Influenced by physical environment and climatic conditions
How weather affects agricultural practices and products
Tropical climate
Produces certain plants, such as cassava, banana, sugar cane, sweet potato, papaya, rice, maize
Mediterranean climate
Produces certain fruits, vegetables, and grains such as grapes, olives, figs, dates, tomatoes, zucchini, wheat, barley
Intensive farming practices
Farming that uses significant amounts of labor/money
Extensive farming practices
Farming that uses smaller amounts of labor/money in relation to the land area
Extensive farming practices
Shifting cultivation (slash and burn)
Nomadic herding (pastoral nomadism/transhumance)
Ranching
Rural land use patterns
Shaped by agricultural practices
Clustered, dispersed, linear settlement patterns
Types of land survey systems
Long-lot survey system
Metes and bounds survey system
Township and range survey system
The Fertile Crescent is the hearth of early agriculture and early civilization (Cradle of Civilization)
First Agricultural Revolution
Humans achieved plant and animal domestication 10,000 years ago
Columbian Exchange
Facilitated the global diffusion of plants, animals, diseases, human population, culture, technology, and ideas
Globalization of Agriculture
Improvements in transportation and communication technologies create a variety of goods offered year-round, when they traditionally were only available seasonally
Second Agricultural Revolution
Improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of food that started in the Middle Ages and then benefited from the Industrial Revolution with the use of machines and new technology
Effects of Second Agricultural Revolution
Better diets
Longer life expectancies
Increase in population
More people available to work in factories
Green Revolution (Third Agricultural Revolution)
High yield seeds (hybrid and/or GMOs), increased use of chemicals, mechanized farming, and elaborate irrigation systems
Positive impacts of Green Revolution
Increase in food supply
More crops grown on same size land
Improvement in varieties
Negative impacts of Green Revolution
Destroying local land and traditional modes of agriculture production
Decreasing biodiversity (hybrid seeds diminish local plant diversity)
Impact of chemicals
Types of agricultural production
Subsistence agriculture
Commercial agriculture
Monoculture
Mono-cropping
Multi-cropping
Bid-rent theory
Theory that shows what various land users are prepared and able to pay for access to the center market (CBD), the further from the center market (CBD), the lower the cost for a site
Agribusiness
A large-scale mechanized farming business that is controlled by corporate interests, agriculture is gradually being controlled by a small number of large corporations instead of many independent farmers
Cost advantages gained by an increased level of production
Von Thünen model
Explains the location of agricultural activities by emphasizing the importance of transportation costs associated with distance from the market, describes what should be grown where in relation to the market, illustrates the relationship between land cost and transportation cost, distributes various farming activities into concentric rings around a central market city
Global supply chain
A worldwide network to maximize profits in production
Commodity dependency
Highly dependent on one or more export commodities
Desertification
Process by which fertile land becomes desert as a result of human activity (inappropriate agriculture/overgrazing)
Soil salinization
Process by which the amount of salt increases in the soil (irrigation)
Land cover change
Process by which agricultural areas are lost to development
Pollution
Process by which soil is contaminated by chemicals
Sustainable agriculture
Farming methods that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities
Agricultural land use alters the landscape
Slash and burn (shifting cultivation)
Terraces
Irrigation
Deforestation
Draining wetlands
Pastoral nomadism
Changing diets
MDCs: continued demand for meat, LDCs: growing demand for meat, as well as convenient, processed foods (western diet)
Role of women in agriculture
Increased contributions to rural economies, especially in LDCs
Economic purpose of agriculture
Farmers in LDCs growing cash crops for consumers in MDCs instead of food for local people
Farmers in LDCs growing crops for illegal drugs instead of food crops
Farmers in MDCs and LDCs growing crops for bio-fuel
Agricultural biotechnology
The use of scientific tools and techniques to modify plants/animals
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Plants or animals whose DNA has been genetically modified, often through combination of DNA from a similar plant or animal species for desired traits
Positive impacts of GMOs
Greater outputs on smaller pieces of land
Less need for chemicals
Negative impacts of GMOs
Unknown health effects
Unknown effects on pollinating insect population
Aquaculture
Raising of fish and shellfish in ponds and controlled saltwater hatcheries