AGRICULTURE De Blij Chapter 11

AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

TYPES OF ACTIVITIES

• Primary Activities

• Secondary Activities

• Tertiary Activities

• Quaternary/Quinary Activities

Extracting something from the Earth

Conversion of raw materials into products

Provide services

Specialized services in information and education

AGRICULTURE

• Agriculture – “the deliberate tending of crops and livestock to produce food and fiber”

• US - # farmers ↓ but farm output ↑↑ • Most Countries - Agriculture the primary occupation

Food Taboos

HUNTING AND GATHERING

• Farming only began 12,000 years ago

• Pre-Farming peoples relied on hunting and gathering

San people of Southern AfricaAinu people of Japan

The destruction of the buffalo ended the nomadic lifestyle of Plains Indians

Three copper-base Bronze Age (3,000 BC -1200 BC) edged weapons from Tell Abraq, U.A.E.

FIRST AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONNeolithic Revolution

• First Agricultural Revolution (10,000 BC)– ↑ carrying capacity

→ to ↑ population – migration of farmers– First occurred in SE

and SW Asia – Later in Europe,

Africa & the Americas

Ziggurat (Ur, Iraq)

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY REGIONS OF DOMESTICATION

Primary RegionsCitrus–Rice–Tea–Sugarcane– Nutmeg

Southeast Asia

Rices–Sorghums–EggplantIndia

Lentils–Onions–GrapesMiddle East

Coffee– CottonEast Africa

Tomatoes–Chili peppersCentral America

Secondary Regions Peaches–Soybeans–Pears

China

Dates–Garlic–OlivesMediterranean

Yams–Kola nut–PeasEast Africa

Potatoes–Tomatoes–Pumpkin

South America

Pineapple–Tobacco–PeanutsSouth America

citrusRicestea

Sugarcanenutmeg

ricessorghumseggplant

pineappleTobaccopeanutspotatoes

Tomatoespumpkin

Yamskola nutpeas

DatesGarlicOlives

PeachesSoybeanspears

tomatoeschili peppers

Coffeecotton

LentilsOnionsgrapes

Karl Sauer proposed early agricultural hearths

ANIMAL DOMESTICATIONMay have begun 8,000 years ago

Pigs water buffalo chickens

SE Asia

Cattle Asian elephant?S Asia

goats sheep camelSW Asia

yak horse goats sheepCentral Asia

llama alpaca turkeyMesoamerica

guinea fowl (no livestock)Africa

SUBSISTENCE FARMING• Shifting cultivation: farmers

move when the soil becomes infertile– AKA slash & burn

agriculture; milpa; patch agriculture etc.

– Occurs in sparsely populated areas

• Small plot farming:– Subsistence agriculture– May sell a little at market– Impoverished tenant

farmers 100-200 million farmers do not raise cash crops – they are subsistence farmers

Subsistence Agriculture

SECOND AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

Occurred in 1600s & 1700’s• Made food production

more efficient – Tools developed– crop care – harvesting improved – Selective breeding

• Europe’s population ↑• Industrial Revolution

enhanced these changes

Johann von Thünen (1783-1850)

• Author of The Isolated State• Assumes land is flat and soil is

uniform • Perishable and highly priced items

were grown nearest the town. • Further away from town, bulkier

and less expensive crops were grown.

• Furthest away were livestock farms

Why would von Thünen’s model…

Call for these to be grown closer to town

and these to be grown further from town

Land rents and transportation costs to market govern land usage

THIRD AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONThe “Green Revolution”

• Began in 1945• Emphasis on developing

world• Prevented famine in Asia, L.A. (not

Africa)

• Key Idea:– Experimental seed varieties (IR8 rice)– New farm techniques– equipment– Pesticides – fertilizers – By 1990’s: pest resistant rice with 3

growing cycles per year

Requirements for success– Cultural acceptance – middle class farmers – education– availability of credit– political stability – good transportation networks

Problems with the Green Revolution

• ↓ genetic diversity• soil erosion• water shortages• salinization• debt• Cancer (pesticides)• Class divisions

– Rural-urban migration

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

• Dates back to the 1970’s• Issue: Genetic engineering• Pest resistant foods could produce “super bugs”• Effects of inserted genes on people - Health risks?• GM foods embraced by China; rejected by Europe

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/List of GM Foods (2006)

hypoallergenic cat for pet lovers prone to allergies.

“Mr. Green Glow” has been engineered to

have fluorescent skin

Ailurophobic’s worst nightmare!

WORLD AGRICULTURE

CASH CROPS & PLANTATION AGRICULTURE

TodayCash crops a source of money for ‘periphery’Price dictated by ‘core’

Age of European colonization

Periphery (colony) raw materials “cash crop”

Core (Europe)manufactured goods

CASH CROPS & PLANTATION AGRICULTURE

Plantation agriculture: - “cash crops grown on large estates”Plantations found in Latin America; Africa; S. AsiaPlantation may be owned by multinational corporations

– United Fruit Corp. in Guatemala

Pineapple Plantation

CASH CROPS & PLANTATION AGRICULTURE

• Cotton Production– Southern US; China; Egypt;

India; Brazil….– 19th C industrialization led

to mass production• Luxury Products:

– Tea– Coffee

– the second most valuable commodity traded (oil first)

– Cacao– Tobacco

Gezira Scheme (Sudan)• One of the largest

irrigation projects at 8,800 sq. miles (about the size of NJ)

• Cotton culture

Rubber Plantation, Vietnam

Tea Plantation, MauritiusYour Coffee Dollar

Cote d’Ivoire

Logging & Landslides

Java, Indonesia

Haiti - Deforestation

Hundreds of fires burn in the Amazon rainforest in Peru (left) and Brazil (right). The fires are seen as red squares in this image taken by the Aqua satellite on the afternoon of September 1, 2003.

Slash & burn in the Amazon

Fair PriceFair Labor ConditionsDirect TradeDemocratic OrganizationsCommunity DevelopmentEnvironmental Sustainability

Afghanistan• The average gross income

from opium cultivation exceeded wheat—by as much as 27 times

COMMERCIAL LIVESTOCK, FRUITS & GRAIN…

Dairying NE US and NW EuropeMixed livestock & crop farming E. US; W. Europe; Russia; S. AmericaLivestock ranching US; Canada; Mexico, Brazil; Argentina;

Australia

Rice US (leading producer); Thailand; Vietnam

Mediterranean Agriculture (olives, figs, dates..)

Mediterranean Europe; California; South Africa; Chile

Illegal Drugs Coca (Columbia, Peru, Bolivia); Heroin & Opium (South Asia especially Afghanistan)

92 Million 280 MillionUSPopulation

Organic Crops

AGRIBUSINESS

• Agribusiness: the transformation of farms in corporations– Concentrates agricultural activities– Example: Poultry farming

• Large scale hatcheries and feed mills• Farmers as managers• Important decisions made by the corp.

– (choice of feed; collection of birds…)

Open Range Farming

Feedlots

The Meatrix

EARLY HOUSING

• Larger communities leads to more complex housing

• Functional Differentiation– Building built for specific

purposes– Difference in quality

based upon wealth

Catal Hüyük

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS DETERMINE HOUSING

Stilt housing in a flood zone Yurt housing for nomadic people

Steeple roof for snow/rainIgloo illustrates use of available material

Great Plains lacks trees therefore settlers built “sod” houses

Housing in the Southwest

UNCHANGED TRADITIONAL HOUSES• Houses have not been

significantly altered in a century

• Can be modified but changes not borrowed from other cultures

• Usually in areas resisting foreign influence

Tower Houses of Sana’a, Yemen

UNCHANGED TRADITIONAL HOUSES

Indonesia

Africa Ireland

Germany

TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN US

• New England “saltbox”

• Mid-Atlantic style adapted from one room log cabin

• Southern houses usually reflect relative poverty; one story; porch & raised platform to vent heat

MODIFIED TRADITIONAL HOUSES

New building materials used or new elements added that do not fundamentally alter the structure

Modified South African “rondeval” home

MODIFIED TRADITIONAL HOUSES

MODERNIZED TRADITIONAL HOUSES

• Far-reaching modifications of floor plan and layout

• Only elements of the traditional

MODERN HOUSING

• Most common in US• Practicality;

hygiene; comfort most important

American ranch-style house

Suburbia: Aesthetically pleasing?

“Cubic houses” in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Zulu beehive house made out of grasses and brush

Houses can be categorized based upon their structure & materials

In the 1920’s the California Ranch moved east. Because of climate differences, this is an example of maladaptive diffusion

SETTLEMENTSHamlet • small (dozen) cluster of houses

Village• social stratification• differentiated building• 50% of world’s population live in

villages• May stress traditional values

Italian hilltop village

Dutch village

Chinese village Colombian Village

PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT

Delineating land• Primogeniture: all land to eldest

male– Northern Europe & areas of

colonization– Leads to large estates

• Land divided among heirs– Southern Europe– Leads to small scattered plots– Cause of emigration

Cadastral system: shows property lines

• The metes and bounds system was the earliest form of surveying land.

• It used natural features to mark boundaries into irregular lots. • This system comes form Europe and was used along the eastern

seaboard of the US

Surveying Land• The rectangular

survey system was adopted in the US as part of the township and range system designed to spread settlement across the country.

• Also seen in Canada

Map of Kansas counties showing the influence of the rectangular survey system

Town in South Dakota

• French influence on land Survey

• Long Lot Survey system found in Canada, Louisiana and Texas