UNIT 6 AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LAND USEC. Rural land use and settlement patterns

1. von Thünen's Model (1826) - certain crops are grown in direct relation to distance from market. Products' weight determines where farmers grow crops. If a farmer grows products that don't fit the model, farmer will go bankrupt from increased production and transportation costs. Describes six concentric rings around market.a. first zone: market-gardening activities

i. these are various heavy and bulky products, such as melons and vegetables

ii. these products need to be close to the market for two primary reasons: 1. if they are too far away, they will

take too long to get to market and spoil

2. cost of transporting bulky items is relatively large due to weight and mass

iii. costly production (high land cost near city) needs cheap transportation b. second zone: dairy farming

i. milk spoils quickly and must be moved to market quicklyii. dairy trucks must cool milk, cheese, or other dairy product while in

transit, adding to the cost of transportationiii. California dairy industry rose in response to the population increases

c. third zone: livestock fatteningi. fattening - adding of weight to animals, eg: cows and hogs, to increase

priceii. cows and hogs are brought to barns to be fed in a small space iii. livestock fattening in feedlots (farms that specialize in cattle or hogs)iv. feedlots - waste products often infiltrate and contaminate local

watershedsv. another downside to feedlots is the smell

d. fourth zone: commercial grain farmingi. commercial grain farming is selling wheat, corn, millet, and other

grainsii. farmers need to combine the field and put the seed in the truckiii. combines separate the seed from the shaft of the plant, saves manual

laboriv. one combine can cost upwards of $250,000v. after harvesting, grain is sent to the market, usually in semitrailers,

where it is sold to a producer who makes a product, such as bread, with the grain

vi. product sold to wholesaler, then grocery store, then individuals (food chain)

e. fifth zone: livestock ranchingi. uses the most land per farm of any of the zones in the modelii. transportation to the market area occurs sporadically throughout the

year iii. today cattle roam freely, but are tracked with global positioning units

f. sixth zone: nonagricultural land usei. distance to market is so far that the land cannot be productively used

g. DISCUSSION OF VON THUNEN'S MODEL i. model assumes that all of the land has the same quality soil ii. model also assumes that farmers have equal access to transportationiii. land areas must be physically similar across the model iv. model also assumes equal climate in all areas and an equal political

structure v. international boundary in the middle of the area could affect

transportation routes due to tariffs on products as they crossed the border

2. Settlement patterns associated with major agriculture types

Questions

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D. Modern commercial agriculture1. The Third Agricultural Revolution (late 19th century to mid-20th

century)a. corresponded with exponential global population growthb. specialized hybrids, artificial chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticidesc. commercial farmers harvested crops and sent them to food-processors d. industrialization of food (factories added value to basic crops) e. rise of agribusiness – processing, packaging, distributing, advertising,

etc. f. colonial and imperial system globalized food production and consumption

i. during imperialism - food grown in colonies for export to mother-country

ii. after independence, colonies “locked” into dependent relationship with former colonial master – called neocolonialism or postcolonialism

g. agribusiness effects farmers in MDCs (sell product) and LDCs (lost land)h. helped start supermarkets

2. Green Revolutiona. started by US charities in 1940s to make improved wheat for Mexicob. nitrogen-enriched fertilizer radically increased crop productionc. downside – pollutes ground and workers, some seeds fail,

implementation is very expensive, mechanization has led to massive unemployment in some LDCs

d. has led to the extinction of many varieties of seeds and cropse. chicken industry has grown and chicken is an important part of western

dietsi. animal rights activists - forced to live on top of each other ii. health - growth hormones and antibiotics used increase breast size

3. Biotechnologya. altering the genetic material of plants and animalsb. biotechnology - mainly in science labs and is then tested on farm fieldsc. hybrid plants and animals (some grow in nutrient-poor soils, or can be

resistant to diseases, even “superchicken” which grows quicker and produces more meat)

d. fewer chemical fertilizers and are cheaper that Green Revolution technologies

e. BT corn (Bacillus thuringiensis) – corn that has toxins deadly to insects and fungi that attack it, spliced into its genes

4. Spatial organization and diffusion of industrial agriculturea. headquarters of agribusiness in MDCs (majority in USA)b. agribusiness contributes 3% to USA’s GDP, but is very politically powerful

–gets same tax breaks, low-cost loans, government subsidies as family farms

c. family farms threatened in USA – replaced by agribusiness5. Future food supplies and environmental impacts of agriculture

a. specialized farms – organic, free-range, antibiotic free, heirloom varieties (Russet apples, blue corn, etc.), alternative livestock (ostriches, llamas, etc.)

b. hunger and undernourishment - problem is distribution not productionc. desertification and soil erosiond. aquaculture – farming fish

Summary

Questions

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Summary