ENVS 1000U Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Intercropping, Primary Production, Overgrazing

• School: UOIT
• Department: Environmental-Science
• Course: ENVS 1000U
• Professor: Mary Olavson

Document Summary

The practice of raising crops and livestock for human use and consumption. La(cid:374)d used is ~ 38% of earth"s surfa(cid:272)e. All usable land in use search for more land often poorer quality land for agriculture. Cropland = land used to raise plants for human use. Rangeland or pasture = land used for grazing livestock. The earliest pla(cid:374)t a(cid:374)d a(cid:374)i(cid:373)al do(cid:373)esti(cid:272)atio(cid:374) is fro(cid:373) the (cid:862)fertile cres(cid:272)e(cid:374)t(cid:863) of the middle. East: wheat, barley, rye, corn, peas, lentils, onions, goats, sheep. Biologically powered agriculture, using human and animal muscle power. Subsistence agriculture = families produce only enough food for themselves. Intensive agriculture = produces excess food to sell: uses animals, irrigation and natural fertilizers, does not use fossil fuels. Industrialized agriculture is a recent phenomenon: monocultures for crops. Using large-scale mechanization and fossil fuels to boost yields: uses pesticides, irrigation and chemical fertilizers, uses machinery and fossil fuels, monocultures = uniform planting of a single crop - not natural.