1. Introduction to Agriculture

2. Overview What is agriculture?
Where, when, and why did agriculture start?
Where did our food originate? (Hearths)
Vocabulary words will be red, green and blue!

3. What is Agriculture
Agriculture: planting and harvesting crops and raising animals for food or to make money
Cultivate: to care for (plant, grow, and harvest)
Crop: any plant cultivated by people

4. What is Agriculture? Who are the farmers of the world?
½ of the people in developing countries (LDCs) are farmers – most only grow enough for themselves
Less than 2% of the people in the US are farmers – they produce enough food for everyone in the US and then some

5. Where, when, and why did agriculture start?
Agriculture began before recorded history – we don’t know exactly when it started
Logical sequence of events based on artifacts and what we know about the world of the past

6. Where, when, and why did agriculture start?
Before agriculture: Hunting and Gathering
Hunting for animals and gathering plants within walking distance
Frequent travel to find seasonal food
Nearly 250,000 people still survive this way today

7. Where, when, and why did agriculture start?
Agricultural Revolution: time when humans first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied on hunting and gathering
Domesticate: to intentionally grow something (rather than finding it in the wild)
When did it occur? ~8000BCE
How do we know this? The world’s population began to grow more rapidly
More stable food source = people can survive!

8. Where did our food originate? (Hearths)
Crop Hearth: origin of a crop
There are five main crop hearths:
Southwest Asia (Middle East)
East Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Latin America
Southeast Asia
Diffusion: spread of something

10. Where did our food originate? (Hearths)
Southwest Asia (Middle East)
Barley, wheat, lentils, oats, rye, olives
East Asia
Rice, soybeans, chestnuts, walnuts
Sub-Saharan Africa
Yams, sorghum, cowpea, african rice, coffee

11. Where did our food originate? (Hearths)
Latin America
Squash, pepper, cassava, cotton, lima beans, maize (corn), potato, sweet potato
Southeast Asia
Mango, taro, coconut, pigeonpea

12. Where did our food originate? (Hearths)
Animal Hearths:
Southwest Asia (Middle East): largest number of domesticated animals important for agriculture
Cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, dogs (?)
East Asia
Horses
South East Asia
Cattle, chickens
Latin America
Llama
Alpaca
Turkey