This document provides an overview of agriculture. It discusses how agriculture began around 10,000 years ago through the deliberate cultivation of plants and domestication of animals. It contrasts hunting and gathering societies with agricultural societies. The document then covers the origins of vegetative and seed-based agriculture in different regions. It discusses the differences between subsistence and commercial agriculture. It also maps the global distribution of major agricultural regions and how they correlate with climate zones. Finally, it discusses tools for identifying and protecting productive farmland from urban expansion.

1. An Introduction to Human Geography
The Cultural Landscape, 8e
James M. Rubenstein
Chapter 10
Agriculture
PPT by Abe Goldman

2. Agriculture- Issue 1
• Agriculture
– Is the deliberate modification of Earth’s
surface through the cultivation of plants
and rearing of animals to obtain
sustenance or economic gain.
– The 1st Agricultural Revolution occurred
around 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia,
although many sites are designated as
agricultural hearths.

3. Agriculture- Issue 1
• Before Agriculture
– All humans probably obtained the food
they needed for survival through hunting
for animals, fishing, or gathering plants.
– People lived in small groups called “bands”
in an egalitarian manner, although women
usually gathered and men usually hunted.
– The groups were nomadic and followed
seasonal patterns depending on food
sources and animal herds.

4. Agriculture- Issue 1
Today, only a quarter of a
million people—less than
0.005 percent of the
global population-practices hunting and
gathering. On the fringes
of society in the interior of
Africa, Australia, South
America and around the
Arctic, it still exists.

5. Agriculture- Issue 1
Agriculture may have begun gradually through the
care of and tending to known food sources or the
discovery of seeds or it may have begun by
surprise. Regardless, Vegetative Planting
probably emerged before Seed Agriculture.

6. Vegetative Planting Hearths
Vegetative planting is the reproduction of plants by direct cloning
from existing plants, such as cutting stems and dividing roots.
There were several main hearths for vegetative crops such as
roots and tubers from which the crops diffused to other areas.

7. Seed Agriculture Hearths
Seed agriculture is probably what you think of as agriculture or
farming. It is the reproduction of plants through the annual
planting of seeds.
Fig. 10-2: Seed agriculture also originated in several
hearths and diffused from those elsewhere.

8. Subsistence v. Commercial Ag.
Subsistence Ag., found in LDCs, is the production of food
primarily for consumption by the farmer’s family. Farms are
usually small, the purpose of this type of agriculture is to feed
the family. Subsistence agriculturalists usually make up a high
percentage of the economic activity in the society in which they
live. Subsistence farmers use hand tools and animal power to
produce their crops. They do NOT have significant relationships
with manufacturers.
Commercial Ag., found in MDCs, is the production of food
primarily for sale off the farm. Farms are large, but farmers are
few, and farmers have important relationships with
manufacturers or wholesalers. The purpose is to make money
through the sale of harvests. Commercial farmers use
machines and mechanized labor and scientific knowledge to
produce their yields. Commercial farmers are in agribusiness.

9. Labor Force in Agriculture
A large proportion of workers in most LDCs are in agriculture,
while only a small percentage of workers in MDCs are
engaged in agriculture.

10. Tractors, per Population
Fig. 10-4: Tractors per 1,000 people. Use of machinery is extensive in most MDC
agriculture, but it is much less common in LDCs.

11. Agricultural Regions & Climate
• Whittlesey showed the relationship between
agricultural regions and climate.
• Climate influences the crop that is grown, or whether
animals are raised instead of growing any crop.
• Pastoral nomadism is the predominant type of
agriculture in the Middle East, which has a dry
climate.
• Shifting cultivation is the predominant type of
agriculture in central Africa, which has a tropical
climate.
• Culture influence agriculture (Hog (pig/swine) production
low to nonexistent in predominantly Muslim (and Jewish)
regions due to religious taboo on pork).

12. World Agriculture Regions
Locations of the major types of subsistence and commercial
agriculture mirror major climate areas in most cases, but not
100%. See the next map.

13. World Climate Regions
Simplified map of the main world climate regions. Again, this map
is similar to the agricultural model seen previously.

14. Contemporary Geographic Tools—
Protecting Farmland
Fig. 10-7:
Overlaps of soil
quality,
environme
ntal and
cultural
features,
and
population
growth
may show
areas of
greatest
threat of
farmland
loss in
A serious problem in the United States has been the loss of the most productive farmland,
Maryland.
known as prime agricultural land, as urban areas sprawl into the surrounding countryside.
Baltimore and
Washingto