Chapter 10: Agriculture By: Franz, Andreas, Braulio, and Lyanna

Origin of Agriculture and the Hearths Agriculture: changing the Earth’s surface through planting crops and raising animals to have food or money. Agriculture has a variety of origins, but the time and how it diffused is unknown. Some hearths include: Southwest Asia with its earliest products of barley and wheat, then came lentil and olive, rice along the Yangtze River, millet along the Yellow River, beans and cotton in Mexico, and potato in Peru.

Evolution of Agricultural Practices Before the introduction of machinery people have to have used their bare hands, simple tools and domesticated animals to help them farm. And as time went by, people have invented better and better ways to farm. this can be from modernizing or improving tools and equipment, adapting techniques for today's standard and/or even using the number of people we have today to make farming easier, faster, and more efficient.

Climate and Terrain’s Connection with Agricultural Regions Climate and terrain play a major role in agriculture, the terrain affects how someone plants (using tools, shaping the environment, etc.) and the climate affects the way someone plants (techniques). An example is, people who live in a desert can change part of the environment to be suitable for farming with the right climate, but since it has dry winters and very hot summers, they have to resort to nomadism to scavenge and look for an oasis to plant.

The von Thunen Model The model helps to explain the proximity of the market to the crops and what crops are grown. Made of four rings surrounding the market. First: Dairy, fruits, and vegetables. Second: Timber and firewood. Third: Extensive field crops like wheat. Fourth: Ranching

Regions of Production and Consumption Plantation farming, a form of commercial farming, focus on growing one crop and are in LDCs. They ship their products to most MDCs. Other commercial farm crops are usually consumed within the state.

Rural Settlement Long-lot survey systems are houses built in a certain style. The French long-lot system, for example, are houses that were built next to a river, which was the main way to get water, and move. Narrow lands were built from 3 to 60 miles deep.

Rural Settlement Linear settlements are buildings clustered along a road, river, or dike help communications between places. Fields extend behind the buildings in long, narrow strips. An example of the Linear settlement can be viewed along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Dispersed settlements are classified as farmers living on individual farms, away from people, and that is said to help the growth of agriculture. Ex: Enclosure Movement in Britain. Clustered settlements are places where families live together and the town is compact, while the fields surround the houses. Includes: homes, barns, tool sheds, schools, etc. Ex: Colonists in America, they had their homes clustered together to protect themselves from Indians or to reinforce their common culture.

Rural Settlement LDCs Urban Settlements Large size: Hard to know everyone, and social relationships are different High Density: Each person needs to play a specific role to allow the complex urban system to run smoothly. Social groups also compete to get the limited space. Social Heterogeneity: Very diverse, but society is tolerant. Can find someone the same, but can also feel lonely since the urban way is very close and there are many people who are different. Rural Settlements Small size: Can recognize everyone and are very close or related. Small Density: No need to fight for space, and not everyone needs to play a specific role. Social Heterogeneity: Someone acting a different way than the rest of the small society will be noticed, and not usually will they be tolerated.

Case Study: Wheat Farmers in Kansas and Pakistan Iqbel Family (Pakistan) Grow wheat on 2.5 acres of land, and work the land with old techniques. Make enough crops for themselves and the leftover is sold to city so they can buy other things. McKinley Family (Kansas) Grow wheat on 500 acres of land, and achieve more money than the Iqbel family. They sell their wheat to companies that will process the food and sell it to stores.

Case Study: Africa’s Food-Supply Crisis Africa has more people than food production. Their food production has tripled while population quadrupled. The shortage is most in the Horn of Africa, and countries in West Africa, Sahel region (Niger, Chad, Mali, etc.) Their method of moving around when farming helps their crops regenerate, which allowed more crops to grow. The herds grew and overgrazed the vegetation, went to the few water holes, and the govt. made agricultural prices low.

Differences in Agricultural Practices Between LDC’s & MDC’s LDC’s - farmers use subsistence agriculture - meaning farmers produce food mainly for their own families - surplus can be sold to the government - farmers do most of the work with hand tools and animal power, not machines MDC’s - farmers use commercial agriculture - meaning farmers produce food mainly to sale it - sell products to food-processing companies not directly to consumers - farmers sometimes have contracts to sell certain products to certain companies - few farmers can feed many people because machines do the work - farmers can use GPS on big ranches to monitor their crops 5 features distinguishing commercial from subsistence agriculture :: purpose of farming, percentage of farmers in labor force, use of machinery, farm size, and the relationship of farming to other businesses

Current Trends & Recent Changes in Agricultural Practices When dealing with commercial agriculture, farms are usually large (average 449 acres) and are commonly owned and operated by families. Farms are usually big because when using machines like combines and pickers, they’re more efficient at larger scales-- making it an expensive business. In the US, there are 60% less farms and 85% less farmers in 2000 than in 1900, but 13% more farmland being used than in The system of commercial farming is called agribusiness because farming is only a part of the system, it also has to go through the corporation.