Food for Thought:
The Globalization of Agriculture
Chapter 8
Two major themes in this chapter
Agriculture
Globalization
Figure 8.1 (p. 221)
Agriculture
Relationship Between Agriculture and Food Production
Figure 8.3 (p. 223)
Agriculture
Agriculture is a major cause of environmental change
Figure 8.2 (p. 222)
Agricultural Revolutions
First Agricultural Revolution
Probable culture-hearths and origins of agriculture
Figure 8.4 (p. 224)
First Agriculture Revolution
• 12,000 years ago
• Planting seeds, cultivating plants and
raising livestock
Second Agricultural Revolution
Figure 8.5 (p. 226)
Second Agriculture Revolution
• Beginning around 1600s
• Changes in Feudal system, enclosure
movements, migration to cities/urban areas
• Need to produce food for urban dwellers
• Before machines:
– Crop rotation, improved collars for draft
animals
After Industrial Revolution
• 19th century – tractors, reapers, threshers,
motors pump water, better transport,
storage, barbed wire fencing
• Early 20th century – chemicals (fertilizers,
pesticides, herbicides)
Third Agricultural ("Green") Revolution
Third Agricultural Revolution
Begins in 1940s
• hybrid grains for better yields, greater
reliance on fertilizers and irrigation
• Genetically engineered crops (GMOs) come
later in 1980s (not part of Green
Revolution)
Production methods
labor
intensive
vs.
capital
intensive
?
intensive
agriculture
vs.
extensive
agriculture
?
commercial
vs.
?
subsistence
sedentary
agriculture
vs.
?
nomadism
• Irrigated versus non-irrigated
• Different forms of land ownership:
- family farms
- tenant farmers
- sharecroppers
- plantations
- state-owned farms
- garden plots
- agribusiness
• Agribusiness and the globalization of agriculture
Globalization
• Time-space convergence
• Winners and losers in the global economy
• Free trade and comparative advantage
Export economy
Traditional economy
Figures 8.6 and 8.7 (p. 230))
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA)
• Implemented January 1, 1994 between the
United States, Canada, and Mexico
• Decreased and eventually eliminated tariffs
to encourage economic activity
• Dramatically increased trade between the
three nations, from $337 billion in 1993 to
$1.182 trillion in 2011.
NAFTA and Mexico
• Mexican comparative advantage in some
agricultural crops
• Reduction in traditional peasant lifestyles
and crop mixes
• Monoculture production for export:
problems
• Economic rationale has adverse cultural and
social effects
• Zapatista uprising
Globalization
Amazon roads and deforestation
Figures 8.8 and 8.9 (p. 231))
Resistance to Globalization and Industrial
Agriculture
LDCs object to agricultural subsidies in the
United States and the European Union:
• Unfair trade practices
MDC consumers object to:
• Oil-based production system
• Environmental damage from pesticides, herbicides,
and fertilizers
• Unethical, inhumane treatment of animals
• Monoculture mass production threatens food security
• Emphasis on low nutrition processed foods
• Weakened local culture and traditions
Responses:
• Local Food Movement
• Organic Farming
• Urban and Community Gardens
• Grass-fed, free range ranching
• Farmer’s Markets
• Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs)
• Restaurants and Chefs Promoting Local Food
Figure 8.10 (p. 232))
Remote sensing
Amazon Rainforest, Bolivia
Landsat 7 data acquired August 1, 2000
http://library.usgs.gov/
The collecting of roots, seeds, fruit, and
fiber from wild plants and the hunting
and fishing of wild animals.
Hunting and
Gathering
The intentional cultivation of
crops and raising of livestock.
Agriculture
An industrialized, corporate form of
agriculture organized into integrated
networks of agricultural inputs and
outputs controlled by a small number
of large corporations.
Agribusiness
Output per unit land per unit time
(e.g., tons per acre per year).
Yield
Large-area farms or ranches
with low inputs of labor per
acre and low output per acre.
Extensive Agriculture
Small-area farms and ranches
with high inputs of labor per acre
and high output per acre.
Intensive Agriculture
Agriculture in which a large amount of
human work is applied per unit of output.
Labor-Intensive
Agriculture
Agriculture in which a large amount of
capital is applied per unit of output.
Capital-Intensive
Agriculture
Goods such as equipment and
buildings used to produce other goods.
Capital
Agriculture that takes place in the immediate
surroundings of a permanent settlement.
Sedentary
Agriculture
A large estate that produces a single cash
crop. Mainly found now in the tropics.
Plantation
Artificial watering of farmland.
Irrigation
The original invention of farming and
domestication of livestock 8,000–14,000
years ago and the subsequent dispersal of
these methods from the source regions.
First Agricultural
Revolution
A period of technological change from the
1600s to mid-1900s that started in Western
Europe, beginning with preindustrial
improvements such as crop rotation and
better horse collars, and concluding with
industrial innovations to replace human labor
with machines and to supplement natural
fertilizers and pesticides with chemical ones.
The application of biological science to the
development of better strains of plants and
animals for increasing agricultural yields.
Second
Agricultural
Revolution
Green Revolution
also known as the
Third Agricultural Revolution
Agriculture primarily for the purpose
of selling the products for money.
Commercial Agriculture
Agriculture that uses a large area of land for
production of a single crop year after year.
Monoculture
A farming method in tropical areas in which
wild vegetation is cleared and burned before
crops are planted. When the soil fertility is
diminished, farmers abandon the land to
restore itself naturally, and they move to new
areas where they repeat the process. Also
known as slash-and-burn agriculture.
Shifting
Cultivation
Self-sufficient agriculture, usually small
scale and low tech, primarily for direct
consumption by the local population.
Subsistence
Agriculture
The general class of material or
vegetation that dominates the surface
of the land in a particular area.
Land Cover
The general class of activity for which land
is used by humans in a particular area.
Land Use
The use of satellite images
of the earth’s surface.
Remote Sensing
An integrated agricultural system in which
crops are grown and fed to livestock.
Mixed Farming
Domesticated animals such as
cows, sheep, and poultry that are
raised and managed to produce
meat, milk, eggs, wool, leather, etc.
Livestock
Migratory movement of herders
and their animals according to the
availability of grazing land.
Nomadism
The increasing economic, cultural,
demographic, political, and
environmental interdependence
of different places around the world.
Globalism
A measure of how much distance
discourages movement between
places, based on the time, energy, or
dollar cost that must be expended.
Friction of
Distance
Imports and exports between countries
that are unrestricted by tariffs, quotas, or
excessive approvals and paperwork.
Free Trade
When one region is relatively more
efficient at producing a particular
product compared with other regions.
Comparative
Advantage
The interaction between global processes
and local lifestyles. This continuum is a
two-way process in which the local and
the global shape each other.
Global-Local
Continuum
The rate at which the time separating
two places decreases because of
improvements in transportation or
communication technology.
Time-Space
Convergence
After completing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Differentiate among agricultural landscapes.
• Understand how and why the same crops and
livestock are produced in different ways in
different regions of the world.
• Recognize different land uses in satellite images.
• Use remote sensing to study land use change.
Activity 1: Agricultural Landscapes
and Production Methods
Online Activity
Activity 3: Remote Sensing
& Agricultural Land Use Change
Figure 8.11 (p. 245)
Online Activity