Transcript Types of FARMING

Types of
FARMING
There is a very
strong link between
Agriculture and
urbanization.
Throw in
technology and you
can see how the
world developed.
Though it
developed in
different places,
agricultural
technology made
slow progress until
the industrial
revolution.
Subsistence:
raising what you need to live
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*can be semi-nomadic
-surplus traded or sold
-can include livestock raising
*always includes staple crop
-grain, potato, and manioc most common
*slash and burn is common approach
Pastoralism
• is a form of farming, that has major elements of
animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of
animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas and
sheep.
• Nomadic/Seminomadic:contains a mobile element,
moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and water.
• Transhumance: transfer of livestock from one grazing
ground to another, as from lowlands to highlands,
with the changing of seasons
DISTRIBUTION
Subsistence farming
• Subsistence agriculture is selfsufficiency farming in which
farmers focus on growing
enough food to feed their
families. The typical subsistence
farm has a range of crops and
animals needed by the family to
eat during the year.
• Often a form of shifting
agriculture because farmers
must move. (Why?)
• The earliest form of agriculture
it persists today.
Slash and Burn
Also known as "shifting
cultivation", "swidden
agriculture", or simply "jhum",
slash and burn is an ancient
form of agriculture practiced by
between 200 and 500 million
people around the world today
(2006). The two key
components of slash and burn
agriculture are the use of fire to
prepare fields for cultivation
and the subsequent
abandonment of those fields as
productivity declines.
The downed vegetation
or "slash" is allowed to
dry until right before the
rainiest part of the year,
at which time the slash is
burned converting
biomass into nutrient-rich
ash. Burning also
temporarily eliminates
most pest and weed
species. Depending upon
location, fields may be
cultivated for three to
five years, and again,
depending upon location,
be allowed to recover for
as little as five to over
twenty years before being
cut and burned again.
Plantation farming:
one wealthy owner (gentry) and cheap
labor force
• *type used with slavery
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-generally cash crop
oriented
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-cotton is most well
known
This picture of plantation owners and 'coolie' children was taken in
Trinidad in 1893. It helps show how workers were away from home
long enough to create families of their own in new and distant parts
of the empire. Many, if not most, of these 'coolies' never did return
to their colony of origin.
Other plantation
crops
Sugar (Cuba), tea (Malaysia),
and sisal (for string, Mexico)
are common plantation crops
Grain farming
grassland oriented
• most productive if mechanized
• grains are treated as cash crop
World distribution of
Barley
Production
From planning to maintaining the fields,
Geography is making an impact on the
world’s food supply.
Conventional Agriculture
• most commonly practiced in the United States, usually involves the
following criteria:
• altering or changing the natural environment
• mono-cropping, or planting one crop
• the crops grown are nonrenewable- after harvesting, the plot is bare again and
requires cultivation (tilling and plowing of the soil), fertilization, planting, irrigation
(watering), and harvesting all over again.
• diversity is eliminated in order to maintain uniformity
• using insecticides and pesticides to keep insects and animals from
eating the crops
• using inorganic fertilizers to provide nutrients to the soil
Ramifications of Conventional Farming
• since the plot is stripped of its natural environmental features, the
plants are vulnerable to disease, high herbivore predation, and
soil erosion.
• a decrease in bio-diversity means many animals lose their habitat
and either relocate or become extinct
• a lot of energy and work for the farmer to maintain this unnatural
farming system; nature is more aligned with diversity (it wants to
be wild), rather than controlled and uniform
• chemicals (pesticides/herbicides/fertilizer)are not only poisonous
to insects, animals and humans, they also pollute ground water,
streams, rivers, and oceans.
• crop disease, drought (no rain), fire, or heavy rain-fall can destroy
a crop, thus causing severe economic hardship for the farmer and
even the consumer because when the quantity of a crop is low
(when the supply is low) the price is increased
Agribusiness
• Industrialized Agriculture
• large corporations controlling vast land and
support facilities (many are oil companies)
• -use of migrant workers common
• Both animal and plant farms
Examples
• The Archer Daniels Midland Company is a conglomerate based in Decatur, Illinois.
ADM operates more than 270 plants worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds
are processed into products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical (food or food
product that provides health and medical benefits), industrial and animal feed
markets worldwide. ADM also provides agricultural storage and transportation
services. The American River Transportation Company along with ADM Trucking,
Inc are subsidiaries of ADM. ADM's revenues for fiscal 2009 were US $69.2 billion
• The Monsanto Company is a U.S.-based multinational agricultural biotechnology
corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide "Roundup".
Monsanto is also the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed; it
provides the technology in 90% of the world's GE seeds. It is headquartered in
Creve Coeur, Missouri.
• Cargill, Incorporated is a based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United
States. Founded in 1865, it is now the nation's largest privately held corporation (in
terms of revenue). Employing over 160,000 employees at 1,100 locations in 67
countries, it is responsible for 25 percent of all United States grain exports. The
company also supplies about 22 percent of the United States domestic meat
market, exporting more product from Argentina than any other company and is the
largest poultry producer in Thailand. All of the eggs used in McDonald's
restaurants in the United States pass through Cargill's plants. It is the only
producer of Alberger process salt in the U.S.A., which is highly prized in the fastfood and prepared food industries.
The Wonderful
World of Food
Brought to you by Cargill
CARGILL – THE FULL MONTY
1. The world’s largest cocoa trader, Cargill also processes the
beans into cocoa liquor, butter and powder, the raw materials for
chocolate
2. The world’s largest sugar trader, Cargill buys from countries
such as Brazil and selling to Egypt, India, China, Russia, Ukraine
and others
3. Cargill is developing a business focused on replacing
petrochemical-based plastic products with soya-based products
4. Cargill produces sterols, plant compounds that help cut
cholesterol levels, used in orange juice and other products
5. Cargill merchandises cotton worldwide, buying and sell cotton
in North America, Europe and Asia and operates cotton gins in
Africa
6. Animal feeds are supplied by Cargill to commercial dairy
farmers in 28 countries across North and South America, Europe
and Asia
7. The world’s largest corn processor, Cargill handles about 20 per
cent of the US crop
8. Cargill Pork is involved in pork production in the US and export
9. Cargill Kitchen Solutions is a leading marketer of high value,
processed egg products in the US
10. From seasoning used in processed foods such as baked beans
to the kind used on frozen roads, Cargill produces more than
1,000 types of salt
11. Through its subsidiary, The Mosaic Company, Cargill is a
leading producer of fertilisers, supplying fruit and vegetable
farmers around the world
12. Cargill’s grain and oilseed subsidiary trades grains and
employs 15,000 people in 50 countries, operating 324 silos and
31 import-export terminals
GMO Foods:
• foods derived from genetically modified organisms.
• GM foods were first put on the market in the early 1990s. Typically,
genetically modified foods are transgenic plant products: soybean, corn,
canola, and cotton seed oil. Animal products have also been developed,
although as of July 2010 none are currently on the market.In 2006 a pig was
controversially engineered to produce omega-3 fatty acids through the
expression of a roundworm gene.
• Researchers have also developed a genetically-modified breed of pigs that
are able to absorb plant phosphorus more efficiently, and as a consequence
the phosphorus content of their manure is reduced by as much as 60%.
• Critics have objected to GM foods on several grounds, including possible
safety issues, ecological concerns, and economic concerns raised by the fact
that these organisms are subject to intellectual property law.
• Genetic modification involves the insertion or deletion of genes. In the
process of cisgenesis, genes are artificially transferred between organisms
that could be conventionally bred. In the process of transgenesis, genes
from a different species are inserted.
• GMO foods have been banned in places as different as Zambia, Venezuela,
India, most European countries, and Mexico.
Dairy/Egg farming
• large, almost factory approach
-Products: milk, cheese, eggs, chicken
-milk products are highly subsidized in USA
Associated with
Factory Farms
Fruit, Truck and specialized Crops
• newer form in USA, farmer sells directly to
market
• organic farmers are finding success with this
type
Number of Certified Organic Farms: 2008
THE FUTURE OF ORGANIC GUAR
CULTIVATION IN INDIA
Canada
Sustainable agriculture (agro-ecology)
• uses ecological principles to farm. Agro-ecology involves:
• maintaining the natural environment and using ecological principles for sustained
farming practices
• poly-cropping, or planting many crops together (ex: planting rows of corn, bean, and
squash together rather than in separate plots, like in mono-cropping)
• since many plants are planted together, and each one has a different harvesting
period, the plot is never bare. This reduces soil erosion.
• diversity is maintained and even increased over time
• a diverse system of plants may attract several species of herbivores. Some of these
herbivores like to eat specific kinds of plants. Predator species usually do not
have a preference for which herbivores to eat. This predation keeps the herbivore
population in check.
• nutrients from each intercrop plant provide different nutrients to the soil, thus
increasing its fertility (ability to sustain life).
• less energy is required from the farmer because the agriculture system sustains
itself
12 Main Types of Agriculture
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12 Main Types of Agriculture
1) Shifting Cultivation (rotating crops)
2) Intensive Pastoral Farming (focused on grazing animals)
3) Subsistence Cultivation (eeking out a living, often on inhospitable land)
4) Commercial Cultivation (usually focused on cash crops, such as cotton,
palm oil - and poppy for heroine)
• 5) Mixed crop Cultivation
• 6) Dairy Farming (primarily cows for milk and chickens for eggs)
• 7) Dry Farming (a growing area is modern Genetically Modified seeds that
require less water than normal crops)
• 8) Intensive Arable Farming (crop growing, often staples such as maize,
wheat or corn)
• 9) Market Gardening (growing fruit and salad vegetables).
• 10) Silk Farming (cultivating silk worms)
• 11) Plantation or Tree Farming (long term development of timber)
• 12) Extensive Pastoral Farming (eg Hill Sheep Farming)
You could argue that fish farming should be in the list, but that is generally
considered to be a separate category.
Quiz
• What is conventional agriculture and is it aligned with
how the natural food-web works?
• Name crops that are conventionally grown and
harvested?
• What is sustainable agriculture and how is it aligned
with he natural food-web?
• Can you provide an example of sustainable agriculture?
• Name effects of conventional agriculture and how this
may be harmful to the environment.
• Name effects of sustainable agriculture and how this
benefits the environment.
• T or F. Slash-and-burn agriculture is not harmful to the
environment if the land is used for 2 years or less
• Name three types of agribusiness.
• Name some important agribusinesses.
• What are the benefits of agribusiness to the
consumer?, to corporations?
• Name three problems caused to the environment
and/or consumers caused by agribusiness.
• Name an agribusiness and discuss types of
agriculture they are involved.
• What are GMO foods? What modifications are they
making? Where is there resistance of GMO foods?
• Give examples of Factory/Industrial Farming.
What Plants Need
• Ambient: (in every biome)
Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen
-can be found in air and water
-used to make sugars
Big three:
the main ingredients in commercial fertilizer
• Nitrogen: necessary for the aboveground growth of
plants
-can be fixed in soil
-can be taken from air (electricity)
-ammonia is a common form
• Phosphorus: helps plants transport and assimilate
nutrients
-most important mining in Florida
-common pollutant in Central Florida lakes
• Potassium: enables plants to develop strong thick
stems, healthy roots and large, plentiful fruit
Trace elements:
needed in small quantities
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Calcium: major building block in plant
tissues and neutralizes toxins
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Others: boron, magnesium, chlorine,
copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sulfur
and zinc