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