Development of Agriculture - AP Human Geography

Seed crops were first cultivated 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of Southwestern Asia.

The mechanized reaper was invented in the 1830s by Cyrus McCormick. It quickly spread around the United States and was instrumental the growth of commercial farming in the plains of the central United States. To provide clarification, a “reaper” is a tool used by farmers to cut and gather crops.

The Second Agricultural Revolution's increased agricultural yields allowed a shift away from subsistence farming, leading to a decrease in subsistence farming rather than an increase.

Since the late nineteenth century, agricultural production has come to rely increasingly on mechanized means of production and farm equipment. This has greatly shifted the way crops are grown, with more cash crops grown in large monoculture plots by large corporations. Most significantly, all of these changes mean that fewer and fewer farm laborers are needed to grow the same amount of crops.

Quinary economic activity is defined as research and higher education. Developing seeds at a public land grant college best fits this definition, because research is being applied to increase economic activity in another sector.

Tertiary economic activity is the act of serving as an intermediary between producers and consumers to facilitate trade. Finding buyers for fair trade coffee and initiating the trade between them and consumers for a cut of the profit best fits this definition.

Quaternary economic activity refers mostly to information on market trends and the trade of goods. An economic consultant who recommends purchases for large companies best fits this definition.

Primary economic activity is defined as the act of directly harvesting natural resources. Logging tree stands for a living would be the best example of all provided choices.

A “luxury crop” is a crop that is grown to serve some purpose other than sustaining human life. All of these crops are consumed for reasons other than nutrition and so are called “luxury crops.”

The cultivation of drugs, like marijuana and opiates, for the purpose of sale on the black market is referred to as “narco-agriculture.” "Aquaculture" refers to the farming and cultivation of fish, crustaceans, and other sea life in controlled, designated environments. "Black market agriculture" refers to the sale of conventional agricultural products (like corn or wheat) for sale in non-sanctioned marketplaces, usually to avoid price-controls, taxes, or tariffs. Although the farming of poppies has been associated with the production of opiate drugs, this is too specific a term to be correct in this instance (the growing of marijuana or coca plants also fall under the umbrella of "narco-agriculture"). "Horticulture" simply refers to the intentional cultivation of plants.

Each year a larger and larger share of the world’s agricultural land is owned by multinational agribusiness. These multinational corporations buy up agricultural land in the developing world at a rapid rate and control almost every step in the process of producing, shipping, and selling agricultural products.

The growth of agribusiness, particularly multinational corporations, in the previous half-century has led to a marked decline around the world in small-land holdings and family-run farms. Agricultural production and efficiency have both increased and government interference is fairly consistent.

In the past century the average size of farms in the United States has increased dramatically. This general trend can be applied globally and to most of human history as well. This is because it is more profitable and efficient to farm on larger scales than it is to farm on smaller scales. The general trend is that more and more agricultural land is being consolidated into fewer and fewer hands and larger tracts of property.

John Davis and Ray Goldberg wrote the book A Concept of Agribusiness in 1957 through the Harvard Business School. In 1952, Harvard Business school launched their own program studying the connection between agriculture and business. The research conducted by Davis and Goldberg is the first product of research from this school of study.

The term agribusiness was created to refer to the many processes that surround the economics of farming. The processes include the actual farming of the crop, to later sales, marketing and distribution.

The only option that involves agriculture is the company that produces the fruit juices.

The study of agribusiness is referred to as agribusiness management. This name comes from the combination of agricultural economics and and management studies.

The Green Revolution was a response to an exponential increase in the global human population (from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6 billion in 2000) and advances in technology that allowed for the mass production of chemical fertilizers (e.g. the development of the Haber-Bosch process). Previously, global agriculture was highly dependent on organic fertilizers such as mulch and animal/human manure, and dwindling nitrate deposits that had to be mined and transported.

While the process of synthesizing nitrogen fertilizers on an industrial scale had been around since the early twentieth century (e.g. the Haber-Bosch nitrogen fixation process, which was developed in 1909), this technology and infrastructure did not expand and become established in the developed world until the 1960s. This resulted in an increase of cheap and abundant cereal grains in famine-stricken countries.