chapter 6: agriculture pre-industrial agricultural forms and regions commercial agriculture and...
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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