Human Geography Emergency Remote Learning Resources Urbanization Unit Part 1 (Agriculture)

This section will include the resources for the Agriculture section of the Urbanization unit

For the key issue "Where Did Agriculture Originate?" you need to look at crop and domesticated animal hearths and understand the difference between subsistence and commercial agriculture.




For the key question "Why Do People Consume Different Foods"? The modern Canadian farm is mechanized and highly productive, especially compared to subsistence farms found in much of the rest of the world. This difference represents one of the most basic contrasts between the more developed and less developed countries of the world. Consumption of food also varies around the world, both in total amount and source of nutrients. These differences result from a combination of level of development, physical conditions, and cultural preferences. So you'll need to examine these differences.



 You'll need to work on the following:

1. Which of the three main cereal grains is most prevalent in your diet and why do you think that is so?
2. Compare world distributions of wheat, rice, and maize production. To what extent do differences derive from environmental conditions and to what extent from food preferences and other social customs?
3. How many kilocalories are in a Big Mac? You can use Google to find the answer. How does one Big Mac compare to the daily caloric intake of the average African?
4. Define undernourishment:
5. How much of the world suffers from undernourishment? Where are those places?

National Geographic What the World Eats
Our World in Data World Caloric Consumption
Canadian Geographic Mapping Calorie Consumption by Country
Government of Canada Daily Calorie Requirement Guide
Dons Nutrition Calculator
Peter Menzel Hungry Planet Food Portraits


For the Key Issue "Where Is Agriculture Distributed"? Geographer Derwent Whittlesey mapped the world’s agricultural regions in 1936 which helped lay the foundation for the modern division of the Earth into agriculture regions. The five agriculture regions primarily seen in developing countries are intensive subsistence, wet-rice dominant; intensive subsistence, crops other than rice dominant; pastoral nomadism; shifting cultivation; and plantation and with this, you'll need to answer the following:

1. What is pastoral nomadism and in what type of climate is it usually found?
2. How do pastoral nomads obtain grain (several ways)?
3. What is transhumance?
4. In what way do modern governments currently threaten pastoral nomadism?
5. How is land owned in a typical village that practices shifting cultivation?
6. What percentage of the world’s land area is devoted to shifting cultivation?
7. Describe the PROS and CONS of shifting cultivation, or the arguments made for it and criticisms leveled against it on the chart in the work package.
8. Define and describe plantation farming by filling out the chart in the work package.

The Past, Present and Future of Agriculture

National Geographic Agriculture

In developed countries "agribusiness" include mixed crop and livestock; dairying; grain; ranching; Mediterranean; and commercial gardening. Agribusiness is a broad area that includes food production and services related to agribusiness like food processing, packaging, storing, distributing, and retailing. Canada is the 5th largest agricultural exporter in the world, and the agriculture and agri-food industry employs 2.3 million Canadians (that's 1 in 8 jobs)


You have two additional questions to work:

1. Why do some regions specialize in “milk products” like cheese and butter rather than fluid milk?  Identify some of these important regions.
2. What country is the world’s largest producer of dairy products?

Try to look at the problem of overproduction of food in the developed world and food waste





For the key question "Why Do Farmers Face Economic Difficulties"? Commercial and subsistence farmers face comparable challenges. Both commercial and subsistence farmers have difficulty generating enough income to continue farming.

Rice farmers of the Philippines from Dan Chung on Vimeo.



The underlying reasons, though, are different. Commercial farmers can produce a surplus of food, whereas many subsistence farmers are barely able to produce enough food to survive. Because the purpose of commercial farming is to sell produce off the farm, the distance from the farm to the market influences the farmer’s choice of crop to plant. A commercial farmer initially considers which crops to cultivate and which animals to raise based on market location and the von Thünen model tries to help explain this.

Answer the following questions about von Thünen’s model:

Who was von Thünen?
According to this model, what two factors does a farmer consider when deciding what to plant?
How does cost determine what farmers grow?
How does transportation cost influence profitability of growing wheat?
How could von Thünen's model be applied at a global scale?

You'll also need to look at Genetically Modified Organisms (connected to food). Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are living organisms that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained using modern biotechnology. US agricultural scientist  Norman Borlaug successfully bred what became known as miracle seeds of high-yielding dwarf wheat varieties. He and others launched what is known as the "green revolution"; yields could be doubled or even trebled with heavy doses of synthetic chemical fertilizers and other inputs. On the back of his discoveries, countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are said to have averted famines and started to export grains

Until last year, only four GM crops have been grown in Canada: corn, canola, soy and white sugar beet (for sugar processing). In 2016, GM alfalfa was planted for the first time and in March 2016, a GM potato was approved. The potato is genetically engineered to have less asparagine, an amino acid that oxidizes into acrylamide (a probable carcinogen) at high-temperatures (e.g. frying). Source Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN). Also AquaBounty Technologies has indicated that it sold GM salmon filets here in Canada where Atlantic Salmon have been endowed with a growth hormone taken from Pacific chinook salmon that makes it grow faster. GM is especially widespread in the United States. Three-fourths of the processed food that Americans consume has at least one genetically modified ingredient





You have some questions to answer for me:

1. There is little new land available for farming.  In fact, the current trend is to reduce agricultural land rather than increase it.  Identify and briefly describe three reasons why land is currently being removed from agricultural use.
2. Why do you think Europeans generally avoid genetically modified food while Americans generally do not? Does your family avoid foods made with GMO seeds? Why or why not?
3. Describe the characteristics of the “miracle wheat seed”.
4. Describe the characteristics of the “miracle rice seed”.
5. What specific problems do farmers in LDCs have which might prevent them from taking full advantage of the Green Revolution?
6. What three crops are often genetically modified?
7. Approximately how much of major crops in the US are genetically modified?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified foods?

Lastly, you'll look at food prices and the growing crisis of farmer suicide rates. Food prices, rather than food supply, has emerged as the greatest challenge to world food supply in the twenty-first century. For instance, food prices have more than doubled between 2006 and 2008, remained at record high levels through 2014, and declined sharply in 2015.



We'll also look at the suicide crisis among farmers



Then, watch the movie FOOD, INC.