Origins of AgricultureHUNTER GATHERS BIRTH OF AGRICULTURE Today, there are basically two divisions of agriculture, subsistence and commercial, that roughly correspond to the less developed and more developed regions. One of the most significant divisions between more and less developed regions is the manner in which people obtain the food they need to survive. Most people in less developed countries are farmers, producing the food they and their families need to survive. In contrast, fewer than 5 percent of the people in North America are farmers. Yet these farmers are able to produce enough to feed the remaining inhabitants of North America and to produce a substantial surplus. Subsistence AgricultureImage by JialiangGao and licensed as Creative Commons GNU Free Documentation. INTENSIVE SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE The largest type of agriculture practiced around the world is intensive subsistence agriculture, which is highly dependent on animal power, and is commonly practiced in the humid, tropical regions of the world. As the word implies, this form of subsistence agriculture is highly labor intensive on the farmer using limited space and limited waste. This is a very common practice in East, South, and Southeast Asia where population densities are high and land use is limited. The most common form is wet rice fields, but could also include non-wet rice fields like wheat and barley. In warm locations and long growing seasons, farmers may be able to efficiently get two harvests per year from a single field, a method called double cropping. Image by NASA, licensed as Creative Commons Public Domain. SHIFTING CULTIVATION PASTORAL NOMADISM The type of animals chosen by nomads is highly dependent on the culture of the region, the prestige of animals, and the climate. Camels can carry heavy cargo and travel great distances with very little water; a great benefit in arid regions. Goats require more water, but can eat a larger variety of food than the camel. Most probably believe that nomads wander randomly throughout the area in search for water, but this is far from the truth. Rather pastoral nomads are very aware of their territory. In fact, each group controls a particular area and will rarely invade another area. Each area tends to be large enough to contain enough water and foliage for survival. Some nomad groups migrate seasonally between mountainous low-lying regions, a process called transhumance. Commercial AgricultureCOMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE An interesting difference between LDC and MDC in terms of agriculture is the percent of the workforce that actually farm. In LDCs, it is not uncommon that over half of the workforce are subsistence farmers. Yet in MDCs like the United States, the workforce that are farmers are far fewer than half. In the United States alone, less than 2 percent of the workforce are farmers, yet have the knowledge, skills, and technology to feed the One of the reasons why only 2 percent of the United States workforce can feed the entire nation has to do with machinery, which can harvest crops at a large scale and very quickly. MDCs also have access to transportation networks to provide perishable foods like dairy long distances in a short amount of time. Commercial farmers rely on the latest scientific improvements to generate greater yields, including crop rotation, herbicides and fertilizers, hybrid plants, and animal breeds. PLANTATIONS Population and Food Production
Recall about human population that English economist Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) proposed that the world rate of population growth was far outrunning the development of food supplies. Malthus proposed that human population was growing exponentially, while food production was growing linearly. Below is an example:
During Malthus's time, only a few relatively wealthy countries had entered Stage 2 of the demographic transition model high population growth (see Module 2 for a refresher). He failed to anticipate that relatively poor countries would have the rapidest population growth because of a medical revolution. Many social scientists and even environmentalists are strong supporters of Malthus's hypothesis of the coming global food shortage and are taking it several steps further. Human population growth and consumption may be outstripping a wide variety of the earth's natural resources, not just food production. Billions of people may soon be engaged in a search for food, water, energy, and resources. Now days, technology is allowing us to convert food into fuel called ethanol. In the United States, large amounts of corn are being used to create biofuel as a way to remove ourselves from our addiction to oil. This has caused global corn prices to rise dramatically. Wars and civil violence will increase in coming years because of scarcities. Others discredit Malthus because his hypothesis is based on world supply of resources being fixed rather than flexible and expanding. Technology may enable societies to be more efficient with scarce resources or allow for the use of new resources that were once not feasible. Some believe population growth isn't a bad thing either. A large population could stimulate economic growth and, therefore, the production of food. Marxists believe that their is no direct connection between human population growth and economic development within a particular area. Social constructs of hunger and poverty is the result of unjust social and economic power structures through globalization, rather than because of human population growth. So even with a global community of 7 billion, food production has grown faster than the global rate of natural increase. Better growing techniques, higher-yielding and genetically modified seeds, and better cultivation of more land have helped expand food supplies globally. However, many have noted that food production has started to slow and level off. Without new technology breakthroughs in food production, food supply will not keep up with population growth. Nutritional NeedsMALNUTRITION
FOOD SECURITY ISSUES
OBESITY IN MORE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
The United Nations states that over 1.2 billion people lack access to fresh drinking water and 2.5 billion do not have access to water for sanitation. In the United States, the average American uses over 100 gallons of water a day. Now have you ever thought about how much water is required for the food you eat? Below is how much water is used to produce our food based on the book When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce:
Current and Future TrendsENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS It is believed that 6 million children die every year from hunger or malnutrition. Hunger issues occur when political instability, war, conflict, or environmental degradation displace populations, removing people from their farms. Often times, droughts, desertification, and famines are confused with each other. A drought is a natural phenomenon where a particular region experiences a short-term deficit of water based on average conditions. A desert can have a drought if precipitation occurs less than average conditions. Desertification is the long-term deterioration of productive soil into unusable "dirt" that is unusable for growing food. Famines are considered mostly "man-made" events because of large-scale food shortages with widespread starvation, social disruption, and economic collapse. Lack of adequate infrastructure, social nets, and government resources tend to cause famines. THE GREEN REVOLUTION
The problems with the Green Revolution is that it:
ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION
The problems with the organic production of food include:
GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS
The adverse effects of GM foods are becoming more known and understood by scientists and the general public. Some nations like the European Union are starting to ban GM crops because there are still concerns about their long term effects on humans and the environment. Some of those problems include:
SummaryHumans have been modifying the environment ever since the domestication of animals and the growth of agriculture around 10,000 years ago. Today there are two major types of agriculture: subsistence and commercial. There are varying types of subsistence agriculture such as intensive like rice patties, shifting cultivation that has lead to deforestation in the rain forests, and migrating cattle for milk, clothing, and tents called pastoral nomadism. Commercial agriculture is what most in the more developed world are use to with large scale farming practices. Another form of commercial agriculture are plantations, large-scale farms that usually focus on one type of crop. As mentioned in the chapter on population, there is some concern that as the world reaches 8 or 9 billion people by 2050, the planet may not be able support such large numbers in terms of food, fresh water, and other natural resources. So far technology has made it so that food production has outpaced population growth, but there may be a limit to this trajectory. There is also concern about the quality of food, specifically with the nutrients within our foods. Less developed countries tend to have problems with malnutrition and become deficient in important types of vitamins. But in more developed countries, the lack of nutrition comes from the fact that many in the United States and Europe eat foods high in fat, highly processed carbohydrates, and low in quality nutrients leading to a obesity problem where society eats too much, but is still deficient in nutrients. Finally, there is growing concern about how humans should grow crops. The Green Revolution came from the era of World War I when chemical warfare was developed. Technology allowed us to take that ability and begin a "war on pests" with the development of fertilizers and herbicides. But there is growing scientific data to suggest that humans are beginning to accumulate too much of these toxic chemicals within our bodies leading to many diseases. Organic food production is always attractive because pesticides and herbicides are dramatically reduced and environmental concerns are more focused on. But organic food tends to be a luxury for most humans and there are growing concerns about the lack of regulations with labeling food as organic. Finally, genetically modified food has become quite controversial. Most of us eat food that we can't pernouce the ingredients, but now we are hearing more about how GM foods are out competing native plants. There is also a lot of talk about cloned food, specifically with meat such as hamburger. But GM food has a bright side too. Scientists have been able to create rice that is high in Vitamin A, which has saved millions of lives in less developed countries. So the war on food continues as these three types of food productions are debated scientifically and in the masses. Which of the following best describes advances in the production of textiles during the Second Agricultural Revolution and the industrial revolution?Which of the following best describes advances in the production of textiles during the Second Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution? The conversion from manual thread spinning to an industrial processing approach led to increased demand for raw cotton in the agricultural sector.
Which of the following best explains why coffee plantations in developing countries are considered a form of intensive farming?Which of the following best explains the farming practice related to plantation agriculture? Plantation farming is considered to be an intensive farming practice because it requires large inputs of labor and capital to produce the crop.
Which of the following developments best explains changes in agricultural?Which of the following developments best explains changes in agricultural production in the United States during the 1880s and 1890s? New systems of transportation integrated farming into national markets.
Which of the following best explains the importance of climate to agricultural practices?Which of the following best explains the importance of climate to agricultural practices? Midlatitude climates tend to support similar agricultural crops and practices, such as wheat farming in the United States and China.
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