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Agriculture
Objectives
Identify locations & timeframe of location of agricultural development.
Associate different types of agricultural practices with different regions.
Identify regions of agricultural surplus and deficits.
Evaluate how food production has changed in the US and associated problems.
Analyze benefits/challenges of sustainable agriculture.
Agriculture as Employment
Until recently, agriculture employed highest % of people.
Today, approx. 35% of the world’s population works in agriculture.
Why are less people working in agriculture?
Kshs.org
Agricultural Revolutions
1st Revolution – 11,000 years ago, various locations, domestication of plants and animals
2nd Revolution – New agricultural technologies: curved metal plate for the moldboard plow; horse-collar; seed drill; New practices: crop rotation
3rd Revolution – Significant mechanization (tractors), reliance on irrigation, chemicals, and use of agro-biotech. Scientific farming. Shift to monoculture
Agricultural Origins
10,000 years ago: Southwest Asia – barley, wheat, lentils, olives
Over 10,000 years ago: East Asia – rice, millet
8,000 years ago: Central Africa – yams, sorghum, millet(?), rice(?)
4,000-5,000 years ago – Latin America – beans, potato, cotton
North America- squash, corn
1st Agricultural Revolution
Green Revolutions Increasing Productivity – Green Revolution of the 1965-80s
brought high yield seeds and fertilizers to developing countries
Based in the public sector
Nerica Rice Video-USAID
Gates Foundation
Green Revolution Challenges
Yields have begun to level off
Increasing debt of farmers
Environmental consequences
Gene Revolution Private companies participate and control research &
development, genetic engineering, and intellectual property rights associated with specific crops.
Represents involvement of businesses (especially multinational ones) in agricultural along with patenting of life.
Gene Revolution Issues
Corporate involvement with food
Patents – both on technology and the seed
Terminator seeds
Genetic engineering – genetically modified organisms
Labeling
Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture
Subsistence agriculture – production of food for family’s survival; limited purchased inputs/outputs.
Commercial agriculture – production of food for sale; relies on purchased inputs.
The difference between the two centers on the purpose of farming, % of farmers in the labor force, use of machinery, farm size, and relationship of farming to other businesses.
Comparing Agricultural Systems
Subsistence Commercial
Farm Size
Agricultural Activity
Scale of Consumption ( who is production for?)
Land Tenure (who owns the land)
Purchased Inputs (fertilizer, pesticides, seeds)
Contract Farming
Vertical integration (businesses @ diff. stages merge
Proportion of Output Sold
General Pattern: Surplus of food in MDCs and deficit in LDCs
Mapping Agricultural
Regions
Farming In LDCs
Shifting Cultivation Pastoralism Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
Wet rice farming (also smallholder) Smallholder crop and livestock farming
Agriculture in MDCs Commercial agriculture
Plantation Commercial gardening Mediterranean agriculture Commercial dairy farming Mixed crop and livestock farming Grain farming Livestock ranching
Agriculture’s Environmental Challenges
Human impacts on the environment through agricultural practices include: Desertification – Creation of desert-like environments in non-desert
areas Overgrazing/crop mismanagement Desertification erodes Mongolian
Livelihoods
Salinization – Accumulation of salts in the soil Typically where evaporation rates are high
Overuse of water – aquifer depletion Impact of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, surplus of nitrogen,
etc.
Alternatives to Commercial Farming
Managing Environmental Impact Sustainable Agriculture – preserves and enhances
environmental quality while maintaining profits. Manage land carefully –contour plowing, strip
cropping, filter/buffer strips, no-till farming, crop rotation!
Conserve water Limit chemical use Integrate crops and livestock
Organic agriculture – promotes sustainability, biodiversity, reliance on natural inputs and processes What challenges are there with sustainable agriculture?
Global Restructuring of Agricultural Systems
Globalized Agriculture – system of food production increasingly dependent on the global economy and international regulation.
Agriculture is just one part of the food chain:
Inputs > production > outputs > distribution > consumption
With four mediating factors: The state, international trade, distribution, and consumption
Globalization and Agriculture
Impact of global integration How does a small, developing country compete with economic
superpowers? WTO’s efforts and pressure to take on structural adjustment programs =
push to remove trade barriers Inability of LDCs to offer farmers competitive subsidies = uneven ability
to compete in the global market.
Also, developed countries may buy from their own farmers and donate/sell surplus abroad
Globalization and Agriculture
Westernization of diets = nutrition transition Growth in meat, wheat-based, and convenience food
consumption. More fats and sugars http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/26/sunday-
review/26corn-ch.html?ref=sunday
Accessing Good Food in the USA
Food Deserts low-income communities without ready access to healthy and
affordable food Goal – to improve access to good food to low income areas by
developing and equipping grocery stores, small retailers, corner stores, and farmers markets with fresh and healthy food.
Food Atlas
Global Food Crisis
Global food crisis – World Bank Video Rising food costs and price fluctuations Increased food costs of 43% between 2007 and 2008
Corn $ doubled Wheat reached highest price in 23 years Food protests in numerous countries Global Food Security Index
What a Global Food Crisis Looks Like - Oxfam
Global Food Crisis
Increased demand at same as we had a limited supply Climate issues, droughts Increasing costs of energy and inputs Shift from agricultural production to biofuels
Items to Review Why are less people working in agriculture?
What are the characteristics of the three agricultural revolutions?
How do the Green and Gene Revolutions fit in here? How are they different and what are the major concerns about them? What are benefits? Be able to describe what you learned in the clip about Nerica.
What are the differences between commercial and sustainable agriculture? What are examples of different types of each? What factors brought about the commercialization of agriculture?
Be able to identify and explain the environmental problems associated with agriculture, and describe/identify efforts to minimize these problems.
Globalization of agriculture—describe it, the mediating factors, and the problems associated with it.
What are food deserts?
What was the global food crisis and factors associated with it?
Other terms to know: agribusiness, agro-biotech, biofuels, factory farms, feedlot, precision agriculture