Developing Geographical Minds

Lessons from World Regional and Vermont Geography

Cheryl MorseUniversity of Vermont Geography Department

Center for Research on Vermont

Two Minute Writes

A.

Please make a list of “global issues”.

Two Minute Writes

B.

Please describe what comes to your mind when you think of “Vermont Agriculture”.

Note: you are writing to a Martian, so be descriptive.

THE QUIZ(from Geography Hell?)

• Please take this quiz

• You will not be asked to share your answers or your score with anyone

• This is not challenge by choice!

Total Number of Quiz Responses: 626

Taken in 4 Semesters

Spring 2008-Fall 2010

Why Do I Ask My UVM Students to Take This Quiz?

Because I was clueless…

About 1/3 of students went to HS in Vermont

Quiz Results

Overall Quiz Average:

43.53

Quiz Average Did Not Increase Over Time

Students are NOT becoming more geographically literate over time

Student Scores Do Not Increase:

By year at UVM (eg., seniors do not score significantly higher than first-year students)

If the student took a Geography Course in High School

If the student took another Geography Course in College

According to where the student attended high school (in VT or out-of-state)

What I Do Not Know, because I didn’t ask:

Results by genderResults by travel experienceResults by race/ethnicity

What do students’ incorrect answers tell us?Name the capital of Iraq:Bangladesh, Qatar, Kuwait, “it’s not Baghdad”, “Televeve?”, Islamabad; Istanbul; Kuwait

Name one non-native or exotic species that has impacted Australia: “British Prisoners”; Zebra Mussels (from VT student); Americans; Switchback Mountain Goat; “huge mice things/rodents”; “Nemo/clownfish”

Name the capital of Canada:“WHO CARES!!!”, “there isn’t one”, “doesn’t each province have its own capital”, “which region of Canada?”, Ontario, Montreal, Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, Quebec, Quebec City, Edmonton, Toronto, “A friend of mine would know that…I’m not sure.”; “O…something that starts with an ‘O’”; Vancouver; “Ottawa, eh?”

Latitude:“are you joking?!”, “10,000,000”, 500 ft, 200 ft above sea level, 90 N, 100, 32 NW, 80, 70, 30, 23N, “200 feet above sea level”; 120, “up there”; 350 ft; “90 (a little south of)”

OPEC- Name one member country that is not in the Middle East: Venezuela, George Bush, Texas, Exxon/Mobil, Russia, Britain, Chile, US, Egypt, Peru, Congo, Bulgaria, Turkey, American, Canada, Morocco, Argentina

How do the UVM results compare to:Indiana Tests, 1987 and 2002

National Geographic – Roper Survey, 2006

The Nation’s Report Card – Geography 2010 ?

Why Don’t Young Americans Know More Geography?

And,

Does it Matter That They Don’t Know Geography?

the importance of a “geographical mind”

Doreen Massey

Developing Geographical Minds:

Vermont’s Agriculture and the Production of Place

Geographical Imagination

Our mental maps of places; and the ways we render spaces and places

“a lot of geography is in the mind”Doreen Massey

What we expect of a place, even before we experience it for ourselves.

what we expect of other social groups within specific spaces.

Some Thoughts About the Importance of Descriptive Writing and Field Work

“The renaissance in Vermont agriculture…”Governor Peter Shumlin, Inaugural Address, Jan 6, 2011

“…[VT’s] wonderful marketshed from Montreal to Boston to Providence to Hartford to NY and Philadelphia…”

[We need to] “maintain this incredible landscape that makes Vermont such a special place" and “the culture we create by having working landscapes of farmers and foresters in our communities"

Chuck Ross, Sec. of Agriculture, Food and Markets, VPR, Jan 24, 2011

“We need to ensure that Vermont is the milk-bowl and breadbasket of New England…” Working Landscape Partnership, VT Council on Rural Development

Recent Comments about Vermont Agriculture

“…Vermont's farmers, right now, are in a constant economic struggle. Every year they have to figure out ways to work and survive so that we can all benefit: these are the folks who maintain a great piece of the landscape, jobs, and culture that is part of the fabric of what makes Vermont, Vermont.” Dan Kirk, “My Turn” BFP

“Place in the Country”“Green pastures, bales of hay, and mountainous backdrop provide a pastoral

setting for this landscape photograph.”Orwell, VT

photo: John David Geery http://johndavidgeery.com

The Endangered Working Landscapes of Vermont

A Brief Environmental History of Vermont’s Landscape (in Crisis)

‘great swarming time’, chartering of townssheep crazedairy farmingoutmigrationtourism and agriculturework as leisure (Blake Harrison, 2006)

photo and logo: VermontVacation.com

The Co-Dependence of Rurality and Tourism in Vermont

Sabra Field

Phyllis Chase

Woody Jackson

Contemporary Representations of Vermont Landscapes – How Media Reproduces Constructs

Vermont Department of Tourism ad in Spring 2011 Vermont Life

What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?

Jordan’s Sugaring Operation, Essex

What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?

Map: Jan Albers, 2002, Hands on the Land

Vermont’s physiographic regions align closely with its geologic regions.

6,000-7,000

24,000-62,000

156, 545

ORLEANSFRANKLIN47,746

ADDISON36,821

ESSEX6,306

RUTLAND61,642

GRAND ISLE6,970

CHITTENDEN156,545

LAMOILLE24,575

CALEDONIA

WASHINGTON

ORANGE

WINDSOR

WINDHAM

BENNINGTON

Vermont County Population, 2010

POPULATION

One of every four Vermonters lives in Chittenden County

Chitt. County’s population is 2.5 times larger than the next most populated county, Rutland

loss of pop since 2000

Two Vermonts?

Data: US Census, 2010

Rural Urban

Population (2009 est) 413,705 (66.5%) 205,055 (33.5%)

Per Capita Income (2008)

$37,480 $41,139

Earnings per Job (2008) $35,867 $46,043

Poverty Rate (2009 est) 12.0% 10.5%

Not completed High School

14.5% 11.5%

Completed College 27.0% 34.8%

Rural – Urban Differences in Vermont

Data: USDA Economic Research Service

Less than $9,999

$10,000 to $49,999

$50,000-$99,999

$100,000-$499,999

More than $500,000

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Vermont Farms by Sales, 1997 and 2007

19972007

Farm Sales

Percent of Farms

Top 5 Agricultural Commodities

Percent of state total farm receipts

Dairy Products 65.4

Cattle and calves 8.0

Maple products 6.2

Greenhouse/nursery 5.3

Apples 2.5

Number of farms (2009): 7,000Dairy farms (2010): 1,010 Organic dairy farms : 205 Conventional dairy farms: 805

Organic dairy farms make up 20% of the state total;They produce about 5-7% of the state's milk

Data: National Agricultural Statistics Service

Vermont Farm Data

PERCENT OF VT’S STATE AGRICULTURAL SALES

23.5-24

12.2

5.2-6.4

Vermont’s Top Five Counties in Agricultural Sales, 2007

ADDISON$161,417,000

1

2FRANKLIN$160,619,000

3ORLEANS$82,348,000

ORANGE$43,292,000

4

5RUTLAND$35,286,000

Together, Addison and Franklin counties constitute nearly half of VT’s agricultural production

The county in third place produces half that of the counties in first and second place

How Many Agricultural Vermonts?

Less than $9,999

$10,000 to

$49,999

$50,000-$99,999

$100,000-$499,999

More than $500,000

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Top 3 Agricultural Sales Counties Farm Sales, 2007

AddisonFranklinOrleans

Farm Sales

Percent of Farms

Addison County

Total number of farms: 773

# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 79

Milk is 78% of ag salesCattle and calves are 8% of sales

Franklin County

Total number of farms: 740

# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 80

Milk is 81% of ag salesCattle and calves are 11% of sales

Orleans County

Total number of farms: 635

# of farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 25

Milk is 85% of ag salesCattle and calves are 8% of sales

The Freestall Landscape

Smaller Farm Landscapes

Questions that Can be Pursued:Now that we know something of the environmental history, landscape change, and social dynamics of Vermont, what can we predict its landscape in the future? What will the landscape look like? Who will live here? How will people make a living?

How does your community compare to Vermont’s statistics? Is your town the same or different? How and why?

Why are rural areas of Vermont “poorer” than urban areas and why are some losing population?

What crops and agricultural products were produced in VT over time, and which crops and products will support the state in the future? Where do our agricultural products go? Can we map them?

Which ‘global’ problems or issues can we study here in Vermont?

Data Sources• US Census data• Center for Rural Studies at UVM• VCGI maps of VT• State of Vermont Dept of Ag, Food and

Markets• National Agricultural Statistics Service• Landscape Change website, UVM Geology

Dept