GEOG 247 Cultural Geography 

AGRICULTURE1

Prof. Anthony GrandeHunter College‐CUNY

©AFG 2016Lecture design, content and presentation ©AFG 0616.Individual images and illustrations may be subject to prior copyright.

Plant domestication may have occurred in tropical South/Southeast Asia over 14,000 yrs. ago.

Animal domestication prob-ably began earlier than plant cultivation, but some argue that animal domestication began as recently as 8,000 yrs. ago, well after crop agriculture.

AgricultureWhat is it?Why and where did it begin?

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a.k.a. Farming: The practice of cultivating crops and the raising of animals in a con-trolled setting.

AgricultureAgriculture is the deliberate modification of

Earth’s surface (through cultivation of plants and rearing of animals) to obtain sustenance or economic gain.

Uses methodologies developed by people in response to physical geographic stimuli (as climate, landforms, water availability) and social tenets (as customs and religious beliefs)

Agriculture is a learned trait, therefore it is cultural.

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Agricultural RevolutionsFirst Agricultural Revolution

– Domestication of plants and animals dating back over 14,000 years; seed crops allowed people to select/control plants (Fertile Crescent of SW Asia – Mesopotamia)

Second Agricultural Revolution– Coincided with the industrial revolution of the 1800s; gave

the world mechanization (improved methods of cultivation, harvesting and storage); crop yields improved; economies of scale realized.

Third Agricultural Revolution– Currently in progress; called the Green Revolution; noted

for scientific methodologies to create higher yields and increase resistance to debilitating conditions; genetically modified organisms (GMOs); specialized fertilizers; antibiotics, precision irrigation.

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TERMSDomestication: The successful transformation of a plant or animal species from a wild state to a condition of dependency on human management usually with a distinct physical change from its wild forbears.

In addition to managing crops and livestock to produce food for people, the domestication process is used to produce feed stock for animals, fiber for cloth-ing and manufacturing, and alternative fuel supplies as ethanol and other biomasses.

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More TermsCultivate: to care forCrop: any plant cultivated (cared for) by people.Agricultural hearth: source area for the domesticcationof plants and animalsSubsistence agriculture: production of food for one’s own or family’s useCommercial agriculture: production of food for sale or barter to others.

Horticulture: the science, skill, or occupation of cultivating plants (esp. flowers, fruit, and vegetables), in gardens or greenhouses.

Floriculture: growing of flowers and ornamental shrubs as a crop.

Aquaculture: the farming of ocean and freshwater fish, plants and animals for human consumption

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Modern AgricultureDepends heavily on engineering, technology and

the biological and physical sciences. Agricultural engineering

is used to determine irriga-tion, drainage, conservation and channeling of water.

Agricultural chemistry deals with such issues as the use of fertilizers, insect-cides and fungicides, soil structure, analysis of agri-cultural products and the nutritional needs of farm animals.

Expensive equipment does the work of numerous laborers.

Remote sensing and satellite technology are used to analyze crop growth and development, soil moisture, insect infestations, field contouring and planting tracts.

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Economic Geog Refresher Primary economic activities: Economic activities that

involve the extraction of economically valuable products from the earth, including agriculture, ranching, hunting and gathering, fishing, forestry, mining, and quarrying.

Secondary economic activities: Activities (e.g., manu-facturing) that take a primary product and change it into something else such processed foods, leather products and biomass.

Tertiary economic activities: Those service industries that connect producers to consumers and facilitate commerce and trade or help people meet their needs, as food sellers, distributors and merchants.

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Agriculture (food production) is the core of human being. It plays a pivotal role between people, the environment and economic well-being.

At the Center of it All:

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Cuisine: The style of cooking or preparing food.

Diet vs. CuisineDiet: The combination of food products (plant/ animal) ingested for nutritional gain.

10Polish veal and potatoes

Cultural Heritage

Diet Pyramids

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Oldways Preservation Trust and Harvard School of Public Healthhttp://oldwayspt.org/

This program studies traditional diets and

associated daily physical activities of

culture groups.

World Hunger

Source: UN FAO, 2008

The world produces enough food for all its people yet economics and politics cause food shortages. It is estimated that 800 million people are malnourished, esp. in Africa.

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The Cultural Geography of Farming1. LANDSCAPE: Farming varies around the world in

relation to cultural and environmental factors. 2. ECOLOGY: Elements of the physical environment, such

as climate, soil, and topography, set broad limits on agricultural products and practices.

3. INTERACTION: Farmers make choices to modify the environment in a variety of ways, including selecting products for profit

4. REGIONS: Climate patterns influence the crops planted in a region, and local soil conditions influence the crops planted on a farm.

5. DIFFUSION: Through colonization, world wars, and multi-national corporations agricultural methods have spread worldwide.

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The Cultural Geography of Farming

Farmers choose from a variety of agricultural practices and products, based on their perception of the value of each alternative.

These values are partly economic and partly cultural.

How farmers deal with their physical environment varies according to dietary preferences, availability of techno-logy, and other cultural traditions.

At a global scale, farmers increasingly pursue the most profitable agriculture (aspects of agglomeration and comparative advantage come into play).

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Types of Agriculture Swidden/shifting

cultivation Paddy rice farming Peasant grain, root,

livestock farming Plantation agriculture Market gardening Livestock feeding

Grain farming Dairying Nomadic herding Livestock ranching Urban agriculture Aquaculture/

mariculture

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Food Supply and Population• Before the advent of agriculture, hunting, gathering, and

fishing were the most common means of subsistence throughout the world– The size of hunting and gathering clans varied

according to climate and resource availability.– Hunting and gathering communities in areas of abun-

dance could support larger populations that were concentrated in smaller areas.

How did hunter/gatherer peoples increase their food supplies?

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Tools - A Cultural Adaption

• The first tools used in hunt-ing were simple clubs - tree limbs that were thick and heavy at one end.

• Later the use of bone and stone and the development of spears made hunting on land more effective.

• Traps allowed hunters to roam a larger area and re-duce the “wait time” for prey.

• The control of fire offered new opportunities.

• Humans also harvested shell fish, trapped fish (by cutting off small patches from the open sea), and invented tools to catch fish, including harpoons, hooks, and baskets.

Using tools and fire, human communities altered their environments, which helped to establish more reliable food supplies.

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Agric Practices and Production• <2% of the US workforce is

involved in agricultural pro-duction yet production is at an all-time high.

This sharp contrast in agri-cultural practices consti-tutes one of the most fun-damental differences between the more develop-ed and less developed countries of the world.

The drive toward econ-omic efficiency has meant that the average size of farms (acres in production) in the US has been growing, regardless of the kind of agricultural good produced.

The mechanized, highly productive American farm contrasts with the less productive and largely subsistence farm found in much of the world.

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Images of Agricultural Practice

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The group traveled often (wanderers/nomads) estab-lishing new home bases/ camps in areas where food, water and shelter was adequate.

Direction and frequency of movement depended on the migration of game and the seasonal plant growth. leading to awareness of natural

cycles and planningAbundance in place

reduced the need to wander.

Hunters and Gatherers

In order to survive people need food and water. Earliest humans had to search their surroundings for their daily needs -gathering, hunting and fishing for food.Hunters and gatherers lived in small groups. • Men hunted or fished.• Women collected nuts,

berries, and roots.

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Contemporary Hunting and Gathering

Current estimates put c.250,000 people (out of 7 billion) still surviving by hunting and gathering.

Contemporary hunting and gathering societies are isolated groups liv-ing on the periphery of world settlement, but they provide insight into human customs that prevailed in prehistoric times, before the invent-tion of agriculture.

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Early Agricultural Regions

What accounts for this distribution?22

Areas of Naturally Fertile Soil

Most fertile areas have high food production ratios and higher populations.Compare this map to the maps of world hunger, undernourishment and population density. Can a correlation be made?

World Climates

Köppen Climate Classification Sys-tem groups the world’s climates on the basis of temperature and precipitation.

Wladimir Köppen, an Austrian botanist, developed it as a way to categorize natural vegetation.

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Climate provides an insight into the location of agricultural regions.

Map of Agriculture

INSERT FIGURE 11.18

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Most world regions can support some type of food production (some better than others).

Predominant Types of Agriculture

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Agricultural Hearths

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Agriculture began with the domestication of plants. Plant domestication was a gradual process.

Agriculture is Invented Geographer Carl Sauer postulated

that the trials and errors necessary to establish agriculture and settle in one place would occur in lands of plenty. He suggested that Southeast and

South Asia may have been where the first tropical plant domestication occurred, over 14,000 years ago.

The earliest form of plant cultiva-tion was vegetative planting,direct cloning from existing plants, such as dividing roots and cutting stems.

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Sauer believed that vegeta-tive planting originated in SE Asia because its climate and topography encouraged plants suitable for dividing.

Also, the people were sedentary - obtaining food primarily by fishing, not hunting and gathering, so they may have been able to devote more attention to growing plants.

Other early hearths of vegetative planting also may have emerged independently in West Africa and northwestern South America.

The first plants domesticated in SE Asia probably included roots such as the taro and yam, and tree crops such as the banana and palm.

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Location of First Vegetative Planting

TARO

BANANA

Vegetative Planting Hearths and Routes of Diffusion

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Domestication of Animals• Animal domestication probably began earlier

than plant cultivation, although some say that animal domestication began well after crop agriculture, maybe only 8,000 years ago.

• The advantages of animal domestication - their use as beasts of burden, as a source of meat, and as providers of milk - stimulated the rapid diffusion of this idea and gave the sedentary farmers of SW Asia and elsewhere a new measure of security.

• Only five domesticated mammals are important worldwide: the cow, sheep, goat, pig, and horse.

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Chief Centers of Plant and Animal Domestication

Earliest Domesticated FaunaDogSheepPigGoatCattleCatChickenDonkeyDuckHorseCamelReindeerSilkwormHoney bee

Seed Agriculture Hearths

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Fertile Crescent

Food Product Diffusion

While the original diffusion of food products took thousands of years, with the start of the Age of Explora-tion products quickly moved between continents.

Improved communications and bet-ter shipping methods starting in the mid-20th century along with internation-al organizations and foreign aid has allowed the diffusion of food products to varied locations around the world.

Subsistence agriculture is the pro-duction of food primarily for con-sumption by the farmer’s family.

Commercial agriculture is the pro-duction of food primarily for sale. This distinguishes agriculture in less developed countries from more developed countries.

Five features distinguish commercial from subsistence agriculture: 1. purpose of farming2. percentage of farmers in the labor force3. use of machinery4. farm size5. relationship of farming to other

businesses.

Agricultural Practice: Subsistence vs. Commercial

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There are two chief types of subsistence agriculture:1. Extensive subsistence

Large areas of land • Minimal labor input per acre• Product per land unit and

population densities are low2. Intensive subsistence

Small land holdings • Great amounts of labor/acre• Yields/unit area and popula-

tion densities are both high

Areas Where Subsistence Agriculture Predominates

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture Shifting cultivation: farmers move from place to

place in search of better land.– Found in tropical and subtropical zones where

historically, traditional farmers had to abandon plots of land after the soil became infertile.

– Swidden or Slash-and-burn agriculture: use of hand tools (machetes and knives) to slash down trees and tall vegetation, and fire to burn the vegetation on the ground.

• A layer of ash from the fire covers the ground and contributes to the soil’s fertility when mixed with rainwater.

• Less than 3% of world’s people engaged in this type of cultivation

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Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

Shifting cultivation– Plots are cleared and

burned, then cultivateduntil fertility is lost, after which cropping is shifted to a newly prepared site

Highly efficient cultural adaptation where land is abundant in relation to population and levels of technology and capital availability are low.

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Swidden Plot PreparationLiberia, West Africa

a) The vegetation is hacked down and set on fire.

b) The field is planted by hand. Stumps and unfelled trees remain in the field.

Benefits of a “Good” Burn:1. Removal of unwanted vegetation.2. Killing of insect, animal and weed pests.3. Softens soil for easier penetration by small hand tools.4. Provides a protective soil cover of wood ashes.5. Nutrients in the ash enrich the soil and maintain soil structure.6. Burned stumps and logs provide charcoal for cooking.

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

Nomadic herding: wandering con-trolled movement of livestock solely dependent on natural forage– Most extensive type of land use (requires

greatest amount of land area per person)

– Animals provide a variety of products for food, clothing, shelter and fuel (dried dung).

– Nomadic movement is tied to sparse and seasonal rainfall or cold tempera-tures, as well as the quality/quantity of forage.

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Transhumance: the seasonal movement to exploit locally varying pasture conditions.

The Nomadic Herding Culture

Herders constantly move livestock to new grazing and water sources in response to availability and to the seasons.

Nomads have few personal possessions and few fixed structures.

Wealth is based on size of livestock holdings. Sedentary cultivation being

encouraged in some areas as governments seek to stabilize a population in place.