Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in nomadic lands have engaged in campaigns to settle herders and bring them into the commercial
(market) economy.
Shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation
involves farming on cleared plots of forest until soil fertility plays out; after
which, a new plot is cleared and the old one abandoned. This agricultural method is described in
greater detail in Chapter 10. Millions of people in tropical parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia
engage in this endeavor for their livelihoods. If anything, and unlike the previous categories, their
numbers are increasing (probably substantially so) rather than decreasing.
Intensive subsistence agriculture
Intensive subsistence agriculture
is characterized by high amounts of labor brought to bear on rel-
atively small land holdings. Cultivation of rice paddies, which require considerable inputs of labor
for construction and maintenance, plus precise applications of water at precise times, is perhaps the
quintessential example. Well over a billion inhabitants of South and Southeast Asia engage in this
type of subsistence activity.
Commercial economies
Commercial economies
are characterized by production of goods and services for sale to oth-
ers rather than for consumption by the producers themselves. Products do not enter into the
distinction between subsistence and commercial economies and may, in fact, be the same.
Rice, for example, is one of the principal foodstuffs that is grown and consumed by subsisten-
ce agriculturists. But commercial farmers, who eat little or none of their harvests, but instead
sell it to companies whose boxes and bags of rice end up in your grocery store, also grow rice
in quantity. As that example suggests, commercial economies may include primary economic
activity, like agriculture. By and large, however, it's secondary, tertiary and quaternary activit-
ies (see “Categorizing Economic Activity” earlier in the chapter) that dominate.
In commercial economies, laws of supply and demand determine price and quantity. Competition
largely influences decision-making concerning production, distribution, and — most importantly as
far as this topic is concerned — facilities locations. Indeed, one of the distinguishing features of com-
mercial economies is deciding where an economic activity should be located.
