Geog. 102 geography of agriculture

© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 9:

Geographies

of Food and

Agriculture

Chapter 9 Lecture

Katie Pratt

Macalester College



Figure: Chapter 9 Opener - Roadside vendors sell food to Muslims to break fast after sundown on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan in Old Dhaka.

Key Concepts

• Agricultural practices

• Agricultural revolutions

• Industrialization of agriculture

• Biotechnology

• Globalized agriculture

• Agricultural policy

• Agribusiness

• Alternative food movements

• Food and hunger

• The environment and agriculture


Figure 9.1 Effect of climate change on global farming.

Geography and Agriculture

• Study of agriculture has a long tradition in geography.

• Major changes in agriculture worldwide over the last five decades.

• Agriculture systems face uncertain future.


Geography and Agriculture

Figure 9.2 Cropland and pastures cartograms.


Origins and Change in Agriculture

• Hunting and gathering

• Subsistence agriculture

• Commercial agriculture

Figure 9.3 Areas of plant and animal domestication.


Origins and Change in Agriculture (cont’d)

Figure 9.4 Global distribution of agriculture.


Shifting Cultivation

• Crop rotation

• Slash-and-burn

• Swidden

• Intertillage

Figure 9.5 Shifting cultivation.Figure 9.6 Intertillage.


Shifting Cultivation (cont’d)

Figure 9.7 Gender division of labor in rice processing in Tamil Nadu, India.


Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

• Double cropping

Figure 9.8 A terraced rice field in Bali, Indonesia is an example of intensive subsistence agriculture.


Pastoralism

Apply your knowledge: Compare two dominant forms of subsistence agriculture. What crops are grown with these methods? Where in the world are they utilized? What are the advantages of the environment? What are the challenges for the human population?

• Transhumance

Figure 9.9 Global distribution of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers.


Culture and Society in Agriculture

• Pastoralism, shifting cultivation, and intensive agriculture are not simply subsistence activities but part of a social system as well

Apply your knowledge: How is pastoralism both an agriculture practice and a sociopolitical system?


Agricultural Revolution and Industrialization

• First agricultural revolution

Figure 9.10 Animals were important in the first agricultural revolution.

Figure 9.11 Agricultural fields along the Nile River, Luxor, Egypt.


Agricultural Revolution (cont’d)

• Second agricultural revolution

– Dramatic improvements in outputs such as crop and

livestock yields

– Innovations such as improved oxen yokes

– New inputs such as fertilizers and drainage systems

Apply your knowledge: Why was the Industrial Revolution so important to the second agricultural revolution? How did manufacturing technologies change agricultural technologies?


Agricultural Revolutions (cont’d)

• Third agricultural revolution

– Mechanization

– Chemical farming

– Food manufacturing

Figure 9.14 Salmon processing.

Apply your knowledge: Read the labels on at least four different products. Identify the various processes involved in making them ready for market. How does the package enhance the attractiveness of the product?



Figure 9.12 Working tractors globally.


Figure 9.13 Worldwide growth in fertilizer use, 2005-2007.



Industrialization of Agriculture

• Important developments

– Changes in rural labor

– Innovative inputs

– Industrial substitutes

• Green revolution

• Blue revolution

• Aquaculture

• Nontraditional exports (NTAEs)

• Contract farmingFigure 9.15 Commercial flower production.


The Green Revolution Then and Now

• Norman Borlaug

• Increased agricultural outputs

• Critiques:

– Magnified social

inequalities

– Environmental

degradation

– Dependence on fossil

fuels

– Loss of genetic diversity

• Borlaug hypothesis

Figure 9.D Rice paddy, India.

Figure 9.B2 Rice production.


Biotechnology

• Biorevolution

• Biotechnology

• Biopharming

• Positive and adverse effects

Figure 9.17 Mothers and children protest GMOs in Quezon City, Philippines.

Apply your knowledge: What are some of the positive effects of biotechnology on global agriculture?


Biotechnology (cont’d)

• Genetically modified organism (GMO)

• Opposition

Figure 9.16 Genetically modified food labeling laws.


Biotechnology (cont’d)

Table 9.1 Biorevolution compared with green revolution.


• Globalized agriculture

• Economy and regulatory practices are global in scope

• Trade and financial organizations

• Decline in some forms of agriculture, for example, shifting cultivation and family farms

• Subsidies to food producers

Global Change in Food Production and

Consumption

Figure 9.18 Family farms in decline.


National and International Agricultural Policy

Figure 9.19 Direct subsidies for animal products and feed.

Apply your knowledge: What are some reasons different groups would protest national agricultural policies? Think about how policies are set and the role of the WTO, and how GMOs might threaten indigenous seed varieties.

• Why have domestic and international policies?

• Impacts

• World Trade Organization (WTO)

• Agricultural subsidies


Organization of the Agro-Food System

Figure 9.20 The food supply chain.

• Agribusiness

• Food supply chain


• Food regime

• Colonialism and food exports

• Organic farming

• Conventional farming

Food Regimes and Alternative Food

Movements (cont’d)

Figure 9.21 The world’s largest cattle feedlot near Greeley, Colorado.

Figure 9.22 Global flows of fresh fruit.




Table 9.2 Conventional versus alternative food.


• Local food

• Food shed

• Food miles

• Urban agriculture

• Food sovereignty

• Food justice



Figure 9.23 Food shed.




Figure 9.24 Radical wage gap in four food sectors.


Urban Agriculture

Figure 9.1.1 Urban agriculture around the world.


Urban Agriculture

Figure 9.1.2 Urban agriculture around the world.


Urban Agriculture

Figure 9.3.1 Main types of urban farming and their benefits.


Fast Food

• Product of post-World War II

• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

• Children’s eating habits

• Disease

• Environmental impacts

Figure 9.25 Distance to McDonald’s in the United States.

Apply your knowledge: How many fast food restaurant are in your town? Research their menu and nutritional value of several popular items. What can you conclude about the nutritional value of each item and their price?


Fast Food (cont’d)

Figure 9.27 Fast food production’s impact.Figure 9.26 Obesity on the increase globally.


Food Deserts

Apply your knowledge: How do rural food deserts differ from urban food deserts? What are the differences and similarities in the populations who reside in them?

Figure 9.E Food deserts.


• Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

• Soil degradation and denudation

The Environment and Agricultural

Industrialization

Figure 9.29 Desertification in China.Figure 9.28 Impact of pesticides on pollinators.


The Environment and Agricultural

Industrialization (cont’d)

Table 9.3 Global soil degradation.

Apply your knowledge: Why is soil degradation such a pressing issue for agriculture?


Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

• Food and hunger

– Undernutrition

– Malnutrition

– Famine

– Food security

Figure 9.30 Almost one in seven people worldwide is chronically undernourished.

Apply your knowledge: According to figures from Food First there is enough wheat, rice, and other grains produced to provide every human begin on the planet with 3,500 calories a day. Given this, why are there more than 900 million hungry people on the planet?


Hunger and Poverty in the United States

Figure 9.I Black Panther’s Free Breakfast Program for children.

Figure 9.H Food hardship.


Emerging Problems

• Land grabs

• Biofuels

Figure 9.32 Land grabbing and the effect on hunger.

Figure 9.31 Jatropha plantation in India.


Future Geographies

• Recognizing strengths of both industrialized agriculture and sustainable, organic methods

• Knowledge of how to manage inputs and ecosystems

• Continued population increase

• No “one size fits all” solution

Apply your knowledge: Search the Internet for news stories on recent protests against GMO food. What are the protesters’ concerns? Do you believe their concerns are justified? Provide scientific evidence to support your argument.