1. Agricultural Hearths & Regions

2. Agricultural Hearths Origins of both vegetative and seed agriculture
Mapped out by Carl Sauer
Sauer believed humans had power over their environment and weren’t simply the product of their environment.

3. 2 Distinct Kinds of Agriculture
1. Vegetative Planting
Removing part of the plant and putting it in the ground to grow a new plant.
Ex: fruits and berries
2. Seed Agriculture
Taking seeds from existing plants and planting them to produce new plants.
Most farmers use this method today.

4. Where did agriculture develop?
Three Areas of Vegetative Planting
1. Central America & northwestern South America
2. Western Asia
3. Southeast Asia

5. Where are the three hearths?

6. Why are these the hearths?
All three had….
Tropical regions with climates that were good for growing agricultural products
Large populations to provide a workforce to domesticate plants and animals native to the region.

7. Central American & northwestern South American HEARTH
Who did it: Aztecs, Maya and Incas
Plants: Sweet potato, arrowroot, cotton
Animals: Turkeys, Llamas, Alpacas

8. Western Asia HEARTH Plants: Yams and Palm Oil
Animals: Cattle, Sheep, Goats

9. Southeast Asian Hearth
Plants: Root crops such as taro, bananas, palm trees
Animals: Dogs, pigs, chickens

10. Seed Hearths 1. Central America & parts of Mexico
2. Northeast portions of Africa, including Ethiopia
3. Northern China
4. Northeastern India
Practices diffused to other areas and are still practiced today.

11. Southern Mexico Seed Hearth
Squash, beans, cotton

12. Northeastern Africa Seed Hearth
Coffee
Diffused to Western Africa and then to South America with the slave trade.
Northern South American countries have prospered from the production of coffee.

13. Northern China Seed Hearth
Millet

14. Northeastern India
Rice

15. Importance of trade routes
Helped to diffuse the agricultural products we use today.
Colonialism brought many products to the Western Hemisphere
Diffusion of agricultural products led to different styles of farming around the world.
Climate dictates what is grown there.
Ex: Lemons and Oranges don’t grow well in New England.

16. Agricultural Regions & Types of Farming

17. Two Types of Farming Subsistence
Farmers produce the food that they need to survive on a daily basis.
Food is mostly consumed on the farm by the farmer and family.
Commercial
Farming of products for sale off the farm
Usually done in more developed countries
Usually requires use of machinery

18. Types of Subsistence Farming
Shifting Cultivation
Crop Rotation
Pastoral Nomadism
Extensive Subsistence Agriculture
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
Intertillage

19. Shifting Cultivation
Moving of farm fields after several years in search of more productive soil after depleting the nutrients from the original field.
Usually takes place in tropical areas where soil erodes quickly due to moisture

20. Shifting Cultivation
Farmer will just leave the old field empty and move to next field
To clear the next field he will often burn the vegetation there
This puts nitrogen into the soil, plants love nitrogen
SLASH AND BURN Agriculture

21. Slash-and-burn agriculture
Process leaves scars on land, the dirt left behind after the farmer is done is incapable of growing food.
It can take decades for the soil to return to normal
Puts rainforests and other native ecosystems at risk.
Picture: Slash and Burn from the air

22. Crop Rotation
Ex: Plant corn one year, soybeans the next, and corn again.
Ex: Planting clover helps to replenish the nitrogen taken out of the soil by previous crops.
Crop Rotation- planting of different types of crops each year to replenish the soil with nutrients used by the previous crop.

23. Pastoral Nomadism
Pastoral Nomadism- moving animals on a seasonal basis to areas that have the necessary resources to meet the needs of the herd.
Usually practiced in arid climates that have little precipitation.
Ex: Sahara Desert in Northern Africa where nomads take their herds along trade routes.

24. Nomads

25. Extensive Subsistence Agriculture
Pastoral Nomadism & Shifting Cultivation fit in this category.
Extensive Subsistence has been criticized for causing soil erosion, water degradation and other environmental problems.

26. Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
Intensive Subsistence is a type of agriculture that requires A LOT of work.
Ex: Wet Rice
Grown in a rice Sawah, requires lots of work by hand.

27. Wet Rice

28. Commercial Farming
Commercial Farming- farming of products for sale OFF the farm
Practiced in MDCs
Requires the use of machinery
Mass production of crops
Crops are produced at a reduced price and sold at an increased cost, depending on demand.

29. Commercial Farming
Dakotas
Kansas

30. Mediterranean Agriculture
Must be practiced in a climate that has a dry summer and a cool, moist winter.
Crops: Grapes, dates, olives.

31. Mediterranean Agricultural Regions

32. Dairy Farming
Mechanized milking of cows, cows are hooked up to milking machines.
Dairy Farming: Milk Cows per acre by county

33. Dairy Farming Usually done relatively close to a major market.
Ex: Wisconsin held the title of “dairy state”. It is close to Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, & Minneapolis.
Milk can quickly be shipped to these areas and can be sold before it spoils.

34. Why do we see this?

35. What kind of map. Relative Location of Wisconsin. Aggregation
What kind of map? Relative Location of Wisconsin? Aggregation? Where are the farms?

36. Mixed Livestock with crop production
Cows, grown for their meat and other products, are fed with crops (corn & soybeans) that are grown on the farm.
Cows are sold by the pound, so the fatter the cow the more money the farmer gets.

37. Livestock Ranching
Done on land that is on the fringe of productive land
Needs lots of space to allow animals to roam fields without a farmer

38. Specialized Fruit Production
Large orchards dedicated to a specific fruit.
Southwestern & southeastern United States have a lot of this type of farming.
Ex: Oranges, lemons, limes, peaches, berries and apples.

39. Plantation Agriculture
The plantation itself is in an LDC, while the owner of the plantation is in an MDC.
Ex: Bananas, sugarcane, coffee, and cotton are common plantations.

40. Truck Farms
A farm where farmers produce fruits for the market and ship them in trucks.
Ex: Jolly Green Giant in Minnesota get their veggies from truck farmers
Many truck farms use migrant labor to keep costs low.

41. Suitcase Farms A farm in which no one resides permanently.
Worked by migrant workers who come to work on the farm as a job and go home to a residence off farm property.
Has led to rise of Agribusiness.

42. Suitcase Farms & Agribusiness
Agribusiness- mass production of agricultural products.
Debate between Agribusiness & Family Farms

43. Grain Farming
Mass Planting and Harvesting of grain crops (wheat, barley, millet)
Take up a huge amount of land
Ex: Great Plains in the United States is one of the largest regions in the world that specializes in the production of grain.

44. Grain Production in US