Assignment Guide Chapter 11: Agriculture

Major Themes:
1. What is agriculture, and where did agriculture begin?
2. How did agriculture change with industrialization?
3. What imprint does agriculture make on the cultural landscape?
4. What is the global pattern of agriculture and agribusiness?

Thursday, 4/22 Penguin Atlas of Food, pp. 38-47.

- Industrial Farming (13)
- Agricultural Research and Development (14)
- Genetic Modification (15)
- Genetically Modified Crops (16)
- Pesticides (17)

Friday, 4/23 DQs for pp. 328-339

1. Identify the two factors that motivated soybean production in western South Dakota.
2. Examine Figure 11.2. Account for the virtual absence of organic farms in the Southeast United States.
3. Discuss the advantages of organic foods.
4. Analyze the role of tertiary sector economic activities in US agricultural production.
5. Compare and contrast root and seed crops.
6. Examine the sequential development of ancient states in the Fertile Crescent and Nile Valley (Figure 11.3).
7. Discuss the principal uses of domesticated animals. Try to identify the use or uses not mentioned in the
book.
8. Analyze Jared Diamond’s finding on animal domestication.
9. Examine the general (not strict sense) characteristics of subsistence farmers.
10. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of shifting cultivation (including slash-and-burn).

Saturday, 4/24 Comprehensive Practice Exam

Monday, 4/26 DQs, pages 339-343.

11. Examine the innovations that governments and private farmers used to expand production during the Second
Agricultural Revolution (Industrial Revolution).
12. Analyze the conclusion that Johann Henirich Von Thünen drew from his observations of the spatial
distribution of agricultural production around the 19th century city of Rostock.
13. Discuss IR 36 as an example of the Third Agricultural Revolution (Green Revolution).
14. Account for the limited achievements of the Green Revolution in Africa.
15. Assess the achievements of the Green Revolution.
16. Examine the effects of increased rice production on rural women in Gambia.
17. Read the “Thinking Geographically” paragraph on page 343 and discuss the ethical (not ethnical!) problems
involved.

Tuesday, 4/27 Discussion questions for pages 343-349.

18. Analyze the purposes of the cadastral system.
19. Discuss the content and purpose of the rectangular survey system that developed from the township-and-
range system.
20. Identify the location of the longlot survey system in the US and explain its possible advantages in that region.
21. Account for the location of the metes and bounds survey system in the US. Try to explain why the same
system was not adopted in New England.
22. Account for the greater fragmentation of farmlands in Africa, Asia, and Southern Europe.
23. Explain the reasons for nucleated villages, fragmented land ownership patterns, and the long-lot system
depicted in Figure 11.11.
24. Discuss the advantages and possible disadvantages of the Round Village or rundling village form.
25. Examine the findings of Daniel Klooster’s study of the effects of NAFTA on Mexican agriculture.
26. Explain the function of barns and storage facilities in villages.
27. Identify the various outbuildings that might comprise a modern North American farm complex.

Wednesday, 4/28 Penguin Atlas of Food

- Trade Flows (23)
- Animal Transport (24)

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 - Trade Disputes (28)
- Developing Trade (29)
- Fair Trade (30)

Thursday, 4/29 DQs for pages 349-353.

28. Analyze the factors that determine the patterns of agricultural production at the global scale.
29. Discuss the various components that contribute to the pattern of climate regions throughout the globe.
30. Assess the benefits of plantation agriculture in developing countries.
31. Identify the major regions of cotton production.
32. Identify the major regions of natural rubber production.

Questions 33-38 require an examination of information provided on the Köppen-Geiger World Climates map on pages
352-353 and the World Agriculture map on pages 354-355.
33. Describe the climate conditions and global locations conducive for mixed livestock and crop farming.
34. Explain the climate factor(s) that tends to distinguish livestock ranching regions from regions of mixed
livestock and crop farming.
35. Identify the type(s) of agriculture that tend to predominate in Humid Equatorial Climate regions with no dry
season.
36. Discuss the types of agriculture that tend to predominate in Unclassified Highland Regions.
37. Identify the climate characteristics associated with dairy production.
38. What climates and regions tend to be associated with Commercial Grain Farming?

Friday, 4/30 DQs for pages 353-360

39. Identify the criteria required for coffee to be certified as “fair trade” coffee.
40. Discuss the difference between spring and winter wheat and explain its significance.
41. Explain how it is possible for beef, lamb and other animal products to be profitably exported from such
distant places as Australia, South Africa, and South America to markets in Europe, North America and Asia.
42. Account for the designation of Southeast Asia as a primarily subsistence agriculture region.
43. Identify the crops and regions associated with Mediterranean agriculture.
44. Describe a meal associated with your ethnic background.
45. Outline the increasing role of Mexico in drug trafficking in the US.
46. Identify the range of environmental impacts from commercial agriculture.
47. Identify the major region of poultry production that is increasingly dominated by “a half dozen very large
corporations that control the process from chicks to chicken pieces in stores.” [p. 358].
48. Account for the massive expansion of hog production in the Oklahoma panhandle in the last decade.
49. Using Figure 11.19, identify at least five states that appear (so far!) to have protected their high quality
farmland from developmental encroachment.

Saturday, 5/1 Review Session, Practice FRQs

Monday, 5/3 Exam

Tuesday, 5/4 Essay Exam

1. Describe plantation agriculture in terms of distribution, commodities, production, and consumption. Why do
some poorer countries not discard the old colonial patterns of plantations and cash cropping?
2. Describe the township-and-range system and the American rural landscape it has given rise to (fields, houses,
buildings etc.). Where in the American landscape would one not find this system of land survey?
3. Agriculture in the United States has changed significantly in the past few decades. With respect to the past,
present, and projected trends, identify and explain the factors that have led to the steady decline in the
number of dairy farms in the United States over the last forty years. During the same time that the number of
dairy farms has declined, the number of organic farms has grown. Analyze the factors that have contributed
to the gradual growth in organic farms in recent decades.
4. How has the rise of agribusiness changed production practices, the rural landscape, and the environment? To
what extent are current agricultural practices sustainable?
5. The restructuring of agriculture in the late twentieth century has had important implications for rural land use
and the production of poultry in the United States. Discuss factors that have increased the demand for
poultry. Analyze the characteristics of poultry production and explain the distribution of poultry production.
6. Discuss the origins of the Green Revolution. Analyze the practices of the Green Revolution and explain its
importance in particular regions. Examine the economic or ecological factors that may limit the long-term
success of the agricultural practices and technologies of the Green Revolution.