Preliminary Questions 1

Chapter Overview

• Hunters & Gatherers
  
  
• Vegetative vs. Seed
  
  
  
• Rise of Cities

• Regions

• Domestication of wild plants
  
  
• Rice, yams, taro
• Wheat, barley, oats, millet
• Squash, maize, beans
• Potato
  
  
• Today's staple crops
  
  

• Subsistence vs. Agriculture
  

Preliminary Questions 2

Types of Agriculture

Shifting Cultivation

• Practiced in tropical regions
  
  
• "Swidden" farming moving every few years
  
  
• Soil fertility?
  
  
• Threats

• Arid & cool regions
  
  
• Animal wealth
  
  
  
• Large Range
  
  
• "Transhumance"
  
  
• Human ecology

• Asia (SE, South, East)
  
  
• Yields high calories, labor intensive
  
  
• Complex process
  
  
  
  
• Human ecology

• Drier climates
  
  
• Wheat, most dominant
  
  
• Also barley, soybeans, corn, tobacco, cotton, etc.
  
  
• Human ecology
  
  

• Assoc. with MDCs; commercial farming
  
  
• Fed to livestock
  
  
• Midwest region
  
  
• Human ecology
  
  

• "Milkshed"
  
  
• Transportation / Technology
  
  
  
• Perishable longevity products
  
  
• Human ecology
  
  

• Sold to publc (not fed to livestock)
  
  
• Wheat
  
  
• Winter & Spring crop
  
  
• Human ecology
  
  

• Began after US Civil War
  
  
• Great Cattle Drives
  
  
• Farming technology
  
  
• Where
  
  
• Human ecology
  
  

• Unique climate
  
  
• growing season and irrigation
  
  
  
• Market location
  
  
• Crops
  
  
• Human ecology
  
  

• Cash crops
  
  
• For export
  
  
• Heavily dependent on labor & technology
  
  
• Crops
  
  
• Human Ecology
  
  

• Green Revolution
  
  
• Dependence on Fossil Fuels
  
  
• Mono-cultures
  
  
• Genetic Engineering