Farming And Agriculture Flashcards
As there has been a move towards large scale farming. Name some factors about it?
300k average size of 57 hectares
41k are larger than 100 hectares
14% of farms account for 65% of farming land
What is productivism?
Highly intensive production of limited collection of primary commodities (McCrathy 2005)
What is productivism farming characterised by?
Concentration in farms and regions
Declining agricultural workforce
In 1939 15% of the British population worked in farming. How many was this in 2000?
2%
Another characterisation of productivism farming is intensification and specialisation. What is this?
Increases of inputs and outputs per hectare. E.g 3x increase in cereal yield per hectare, 2x increase in milk yields per cow between 1950 and 1990
Name another factor of productivism farming?
Industrialisation
Name an example of industrialisation of agriculture?
Growth of large scale factory farming
What is an example of factory farming?
Intensive livestock units
Technology was a cause of the second agricultural revolution, why?
Technological treadmill. Fall in prices. Price cost squeeze. Investment in technology. Intensification and over- prod. Repeat
Politics was another reason for the second agricultural revolution, why?
Scott Report (1942) - priority given to farming in rural land for economic and strategic reasons
This attitude lasted until 1990s expemplified by Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
Changing consumer demands and growth of food industry was another reason for the second agricultural revolution. Why?
Retail! 1990s everything was cheap, threw farming into crisis threatened sustainability of industry.
What are the 5 reasons for the farming crisis?
- Overproduction and surplus land
- Environmental degradation
- Disease and declining food quality
- Decline/polarisation in farm incomes
- Adverse effects on rural communities
Describe how large scale farming caused environementaldegredation?
Production of dull monotonous landscape. Decline of natural landscapes since WWII.
Reductions in biodiversity, environementaldegredation pollution by inorganic fertilisers and pesticides.
Name so issues of disease and decline in food quality in the farming crisis.
BSR in Cattle. vCJD (Variant Creuzfeld-Jakob Disease) in humans
Foot and mouth disease
Bird Flu 07
Horse meat scandal 13
What 3 things happened in the post productivist transition?
It was encouraged by policy especially
- Convergence of agricultural and environmental policy
- Incentives for farm diversification
- CAP Reform
