Unit 5: Agriculture, Food Production, and Rural Land Use

primogeniture

The state of being first born

labor intensive agriculture

Type of agriculture that requires large levels of manual labor to be successful.

desertification

When marginal land, typically on the fringes of the desert, such as the Sahel Region south of the Sahara desert in Africa, are over-cultivated or over-grazed, the soil gets stripped of any existing vegetation and becomes increasingly desert-like.

metes and bounds

a boundary or boundary stone.

milkshed

a region producing milk for a specific community:

biomass

alternative energy source which involves converting a variety of biological materials - crops, vegetation, and human and animal waste into fuel for automobiles and engines.

Mediterranean agriculture

an agro-ecological strategy, an adjustment to particular climatic conditions in Mediterranean zones: mild, humid winter with no or very little frost, and a warm, dry summer.

mercantilism

belief in the benefits of profitable trading; commercialism

Capital Intensive vs. Labor Intensive Agriculture

distinction between the two is not always a result of level of the technological innovation; some agricultural products require substantial labor inputs, such as strawberries, which must be handpicked.

primary sector

economy making direct use of natural resources

wattle

framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence

Labor Intensive Agriculture

goods use human hands in large abundance to produce a given output.

hamlets

houses that are grouped together in small clusters of building.

Hydroelectric Power

in this form of energy, water turns turbines that generates electricity. typically, hydroelectric power is generated from dams.

intensive agriculture

involves cultivation of smaller plots of land with substantial labor inputs and typically more chemical inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides); produces more food per acre to support higher populations.

Transhumance

pastoral practice of seasonal migration of livestock (i.e. goats, sheep, yaks, etc) between mountains in summer and lowland pasture areas during winter

enclosure

process of fencing off land for advanced larger farming.

Local Food Production

refers to a food production system where food (crops and animals) are produced locally for local consumption.

vegetative planting

reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants

wet (lowland) rice

rice planted on dryland in a nursery, then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth5t

Wind Farms

sometimes called "Windmill Parks," these areas of land use giant wind turbines that convert wind energy into a renewable energy source.

Fishing

the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering animals not classifiable as insects which breathe in water or pass their lives in water

irrigation

the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of crops

horticulture

the growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

specialization

the growing of specialized crops because they seem to be the most profitable.

Geothermal Power

this type of energy uses heat from the interior of the earth in the form of steam, which powers turbines to create electricity.

Capital Intensive Agriculture

use mechanical goods including machinery, tools, vehicles, and facilities to produce large amounts of agricultural goods, a process requiring very little human labor.

erosion

weathering of soil, and rock. (etc.)

spring wheat area

wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer

truck farming

where special fruits and vegetables that people want are farmed

winter wheat area

winter wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the summer

extensive agriculture

*An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area. *typically produces less and supports smaller populations than intensive agriculture.

aquaculture

*Basically fish farming, involving breeding of fish in freshwater ponds, lakes or canals or in estuaries or bays that have been fenced off. *Increasingly responsible for global fish production; accounts for over 30 percent of fish production in recent years. *As with any technological advance in food production, aquaculture carries negative environmental risks, the largest being damage that often results to wild fish from interacting with farmed fish that have escaped from fish farms.

The Boserup Hypothesis

*Esther Boserup, a Danish economist in mid-twentieth century, countered Malthus's population growth hypothesis with her book The conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure. *Boserup observed that agricultural production can accommodate growing populations through increases in soil fertility (by using various chemical inputs), which allow land to produce more food for more people.

secondary sector

*a.k.a Industry *is the part of the economy that transforms raw materials into manufactured goods. *this sector grows quickly as societies industrialize, and includes such operations as refining petroleum into gasoline and turning metals into tools and automobiles.

shifting cultivation (swidden agriculture)

*a.k.a Slash-and-Burn *this farming method exists primarily in rain forest zones of Central and South America, West Africa, eastern and Central Asia, and much of southern China and Southeast Asia. *A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to the other; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period. *A patch of land clearing for planting through slash-and-burn agriculture

Food Production vs. Agriculture

*agriculture does not always lead to food and food is not necessarily always produced through agriculture. *some common agricultural goods are raised for nonfood purposes: corn for ethanol, rubber for tires, leather for shoes, and so on *many food products are not produced through agricultural methods, such as artificial sweeteners, processed cheeses, and so on.

Hunting and Gathering

*before domestication of plants and animals, humans subsisted on hunting and gathering; human diet consisted of animals captured and a collection of wild plants. *typically males were hunters while females performed gathering duties. *has been largely replaced by agriculture; a few tribes still sustain themselves this way.

Second Agricultural Revolution

*began in Western Europe during the 1600s, which intensified agriculture by promoting higher yields per acre and per farmer. *this agricultural revolution preceded the Industrial Revolution, making it possible to feed the rapidly growing cities. *Some innovations included increased use of fertilizers and improved collars for draft animals to pull heavier plows.

Transportation and Agriculture

*beginning with the Industrial Revolution, transportation has had dramatic impacts on commercial agriculture. *today, many isolated spots on Earth's surface remain subsistence economies simply because of limited access to other parts of the world. *modern technological advances in transportation, such as refrigerated trucks, have allowed farmers to ship items at great distances.

agribusiness

*defined as an industrialized, corporate form of agriculture. *largely a result of golablization, demonstrates agricutlrue's extension into secondary, tertiary, and quaternary secotrs of economy through food producttion (secondary), marketing and distribution of food products (tertiary), and agricultural research (quarternary) *small number of large corporations rather than a large number of independent farmers control agricultural production.

Maladaptive Diffusion

*diffusion of an idea or technology that works well in one area or region but is not suitable for the area it diffuses to. *much of the technology diffused in the Green Revolution was not suitable for local populations. *for example, hybrid seeds diminished local plant diversity, which caused loss of traditional modes of agriculture/plant management. It also led to problems of food security in several developing regions.

Rural Settlement Types

*dispersed settlements are characterized by widespread farms, relatively isolated from neighbors. *nucleated settlements contain a number of families living closer together with fields surrounding the settlement. *building materials for rural settlements are typically indigenous to the local area.

Organic Agriculture

*farming without aid of artificial inputs such as pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically engineered seeds. *organic farming has grown tremendously over the last couple of decades. farmer's markets have also grown; selling local produce indicating a recent trend in more sustainable forms of agricultural production.

Origins of Agriculture

*first agricultural revolution involved a transition from hunting and gathering societies to sedentary agricultural societies through domestication of plants and animals. *some argue that women were most likely first to domesticate plants as their duty in hunting and gathering societies was gathering seeds, nuts and berries, providing them with necessary knowledge for vegetative planting. *Carl Sauer, in Agricultural Origins and Dispersals, proposed several independent hearths of agriculture in the Middle East, South and Central America, Southeast Asia and West Africa.

von Thunen's Results

*for local food production economies, von Thunen model does well predicting agricultural patterns in that intensive goods are generally grown close to market, whereas extensive goods are grown farther. *model can be altered to account for transportation networks and competing markets, resulting in changes in shape and size of zones of productivity surrounding the market. *with globalization of agriculture, the von Thunen model becomes nearly obsolete as local food economies are replaced by large-scale agricultural production.

Forestry

*generally restricted to forests in upper mid-latitudes of Northern Hemispheres and equatorial zones of Central Africa, South and Central America, and Southeast Asia *half of global logging harvest is for industrial consumption; majority of this wood comes from developed countries including Canada, Russia, and the United States. *other half of logging harvest is for fuel-wood and charcoal; occurs primarily in developing regions where wood sources are the primary energy supply.

Fishing

*global fish supply, which accounts for about 15 percent of human animal protein consumption, comes from either inland catch (fish from lakes, ponds, or rivers); fish farming (controlled production of fish in a contained environment); or marine catch (wild fish harvested in coastal waters or high seas). *the united nations reports that all seventeen of the world's major oceanic fishing areas are fished at or beyond capacity. *overfishing and effects of pollution on fish stocks have led to dramatic decrease in fish stocks over last couple of decades.

Globalization of Agriculture

*globalization affects agriculture through improvements in transportation and communications technologies. *agribusinesses functionally integrate agricultural production on a global scale, which, along with increasing free trade, allows for easy exchange of agricultural goods in global economy. *visiting a produce section of any large grocery store in the developed world provides evidence of globalization of agriculture through variety of goods offered year-round and variety of places from which those products originate.

Tropical Plantations

*grow crops such as sugarcane and coffee. *widespread throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. *typically have some form of foreign control, either through investments, management, or marketing. *many of their crops, while suitable for local environment, are not native to it and almost always exported to other countries rather than consumed locally.

Urban Sprawl and Agriculture

*in many areas of the US and throughout the developed world, urban sprawl has and continues to overtake formerly productive agricultural areas, converting fields and orchards to parking lots and subdivisions. *while many local government and planning commissions seek to halt this through zoning of agricultural lands, for many farmers, especially in places with expensive real estate, selling land to developers proves more profitable than farming it.

Deforestation

*in rapidly growing developing countries, the need for fuel-wood is increasing quite dramatically, leading to deforestation. *Occurs in tropical areas at a rate exceeding reforestation by ten to fifteen times. *Significant portions of tropical forests being converted to agricultural production (ten to twelve million hectares annually) *In Central and South America millions of hectares converted to pasture on an annual basis, primarily for beef cattle destined for American meat market.

Economic Systesm

*in subsistence economies, goods and services created for use of producer and his or her family. *in commercial (market) economies, producers produce goods and services with goal of making a profit. *in planned economies, government determines both supply and price of goods and services produced by citizens of that country. *very few pure examples of each type of economy exist. in the US, traditionally a commercial economy, both planned (price supports for various agricultural goods) and subsistence (families growing their own gardens) economies exist.

Nuclear Energy

*in this form of energy, a nuclear reaction generates tremendous heat; which is used to crate steam, which in turn is used to power turbines that create electricity. *a controversial form of energy production because the nuclear fuel is radioactive and can cause harm to humans and the environment. finding ways to dispose of it after it has been used has proven quite challenging.

Mineral Fuels

*include coal, petroleum, and natural gas *energy derived from these fuels strongly associated with economic development; places with highest rates of energy consumption, also most economically advanced. *coal is the most abundant fossil fuel; not at risk to run out anytime in near future. *currently, China and the US lead globe in coal production.

Primary Economic Activities Besides Agriculture

*include fishing, forestry, and the mining and quarrying of minerals. *fishing, forestry, and fur trapping are gathering industries based on harvest of renewable resources, which , despite their renewable characteristic, are all at risk of depletion because of over exploitation *mining and quarrying are extractive industries involving removal of nonrenewable resources.

Luxury Crops

*include luxury food items not necessary for everyday living and not indigenous to the areas they export to. *include bananas, coffee, cocoa, pineapples, and flowers among other crops typically grown in tropical environments. *often grown on plantations or other land in developing countries where labor is cheap and then exported to developed regions. *production often controlled by foreign agribusiness.

biotechnology

*includes all technological improvements on biological systems to either make or enhance specific agricultural goods or food products. *examples include genetically modified organisms in which technology is used to alter genetic make-up of plants or animals, production and introduction of enzymes that increase speed of fermentation in wines or yogurt, or ability to fortify common agricultural products with vitamins and minerals.

Commercial Grain Farming

*includes wheat corn; especially prevalent in American Great Plains, southern Russia, and increasingly in China. *Large portion of output goes toward feeding livestock. *In general, meat generates more profit than grain at market, thus many farmers choose to convert grain into meat by feeding it to livestock.

Negative Impacts of the Green Revolution

*increased food security provided by Western agricultural techniques and technologies had major downsides for local agricultural economies of developing world. *new machinery, "miracle" seeds, elaborate irrigation systems, and potent fertilizers devastated much of the local land, destroying traditional modes of agricultural production, and may likely lead to future problems with food security through decreases in local biodiversity. *multinational corporation involvement steered local economies away from producing food for local consumption and toward producing specialty crops for export, such as peanuts, pineapples and bananas.

Primary Economic Activities

*involves direct extraction or harvesting of resources from the land. *includes agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining. *location of primary economic activities generally limited to location of natural resources.

commercial agriculture

*involves food production primarily for sale from a farm. *often involves sale of farm goods to food-processing companies rather thn directly to the consumers. *extensive commercial agriculture includes grain farming, grazing, and other activities that require minimal inputs and large pieces of land. *intensive commercial agriculture includes dairy products, fruits, vegetables, flowers, factory-farmed meat, and any other good requiring high input (labor and capital)

Land Survey Patterns

*long-lot surveying is French and houses exist on narrow lots perpendicular to a river, giving each household equal access to river resources. *metes and bounds are English and use local geography with directions and distances to define boundaries for a particular piece of land. *township and range is a U.S. survey system that divided land west of Ohio after the Louisiana Purchase according to 6-mile-square blocks (township) that were further divided into 1-mile-square blocks (range). The ranges were typically further broken down and sold or given to people to develop.

Metallic and Nonmetallic Minerals

*metallic minerals include copper, lead, and iron ore, among others; production affected by quantity available, quality of ore, and distance to markets. *if mineral scan be obtained from other sources for a cheaper cost, mines may not be developed at all or shut down temporarily. *nonmetallic minerals include sand, gravel, building stone, gypsum, and limestone; primarily used for construction purposes. *generally only mined near site where they will be used due to relative availability.

Petroleum

*modern industrial and postindustrial society heavily dependent on petroleum. *geographically uneven resource *dependence on this energy source is risky as amount available is both quickly depleting and difficult to determine. *amount available likely to be completely depleted some time in next century (given current extraction rates). *there is a drive for cleaner and cheaper energy sources leading to a decrease in consumption rates. *currently, the middle east controls more than 2/3 of the world total, demonstrating unevenness of availability.

subsistence agriculture

*most prevalent in LDCs *the production of only enough food to feed the farmer's family, with no surplus. *Types of Subsistence Agriculture: Intensive Subsistence, Shifting Cultivation, Pastoral Nomadism

Resource Terminology

*natural resources are naturally occurring materials that human society perceives to be necessary to its economic well-being; distribution of most resources is geographically uneven. *renewable resources can be replenished relatively quickly by natural or human-assisted processes. They include food, forests, grassland, and animals. if resources are mismanaged, they can be completely depleted. *nonrenewable resources cannot be replaced or are replaced so slowly they cannot be used by the exploiting population. they include minerals and renewable resources that have been exploited past the point of being able to replenish themselves.

Feedlots/CAFOs

*often called CAFOs (Contained or Confined Animal Feeding Operations); animals concentrated in small spaces and given antibiotics, hormones, and other fattening grains to prepare them for slaughter at a much quicker pace than traditional forms of raising livestock. *increasingly criticized as speculation regarding links to antibiotic resistance, and certain bacterial outbreaks (e.g, E. coli, salmonella, and mad cow disease) become increasingly prevalent. *emit large amounts of greenhouse gasses and tremendous amount of waste.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

*people producing food or raising animals to provide for themselves and their families. *supports higher population density through much labor on small plots of land. *examples include wet rice production in many parts of South and Southeast Asia, and urban agriculture, in which families raise food to support themselves.

Environmental Implications of Agriculture

*pesticides, such as DDT, have harmed wildlife populations; polluted rivers, lakes, and oceans; and worked their way through the food chain all the way to human beings. *topsoil loss, or erosion, is particularly problematic in areas with fragile soils, steep slopes, or torrential seasonal rains. *salinization occurs when soils in arid areas are heavily irrigated. applied water quickly evaporates leaving salty residues, rendering soil infertile. *desertification is the process by which formerly fertile lands become increasingly arid, unproductive, and desertlike.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMOs)

*plants or animals whose DNA has been genetically modified, often through combination of DNA from a similar plant or animal species. *have several advantages including less need for chemical inputs and greater outputs on smaller pieces of land, allowing for greater food security for growing populations. *have several disadvantages including unknown health effects, effects on pollinating insect populations, and can be cost-prohibitive for small-scale farmers of farmers in developing regions of the globe.

Mining and Quarrying

*relatively recent economic activities due to dependence on fairly sophisticated knowledge of the environment. *provide energy base for way of life existent in advanced economies, as this includes harvesting of fossil fuels. *strongest base for international trade connecting developed and developing countries, both in terms of actual trade of these resources, and because transportation technology that allows global trade depends on availability of these resources.

quaternary sector

*seen as a subset of the tertiary sector. *it includes service jobs concerned with research and development, management and administrations, and processing and disseminating information.

Fertile Crescent

*sometimes thought of as the "cradle of civilization," it was once the hearth of early agriculture, which led to it being a hearth of early civilization. *located in the Middle East, the area's fertile soils were attributed to its location in the Euphrates, Nile , and Tigris River floodplains *while originally though to be the sole hearth of civilization, research increasingly shows agricultural innovation independent of this region in other parts of the world.

Rural Settlement

*sparsely settled areas removed from the influence of large cities. *residents usually live in villages, hamlets, farms, or other isolated housing. *economy usually based on primary activities such as agriculture, forestry, mining, or fishing.

Industrial Revolution's Effect on Agriculture

*the industrial revolution dramatically altered the global geography of agriculture, particularly in North America and Western Europe. *millions of people migrated from rural areas into cities of England, France, Germany, and the US, creating enormous new markets for agricultural products from adjacent rural areas. *mechanization replaced human hands allowing farmers to produce more crops with less work. *increased access to efficient transportation allowed farmers to ship their products farther at lower costs.

seed agriculture

*the production of plants through annual planting of seeds. *most farmers today practice seed agriculture

Green Revoluotion

*to increase food availability to rapidly growing populations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, higher-yield seeds, expanded use of chemical inputs, and other agricultural technologies were diffused from developed to developing regions ( where population growth was greatest) in the 1970s and 1980s. *techniques greatly improved and continue to improve amount of food available for growing populations. *much of the technology is costly, limiting its full impacts in developing regions.

agricultural production in the US

*truck and fruit farming exists in the relatgively mild climates of central CA and the SE Coast. *Range livestock dominates agricultural production in the western region of the country. *The Midwest states including IL, IA, MO, NB, and parts of KS and SD produce feed grains and livestock and are collectively known as the "The Corn Belt." *Mixed farming with crop specialties, such as cotton, dominate agricultural production in the southeast. *Wheat and small grains are common int he states and parts of states in the Midwest that do not concentrate in corn production.

Mixed and Specialty Crop Farming

*truck farms or market gardens produce mixed and specialty crops; in both types climate largely determines production. *truck farming involves large-scale production of particular fruits or vegetables for sale in climate regions where that particular product cannot be grown. *market gardening involves small-scale growing of fruits or vegetables for sale at local markets. *mediterranean agriculture prevalent in teh mediterranean-style climates of California, Western Europe, and portions of Australia, Chile, and South Africa exemplify both systems, consisting of diverse specialty crops such as grapes, avocados, and olives.

extensive subsistence agriculture

*two dominant systems include nomadic herding and shifting cultivation. *nomadic herding involves seasonal movement of herds (e.g., goats, sheep, camels, and yaks) over large territories. *herds support relatively small populations with meat, fur, blood, milk, and dung. *shifting cultivation, also called slash-and-burn or swidden, involves hacking down existing vegetation, burning it to release nutrients into soil, and then planting a variety of crops (maize, millet, rice, manioc, cassava, yams) *shifting cultivation is prevalent in equatorial regions across the globe.

Commercial Livestock Production

*two major forms include livestock ranching and dairying. *livestock ranching is widespread throughout much of Australia, western North America, South America, southern Africa, and western Asia. *Transhumance is seasonal movement of livestock between different ranges, for example, to the mountains in summer and to valleys in winter. *Dairying is especially prevalent in northern Europe and the northern United States.

long-lot survey system

A distinct regional approach to land surveying whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals

Crop Rotation

A farming method that involves rotating the sequence of crops planted in a particular field to avoid depleting nutrients in the soil as different crops use different nutrients in the growing process. Through rotation, the soil can be replenished with less synthetic fertilizers.

Pastoral Nomadism

A form of agriculture where livestock are herded either seasonally or continuously in order to find fresh pastures on which to graze.

nomadism

A lifestyle adapted to infertile regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand, where mobility is the most efficient strategy for exploiting scarce resources.

location theory

A logical attempt to explain the locational pattern of an economic activity and the manner in which its producing areas are interrelated. The agricultural location theory contained in the von Thunen model is a leading example.

seed drill

A seed drill is a sowing device that positions seeds in the soil and then covers them

nucleated settlement pattern

A town or a city or a village that has formed around a certain point. This point could be anything that is important. A nucleated settlement has building closely grouped together.

Neolithic Revolution

A wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement. This allowed the ability to support an increasingly large population available.

rectangular survey system

Also called the Public Land Survey, the system was used by the US Land Office Survey to parcel land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The system divides land into a series of rectangular parcels.

Fertile Crescent

Area located in the crescent-shaped zone near the southeastern Mediterranean coast (including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey), which was once a lush environment and of the first hearths of domestication and thus agricultural activity

Third Agricultural Revolution

Based on new, yielding strains of grains and crops developed in laboratories using new techniques of genetic engineering

cereal grains

Cereal grains are seeds that comes from grass, (that are edible) such as wheat, rice, mazie (corn),etc.(Any plants in the grass family.)

von Thunen's model

Developed by German geographer Johann Heinrich von Thunen, this model explains and predicts agricultural land use patterns in a theoretical state by varying transportation cost. Given the model's assumptions, the pattern that emerges predicts more-intensive rural land uses closer to the marketplace, and more-extensive rural land uses farther from the city's marketplace. These rural land use zones are divided in the model into concentric rings.

agricultural hearths

Farming practices diffused across the surface of the earth, central america, NW south america, west africa, SE asia

industrial agriculture

Industrialized production of livestock,poultry, fish, and crops

livestock farming

Livestock are raised for profit or conservation of rare breeds

sustainable agriculture

Long term productive farming methods that are environmentally safe.

Feedlots/CAFOs

Places where livestock are concentrated in very small area and raised on hormones and hearty grains that prepare them for slaughter at a much more rapid rate than grazing; often referred to factory farms

dispersed settlement pattern

Rural areas used for agriculture with farmsteads scattered apart.

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange is an interaction between the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere after the arrival of the Europeans in the Americans( sharing of cultural ideas as well as plants and animals).

Pampas

The Pampas of South America are a grassland biome. They are flat, fertile plains that cover an area of 300,000 sq. miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes Mountains.

tertiary sector

The part of the economy that deals with transportation, communications, and utilities, extended to the provision of all goods and services to people in exchange for payment.

mixed crop farming

The practice of growing cash crops and raising livestock on the same farm.

job specialization

The process by which a division of labor occurs as different workers specialize in different tasks over time