farming. - Women were often excluded from learning new methods

Southeast Asia Crops

Mango, taro, coconut, banana. Diffused to: Southeastern Asia.

animal domestication

raising and caring for animals by humans for protection or food. - Probably began when Central Asian hunters domesticated dogs. Later, agriculturalists in Southwest Asia kept goats and sheep.

plant domestication

the growing of crops that people planted, raised, and harvested. - Sauer believed that people first used vegetative planting, growing crops using parts of the stems or roots of existing plants. Later they began to plant seed.