Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 11.15
Winthrop, Minnesota. The modern American
farm typically has a two-story farm house surrounded
by several outbuildings.
© Erin H. Fouberg.
HOW IS AGRICULTURE CURRENTLY
ORGANIZED GEOGRAPHICALLY, AND
HOW HAS AGRIBUSINESS INFLUENCED
THE CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHY
OF AGRICULTURE?
Understanding global agricultural patterns requires
looking at more than market location, land use, and trans-
portation costs—the factors analyzed by von Thünen. We
must also consider the effects of different climate and soil
conditions, variations in farming methods and technol-
ogy, the role of governments and social norms, and the
lasting impacts of history. Decisions made by colonial
powers in Europe led to the establishment of plantations
from Middle America to Malaysia. The plantations grew
crops not for local markets but for consumers in Europe;
similarly, U.S. companies founded huge plantations in the
Americas. Over the past few centuries, the impact of this
plantation system transformed the map of world agricul-
ture. The end of colonial rule did not signal the end of the
agricultural practices and systems that had been imposed
on the former colonial areas. Even food-poor countries
must continue to grow commercial crops for export on
some of their best soils where their own food could instead
be harvested. Long-entrenched agricultural systems and
patterns are not quickly or easily transformed.
Commercial farming has come to dominate in the
world's economic core, as well as some of the places in
the semi-periphery and periphery. Commercial farming is
the agriculture of large-scale grain producers and cattle
ranches, mechanized equipment and factory-type labor
others. Protection of livestock and storage of harvested
crops are primary functions of farm villages, and in many
villages where subsistence farming is the prevailing way of
life, the storage place for grains and other food is con-
structed with as much care as the best-built house. Moisture
and vermin must be kept away from stored food; containers
of grain often stand on stilts under a carefully thatched roof
or behind walls made of carefully maintained sun-dried
mud. In India's villages, the paddy-bin made of mud (in
which rice is stored) often stands inside the house. Similarly,
livestock pens are often attached to houses, or, as in Africa,
dwellings are built in a circle surrounding the corral.
The functional differentiation of buildings is greatest
in Western cultures, where a single farmstead may contain
as many buildings as an entire hamlet elsewhere in the
world. A prosperous North American farm is likely to
include a two-story farmhouse, a stable, a barn, and various
outbuildings, including a garage for motorized equipment,
a workshop, a shed for tools, and a silo for grain storage
(Fig. 11.15). The space these structures occupy can exceed
that used by entire villages in Japan, China, and other
agrarian regions where space is at a greater premium.
Think of an agricultural region where you have visited or
lived. Describe the imprint of agriculture on the landscape
and consider what the cultural landscape tells you about
how agriculture is produced in this region or how produc-
tion has changed over time.
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