AGR 2050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Agroecosystem, Fertile Crescent, The Columbian Exchange
17 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Why was there a sudden change into agriculture (social and environmental changes) changes in climate. Population pressures: demographics less work-for more productivity. Crop domestication syndrome: reoccurring patterns in crop variations. Slash and burn, land clearing and some plowing. Different types of agriculture: seed agriculture, tropical vegeculture, wet- rice cultivation. In north america- companion plants the three sisters: maize steady, squash down, beans up. Together 3 sisters produced more food through mutual benefits better then any of these crops in isolation. Introduced heavier plough and three field system in the middle ages: sequence of winter wheat or rye, spring sown oats and barley/beans or other legumes, ploughed fallow to regain nutrients, low productivity but better the 2 field system. Agroecosystem revolutions: domestication of crop and first cultivation, exchange of crop species and diversification, industrial revolution, green revolution. The columbian exchange- the first globalization of agriculture. 1900-1914: 81 min to produce a bushel of corn.
