Chapter 6: Agriculture

• Pre-industrial agricultural forms and regions

• Commercial agriculture and trade• U.S. agricultural policy• Sustainable agriculture as an ecological

alternative to contemporary forms of food production

• Von Thünen model of agricultural production

Formation of the Global Agricultural System

• By 1500 agriculture across much of the New and Old World

• Development of family farm regions in areas of European settlement in mid-latitudes

• Development of plantation colonies in tropical Asia, Africa & Latin America– Labor intensive• Disappearance of hunting and gathering

The Fertile Crescent

Origins of Plant and Animal Domestication

Rise of specialized agriculture & towns engaged in localized trading

Industrialization of Agriculture

• Capital intensive, high energy use, concentration of economic power, low cost production

• Environmental impacts: depleted soil and water resources, pollution, destroyed a way of life in rural communities

• Figure 6.3 - % employed in primary activity

Percent of Labor Force in Agriculture

Spatial Variations in the Quality of Agricultural Resources

• Impact of temperature & precipitation on yield & cost

Tem

per

atu

re

Precipitation

Too Cold

Too Hot

Too

Dry

Too

Wet

OPTIMUM5

1030

502510

Zero

and Rent

10 522 0

Subsistence Agriculture• Most work done by hand, by families, with

animal power but not mechanical equipment

• Most production consumed by farm families

• Intensive subsistence agriculture vs. peasant agriculture in semiarid E. Africa

• Agriculture still dominates work, plots are small, types of subsistence agriculture: (1) shifting cultivation, (2) pastoral nomadism, (3) intensive subsistence agriculture

AgriculturalSystems

Nomadic Movement in NW Africa

Also – transhumancein mountainousterrain such asthe Pyreneesthe Alps or inNorway

World Rice Production

Commercial Agriculture Tractors per 1000 hectares as an indicator

of capital intensity

Commercial Agriculture in the U.S.• Domination of agribusiness – vertical

integration – capital & energy intensive – reliance on hybrid seeds / stocks

Corn Production

Wheat Production

Grain Yield and Production, Developing Countries

Global Population and Grain Production

Increased Interregional and International Trade in Agriculture

Specialized Agricultural Regions

U.S. Agricultural Policy – Farm Prices

Farm Subsidy Programs

Support Programs Differentially Benefit Large Corporate Farms

Sustainable Agriculture• Alternatives to monoculture, and heavy

use of pesticides and energy inputs• Such as programs of social, ecological,

and economic health for agricultural land and communities

• Options include: organic farming, agroecology, holistic management, urban gardening, community-supported agriculture, natural systems agriculture

• Reliance on local knowledge & minimization of ecological impacts

Von Thünen’s Location Theory

• Assumptions in modern rendering of this theory

• The isotropic plain

• Rent: Economic Rent as envisaged in Von Thünen’s model, versus rent like you and I pay to landlords or banks

• Von Thünen’s model: The role of wood historically

Land Rent Gradients

Basic Land-Rent Model

Land Rent = Yield (Market Price minus Production Cost) - Yield

*transport rate*distance)

LR = E(p-a)-E*f*k

If: E = 4, P = 5, a = 2, f = .1, k = 10,

LR = 4 (5 - 2) - 4*.1*10

= 12 - 4

= 8

Rent.xls

Rent Gradient and Rent Cone

Multiple Centers & Ag. Land UseSingle Crops or CombinationsThe agricultural trade system

A B A

Crop 1 Crop 2 Crop 3

Land Use – competing crops

Von Thünen Land Use Scheme

Forests around Addis Ababa

Spatial Variations in the Quality of Agricultural

Resources, cont.Limits for particular crops / animals

Locational Rent vs. economic rent

Defined relativeto a market location

Defined across allcompeting uses

Crop A

Crop B

Crop C

Crop D

Empirical Evidence for Agricultural Production

Von Thünen’s famous studies

Bauria, India; Addis Ababa

Farm Land Use Values - Washington counties

Sinclair’s Reversal of von Thünen’s Analysis

Rent

Distance from urban center

Limit of expectedurban growth

Washington Agricultural Land Values - 1974

Land Use Bauria, India

Location Rents in Urban Areas

Distance from Center

Location

R

ent

Commercial

Industrial

Residential

Agricultural