Chapter 6: Agriculture

1. 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

2. 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

3. The Fertile Crescent

4. Origins of Plant and Animal Domestication Rise of specialized agriculture & towns engaged in localized trading

5. 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

6. Percent of Labor Force in Agriculture

9. Spatial Variations in the Quality of Agricultural Resources and Rent Too Hot Zero 10 25 Impact of temperature & precipitation on yield & cost 50 Temperature OPTIMUM Too Dry Too Wet 10 5 2 0 5 2 10 30  Too Cold Precipitation

10. 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

11. Agricultural Systems

13. Nomadic Movement in NW Africa Also – transhumance in mountainous terrain such as the Pyrenees the Alps or in Norway

14. World Rice Production

15. Commercial Agriculture Tractors per 1000 hectares as an indicator of capital intensity

16. Commercial Agriculture in the U.S. • Domination of agribusiness – vertical integration – capital & energy intensive – reliance on hybrid seeds / stocks

17. Corn Production

18. Wheat Production

19. Grain Yield and Production, Developing Countries

20. Global Population and Grain Production

21. Increased Interregional and International Trade in Agriculture

22. Specialized Agricultural Regions

23. U.S. Agricultural Policy – Farm Prices

24. Farm Subsidy Programs

25. Support Programs Differentially Benefit Large Corporate Farms

26. 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

27. 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

28. Land Rent Gradients

29. Basic Land-Rent Model Rent.xls 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

30. Rent Gradient and Rent Cone

31. Multiple Centers & Ag. Land UseSingle Crops or CombinationsThe agricultural trade system B A A Crop 1Crop 2Crop 3

32. Land Use – competing crops

33. Von Thünen Land Use Scheme

34. Forests around Addis Ababa

35. Spatial Variations in the Quality of Agricultural Resources, cont. Defined across all competing uses Defined relative to a market location Limits for particular crops / animals Locational Rent vs. economic rent Crop C Crop A Crop D Crop B

36. 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 Limit of expected urban growth Distance from urban center

37. Washington Agricultural Land Values - 1974

38. Land Use Bauria, India

39. Location Rents in Urban Areas Location Rent Industrial Residential Agricultural Distance from Center Commercial