Patterns of Livelihood: Primary Economic Activities

1. Chapter 8 Livelihood & Economy: Primary Activities

2. Economic geography • Study of how people support themselves, with the spatial patterns of production, distribution, and consumption of goods & services, and with the areal variation of economic activities over the surface of the earth. • To understand we use types of activities & organization to understand patterns

3. Categories of activities • 1. Primary activities – • resource extraction or gathering • 2. Secondary activities – • value added to resources • 3. Tertiary activities – • provide services to primary, secondary sections, general community, to individuals • 4. Quaternary activities – • processing & dissemination of information/administration/control of enterprises • 5. Quinary activities – • high-level decision-making roles in large organization, public/private sphere

4. These five sectors are linked and integrated by transportation & communication.

5. National economies: 3 types • 1. Subsistence • Goods & services created for use of producers & kinship groups • 2. Commercial • Free market, supply & demand • 3. Planned • Goods & services were controlled by government agencies (collapsed, yet landscape & cultural ideologies remain) • All intermix – usually one is dominant • The key variable is transportation

6. Patterns of access & isolation – white indicates areas within 20 miles of railroads, Motor transport, or water navigation.

7. Primary activities • Involves the gathering or extracting natural resources • Hunter & gather groups • Two primary activity groups: • Agriculture • Resource exploitation

8. Subsistence agriculture • Near total self-sufficiency – predominant occupation of mankind today • 2 types: • Extensive • Intensive

9. Extensive subsistence agriculture • Represents a very small % of world population • 2 groups: • Nomadic herding • Shifting cultivation

10. Nomadic herding • Wandering, but controlled movement of livestock • Solely dependent upon natural forage • Dry & cold regions • Requires large expanses of land • Transhumance • Small % worldwide

11. Shifting cultivation • nomadic farming - swidden agriculture, slash & burn • Located in warm, moist, lowlands • Involves about 5% of world’s population • Renewable strategy if: • population is low • non-renewable when population is growing

12. Intensive subsistence agriculture • Involves approximately 50% of the world’s population • Some exchange between subsistence & commercial • Warm, moist climates (primarily in monsoon regions), fertile soils, river valleys, deltas • Large labor requirements, small plots of land, intensive use of fertilizers, often double cropped

13. Intensive farming continued • Urban subsistence farming /garden plots • Increasing phenomenon worldwide • Most prevalent in Asia • Both private and commercial use • Significant food source in cities • Converts waste products to fertilizers, but can spread disease

14. Green revolution – 1950s to 2000 • “high-input, high-yield” concept • Characteristics & requirements: • Genetically improved seeds • Irrigation • Mechanization • Fertilization • Pesticide application • Outcome: • Food production increase, yet growing population • Environmental, cultural, economic impacts

15. Impacts • Irrigation problems • Seed genetics • Displaced traditional farmers • Production gains dropping • Population growth uncontrolled

16. Commercial Agriculture • Characteristics: • 1. Specialization • 2. Off-farm sales (not subsistence farming) • 3. Interdependence of producers & buyers through linked markets • Agribusiness

17. Variables for profit • Uncertainties: • 1. Physical nature of farm land – weather • 2. Costs of production • 3. Uncertainties of growing conditions & total volume output • 4. Supply & demand

18. Solution to uncertainties • Contractual agreements • Uniform product quality, timing of delivery • Guaranteed market & price • Agribusiness, the merging of: • 1. Production • 2. Processing • 3. Marketing

19. von Thünen’s Model – 1783 -1850 • increasing distance from city = low-value crops, extensive land use • near city = high-value crops, intensive land use • can be affected by: topography, soil fertility, changes in market

20. Intensive commercial agr. • High yields, high market value • Highly perishable • Limited field size, repeat plantings

21. Extensive commercial agr • Farther from market, cheaper land • Large land size required • Dry farming / livestock ranching • Low labor requirements • Marginal land quality

22. Livestock ranching & special crop agriculture Principal wheat-growing areas of the world

23. Resources – primary activity • Two classifications: • Gathering industries • Harvesting of renewable resources • Extractive industries • Removal of non-renewable minerals

24. Natural resources • Naturally occurring materials that humans view as necessary/useful for its economic/material well-being • Renewable • maximum sustainable yield • Non-renewable • Humans have a changing view of resources

25. Fishing • Primary, renewable resource • 75% of world catch = human consumption • 1 billion people rely upon this resource • 25% = processed fish meal for livestock/fertilizers • One of the most dangerous industries • U.S.: 86 deaths per 100,000

26. Fish supplies • 120 million tons harvested worldwide • Maximum sustainable yield is exceeded • Sources: • 1. Inland catch • 2. Fish farming • 3. Marine catch

27. Overfishing & problems • Collapse of certain species • Problems: • 1. Effect of El Nino • 2. Pollution of inland & coastal waters • 3. Destruction of mangrove forests, coastal wetlands, estuaries, shallow continental shelf areas

28. Tragedy of the Commons • Accepted view that world’s oceans are common property – open to all • No one is responsible for its maintenance, protection, improvement – no collective controls • Each user - exploits resource to maximum – otherwise someone else will do so

29. Results • 1982 – United Nations Convention on the “Law of the Sea” treaty • Gave control of 200 nautical miles to nearest country • Increasing fish farming • Aquaculture – both marine & freshwater

30. Forestry • Primary, renewable resource • 12,000 years ago forest covered 45% of earth • Today = 30% • Two large global belts of commercial forests: • Upper-middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere • Equatorial zones of South & Central America, Central Africa, Southeast Asia • One of the most dangerous industries • U.S.: 92 deaths per 100,000, highest danger rate

31. Major commercial forest regions

32. Mid-latitude forests • Largest, most continuous stand, extending around the globe • Boreal, temperate, 40°N to 70°N • Northern region of forest • Coniferous, softwoods • Pine, spruce, fir • Largest, most continuous stand, low diversity • Construction uses, lumber, pulp • Southern region of forest • Deciduous hardwoods • Oak, maple, hickory, birch • Greatly reduced

33. Condition today • Both regions threatened by: • Acid rain, atmospheric pollution, over harvesting, invasive species • Areas held constant through: • Conservation, preservation/protection, reforestation

34. Tropical lowland forests • South & Central America, Central Africa, Southeast Asia • Mahogany, teak • Biodiversity, heavy forests can restrict ease of extraction • Primarily located in the developing world • Primarily exploited for: • Fuel, charcoal, and increasingly for lumber

35. Problems & threats • Northern forests: • 45% is for industrial use • Southern forests: • 55% is for fuelwood/charcoal use • Forest depletion = • Loss of a renewable resource • Conversion to agricultural lands – marginalized • Economic/ecological implications

36. Fur trapping & trade • Ancient practice, dependent on northern forests • 1960s – anti-fur campaigns began & continue • Farmed furs = today, 85% of industry • Northern forest belt • Increasingly challenged for inhumane treatment of animals • Public banning of fur products

37. Mining & quarrying • Primary, non-renewable resources • Distribution is uneven, determined by past geologic events • Extraction is possible with technology • First –most accessible, highest quality • Second – lower-grade quality ore • Requires higher energy consumption for extraction • Deeper in earth • Lower grade • Smaller deposits

38. Mineral resources • Non-renewable resource • 1. Proven resources • 2. Known reserves • 3. Potential reserves • Mining & mineral extraction: one of the three top most dangerous industries

39. Metallic minerals • Copper, lead, iron ore • Most abundant locations: • Russia, Canada, China, United States, Brazil, Australia • Production is balanced by: • 1. Quantity available • 2. Richness of ore • 3. Distance to markets • Dynamic market results in varying interests in deposits

40. Non-metallic minerals • Common: sand/gravel, gypsum, limestone, building stone • Two types of usage: • Construction use (ingredients for cement) • Widest distribution, greatest use, least long-distance movement • Fertilizer use (potash, phosphate) • Unequal distribution • International trade higher market value

41. Mineral fuels • Fossil fuels: coal, petroleum, natural gas • Made industrial revolution possible • Non-renewable

42. Coal • Coal: earliest usage, most plentiful • Largest reserves • United States, China, Northern Hemisphere • open-pit (surface mining) • Very damaging to environment – cutting off of entire hilltops • relatively cheap extraction costs • shaft mining • expensive, more dangerous • Very polluting – slag heaps, ecosystem destruction • Bulky to move

43. Petroleum • 75% of proven reserves in just 7 countries • Usage boomed in 20th century • Costs & effects: • Cheaper & easier to move than coal • Polluting – global warming • Reserves are diminishing • Due to distribution & lack of availability – market value fluctuations, politically sensitive

44. Natural gas • 25% of global energy consumption • Popular due to: • Highly efficient, versatile • Requires little processing • Environmentally safe • Problems: • Uneven distribution • Difficult to move • Pipeline, good, but transoceanic, difficult at best • Limited supply