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Working World 3Working World 3

Part A: classifying farmingPart A: classifying farming

Part B: Farming changes in Part B: Farming changes in EuropeEurope

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Farming can be classified according Farming can be classified according to …to …

1. Specialisation – what kind of products are produced

2. Its economic status – the role of money in the farm

3. How intensively it uses the land4. Land tenure – how it owns/uses land

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Farms can be classified according to Farms can be classified according to ……

1. Specialisation – what kind of products are producedFarms that produce mainly field crops such as rice, or wheat or soya or sugar are called arablearableFarms that mostly rear animals are called pastoralpastoral e.g. Sheep farms in Wales, cattle in AustraliaFarms that do both are called mixedmixed farms.HorticultureHorticulture is the production of fruit, vegetables, mushrooms and ornamental plants, can be seen as a farming activity, which is becoming increasingly international, e.g. flowers from Kenya and salad leaves from Holland

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A Farm can be classified according A Farm can be classified according to …to …2. Its economic status

Nearly all HIC farms produce goods for sale – they aim is to make a profit. They are commercialcommercial enterprises. There are also commercial plantations and ranches in MIC/LICs which supply us with coffee and their cities with meat.However in many parts of LICs, the farms are essentially there to produce enough food to feed the families that live on them. This is called a subsistencesubsistence economy. Most will aim to produce some goods for sale so that they can afford things they cannot produce for themselves, like clothing or to pay for their children’s schooling.

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Farms can be classified according to Farms can be classified according to ……3. How intensively they use the land

Where a lot is produced in a small area, then it is called intensiveintensive production. Examples of this include rice paddies and market gardening (horticulture). Where you get a high level of outputs, there is invariably a high level of inputs in terms or labour, chemicals and equipmentWhere the soil is poor and little can be produced, such as sheep farming in the hills, you have few inputs in terms of labour and few outputs per hectare. This is extensive extensive production.

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Farms can be classified according to Farms can be classified according to ……4. Land tenure – how the farmer holds/uses land

The vast majority of farmers in modern times rent or own a piece of ground which they work throughout their lives. They are said be sedentary.sedentary.However there are still cultivators and pastoralists that move around. These are said to practice a nomadicnomadic or shiftingshifting existence.Nomads are pastoralists who follow their herds in seasonal fashion e.g. reindeer herds in northern Europe and Asia.Shifting cultivators take over a pieces of ground, usually in tropical forests, cut down and burn the tress, plant their crops and stay only as long as the soil is productive – then they move on every 3 – 7 years.

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Which words might refer to Which words might refer to these?these?

Arable

Commercial

farms

Extensive

agriculture

Horticultural

Intensive

agriculture

Mixed

Nomadic

farmers

Pastoral

Sedentary

Farmers

Shifting

agriculture

Subsistenc

e farms

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Agriculture:Agriculture:Coping with Coping with

changechange

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Today we are going to look at a Today we are going to look at a mixture of changes and mixture of changes and

developmentsdevelopmentsUntil the 1970s European agriculture was fading – many people left their small farms and moved to the cities where they earned more. Large areas of France, Germany and Italy were being abandoned.So one of the first things the European Union did was to formulate the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This set out to support small farmers and make sure the countryside continued to be worked.Food security – a modern theme – was a worry back then.During in wartime Europe, lack of food security had been a major problem

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CAPCAP

The CAP had five founding aims: To Increase productivity Give a fair standard of living for farmers To stabilise markets To provide regular food supplies To ensure reasonable prices for consumers

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How did they do this?How did they do this?The price support mechanismThe Council of Ministers of the EU sets a target price that farmers should receive for each product. They also set prices at which the EU will intervene:A floor (or ‘intervention’) price – if prices fall below this level, the EU intervenes and buys some of the product to stop prices falling further. A ceiling (or ‘threshold’) price – if prices rise above this level, the EU will allow imports of the product, so encouraging prices to fall back towards the target.

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How did they do this?How did they do this?

The structural policyPrice support alone is not enough, especially for very small farms. The CAP therefore provides a number of other sources of support for agriculture. These include:Aid for farms facing specific problems; for example hill farms can obtain extra grants. Aid to encourage farmers to modernise or diversify; for example, there are grants for some forestry schemes

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Did they succeed?Did they succeed?

Farmers could stay on the farms rather than abandoning them and moving to the towns. In particular in the ‘difficult’ areasEurope did produce much of its own foodFarmers did prosper and were able to invest in their farms because they knew they would get a reasonable price for their produce.Food prices in the shops did not go up and down too much. In fact consumers got good value

But ……But ……

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What happened?What happened?

This was the result!

We don’t grow sugarcane. Why was there too

much sugar?

What do you think the over-production of olive oil was called?

What do you think the

over-production of cereals

were called?

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There were huge silos in the UKThere were huge silos in the UK

These contained many tonnes of grain, produced on huge cereal farms in the East of England – the minimum prices and subsidies applied to all farms – and the large English estates invested in cutting down hedges (which they were paid to do under improvement grants), larger machines and increased fertilizer and pesticides. All of which meant that they produced ever more grain that was bought by government at a guaranteed price.

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Elsewhere in EuropeElsewhere in Europe

Poor quality wine was produced in vast quantities and was again bought up by government – hence the wine lakes.Milk production also exceeded national needs and the result was stored in ‘butter mountains’. Cheap butter was handed out to those on benefits, just to try and get rid of it.The milk was dried and was used in industry in food production or passed to developing countries as part of aid packages.

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Obviously this could not go on …Obviously this could not go on … …as it has led to overproductionCAP had to be reformed:In 1991, arable farmers were paid to take up to 20% of their land out of production – this was called ‘set-aside’.Milk over supply was tackled by giving dairy farmers a quota – if they produced more than they were allowed then they were penalised.Pollution caused by stubble burning was banned.Farmers of unviable units were paid to retire early.Farmers were paid extra to behave in environmentally sensitive waysSubsidies were reduced

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Obviously this could not go onObviously this could not go on

Since 2000, further changes have taken place – direct subsidies are being reduced still further – they will soon go.A good thing in many ways – for instance hill farmers are no longer encouraged to overstock as they are not paid per animal but per acre – this will give many overgrazed hillsides a chance to recover.Countryside stewardship grants are coming into place, e.g putting back hedgerows!! as they are environmentally friendly. Leaving unploughed edges to fields which have not pesticides applied all allow plants/animals corridors to exist in.

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DiversificationDiversification

Putting redundant building to different uses as workshops or holiday cottages – grants are available to help and planning conditions are relaxed – development outside the town and village ‘envelopes’ are generally discouraged – but farm diversification is treated as an exception.Starting up farm shops, pick-your-own, Farmer’s markets and other retail mechanismsGrowing willow or other non-agricultural crops is encouraged/helped – alternative fuels.

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Review:Review:

What is CAP?What was it trying do?How did it set about doing it?What was the downside?When were the 2 major CAP reforms?What was done in the first reform?What happened in the 2nd major reform?

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Use these words to help you answer Use these words to help you answer these questionsthese questions

Beef mountainceiling price Countryside StewardshipDirect subsidiesDiversificationFood security

Intervention price OvergrazingPrice support mechanismQuotaSet-aside

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HomeworkHomeworkAs you will have noted there have been a lot of redred in this section – these are all key words.On the homework sheet will be a list of all these keywords.You are to think up questions to 10 of them, the answer to each of which is one of these key words. The best of these will be incorporated into a quiz that I will – eventually, once I have most of them in – put on the wiki!