AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
PRODUCTION
Genevieve Depelteau
Geog100
A geographic topic: relationships
between people and land
Major changes:
 Decline in number of people employed in farming in
both the core and the periphery
 Farming practices intensified through the use of
chemical, mechanical, and biotechnological
innovations
 Change in the scale: from local to global
 Is now directly linked to other economic sectors such
as manufacturing and finance
Our food system is one of the most
controversial contemporary topic!
And raises many questions!!
Why is our current agricultural practices so unsustainable?
But first of all! How did we go from hunting and gathering
to the complex agro-food system that we have now??
Let’s look back at the history of agriculture
Three food revolutions:
1- First agricultural revolution (10-15,000
years ago)
2- Second agricultural revolution
(Manufacturing)
3- Third agricultural revolution (new
technologies) – Green Revolution
First Agricultural Revolution
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Is the wide-scale transition of many
human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting
and gathering to one of agriculture and
settlement, allowing the ability to
support an increasingly large
population
Early agriculture is believed to have
originated and become widespread in
Southwest Asia around 10,000–9,000 BP,
though earlier individual sites have been
identified. The Fertile Crescent region of
Southwest Asia is the centre of
domestication for three cereals (einkorn
wheat, emmer wheat and barley) four
legumes (lentil, pea, bitter vetch and
chickpea) and flax OR
Plant domestication may have originated
from Southeast and South Asia (and later
in South America) more than 14,000
years ago with the domestication of
tropical plants.
First agricultural revolution: Common
methods of farming
1)
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Subsidence agriculture: farming for direct consumption, not
for sale
shifting, rotation, slash-and-burn (small land, low productivity)
Intensive-subsidence agriculture: high productivity, small land,
high labor requirement (raised fields and and hillside
farming)
Pastoralism (breeding and herding of animals) steppes,
deserts)
Increasing numbers of peasant farmers convert
from a subsistence economy to cash economy:
they become incorporated into a globalized
economy
Second agricultural revolution (1600
– 1900): Move beyond subsistence
was the result of the complex interaction of social, economic and
farming technology changes.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
End of the feudal landholding to private landowners (or renters)
The second agricultural revolution was composed of a series of
innovations, improvements, and techniques especially in Great
Britain ( improved plow and the horse collar, seed drills, new
breeds, natural fertilizers, etc.)
New type of crops coming from New World: e.g. potato and corn
Move agriculture beyond subsistence to generate the kinds of
surpluses needed to feed thousands of people working in factories
instead of in agricultural fields – market of food
Innovation in transportation
Beginning of land-use: relation between distance
and food price; transportation and price of land
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Johann Heinrich von
Thünen theory in 1826
The Isolated State,
developed the first serious
treatment of spatial
economics and economic
geography, connecting it
with the theory of rent
Rent will be the outcome
of profit you can make at
the market in relation of
cost of production and
distance
Third phase of agricultural
revolution: technological innovation

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1) Mechanization (machine replace human labor)
2) Chemical Farming (Introduction of innovative
inputs- fertilizer, hybrid seeds, agrochemicals, etc.
3) Biotechnology
4) Food manufacturing (agro-production systems,
adding economic value to agricultural products )
Revolution that emanates from North America
1. Mechanization


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In 1892, John Froelich
invented and built the first
gasoline/petrol-powered
tractor in Clayton County,
Iowa, USA.
Agricultural mechanization is
one of the great achievements
of the 20th century
Created value in agricultural
production practices through
the more efficient use of
labor, the timeliness of
operations, and more efficient
input management
Mechanization
2. Chemical Farming


Fertilizers: any organic or
inorganic material of
natural or synthetic origin
that is added to a soil to
supply nutrients essential
to the growth of plants
atmospheric nitrogen (N2)
into nitric acid (HNO3)
referred to as nitrogen
fixation (1915) then used
for the production of
synthetic fertilizer
Chemical fertilizers


1920’s – Superphosphate
Following the privations of
World War II, many countries
made food security a top
priority. In the following years,
policies were put in place to
encourage farmers to use
fertilizers and other modern
farming technologies.
Fertilizer consumption grew
rapidly, largely in parallel
with an accelerating
expansion of the world
population.
Conservative estimates report 30 to
50% of crop yields are attributed to
natural or synthetic commercial fertilizer
Canada and the US

Potash discoveries in USA
and Canada and the
introduction of synthetic
nitrogen (N) in the early to
mid-90s helped make
America a leader in the
production of fertilizer. It
took nearly 1,000 years
for wheat yields to
increase from 0.5 to 2
metric tons per hectare,
but only 40 years to
climb from 2 to 6 metric
tons
3. Biotechnology/Biorevolution
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The genetic engineering of plants and animals
Biotechnology: using living organisms to improve,
make, or modify plants and animals or to develop
microorganisms for specific uses
the development of genetically engineered crops
(GE) or genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Today, genetically modified organisms are found in
75% of all processed foods in the United States
Monsanto
Difference between GE and GMO
technology
GMO


an organism produced
through any type of
genetic modification,
whether by high-tech
modern genetic
engineering, OR long time
traditional plant breeding
methods
Examples of 20th century
breeding work include
familiar fruits such as
seedless watermelons
GE


Genetically Engineering
describes the high-tech
methods used in recent
decades to incorporate
genes directly into an
organism
E.g. corn modified with
a naturally occurring soil
bacterium for protection
from corn borer
damage (Bt-corn)
Green Revolution (1960-70s)

Colonial powers invested
little in the food
production systems of
these countries, and by
independence, their
populations were growing
at historically high rates.
By the mid-1960s, hunger
and malnutrition were
widespread, especially in
Asia, which increasingly
depended on food aid
from rich countries.
Green Revolution


The Rockefeller and Ford
foundations (1948) took the
lead in establishing an
international agricultural
research system to help
transfer and adapt scientific
advances to the conditions in
developing countries
Corn, weat, rice and stem were
produced with inbred
resistance to some of the worst
pest (high-yielding varieties (HYVs))
Green Revolution

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HYVs are bred to respond
to the added application
of large quantities of
nitrogenous fertilizer and
water
requires a ‘package’ of
inputs: chemical fertilizers
and irrigation, but also
biochemical programs to
control for disease, insects
and weeds, and increased
mechanization
Generate yields two to
five times larger than
traditional plants
Positive Outcomes of the Green
Revolution
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By the mid-1980s, approximately
50% of the wheat and nearly 60%
of the rice area of developing
countries were sown to HYV strains:
in 1983, China sowed 95% of its
rice area and Latin America sowed
82% of its wheat area to high
yielding varieties
Real per capita incomes almost
doubled in Asia between 1970 and
1995, and poverty declined from
nearly three out of every five
Asians in 1975 to less than one in
three by 1995.
The absolute number of poor people
fell from 1.15 billion in 1975 to 825
million in1995 despite a 60 percent
increase in population
In some countries yield were enough to
engage in exporting food
Where?

The area of its most
successful application
has been mainly in the
tropical wetlands or
high-potential rainfed
areas in less
developed or newly
industrializing countries
such as India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Indonesia
and China
Pesticides
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Because Green
Revolution farming is
characteristically based
on genetically uniform
monocultures,
dependency on
pesticides is high
In the mid-1950s about
2 000 t of pesticides
were used annually: by
the mid-1980s more
than 80 000 t.
Negative Impacts
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Genetic Diversity: monoculture rice, wheat and maize; infestation
Reliance on oil and fertilizers, pesticides
Ecological Impacts: soil, water, emissions
Water depletion
Health Impacts : Biocides (In India, a study of food, including cereals, eggs and
vegetables, found that 30% of the sample exceeded tolerable levels. Residues of DDT and BHC
were both found in all 75 samples of breast milk collected from women in Punjab)

Additional Inputs: Farmers with extra profits often invest in new farming machinery,
which intensifies the Green Revolution’s commercial approach to agriculture. support systems which
provide monetary loans are created, providing farmers with the means to purchase the new seeds,
fertilizers, water credits for canal use and power for pumps used in tube wells
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Income disparities and unemployment
No subsidies
Negative Impacts

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Ecological Impacts
Water issues
Health Impacts : Biocides (In India, a study of food, including cereals, eggs
and vegetables, found that 30% of the sample exceeded tolerable levels. Residues of DDT
and BHC were both found in all 75 samples of breast milk collected from women in Punjab)
Genetic Diversity
 Income disparities and unemployment
 No subsidies
e.g. Wheat subsidies in Canada : Crowsnest Wheat
agreement and Canadian Wheat Board

Third agricultural revolution:
technological innovation





1) Mechanization (machine replace
human labor)
2) Chemical Farming (Introduction of
innovative inputs- fertilizer, hybrid
seeds, agrochemicals, etc.
3) Biotechnology
4) Food manufacturing (agroproduction systems, adding economic
value to agricultural products )
Revolution that emanates from North
America
Affect Input
$
Affect Output
4. Food Manufacturing (20th century)
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Agricultural industrialization: farms have moved from
being the centerpiece of agricultural production to one
part of a vertically organized industrial processes
including production, storage, processing, distribution,
marketing, retailing.
Development of industrial substitutes for agricultural
products (aspartame, MSG, corn syrup.)
Agribusiness: agro-food production form the
development of seed to the retailing and consumption
of the agricultural product – usually by large TNC
(Nestle, DelMonte, Coca Cola, Pepsi Co, etc.)
Food chain: inputs, production, processing,
distribution, and consumption)
Some history: why food processing?
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Preserved food, individualized food product,
diversified, increased the market, efficiency
1940s – feeding the troops
Marketing and agri-food trend
Coca Cola
1950s-60s “The good life” under
advertizing
1990
Nutrition Labeling and
Education Act requires all
packaged foods to bear
nutrition labeling, and all
health claims for foods
must be consistent with
terms defined by the
Secretary of Health and
Human Services. The food
ingredient panel, serving
sizes and terms such as
"low fat" and "light" are
standardized.
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Agrofood production: from yields to supermarket
Monsanto: from seed to supermarket
The problem with GE seeds
Food system directly linked to 3 crisis!
Why is our current agricultural practices so unsustainable?
What are the solutions ??
Bottom- up (citizen, community)
Top-down (Government, policy)
Alternative food movements
Organic Food and local food
Organic
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Without any fertilizers,
pesticides, hormones,
but also often imply
sustainable practice
such as labor
Is free range eggs and
organic eggs the
same?
Local

Food produced within
160 km radius
Be careful of greenwashing!!
Michael Pollan

https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=kQlqb14
FCEw
e.g. Urban Agriculture
UBC Farm: 24 hectare farm and forest for
research and selling. Saturday market and
produce sold on the campus and local
restaurant and can even be delivered at
your house
Sole Food’s mission is to empower
individuals with limited resources by
providing jobs, agricultural training
Urban agriculture: Some examples in
Vancouver
New Urban Practices
Permaculture

Permaculture is a branch
of ecological design,
ecological engineering,
and environmental design
that develops sustainable
architecture and selfmaintained agricultural
systems modeled from
natural ecosystems
Permaculture is a philosophy of working
with, rather than against nature
Permaculture
“Permaculture is the study
of integrated systems, for
the purpose of better
design & application of
such systems”
"Permaculture is not the rain,
the roof, or the garden.
Permaculture Design is the
connections between these
things. Permaculture
brings cohesion where
there was once isolation

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https://www.ted.com/t
alks/stephen_ritz_a_te
acher_growing_green
_in_the_south_bronx