 Have answers ready for Question 7.
 Get ready for the Human Geography in Action. Sit with 1 or AT
MOST 2 partners
 Log onto the internet using FireFox (on the student menu)
 Search: Human Geography in Action
 Make the 1 st Choice: “Wiley:…4 th Edition”
 Follow the link to the Student Companion site under “Students” on the right side of the screen
 Follow the link to the Computerized Chapter Activities on the left
 Press “8.1. Agriculture…”
 Once there Wait for everyone!
 For the Ones Marked YOU MUST record a fact about that type of agriculture from the reading in the exercise.
 This will be a major assignment grade (AKA a grade booster for

Economic Geography:
Introduction

 3 Categories of jobs
 Primary: Agricultural positions
 Secondary: Manufacturing Industries
 Tertiary: Services (3 types)

• Directly extract materials from the Earth
• Includes agriculture, mining, fishing, and forestry
• Securing Food # 1 priority for people
• > 60% of pop in LDC’s
• What would the physiological and agricultural densities of these countries look like?
• What does this indicate about how people spend their time?
• < 5% of pop in MDC’s
• What would the physiological and agricultural densities of these countries look like?
• What does this indicate about how people spend their time?

 Manufacturers that process, transform, and assemble raw materials into products
 Decline in Secondary sector jobs in MDC’s
 Result of Increased technology (not as many people necessary to do a job)
 Result of Globalization of the Economy
 Transnational Corporations: Produce in countries with lower wages and unionization

• Providing goods and services to people in exchange for money
• Increase in MDC’s
• Result of increased demand due to rising standard of living
• 3 Types
 Unskilled: Retail clerks and low ranking managers, restaurant employees
 Quaternary: intellectual/professional services : government, education, libraries, scientific research, information technology, high ranking managers
 Quinary Sector - top officials within quaternary sector : Examples would be
President/Congressman for government or university professors for education, CEOs of companies

Its Development, Diffusion, and
Cultural and Environmental Effects

 Summarize the 3 main sectors of the economy. Include the following:
 What types of jobs are held within each sector
 Whether they are more prevalent in the Core or
Periphery

 Agriculture fundamental foundation of civilization
 The most common person in the world is an
Asian Farmer who produces just enough food to survive with little to no surplus
 Contrasts American way of life: Business of
Farming (Agricultural products consumed by more than just the farmer)
 Contrast in agricultural practices is one of the fundamental differences between MDC’s and
LDC’s…

 Before agriculture
 Small societies that moved frequently based on movement of game and seasonal growth of plants
 250,000 people still live this way today
 South America, Arctic, Africa,
Australia
 Isolated on the periphery of world settlements

 Began as an accident
 Accidentally dropped food scraps
 Noticed new plants grew
 Continued through Experimentation

AGRICULTURAL HEARTHS

st
 Geographer Carl Sauer found that
Vegetative Planting:
 Earliest form of plant cultivation
 Means: reproducing plants by dividing an already existing plant and transplanting the piece

st
 First Hearth: South East Asia
 What climate do they have?
o Conducive to wide variety of plants
 What do you believe their main source of food was? How did this practice help encourage agricultural development?
 First to domesticate dogs, pigs, and chickens
 Other Hearths:
 Northwestern South America
 West Africa

nd
 Carl Sauer found that
 Means: Reproduction through annual planting of seeds
 3 hearths in Eastern Hemisphere:
Western India, Northern China, and Ethiopia
 From India to SW Asia: Integration of plants and Animals ~ fundamental to modern agriculture o SW Asia: wheat and barley agriculture begins) o Domestication of cattle, sheep and goats
(draft animals)

 2 Hearths in Western Hemisphere:
 Southern Mexico: squash and maize (corn)
 Peru: beans and potatoes
 Animals: llama, alpaca, turkey

Commercial and
Subsistence Agriculture

 Subsistence Agriculture in
LDCs
 Commercial Agriculture in
MDCs
 5 features distinguishing these 2
 Purpose of Farming
 % of farmers in the labor force
 Use of Machinery
 Farm size
 Relationship of farming to other businesses

LDC: Subsistence
 Produce food for your own consumption
MDC: Commercial
 Raise animals or grow crops for sale off the farm
 Not much direct sale to consumers

 How do you believe the Industrial
Revolution impacted farming?

LDCs Subsistence
 ½ of workers farm
 Agricultural density?
MDCs Commercial
 1/10 th of workers farm
 Agricultural density?

LDCs Subsistence
 Human and animal labor
MDCs Commercial
 High Tech machines allow fewer people to do the work
 Scientifically modified crops
 How these advances help with quality and quantity?

 MDCs: Commercial
 Creates agribusiness
(food production industry that controls EVERY stage of production from farm to shelf)
 Processing, packaging, storing, distributing, retailing food products
 Uses modern technologies to track prices, yields, and expenditures (videos)

MDCs Commercial
 Mechanization allowed for large farms
 US Example:
 98% Family Owned and operated
 1.4% of US Farms account for 48% of agricultural sales
 Fewer farmers today but more farmland than previously
 Why?
 Prime Agricultural Land disappearing (reading)
 Why?

In complete sentences explain the different agricultural techniques employed by MDCs and LDCs in terms of purpose of agriculture, mechanization, and the size of their farms.

Climate and Agriculture

 Identifies 11 agricultural regions
 Regions sorted mostly by climate
 Why would this make sense?
 Why must you be leery of placing too much emphasis on climate? What else may influence agricultural practices?

 Tropical, Humid, Low-
Latitude Climates
 Amazon of South America,
Central and West Africa, and parts of SE Asia

 Use Slash-and-Burn Agriculture: clear land by slashing vegetation than burning it
 Land called swidden or milpa
 Grow on cleared land for a few years, stripping it of resources, then letting it lay fallow for years to recover

 Grow variety of crops. Why?
 More land used for this purpose than any other type of agriculture but only 5% of population engages in this type
 “Inefficient” Can only support small population without environmental destruction

 Live in small villages
 Farmland controlled by village
 Each family allocated part of communal land (now some own land)
 If field doesn’t produce enough food, few people move and create their own settlement

 Tropical
Rainforests disappearing
 Shifting Cultivation replaced by logging, cattle ranching, and cash crops

 What could be some advantages and disadvantages to ending shifting cultivation?
 Advantage: other forms of agriculture yield more per land area, enabling more people to be fed
 Disadvantages: Other forms damage soil permanently in tropics
 What are some problems with destroying the rainforest: o global warming, destruction of folk culture surrounding agricultural practices

PASTORAL
NOMADISM

 Mostly found in Arid and Semiarid land
 Why?
 Much of North Africa, Middle East, and
Central Asia
 Ex. Bedouins of Middle East and Masai of East
Africa

 Subsistence agriculture based on herding animals
 Migrate depending on availability of water and food for herd and people
 Transhumance: seasonal
_____________ between mountains and lowland pastures
 Territoriality: migrate only within own piece of land unless declaring war

 Still eat primarily grain
 Size of herd: symbol of power and security in a harsh environment
 Type of animal dependent on environment
 Together with Shifting
Cultivation occupies the largest percentage of the world’s land area

 Fighting control by national governments
 Forced into confined areas due to desire of their lands (petroleum, mining, etc)
 Nomadic lands smaller and smaller towards lands with little to no resources or irrigation capabilities

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

 Agriculture that intensely makes use of almost every parcel of arable land to feed the large population of E, S, and SE Asia
 Where environmentally possible practice Double
Cropping: rice in the rainy, warm, summers;
Wheat or Barley in cool, dry winter

 VERY High agricultural densities
 Cultural practices enable them to sustain on a very small piece of land
 2 Types Dependent on Environment
 Wet Rice Dominant
 Wet Rice Not Dominant

 Growing rice in a dry nursery before transplanting into a flooded field: sawah
 Use of plow and animal power: distinguishes this from shifting cultivation
 Harvested by hand
 Clustered in coastal areas of
India and SE Asia due to low land and abundant water

 Wheat most important crop
 In places with low summer precipitation and harsh winters (interior India, NE
China)
 Produces additional harvests through crop rotation: rotating to a different crop each year to ensure good soil quality every year

AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN THE LDCS
Plantations

 Large farm specializing in one or two crops
 Commercial Agriculture in the
LDCs sold to MDCs (usually Latin
America, Asia, Africa)
 Owned by Europeans or North
Americans
 Worked by imported labor that lives on site
 Tropics and Subtropics

AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN THE MDCS
Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

 Integrates Livestock and crops
 Crops raised to feed animals mostly not people
 Animals fertilize crops
 Provides Year Long
Income: crops in harvest times, animal products year round
 Uses system of Crop
Rotation

 Found in:
 US ~ From the Appalachian
Mts to middle of country
 Most important region ~ Corn
Belt: Ohio to Iowa (oil, ethanol, food products, and food for animals) [video-farm subsidies ]
 How are farm subsidies affecting the US?
 Europe ~ from France to
Russia

 Demand for poultry production increasing
 Due to global and national population increases as well as the understanding of the health benefits of these products
 Operations have become larger
 Due to mechanization, agribusinesses, and use of chemicals producing larger, healthier meats
 Clustering of production
 Found mostly in economically depressed areas, near markets, and taking advantage of lower wage rates and attracting immigrant laborers

AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN THE MDCS
Dairy Farming

 Found in: NE US, SE
Canada, NW Europe, S and E Asia in the ring around urban areas called the milkshed
 Why are Dairy Farms close to urban areas?
 India largest producer of milk…Culturally why might this be?

 Dairy Farms farther from big urban areas produce milk byproducts (cheese, butter, etc) Why?
 EX: NE Dairy Farms: Milk for NE cities,
Wisconsin the Cheese State because farther from the big cities
 Same worldwide

 Labor intensive: must milk 2 times a day
 Expensive: must produce or purchase food for cattle in winter
 Less Diary Farmers today but those left are more productive

AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN THE MDCS
Grain Farming

 Grain (wheat, corn, oats, barley , rice, etc. seeds) sold for human consumption
 Wheat most important: easy to store and ship without spoilage

 Prairies of US and Canada world’s
“Breadbasket”
 Winter Wheat: Kansas, Colorado,
Oklahoma
 Planted in Autumn, Harvested early
Summer
 Spring Wheat: Dakotas, Montana,
Saskatchewan, (Harsh winters)
 Planted in Spring, Harvested late
Summer
 Own farms in both areas to increase production and share equipment
(combine does work)

AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN THE MDCS
Livestock Ranching

 Commercial grazing of
Livestock over an extensive piece of land
 Found in arid or semiarid areas with poor soil
 Western US, SE South
America (Argentina, Brazil),
Middle East, and Australia
 Pampas of Argentina produce less than US but export more why?

 1 st herded animals over open ranges
 (seminomadic)
 2 nd Turned into fixed farming: Gov: break land into fixed ranches
 3 rd Many decided to grow crops
(more profitable)
 4 th Ranches confined to dry areas
 5 th Not profitable on its own, so
Meat-Processing Industry bought ranches

 Taught by Spanish and Portuguese settlers
 Lost much land when US gov. sold it to sedentary farmers in mid-late 1800’s
 Disputes btwn farmers and ranchers
“Range Wars”
 Shift to fixed–location Ranching:
 60% of Ranching land today leased to ranchers from gov.
 New Cattle breads cannot handle long journeys

Mediterranean
Agriculture

 Lands surrounding
Mediterranean, California, parts of Chile, and South Africa, and
Australia
 Similar Climates: Sea winds: moderate, moist winters and hot, dry, summers
 Hilly and mountainous to the sea
 Under what form of migration would herders in this area use?

 Horticulture: commercially growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers (trees)
 What crops grown along the
Mediterranean? California?
 California
 LA on Prime Agricultural Land
 Why?
 Farming on arid, irrigated land eating up SW US’s water supply

Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming

 Found in: SE US
 Long growing season, humid climate, accessible to large
NE markets
 During Winter most come from Latin America, especially Chile, Ecuador,
Panama, and Costa Rica
 Called Truck Farming:
 (truck Middle English word for bartering)

 WIDE variety of fruits and vegetables to developed nations
 Contrast to other commercial agriculture, some sold directly to consumers (Farmer’s Market)
 Mechanized at every stage of production
 Use of Migrant Labor (often undocumented)
 Specialty Farming: NE US, affluent crops (asparagus, strawberries, mushrooms, etc)
 Alternative to failing dairy farms

Agricultural Region
A. China is the largest producer of wheat. But what country produces the most wheat for world wide sale? What do we call this region? (2 points)
B. Explain the discrepancy between these two in terms the type of agriculture these two are engaging in and population levels. (4 points)
C. Identify the two types of this crop and where and why each is most popular (6 points)
D. Discuss why agribusinesses often own farms in both regions. (2 points)

Agriculture, Market, and
Distance

 Proposed by German Geographer & Economist Johann Heinrich Von Thunen in the late 1800s.
Basic Idea
 Farmers decide what crops to grow and/or what animals to raise based on their location relative to the main market
 Two Considerations
1. Cost of Land: Crops and Livestock that need extensive amounts of land will be found farther from the market because the land is cheaper, maximizes profit
2. Cost of Transportation: So crops or livestock that cost a lot to transport or could spoil before making to the market will be located closer to the markets, maximize profit
 Failures of this model
1. All sites and situations are not created equal: resources, soil quality, topography may not be good for all types of agriculture
2. Doesn’t take into consideration cultural beliefs like taboos or simply a desire to grow or raise a certain crop
3. Government intervention such as zoning: governments say certain land can be used for certain purposes
4. Modern Technology: (possibilism) refrigerated trucks, can have dairy farms farther because of refrigeration, green houses, interstate highways have lowed transportation costs

Overproduction in Commercial
Farming

 What is the law of supply and demand?
 Commercial farmers supply is higher than the demand for their products
 Reason 1: Many agricultural products are not substitute goods. What is a substitute good?
 (do not switch demand from wheat to corn bc it is cheaper)
 Reason 2: Low Population Growth: no new markets to sell excess food to
 Result: price of agricultural goods fall

1. Encouraged not to plant surplus crops
 Plant Rest Crops instead

2. Price Floors
 Set Minimum Price for crop…If farmer is paid less than that amount at the market, government pays the rest

3. Government buys surplus goods
 Sells or donates food to foreign governments
 Give Food Stamps to stimulate purchase of excess items

 Advantage: encourages
farmers to keep farming despite low prices
 Result: maintain rural way of life
 Disadvantages
 Encourages over production
(no incentive to meet market needs)
 High grocery prices (video)

 What are some advantages and disadvantages of farm subsidies?
 In your own words describe the
Von Thunen model. List 2 failures of the model.

Sustainable Agriculture in the
MDCs

 Farming that preserves and enhances environmental quality
 Lower revenue but also lower costs
 Example Organic Farming
 3 distinguishing practices of sustainable agriculture
 Sensitive Land Management
 Limited Use of Chemicals
 Better Integration of crops and livestock

 System of Growing: minimal soil disturbance allowing for less need of heavy, expensive equipment
 Increases organic matter, moisture, and drainage
 More labor intensive but more profitable

 Farming techniques involve using chemicals only on crop grown areas (if at all), limiting problems with soil and water quality
 More expensive and time consuming to be selective

 Today, many mixed crop and livestock farms choose to only grow crops or raise animals, then trade between farms for what they need
 Integrated returns back to farming with both

 Balancing Number of livestock with landscape qualities
 Too many can create vegetation loss on crop land
 Proper amount can reduce soil erosion on sloped areas

 Confining animals versus free range
 Moral and ethical debate
 Confining causes water pollutants and need for costly waste management facilities (however may yield more meat)
 Free Range: manure improves soil quality but reduces neighborhood quality of life (i.e. hold your nose)

 Managing Extreme
Weather Conditions
 In periods of excess or reduced rainfall large herds can be a liability or a blessing
 How?
 How might this play out in a
Mediterranean climate like
California to benefit residents?

 Steady increase since 1970 in the US
 3 Factors:
 Increased Demand
 Careful land use
 More profitable for small farms

 Reasons for Increased
Demand:
 Media has driven concerns over nutrition and healthiness of foods grown with chemicals and/or genetically modified as well as the humane treatment of animals
 Households are smaller in size and have more disposable income for these higher end products

 Reasons for careful land use
 Many farmers and consumers switch to sustainable organic farming because they feel responsible for the long term wellbeing of the land

 Reasons for More
Profitability:
 Small-farmers cannot compete with the low prices offered by large US agribusinesses
 Shift to the specialty food niche like organic farming because this intensive agriculture yields higher prices people are willing to spend for the quality

Population Growth

 Where is the vast majority of population growth occurring in the world?
 What did Malthus say about food and population growth?
 What does this mean for farming in these areas?

 Ester Boserup, female
Danish economist, response to Malthus
 Population may be growing but food production CAN meet these needs
 2 methods of agricultural intensification

1. Changing methods of Fallowing (5 stages of farmland intensification)
 Forest Fallow: work field for 2 years, fallow for
20; forest grows back
 Bush Fallow: work field for 8 years, fallow for
10; small trees and bushes grow back
 Short Fallow: work for 2 years, fallow for 2 years; grasses grow back
 Annual Cropping: worked every year, fallow for a few months by planting legumes and roots
 Multicropping: fields used several times a year, no fallowing

 What agricultural region is indicative of stage 1 “Forest Fallow”?
 What areas of the world use this type?
 Why?
 What agricultural region is indicative of stage 5 “multicropping”?
 What areas of the world use this type?
 Why?

2. Adopting new farming methods
 Increase technology
 Tend crops better (weeding, fertilizing, etc)
 Create more fields
 Irrigate more land
 Where do they get the labor for all this additional work?

Trade

 What do you know about the consumption of agricultural products from LDCs?

 LDCs need agricultural machinery to improve production
 But Must switch from subsistence farming to export crops to gain capital to purchase equipment
 Sell fruits, veggies to MDCs when out of season

 Less crops grown for local consumption
 Must use profits from sale of export crops to purchase food for people only farming for export
 What is the result of this problem?
 Although an international problem itself, what do you many LDC farmers turn to in order to generate a large profit?

Four Strategies for increasing
Food Supply and the problems with each

 4 Basic Strategies, none perfect
 Expand Agricultural land
 Increase the productivity of existing
Agricultural land
 Find new sources of Food
 Increase exports

 Population growing faster than agricultural expansion
 Possible but problems inhibiting this growth
 However, agricultural land is expanding in
Africa
 Possible in NA but actually decreasing

 Desertification: semiarid land degradation
 Excessive Population exhausting soil nutrients
 Over cultivation, animal grazing, and tree cutting

 Inadequate drainage of irrigated land
 Overtime roots waterlogged (especially harmful if includes salt water)

 Farms on periphery of urban areas turn into suburbs, reducing agricultural land

 Green Revolution: 1970’s and 80’s ~
Introduction and diffusion of highyield seeds and the expanded use of fertilizers
 High-Yield Seeds: Dr. Norman Borlaug produces: “miracle wheat and rice”: hardier, more fertilizer respondent plants
 Result: 1) agricultural productivity increased faster than population growth,
2) shifted production from subsistence to commercial farming, 3) Positive impact in all regions of Asia and in Mexico

 Fertilizer indispensible for these seeds
 Nitrogen most important ingredient
 Cheapest way to get this is processing natural gas or petroleum
 Other important elements for fertilizers are not evenly distributed in the world
 Tractors, irrigation pumps, etc necessary for production
 What problems does this create?
( article)

3 NEW FOOD SOURCES

 Oceans make up3/4 of earth surface
 Endless source of food?
 Problem: overfishing ~ depleted ½ of fish supplies (cannot reproduce as fast)
 Tried to solve by providing fishing rights to countries. What was this treaty called?

 Trying to create hybrid seed grains with higher protein content to increase nutrition in LDCs where meat consumption is low
 Another option is to fortify the cereals with protein filled amino acids during production. Why might fortification not be applicable in the
LDCs?…hint think their usual agricultural practices.

 Encourage consumption of foods usually avoided due to social reasons
 What are these called?
 Examples: soy products,

 Increase food supply by exporting the surplus crops of one country to another in need
 US: Leading Exporter of corn and wheat since the Agricultural, Trade, and Assistance Act of
1954
 Thailand #1 producer of rice

 Asia: population growth declining, green revolution keeps food production above these numbers
 Result Asia remains self-sufficient
 Sub-Saharan Africa: Population increasing 6 fold, food only 3 times
 Especially Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan
 Over exhausted, non fertile soil, drought
 Price Ceilings make profits impossible, no incentive to farm
 How is the “Second Green Revolution
Helping? Article: