Unit 5

Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes: the one-page sheet

5.1 Introduction to Agriculture

Agriculture is the purposeful raising of crops and animals. Intensive farming puts many inputs into each hectare; extensive farming spreads few inputs over large areas. Climate shapes which kind fits a place, and irrigation lets people farm beyond what rain allows.

Intensive agriculture puts many inputs (labor, money, machines, water, fertilizer) into each hectare; extensive agriculture spreads few inputs over large areas. Judge by inputs per hectare, not farm size.
Extensive kinds: shifting cultivation (Amazon basin), nomadic herding (Mongolia, the Sahel), ranching (the Pampas of Argentina).
Intensive kinds: market gardening (near Rotterdam), plantation agriculture (oil palm in Malaysia), mixed crop and livestock farming (Iowa).
Climate shapes farming: rainforest plots and plantations in the tropics, herding in dry lands, olives and grapes in Mediterranean climates. Irrigation lets people farm dry places intensively.

people raise animals that can graze its grass herders move their animals to fresh pasture nomadic herding is a form of extensive agriculture

agriculture: The raising of crops and animals on purpose for food, fiber and other products.
intensive agriculture: Farming that puts many inputs (labor, money, machines, fertilizer, water) into each unit of land to get a large output from it, as in market gardening near Rotterdam.
extensive agriculture: Farming that uses few inputs on each unit of land, spread over large areas, as in ranching on the Pampas of Argentina.
market gardening: Intensive growing of fruits, vegetables and flowers for nearby city markets; also called truck farming.
plantation agriculture: Intensive farming of one crop, such as oil palm, bananas or tea, on a large estate, usually in the tropics, for sale far away.
mixed crop and livestock farming: Intensive farming that raises crops and animals on the same farm, often feeding the crops to the animals, as in the US Corn Belt.
shifting cultivation: Extensive farming in which people clear and burn a forest plot, farm it for a few years and then move on while the old plot rests and regrows; also called slash and burn or swidden.
nomadic herding: Extensive agriculture in which people move herds of animals to fresh grass and water with the seasons, as in Mongolia; also called pastoral nomadism.
ranching: Extensive raising of cattle or sheep that graze large areas of fixed land, usually for sale to distant buyers.
Mediterranean agriculture: Farming suited to hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters, growing crops such as olives, grapes and citrus in places like southern Spain and central Chile.

5.2 Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods

Rural settlements are clustered, dispersed or linear. Survey methods divide land: metes and bounds follows natural features, township and range makes a square grid, and long lots run in strips from a river. The method used often shaped the settlement pattern, as the grid did in the US Midwest.

Rural settlement patterns: clustered (homes in a village, as in many English villages), dispersed (one home on each farm, as in Iowa) and linear (homes along a river or road, as along the Nile in Egypt).
Survey methods: metes and bounds (natural features, irregular shapes; Virginia), township and range (a square grid; Kansas and Iowa) and long lots (narrow strips from a river; Quebec and Louisiana).
The survey method is how land was divided; the settlement pattern is where people live. The first often shaped the second.

land was sold to single families in squares farmhouses spread out, one on each farm the US Midwest has a dispersed settlement pattern

clustered settlement: A rural settlement pattern in which homes are grouped together in a village, with farmland around it; also called nucleated settlement.
dispersed settlement: A rural settlement pattern in which homes are spread out, usually one farmhouse on each farm, as in the US Midwest.
linear settlement: A rural settlement pattern in which homes line up along a road, river, canal or coast, as along the Nile in Egypt.
metes and bounds: A survey method that marks land by distances and by natural or human features such as streams, trees and walls, giving irregular parcels; used in the eastern United States.
township and range: A survey method that divides land into a grid of townships 6 miles square, each with 36 sections of 1 square mile; set up by the US Land Ordinance of 1785.
long lot: A survey method that divides land into long, narrow strips running back from a river, so each owner has river frontage; used by French settlers in Quebec and Louisiana.

5.3 Agricultural Origins and Diffusions

Domestication turned wild species into crops and livestock in several hearths, including the Fertile Crescent, the Indus valley, Southeast Asia and Central America. Farming led to settled villages and surpluses. After 1492 the Columbian Exchange carried crops, animals and diseases between the hemispheres.

Domestication turned wild plants and animals into crops and livestock over many generations; the First Agricultural Revolution was the shift to farming that began about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Farming began on its own in several hearths: the Fertile Crescent (wheat, barley), the Indus River valley, Southeast Asia and Central America (maize), and others such as the Andes (potatoes).
The Columbian Exchange after 1492 carried maize and potatoes to Afro-Eurasia and wheat, sugarcane, cattle and horses to the Americas. Diseases such as smallpox devastated Indigenous peoples.

wild species changed into crops and livestock people settled in permanent villages populations grew and some people took other jobs the Columbian Exchange spread crops, animals and diseases between them

domestication: The slow change of wild plants and animals into crops and livestock, as people chose which ones to plant or breed over many generations.
First Agricultural Revolution: The shift from hunting and gathering to farming that began about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago in several hearths; also called the Neolithic Revolution.
Fertile Crescent: An arc of land in Southwest Asia, from the eastern Mediterranean along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where wheat, barley, sheep and goats were among the first species domesticated.
Columbian Exchange: The transfer of plants, animals, diseases and people between the Americas and Africa, Europe and Asia that began after Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492.

5.4 The Second Agricultural Revolution

The Second Agricultural Revolution, from the 1700s in Britain and the 1800s in North America, brought crop rotation, selective breeding, enclosure and mechanization. Each farm worker grew more food, diets and life spans improved, and people no longer needed on farms moved to towns.

The Second Agricultural Revolution began in Britain and western Europe in the 1700s and spread to North America in the 1800s, alongside the rise of factories.
Its changes: crop rotation (the Norfolk four-field system), selective breeding, enclosure and mechanization (seed drill, steel plow, reaper).
Effects: more food per worker, better diets and lower death rates, and fewer farm jobs, which pushed people to towns and factory work.

each farm worker produced much more food farms needed fewer workers people moved to towns and cities death rates fell and the population grew

Second Agricultural Revolution: A period of new farming methods and machines (crop rotation, selective breeding, enclosure, the seed drill and reaper) that began in Britain in the 1700s and spread to North America in the 1800s, raising output per worker.
mechanization: Replacing human and animal labor with machines, such as reapers and tractors.

5.5 The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution, from the 1960s to the 1980s, spread high-yield wheat and rice with fertilizer, irrigation and pesticides. It raised food output and weakened Malthus's prediction, but it used much water and chemicals, favored larger farmers and spread unevenly. GMOs came later, in the late 1990s.

The Green Revolution (about 1960s to 1980s) spread high-yield varieties of wheat and rice with fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides and machines, starting from research in Mexico and the Philippines.
Positive: more food, fewer famines, cheaper grain. Negative: heavy water and chemical use, less crop variety, and gains that favored larger farmers.
It spread unevenly: irrigated plains in Asia gained most; dry, rain-fed regions in Sub-Saharan Africa gained less.
GMOs, with genes changed in a lab, came in the late 1990s. They are not part of the Green Revolution.

each plant could turn water and fertilizer into much more grain grain harvests rose sharply in places such as Punjab, India heavy pumping lowered groundwater levels some small farmers fell behind or into debt

Green Revolution: The spread of high-yield seeds, chemical fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides and machines to farms in many less developed countries, from about the 1960s to the 1980s; sometimes called the Third Agricultural Revolution.
high-yield variety: A crop variety bred, by crossing plants, to produce much more grain per hectare when given water and fertilizer, such as the wheat bred in Mexico and the rice IR8.
genetically modified organism: A genetically modified organism: a plant or animal whose genes were changed in a lab, for example by adding a gene from another species. The first GMO food went on sale in 1994, and GMO crops spread widely on farms from the late 1990s.

5.6 Agricultural Production Regions

Subsistence agriculture feeds the farm family; commercial agriculture sells for profit and often uses monocropping. Bid-rent theory explains why intensive uses take costly land near a market and extensive uses take cheap, distant land, though real regions with many markets and routes depart from it.

Subsistence agriculture feeds the farm family (rice plots in Bangladesh); commercial agriculture sells for profit (soybeans in Mato Grosso, Brazil).
Monocropping grows the same crop on a field year after year, and monoculture one crop over a large area: efficient, but risky if pests, drought or prices strike.
Bid-rent theory: land near a market costs more, so the use that can pay most wins it. Intensive uses take the center, extensive uses the edges. It assumes one market and equal transport.

land near the market costs more only uses that earn a lot per hectare can afford it market gardens take land closest to the market ranching takes the cheapest, most distant land

subsistence agriculture: Farming mainly to feed the farmer's own family, with little left to sell, as on small rice plots in rural Bangladesh.
commercial agriculture: Farming mainly to sell crops and animals for profit, as on soybean farms in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
monocropping: Growing the same crop on the same field year after year. Monoculture, a close term, means growing one crop over a large area.
bid-rent theory: The idea that land users bid for land with the best access to a market, so land costs more near the market and the use that can pay the most at each distance gets the land.

5.7 Spatial Organization of Agriculture

Large commercial operations have been replacing family farms because economies of scale lower their costs. Agribusiness links farms to the firms that supply and buy from them along commodity chains, and technology has raised yields and carrying capacity while shrinking rural communities.

Economies of scale: bigger operations lower the cost of each unit, so large farms have been replacing family farms in the United States and other more developed countries.
Agribusiness links farms to the companies that supply, process, ship and sell food.
A commodity chain runs from inputs to farm to processor to distributor to store to consumer. Vertical integration means one company controls several steps.
Technology raises yields and so raises carrying capacity, but consolidation also shrinks rural communities.

large farms produce each bushel more cheaply they outcompete and buy out smaller family farms farm families leave and rural towns shrink

agribusiness: The system of large companies that supply farms, run farms and process, ship and sell farm products.
commodity chain: The series of steps that turns a farm product into something a consumer buys: inputs, growing, processing, distribution and sale.

5.8 Von Thünen Model

The von Thünen model explains farm land use by the cost of transport to one market, producing rings of market gardening and dairy, forest, grain and ranching. It assumes an isolated, uniform plain and transport by cart; refrigeration, air freight, specialty farming and many markets break the rings in real regions.

The von Thünen model (1826) explains rural land use by transport cost to one market. Rings from the center: market gardening and dairy, forest, grain and field crops, livestock ranching; wilderness beyond.
Assumptions: one isolated market, a flat and uniform plain, transport by cart in every direction, profit-seeking farmers. A river stretches the rings along it.
Limits: refrigeration and air freight, specialty farming regions (Kenyan flowers, Chilean fruit), many markets, uneven land.

transport cost rises with distance the rent each use can pay falls with distance, fastest for heavy or perishable goods land use forms rings: dairy and gardens, forest, grain, then ranching real land use breaks the neat rings

von Thünen model: A model of rural land use, published by Johann Heinrich von Thünen in 1826, in which transport cost to one market sets land use in rings: market gardening and dairy, forest, grain, then ranching.

5.9 The Global System of Agriculture

Global supply chains link farms, processors, shippers and stores across countries, and they are more than transport. Countries that depend on one or a few raw farm exports face price swings, and food distribution depends on politics, trade, transport and income as well as on how much is grown.

A global supply chain links every step and place a product passes through, from farm to consumer across countries. It is more than transport.
Commodity dependence means relying on one or a few raw exports. It makes a country vulnerable to price swings; adding value and diversifying reduce it.
Food distribution is shaped by politics and conflict, trade rules, roads and storage, and income, so hunger can exist where enough food is grown.

its income depends on that crop's world price export earnings and farm incomes drop the government has less money for services such as schools and roads

global supply chain: The network of steps, places and companies that a product passes through from farm to consumer, often across several countries.
commodity dependence: Relying on one or a few raw exports, such as coffee or cocoa, for most of a country's export earnings, which makes its income rise and fall with world prices.

5.10 Consequences of Agricultural Practices

Farming changes landscapes through slash and burn, deforestation, terracing, irrigation and wetland draining. Its environmental effects include pollution, salinization, desertification and habitat loss, offset in part by conservation practices. Its societal effects include changing diets, the purpose of farming and who does the work.

Practices that change landscapes: slash and burn, deforestation, terracing, irrigation, draining wetlands, pastoral nomadism.
Environmental effects: pollution and dead zones from fertilizer runoff, salinization from irrigating dry land, desertification of dry lands, loss of habitat.
Conservation: terraces, contour plowing, no-till farming, cover crops, drip irrigation.
Societal effects: changing diets (more meat, more feed crops), economic purpose (subsistence or commercial) and who does farm work.

the sea shrank and split salt built up in the soil salty dust blew onto farmland and towns

desertification: The degrading of dry land until it can support far fewer plants, animals and people, linked to drought, overgrazing and clearing, as in parts of the Sahel.
salinization: The buildup of salt in soil, often after years of irrigation in hot, dry places where water evaporates and leaves its salts behind.
deforestation: The clearing of forest, often for farms, pasture or wood, as in parts of the Amazon basin of Brazil.

5.11 Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture

Farming faces debates over GMOs and aquaculture, and shoppers drive movements such as organic, local food, CSA, urban farming, value-added crops and fair trade. Food insecurity and food deserts come mostly from poverty, conflict, distribution, weather and lost farmland, not from too little food.

Debates: GMOs (reviews found them safe to eat; critics cite seed patents, resistant weeds and control by a few firms) and aquaculture (food and income, but some habitat loss and pollution).
Food-choice movements: organic, local food, community-supported agriculture, urban farming, value-added specialty crops, fair trade and dietary shifts.
Food insecurity comes mostly from poverty, conflict, poor distribution and bad weather; a food desert is an area with poor access to affordable, healthy food.

people buy much of their food at corner stores families eat fewer fruits and vegetables fresh food becomes easier to get close to home

aquaculture: The farming of fish, shellfish and seaweed in ponds, tanks or ocean pens.
food desert: An area where people have poor access to affordable, healthy food, often a low-income area far from any supermarket.
food insecurity: Not having reliable access to enough safe, nutritious food.
fair trade: A labeling system in which buyers pay producers, often in less developed countries, a minimum price and a premium, under set labor and environmental rules.
community-supported agriculture: An arrangement in which members pay a local farm in advance for a share of its harvest and share its risk; also called CSA.
value-added specialty crop: A farm product processed, branded or certified to earn more per unit, such as farmstead cheese or organic produce.

5.12 Women in Agriculture

Women's farm labor covers every stage of the food system and differs by place and type of production. FAO data show women make up a large share of agrifood workers in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and gaps in pay, land rights and access to inputs, not ability, hold back their output.

Women's farm labor spans production, processing, distribution and consumption, and it varies by place, culture, laws and type of farming.
FAO (2023): 36% of working women and 38% of working men worldwide are in agrifood work; in Southern Asia, 71% of women and 47% of men.
Gaps in wages, land rights and access to credit and inputs, not ability, explain why farms run by women produce less on the same land. Closing them could cut food insecurity.

fewer men remain to farm women take on more farm work and decisions they may have trouble investing in the farms they now run

women's farm labor: The work women do in growing, processing, distributing and preparing food, which varies by place, culture, laws and the type of farming.