Chapter 6: Agriculture

• Pre-industrial agricultural forms and

regions
• Commercial agriculture and trade
• U.S. agricultural policy
• Sustainable agriculture as an ecological
alternative to contemporary forms of food
production
• Von Thünen model of agricultural
production
 Formation of the Global
Agricultural System
• By 1500 agriculture across much of the
New and Old World
• Development of family farm regions in
areas of European settlement in mid-
latitudes
• Development of plantation colonies in
tropical Asia, Africa & Latin America
– Labor intensive
• Disappearance of hunting and gathering
The Fertile Crescent
Origins of Plant and Animal Domestication

Rise of specialized agriculture & towns engaged in localized trading

 Industrialization of Agriculture
• Capital intensive, high energy use,
concentration of economic power, low cost
production
• Environmental impacts: depleted soil and
water resources, pollution, destroyed a
way of life in rural communities
• Figure 6.3 - % employed in primary activity
Percent of Labor Force in Agriculture
 Spatial Variations in the Quality
of Agricultural Resources
• Impact of temperature & precipitation on yield &
cost Too Hot and Rent
Zero
10
Temperature

25
Too Dry

Too Wet
50
OPTIMUM
5 10 5 2 0
10 2
30

Too Cold
Precipitation
 Subsistence Agriculture
• Most work done by hand, by families, with
animal power but not mechanical
equipment
• Most production consumed by farm
families
• Intensive subsistence agriculture vs.
peasant agriculture in semiarid E. Africa
• Agriculture still dominates work, plots are
small, types of subsistence agriculture: (1)
shifting cultivation, (2) pastoral nomadism,
(3) intensive subsistence agriculture
Agricultural
Systems
Nomadic Movement in NW Africa

Also – transhumance
in mountainous
terrain such as
the Pyrenees
the Alps or in
Norway
World Rice Production
 Commercial Agriculture
Tractors per 1000 hectares as an indicator
of capital intensity
 Commercial Agriculture in the U.S.
• Domination of agribusiness – vertical
integration – capital & energy intensive –
reliance on hybrid seeds / stocks
Corn Production
Wheat Production
Grain Yield and Production,
Developing Countries
Global Population and Grain Production
 Increased Interregional and
International Trade in Agriculture
Specialized Agricultural Regions
U.S. Agricultural Policy – Farm Prices
Farm Subsidy Programs
Support Programs Differentially
Benefit Large Corporate Farms
 Sustainable Agriculture
• Alternatives to monoculture, and heavy
use of pesticides and energy inputs
• Such as programs of social, ecological,
and economic health for agricultural land
and communities
• Options include: organic farming,
agroecology, holistic management, urban
gardening, community-supported
agriculture, natural systems agriculture
• Reliance on local knowledge &
minimization of ecological impacts
 Von Thünen’s Location Theory
• Assumptions in modern rendering of this
theory
• The isotropic plain
• Rent: Economic Rent as envisaged in
Von Thünen’s model, versus rent like you
and I pay to landlords or banks
• Von Thünen’s model: The role of wood
historically
Land Rent Gradients
 Basic Land-Rent Model
Rent.xls

Land Rent = Yield (Market Price

minus Production Cost) - Yield
*transport rate*distance)
LR = E(p-a)-E*f*k
If: E = 4, P = 5, a = 2, f = .1, k = 10,
LR = 4 (5 - 2) - 4*.1*10
= 12 - 4
= 8
Rent Gradient and Rent Cone
Multiple Centers & Ag. Land Use
Single Crops or Combinations
The agricultural trade system

A B A

Crop 1 Crop 2 Crop 3

Land Use – competing crops
Von Thünen Land Use Scheme
Forests around Addis Ababa
 Spatial Variations in the
Quality of Agricultural
Resources, cont.
Limits for particular crops / animals
Locational Rent vs. economic rent

Defined relative Defined across all

to a market location competing uses

Crop C
Crop A
Crop D
Crop B
 Empirical Evidence for
Agricultural Production
Von Thünen’s famous studies
Bauria, India; Addis Ababa
Farm Land Use Values - Washington
counties
Sinclair’s Reversal of von Thünen’s
Analysis
Rent Limit of expected
urban growth
Distance from urban center
Washington Agricultural Land
Values - 1974
Land Use Bauria, India
 Location Rents in Urban
Areas
Rent
Location

Industrial

Residential

Agricultural

Commercial Distance from Center