Agriculture and Rural Geography

1. Agriculture and Rural Geography Geography of Modern Agriculture

2. Types of Commercial Agriculture

3. What determines agricultural production in a region? • Climate • Soil • Availability of input materials • Dominant culture system • PLEASE NOTE: Certain technologies, like greenhouses and hydroponics, have allowed many places to overcome environmental limitations.

4. Where are we?

5. Commercial Livestock Production • Two categories: • Livestock ranching- extensive commercial agricultural activity that involves raising of livestock over vast geographic spaces typically located in semi-arid climates like the American West. • Transhumance- the movements of livestock according to seasonal patterns. • Dairying- agricultural activity involving the raising of livestock, most commonly cows and goats, for dairy products such as milk, cheese, and butter.

6. Distribution • Livestock ranching is widespread throughout most of : • Western North America • South America • Southern Africa • Western Asia • Australia • Dairying is common in: • Northern Europe • Northern United States

11. New development! Feedlots • Places where livestock are concentrated in a very small area and raised on hormones and hearty grains that prepare them for slaughter at a much more rapid rate than grazing; often referred to as factory farms. • Extensive cultivation is now intensive cultivation!

12. Commercial Grain Farming • Includes the growing of wheat and corn. • A large component goes toward feeding livestock. • Why? Market value of meat is typically higher than grains. Grains converted into protein by feeding it to livestock • Occurs in : • The North American Great Plains • Southern Russia

16. Tropical Plantations • Mostly grow sugarcane and coffee. • Generally have some form of foreign control through: • Investments • Management • Marketing • Employment of foreigners • Usually non native plant species • Most likely exported to other countries

17. Distributed throughout the tropics in: • Central and South America • Africa • Asia • Caribbean

18. Mixed and Specialty Crop Farming • Extremely diverse and depends largely on climate • Subtropical southeastern United States: citrus fruits, vegetables, and nuts. • Mediterranean Agriculture • An agricultural system practiced in the Mediterranean climates of Western Europe, California, and portions of Chile and Australia in which diverse specialty crops such as grapes, avocados, olives, etc. • Profitable.

20. Agriculture and the Environment

21. Pesticides • Chemicals used on plants that do not harm plants, but kills pests and have negative repercussions on other species who ingest the chemicals.

22. Topsoil Loss • Loss of the top fertile layer of soil through erosion. It is a tremendous problem in areas with fragile soils, steep slopes, or torrential seasonal rains.

23. Salinization • Process that occurs when soils in arid areas are brought under cultivation through irrigation. In arid climates, water evaporates quickly off the ground surface, leaving salty residues that render the soil infertile.

24. Desertification • The process by which formerly fertile lands becomes increasingly arid, unproductive, and desert-like.

26. Urban Sprawl • The process of urban areas expanding outwards, usually in the form of suburbs, and developing over fertile agricultural land.

28. Organic Agriculture • Farming without the aid of artificial inputs such as pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically-engineered seeds.

29. Where would you find organic farms and why?

30. New Movements • Cooperatives • Local Farmer’s Markets