Agriculture: Origins and
Revolutions
AP Human Geography
Bell Ringer
• Take a moment to close read and annotate the
“Agriculture Histogram”.
• Make a list of Patterns (change across space)
• Make a list of trends (change across time)
Importance of Agriculture
– All humans depend on agriculture for food
– Urban-industrial societies depend on the base of
food surplus generated by farmers and herders
– Without agriculture there could be no cities,
universities, factories, or offices
– Today agriculture remains the most important
economic activity in the world
– Agriculture employs 45 percent of the working
population (only 2% in US)
– In some parts of Asia and Africa, over 80 percent of
the labor force is engaged in agriculture
Agricultural Revolutions
• Agriculture has passed through a series of
revolutionary changes
– Not everywhere at the same time
– Some places still largely unaffected
– Transition from predominantly subsistence
activity to predominantly capital-intensive,
market-oriented commercial agriculture
• Three distinct revolutions
First Agricultural Revolution
Invention of farming & domestication of livestock (8,000–
14,000 years ago)
shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies
Probable culture-hearths of agriculture
First Agricultural Revolution
• Replaced hunting and gathering
• Involved plant and animal
domestication
• Emergence of seed agriculture (wheat,
rice)
• Use of the plow
• Resulted in modest population
increase and outmigration
Second Agricultural Revolution
Technological changes (starting 1600s in Western Europe; spread by 1800s
to North America)
Occurred as Industrial Revolution was happening
Began with new methods: crop rotation, better horse collars
Later innovations: replace human labor with machines, supplement
natural fertilizers & pesticides with chemical
Beginnings of
commercialization
of agriculture
(production of
surplus for trade);
enabled widespread
urbanization
Second Agricultural Revolution
• Late Middle Ages
• Modification of subsistence farming practices
• Crop rotation
• Use of natural and semi-processed fertilizers
• New tools and equipment
• Dramatic increase in crop and livestock yields
• Transportation technology linking farm and urban
commercial food market
Third Agricultural Revolution
• Origins in North America
• Industrialization of agriculture
– Mechanization
• Replacement of human labor with machines
– Chemical farming
• Use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides
– Food manufacturing
• Addition of economic value through processing, canning,
refining, packaging
• Green Revolution
– Plant breeding
• Biotechnology
– Genetic manipulation
Third Agricultural Revolution
Since 1960s
- hybridized grains for better yields (“Green Revolution”)
- greater reliance on synthetic fertilizers
- genetically engineered crops
- vertical integration of ownership (Cargill, ConAgra)
- globalization of production
A partial list of ConAgra’s brands
Swiss Miss
Hunt’s
Van Camp’s
Marie Callender’s
Wesson
Hebrew National
Slim Jim
Egg Beaters
Rosarita
Chef Boyardee
ReddiWip
Pam
Peter Pan
Orville Redenbacher’s
Healthy Choice
Banquet
What is the Green Revolution?
• “The application of science and technology to
creating High-Yielding Varieties of major food
staples (mainly grains)
• In other words, to get more food out of the
same area of land—increasing the productivity
of land.
Where did all this come from?
• During the 1940s, pioneering work was done
by Prof. Norman Borlaug in the hybridization
of plants.
• Essentially, he produced dwarf varieties so
that more of the energy went into food
production, than into growing tall.
The Green Revolution in India
• 1966-67: India was one of the first countries
to benefit from a high-yielding seed program
• Turning Point for Indian Agriculture
• 5 cereals: wheat, rice, maize, sorghum and
millet
– Drought-resistant
– Shorter growing season
– Very responsive to fertilizer
Advantages of the Green Revolution
•
•
•
•
•
•
Yields are 2-4 times greater
The shorter growing season
Farming incomes have increased
Diet of rural communities is now varied
Local infrastructure has been upgraded
Employment has been created for industries
that supply farms with supplies and machinery
What did it do?
• It produced spectacular increases in yields and
production, and we must not lose sight of
that.
• There is no doubt that it made more food
available than would have existed without it.
Principal Beneficiaries of the Green Revolution
“Green Revolution”
Disadvantages of the Green Revolution
• High amounts of fertilizers and pesticides are needed
to optimize production. This is both economically and
environmentally costly
• New varieties require more weed control and are more
susceptible to pests and disease
• Middle and higher-income farmers have benefited
more than low-income farmers
• Mechanization of farming has increased rural
unemployment
• Some new varieties have inferior taste
The Green Revolution: The Latest
Concern
• A 1992 UN report found that even in countries
where food intake had risen, diseases associated
with vitamin and mineral deficiencies had
increased.
• These deficiencies were linked to consumption of
Green Revolution crops, which are low in
vitamins and minerals
• Because these crops have replaced common
produce, many people in the developing world
have extremely low levels of zinc, iron, and
vitamin A
“Golden Rice”
THE GREAT YELLOW HOPE
• In 1982, the Rockefeller
Foundation funded research into
rice varieties to promote global
health
• Nutritionally enhanced rice
– Used a daffodil gene
– Rice now produces beta-carotene
– The body converts beta-carotene to
vitamin A
– Blindness in LDCs is caused by
vitamin A deficiencies
• Time Magazine declares: “This
rice could save a million kids a
year.”
“Golden Rice”
THE GREAT YELLOW HYPE
• An 11 year-old child would need to eat
15 pounds of golden rice a day to
satisfy the minimum daily requirement
of vitamin A
• Conversion of beta-carotene to vitamin
A requires fat and protein in the diet
(these are lacking in LEDCs)
• Asians may not want to eat golden rice
– they prefer white rice over the more
nutrient rich brown rice which has
always existed