agricultural hearths + types of farming Flashcards
1st-Vegetative planting
taking parts of the plant and replanting
2nd-Seed agriculture
taking just the seeds and replanting
Fertile Crescent
Southwest Asia, arc from the eastern Mediterranean coast up into what is not western Turkey and the south and east along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Syria and Iraq
**Generally regarded as the 1st agricultural hearth, and most important, but agriculture did begin in multiple places around the same time
why these places
Fertile soil
Availability of water
Moderate climates
Organizational skills of residents
Columbian Exchange
the exchange of goods and ideas between the Americas, Europe, and Africa
How is AGRICULTURE a good example of Relocation Diffusion
The Columbian Exchange
How is AGRICULTURE a good example of Hierarchical Diffusion
Those in core countries can afford the latest technology and advances in agriculture to help them grow even more food
How is AGRICULTURE a good example of Contagious Diffusion
As preferences spread for different types of food, more and more people will start to grow it
How is AGRICULTURE a good example of Stimulus Diffusion
The basic idea of intentionally growing food and raising animals has spread, but has been adapted to the different climates and food preferences of people around the world
First Agricultural Revolution
Started about 9,000 B.C.E. and lasted for thousands of years
The shift from foraging to farming
Hearth: multiple places, multiple times, independently
Societal Changes
Nomadic to sedentary
Built homes
Possessed goods
Decrease in variety of foods consumed
New tools to promote efficiency
Domestication of animals
Irrigation
Population increase
Food storage
Specialization of labor
New job opportunities (some people not needed to cultivate)
Production of non-food crops
More complex societies, growth of cities
Class-system
Warfare
Second Agricultural Revolution
Early 1700s, Great Britain and other European countries
Saw dramatic improvements in crop yields, new innovations, and advancements in fertilizers and drainage systems
Enclosure Systems
Enclosure system
systems in which communal lands were replaced by farms owned by individuals, and use of the land was restricted to the owner or tenants who rented land from the owner
Changes
Pushed peasants off land, now have a labor surplus
*Led directly to Industrial Revolution–had an
available labor pool
Increased yields due to more efficient tools and techniques
*Horse drawn seed drill-Jethro Tull
*Mechanical reaper–Cyrus McCormick
*Steel plow–John Deere
*Crop rotation–used land more efficiently,
and didn’t leave land unused (fallow)
Result: population boom
Green revolution
1950s
Higher-yield seeds, increased use of fertilizers, and better irrigation
Big impacts on wheat and rice production–disease and drought resistant
Green revolutions adv
Food production outpaces population growth
Fertilized help productivity
Fertilized help productivity
Fertilized help productivity
New irrigation=more crops
Agribusiness has increased profits for farmers
Green revolution disads
Agribusiness has increased profits for farmers
Fertilizers lead to groundwater pollution
Overfishing
Green Revolution has not extended to Sub-Saharan Africa
Irrigation has led to groundwater depletion
Lack of crop diversity
Subsistence Agriculture
an agricultural practice that provides crops and livestock to feed one’s family and close community using fewer mechanical resources and more people to care for the crops and livestock
*Generally: more farmers, smaller farm size,
less machinery
Commercial Agriculture
an agricultural practice that focuses on producing crops and raising animals for the market for others to purchase
*Generally: less farmers, larger farm size,
more machinery
Nomadic Herding (Pastoral Nomadism)
LDCs, Subsistence, Extensive
Climate: too hot/dry/arid to raise crops, so they raise animals instead
Where: North Africa, SW Asia, Central Asia
Animals: camels, horses, goats, cattle, llamas, donkeys, sheep
They are nomadic–move around to known food/water sources, sense of territoriality
*Transhumance: the seasonal migration
from the highlands to the lowland pastures
Women normally stay put and grow grain to supplement diet
Since it is extensive–most likely will not be sustainable into the future
Shifting Cultivation pt1
LDCs, Subsistence, Extensive
Where: rainforests of South America, Central and
West Africa, and Southeast Asia
Climate: tropical
Crops: intertillage-a variety of crops, little bit of everything
Use hand tools and animal power to clear fields, plow, plant, and harvest
Since it is extensive, it most likely will not be sustainable into the future
Shifting Cultivation pt 2
Slash/burn the field
*Swidden: cleared field
*Potash: potassium rich ash used to fertilize
Work the land for about 3 years
*2nd year is the best
Move on to next field, slash/burn
Leave original field to fallow
Make your way back to original field in about 20 years
Intensive Subsistence, Wet Rice
LDCs, Subsistence, Intensive
Where: SE Asia, coastal areas of S Asia, and SE China
Climate: monsoon=LOTS of rainfall, plenty of water for RICE
Crops: RICE
Use every single bit of land as much as possible, hand tools and animal power
Double/Triple-Crop: obtaining two/three harvests per year from 1 field
*Why? SO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED
Start seeds in nursery, then plant in sawah (flooded field)
Intensive Subsistence, Other Crop
LDCs, Subsistence, Intensive
Where: Northern China, Interior parts of S and SE Asia
Climate: drier, not as much rain, so cannot grow rice
Crops: wheat, and many other crops, just not rice
Used every single bit of land as much as possible, hand tools and animal power
Crop rotation: rotate crops in order to not exhaust the fields
Double/Triple-Crop: obtaining two/three harvests per year from 1 field
*Why? SO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED
Plantation
LDCs, COMMERCIAL, Intensive
Where: scattered in places along the Equator (Asia, Africa, and the Americas)
Climate: tropical
Crops: cash crops-coffee, sugarcane, bananas, rubber, tobacco, cotton, cocoa, tea, palm oil, etc.
Operate in LDCs, but owned by MDCs
Why? LDCs have cheaper land, cheaper labor,
less environmental regulations, many located
in Southern hemisphere so can provide
fruits/veggies to Northern hemisphere in the
opposite season (Chile)
Neocolonial relationships
Transnational corporations
Mixed Crop & Livestock
MDCs, Commercial, Intensive
Where: Mid-West (MMMMMMidwest, MMMMMMMixed Crop)
Most common form of agriculture in the U.S.
Most of the land is dedicated to growing crops, but most of the profit comes from animal products
Most of the crops are actually fed to the l
ivestock as feed
By having diversity of product–helps to off-set bad crop years
#1 crop: Corn
#2 crop: Soybeans
*Do use crop rotation
Market Gardening
MDCs, Commercial, Intensive
Where: SE U.S. (near urban areas)–nice long growing season, doesn’t have much of a winter, plenty of rainfall
Crops: fruits, vegetables, and flowers
Very efficient–takes full advantage of science, GMOs, technology, pesticides, etc.
Speciality farming has grown in the NE as many dairy farmers have switched to gardening (more profitable)
*Farm-to-table movement has also helped to
give new momentum to this agricultural practice
Truck Farming (used to be synonymous): similar product, but grown further from market and shipped in
Dairy Farming
MDCs, Commercial, Intensive
Where: Great Lakes–Northeast, near urban areas
*Milkshed: the ring around the city where
milk can be produced and get to mark
before it spoils
*Outside of milkshed?: make other dairy
products that have a longer shelf life
Animals: raise cows for dairy products
Grows as a country develops
*India: largest producer of fresh milk
*New Zealand: largest producer of dairy
products
U.S. has seen a decline in dairy farms in recent decades–not as profitable as it once was, and very labor-intensive
Grain Farming
MDCs, Commercial, Mix between Intensive and Extensive
Where: The Great Plains of the U.S. (Great Plains=Great Grains)
*The World’s Breadbasket
*Ukraine is Europe’s Breadbasket (Ukraine=U
Grain)
#1 Crop: Wheat
Winter wheat: planted in the autumn and harvested in summer (Southern)
Spring wheat: planted in spring and harvest late summer (Northern)
Mediterranean
MDCs, Commercial, Mixed between Intensive and Extensive
Where: Mediterranean Sea, West Coasts of continents (California, Chile, & South Africa)
Crops: horticulture–fruit, flowers, and veggies, some animal raising, some wheat production (in drier areas)
Most important crops: grapes and olives
Ranching
MDCs, Commercial, Extensive
Commercial version of Pastoral Nomadism
Climate: hot/dry/arid, can’t grow crops
Where: The West (U.S.), Pampas (Argentina), Australia, & New Zealand
*Since it is extensive, need a lot of room to
roam
Animals: U.S.-mainly cattle, New Zealand-mainly sheep
Became population in the late 1800s, when the East had a taste for beef, but didn’t have the room to raise them. The Cowboy/cattle drive era began.
*Popularity waned after the invention of
barbed-wire
Monocropping
the cultivation of one or two crops that are rotated seasonally
Monoculture
agricultural system of planting one crop or raising one type of animal annually
comm farming adv
Allows for specialization and efficiency
comm farming disad
- Soil exhaustion–crop rotation: varying of crops year to year
- Overproduction leading to decreased prices
- Loss of biodiversity
Bid-Rent Theory
a theory that explains how land value determines how a farmer will use the land–either intensively or extensively
Factors Hurting Small-Scale Farms
Most of the population is moving to urban areas
Younger generations don’t want to farm
Farmers are aging and dying off
Rising costs
* Would benefit from an economies of scale
* Encouraged to sell off to BIG AG
Vertical integration
when a company controls more than one stage of the production process
