AGRICULTURE
Cultural Geography
California State University,
Northridge
Introduction
• Effective agricultural practice is the taproot of civilization.
• Without agricultural surplus, urbanization and industrialization is not possible.
• Political and military power is often rooted in the ability to produce agricultural surpluses.
Subsistence Farming
• Most of the world’s farmers plant only enough for themselves.
• Many of these subsistence systems are sustainable.
• Some are not.
• In some parts of Asia and Africa 80% of the people are subsistence farmers.
• What percent of US workers are farming?
Agricultural Regions
• Defined by the type of crops grown, the style of labor and the use of land.
fig
figure
Shifting Cultivation
(Slash and Burn, Swidden, Milpa)
• Mostly in the tropical and equatorial areas of Latin America and Africa. Some in the rainforests of Southeast Asia.
• Required because of the poor soils of the rainforests, but very energy efficient.
• A “land rotation” system. Requires few, supports few. Fallow periods must be maintained.
• Sustainable, Healthy. Intertillage is common.
fig
Paddy Rice Farming
• Mostly found in South/Southeast Asia
• Flooded rice fields.
• Supports many, requires many.
• Double cropping (single, double grain)
• Intercropping
• Green Revolution technologies
Fig: Paddy Rice Terrace-Bali Indonesia
Peasant Grain, Root, and Livestock Farming
• In moderately drier parts of Middle East, Africa and Asia
• Mostly root crops, with some grains plus livestock ranching.
• Frequently not nutritionally balanced.
• Green Revolution not helpful.
Sweet Potato Field-New Guinea
Mediterranean Agriculture
• Almost non existent in subsistence form.
• Specialized crops that include?
• Now similar to market gardening.
• Where in the U.S.?
• What is the controlling variable?
Mediterranean Agriculture-Crete Greece
Nomadic Herding
• Practiced in very dry areas of Africa and Asia, but dying out.
• Africans raise cattle, Asians raise water buffalo
• Characterized by the constant search for food for livestock.
• Who else were nomadic herders?
Nomadic Herding-Kurdistan
Commercial Agricultural Systems
• Marked by profit seeking farmers, characterizes much of 1st World Farming
• Can produce enormous food surpluses
• Can wreak environmental havoc
• Frequently come with intense social injustices in the Third World.
Plantation Agriculture
• Commerical agriculture that focuses on non-staple, export-oriented crops at the expense of traditional agricultural systems and food crops.
• Developed in the Americas, exported to Africa and Asia. Tends to be coastal.
Plantation Agriculture
• Socially and economically unjust. Becoming more so as labor is replaced by machinery.
• Prone to market swings. Consider Juan Valdez.
• Coffee, Sugar Cane, Bananas, Tea, Cacao, Tobacco and Spices
Plantation Sign-Costa Rica
• Welcome to Freehold Plantation: Where labor harmony reigns...
Tea Plantation-Papua New Guinea
Market (Truck)Gardening
• Mostly in the first world
• Generally specialized for urban markets
• Dependent upon seasonal (immigrant) labor
• New Jersey, Meatchicken, California
• Where in California?
Commercial Livestock Fattening
• Hogs and Cattle brought in for fattening
• In areas of the Great Plains of the US
• Much of the corn and soybeans grown in the US goes to feed cattle.
• Is this efficient?
• Expansion of production areas in environmentally sensitive rainforest.
Feedlot-Colorado
Commercial Grain Farming
• Much of the grain grown in the US is grown to feed livestock. Efficiency?
• Where is the corn belt; wheat belt; rice belt in the United States?
• Are there international competitors?
• Suitcase farming
• Agribusiness vs. the family farmer
• Recent farm bill.
Wheat Harvesting-Kansas?
Commercial Dairying
• Also near large urban areas. Upstate New York, Wisconsin, New England.
• Butter, Cheese or Milk?
– Depends on where your cows are and markets are.
• Where in California?
• Also employs the feedlot system
So you fancy yourself a ‘geographer’ do you? Well, let me tell you something about geography...
Livestock Ranching
• Cattle and Sheep ranching
• US and Canada (Beef) also in the Pampas of South America
• Sheep ranching popular in Australia, NZ, Argentina and South Africa
Hay Farming
Urban Agriculture
• Big city people also have tiny little farms or backyard plots, especially in the Third World.
• A very important source of food in China.
• Has become a source of controversy in New York City
Nonagricultural Areas
• Much of the world cannot support any type of agriculture.
• These areas have no civilization
• The people (very few left) subsist by hunting and gathering their food.
II. Agricultural Diffusion
• As odd as it might seem today, there are lots of fruits and vegetables that our relatively near ancestors knew nothing of. The Columbian Exchange is a monumental moment in the historical development of Europe.
Origin and Diffusion of Plant Domestication
• Genetic Isolation of superior seed stock and selective breeding
• Knee high by the Fourth of July?
• Sir Mix-a-Lot and African agriculture?
Three Hearths:
• Fertile Crescent: bread grains, apples, olives
• Southeast Asia: rice, citrus, sugar cane, spices
• Middle America: maize, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, chilies
• Still occurring?
Major Hearths
Origin and Diffusion of Animal Domestication
• Probably later than plant domestication with the exception of the dog
• Pigs and cattle domesticated early, probably in Middle East
• Population pressures may have accelerated the process by forcing people into non-productive areas.
Chiles and Corn in Nepal?
Modern Innovations in Agriculture
• Book discusses the diffusion of agriculture and hybrid maize
Green Revolution
• A term that describes a period of time when a number of agricultural advances were made, especially during the post war period.
• Required increased chemical and mechanical inputs used hybridized seed stock and other technological advances.
• Mostly grain crops affected.

Green Revolution
(Pros and Cons)
• Has fed far more mouths than possible with before.
• Gene banks set up.
• Poor farmers can’t afford seeds and fertilizers.
• Poor farmers ousted.
• Environmentally damaging.
• Lack of plant diversity
• Some places not helped
Green Revolution
Intensity of artificial fertilizer use
Intensity of artificial fertilizer use
III. Agricultural Ecology
• Asks how does the environment condition the choice of crops and the style of agriculture?
Cultural Adaptation
• Weather and Climate are most important variables.
• Soils (dependent upon weather) are also key
• Topography also plays a role.
• Western farming strategies may not be effective in the long run for 3rd world
Terrain and Profit
Agriculturists as Modifiers of the Environment
• Major impact has been the deforestation of much of the world.
• Desertification has been another major effect in Africa and Asia
• Waterlogging and salinization are serious problems in some areas.
• Aquifer abuse has serious consequences
• Pollution by farmers is very serious; red tides
Overgrazing-Turkey
Environmental Perception by Agriculturists
• We perceive the ability of the land to care for us through our cultural lenses, which are frequently out of focus.

IV. Cultural Integration in Agriculture
• A. Dietary Preferences
• B. Intensity of Land Use
– Intensive vs. Extensive agriculture
• Von Thunen Model.
Von Thunen’s Model
Von Thunen in Practice-Uruguay
Von Thunen: US
V. Agricultural Landscapes
• Cadastral and Field Patterns
• Different strategies for dividing land, each with different political aims and outcomes; each with different ecological costs and benefits.
Land survey patterns
Metes and Bounds
• Characterized by irregular patterns on the land.
• Created in a nearly random pattern by surveyors, land speculators and buyers.
• Can be found in much of the 13 original colonies, except in New England where they had a village farms system.
Township and Range
• Devised in the US by Thomas Jefferson who wanted to promote democracy through equitable distribution of land.
• (6)40 acres and a mule ideology…
• Found in much of the US west of the Appalachian Mountains.
• Not particularly environment-friendly.
• Dominates landscapes in the Midwest.
Cadastral Systems
Longlots
• Found in many regions of Europe and introduced into North America by the French.
• Provides access to transportation (esp. rivers) for each.
• Egalitarian as well.
Longlots-Montreal
Longlots-Germany
What cadastral strategy is this?
Fencing-Papua New Guinea