Chapter 10

Agriculture

An Introduction to Human Geography The Cultural Landscape, 8e

James M. Rubenstein

PPT by Abe Goldman

Agriculture- Issue 1

• Agriculture– Is the deliberate modification of Earth’s

surface through the cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain.

– The 1st Agricultural Revolution occurred around 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, although many sites are designated as agricultural hearths.

Agriculture- Issue 1• Before Agriculture

– All humans probably obtained the food they needed for survival through hunting for animals, fishing, or gathering plants.

– People lived in small groups called “bands” in an egalitarian manner, although women usually gathered and men usually hunted.

– The groups were nomadic and followed seasonal patterns depending on food sources and animal herds.

Agriculture- Issue 1

Today, only a quarter of a million people—less than 0.005 percent of the global population--practices hunting and gathering. On the fringes of society in the interior of Africa, Australia, South America and around the Arctic, it still exists.

Agriculture- Issue 1

Agriculture may have begun gradually through the care of and tending to known food sources or the discovery of seeds or it may have begun by surprise. Regardless, Vegetative Planting probably emerged before Seed Agriculture.

Vegetative Planting Hearths

There were several main hearths for vegetative crops such as roots and tubers from which the crops diffused to other areas.

Vegetative planting is the reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants, such as cutting stems and dividing roots.

Seed Agriculture Hearths

Fig. 10-2: Seed agriculture also originated in several hearths and diffused from those elsewhere.

Seed agriculture is probably what you think of as agriculture or farming. It is the reproduction of plants through the annual planting of seeds.

Subsistence v. Commercial Ag.Subsistence Ag., found in LDCs, is the production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer’s family. Farms are usually small, the purpose of this type of agriculture is to feed the family. Subsistence agriculturalists usually make up a high percentage of the economic activity in the society in which they live. Subsistence farmers use hand tools and animal power to produce their crops. They do NOT have significant relationships with manufacturers.

Commercial Ag., found in MDCs, is the production of food primarily for sale off the farm. Farms are large, but farmers are few, and farmers have important relationships with manufacturers or wholesalers. The purpose is to make money through the sale of harvests. Commercial farmers use machines and mechanized labor and scientific knowledge to produce their yields. Commercial farmers are in agribusiness.

Labor Force in Agriculture

A large proportion of workers in most LDCs are in agriculture, while only a small percentage of workers in MDCs are engaged in agriculture.

Tractors, per Population

Fig. 10-4: Tractors per 1,000 people. Use of machinery is extensive in most MDC agriculture, but it is much less common in LDCs.

Agricultural Regions & Climate• Whittlesey showed the relationship between

agricultural regions and climate. • Climate influences the crop that is grown, or whether

animals are raised instead of growing any crop.• Pastoral nomadism is the predominant type of

agriculture in the Middle East, which has a dry climate.

• Shifting cultivation is the predominant type of agriculture in central Africa, which has a tropical climate.

• Culture influence agriculture (Hog (pig/swine) production low to nonexistent in predominantly Muslim (and Jewish) regions due to religious taboo on pork).

World Agriculture Regions

Locations of the major types of subsistence and commercial agriculture mirror major climate areas in most cases, but not 100%. See the next map.

World Climate Regions

Simplified map of the main world climate regions. Again, this map is similar to the agricultural model seen previously.

Contemporary Geographic Tools—Protecting Farmland

Fig. 10-7:

Overlaps of soil quality, environmental and cultural features, and population growth may show areas of greatest threat of farmland loss in Maryland.

Baltimore and Washington DC population concentrations have merged over time. (See pg. 316)

A serious problem in the United States has been the loss of the most productive farmland, known as prime agricultural land, as urban areas sprawl into the surrounding countryside.