Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes

Consequences of Agricultural Practices 1) Explain how agricultural practices have environmental and societal consequences.

1) Environmental effects of agricultural land use include pollution, land cover change, desertification, soil salinization, and conservation efforts. 2) Agricultural practices—including slash and burn, terraces, irrigation, deforestation, draining wetlands, shifting cultivation, and pastoral nomadism—alter the landscape. 3) Societal effects of agricultural practices include changing diets, role of women in agricultural production, and economic purpose

Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture 1) Explain challenges and debates related to the changing nature of contemporary agriculture and food-production practices.

1) Agricultural innovations such as biotechnology, genetically modified organisms, and aquaculture have been accompanied by debates over sustainability, soil and water usage, reductions in biodiversity, and extensive fertilizer and pesticide use. 2) Patterns of food production and consumption are influenced by movements relating to individual food choice, such as urban farming, community-supported agriculture (CSA), organic farming, value-added specialty crops, fair trade, local-food movements, and dietary shifts. 3) Challenges of feeding a global population include lack of food access, as in cases of food insecurity and food deserts; problems with distribution systems; adverse weather; and land use lost to suburbanization. 4) The location of food-processing facilities and markets, economies of scale, distribution systems, and government policies all have economic effects on food-production practices.

Introduction to Agriculture 1) Explain the connection between physical geography and agricultural practices. 2) Describe the practices in intensive and extensive agriculture

1) Agricultural practices are influenced by the physical environment and climatic conditions, such as the Mediterranean climate and tropical climates. 2) Intensive farming practices include market gardening, plantation agriculture, and mixed crop/livestock systems. 3) Extensive farming practices include shifting cultivation, nomadic herding, and ranching.

Agricultural Production Regions 1) Explain how economic forces influence agricultural practices.

1) Agricultural production regions are defined by the extent to which they reflect subsistence or commercial practices (monocropping/monoculture: the agricultural practice of growing a single crop, plant, or livestock species, variety, or breed in a field or farming system at a time or monoculture: ). 2) Intensive and extensive farming practices are determined in part by land costs (bid-rent theory).

Locations and Climates for: 1) Pastoral Nomadism 2) Shifting Cultivation 3) Intensive Subsistence - Wet Rice 4) Plantation Farming 5) Mixed Crop and Livestock 6) Dairy Farming 7) Commercial Farming/Truck Farming 8) Livestock Ranching 9) Grain Farming 10) Meditareanian Agriculture

1) Dry climates - Middle East, North Africa 2) Tropical climates, humid, low latitude - Amazon, Central Africa 3) Humid, and has seasons - China, India 4) Latin America - Cotton, Tobacco, tea, sugarcane, banana 5) (crops mainly feed animals) - Europe 6) all parts of the world 7) the Southeastern United States 8) Semiarid/Dry land - Developed countries 9) warm/harsh climates - china, india 10) always borders a sea

Agricultural Origins and Diffusions 1) Identify major centers of domestication of plants and animals. 2) Explain how plants and animals diffused globally

1) Early hearths of domestication of plants and animals arose in the Fertile Crescent and several other regions of the world, including the Indus River Valley, Southeast Asia, and Central America 2) Patterns of diffusion, such as the Columbian Exchange and the agricultural revolutions, resulted in the global spread of various plants and animals.

The Global System of Agriculture 1) Explain the interdependence among regions of agricultural production and consumption

1) Food and other agricultural products are part of a global supply chain. 2) Some countries have become highly dependent on one or more export commodities. 3) The main elements of global food distribution networks are affected by political relationships, infrastructure, and patterns of world trade.

Spatial Organization of Agriculture 1) Explain how economic forces influence agricultural practices.

1) Large-scale commercial agricultural operations are replacing small family farms. 2) Complex commodity chains link production and consumption of agricultural products. 3) Technology has increased economies of scale in the agricultural sector and the carrying capacity of the land.

The Second Agricultural Revolution 1) Explain the advances and impacts of the second agricultural revolution.

1) New technology and increased food production in the second agricultural revolution led to better diets, longer life expectancies, and more people available for work in factories.

Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods 1) Identify different rural settlement patterns and methods of surveying rural settlements.

1) Specific agricultural practices shape different rural land-use patterns. 2) Rural settlement patterns are classified as clustered, dispersed, or linear. 3) Rural survey methods include metes and bounds: A system of land surveying east of the Appalachian mountain, relies on land descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of the system, the U.S. land office survey abandoned it for the Township and range system. township and range: A rectangular land division scheme designed by Thomas Jefferson to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands of the U.S. interior. long lot: Distinct regional approach to land surveying found in Canadian maritime's, parts of Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals. (made by french)

The Green Revolution 1) Explain the consequences of the Green Revolution on food supply and the environment in the developing world.

1) The Green Revolution was characterized in agriculture by the use of high-yield seeds, increased use of chemicals, and mechanized farming 2) The Green Revolution had positive and negative consequences for both human populations and the environment. Positive: cheaper and helps create a consistent food supply Negatives: Loss of soil fertility, erosion of soil, soil toxicity, diminishing water resources, pollution of underground water, salinity of underground water, increased incidence of human and livestock diseases and global warming

Women in Agriculture 1) Explain geographic variations in female roles in food production and consumption.

1) The role of females in food production, distribution, and consumption varies in many places depending on the type of production involved.

Von Thunen Model 1) Describe how the von Thünen model is used to explain patterns of agricultural production at various scales.

1) Von Thünen's model helps to explain rural land use by emphasizing the importance of transportation costs associated with distance from the market; however, regions of specialty farming do not always conform to von Thünen's concentric rings.