Types of Commercial Farming

o Truck Farms - farm where farmers produce fruits for market. Farmers will bring in produce to

the City Market on the weekends. Sales will take place there, but the farm is somewhere else.

o Suitcase Farms - no one resides there permanently; mostly staffed by migrant workers

o Agribusiness - mass production of agricultural products

o Agricultural industrialization - increased mechanization of the farming process to increase

productivity and profits (started to occur during the Industrial Revolution)

Von Thünen’s Model of Land Use

This was conceived by Johann Heinrich von Thü nen. Farmers will choose what crops are grown

in direct relation to how far the farm is from the market. In order of distance (closest farms up

first):

1. Market-Gardening Activities - various heavy, bulky products (melons, veggies) – need to be

close to market because they will spoil, and it costs too much to transport.

2. Dairy Farming - produced close to market, cost of transportation for cooling

3. Livestock Farming

a) Fattening add weight to animals and farmers do this to increase sale price.

b) Feedlots specialize in cattle or hogs—these animals are not put to pasture.

4. Commercial Grain Farming - selling of wheat, corn, millet, other grains

a) Combines - separate seed from shaft of plant

b) Food chain - grain sent to market in trailers, sold to producer who makes product (bread),

product sold to wholesaler, sells to grocery store, individuals can buy it

5. Livestock Ranching - uses most land per farm of any other zones

6. Nonagricultural Land Use - isn’t really a zone of agriculture because distance to market is so far

that farmer cannot productively or profitably sell his goods.

Environmental Impact

Effects and costs

Agriculture asserts external costs on society through effects such as pesticide damage to

nature (particularly herbicides and insecticides), nutrient runoff, immoderate

water usage, and loss of natural environment. Agriculture’s aim is to increase yield and to reduce

costs. Yield increments with factors like fertilizers and removal of pathogens, predators, and

competitors (such as weeds). Costs decrease with growing scale of farm units, like making large

fields. While the use of pesticides seems beneficial to better crop yield, this and other measures

have decreased biodiversity on an intensively farmed land. Current studies reveal that

agriculture and food consumption are two of the most important drivers of environmental

pressures, particularly habitat change, climate change, water use and toxic discharges.

Livestock issues
 Livestock production engages 70% of all land used for agriculture, or 30% of the land surface of the

planet. It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases. It has been cited that livestock expansion is a key

factor driving deforestation. An example would be that about 70% of the previously forested area of the

Amazon basin is currently occupied by pastures, while the remainder is used for feed crops. Deforestation and

land degradation for livestock has caused reductions in biodiversity.

Land and water issues

Land transformation is the use of land to yield goods and services. It severely alters the

Earth's ecosystems and is blamed for the loss of biodiversity. This land transformation has led to

rise in Zoonotic disease like the Coronavirus disease 2019 because it degrades natural buffers

between humans and animals, reduces biodiversity, and creates big groups of animals that share

genetic similarities.

Inordinate fertilization and manure utilization to cropland, and high livestock stocking

densities cause nutrient (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) runoff and leaching from agricultural

land. These substances are major nonpoint pollutants that contributes to eutrophication of

aquatic ecosystems and pollution of groundwater. Agriculture accounts for 70% of withdrawals

of freshwater resources. Utilization of water for agriculture can also drive environmental

problems like devastation of natural wetlands, the spread of water- borne diseases, and land

degradation by salinization and waterlogging, when irrigation is executed poorly.