GEG 1302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Subsistence Agriculture, Glyphosate, Industrial Revolution
30 Mar 2016
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Rural landscapes: agricultural change & the rural experience. Subsistence agriculture: producing (only) enough to feed your household (not very common any more), 3 general types. Shifting cultivation: farm a plot of land for 2-3 years, then shift to an adjacent plot. Common in tropical regions due to poor nutritional value of soil. Intensive subsistence agriculture: involves the use of fertilizer/improvement of land (rice paddies) Agriculture is a global industry, that is tied to urbanization/industrialization. First: 10,000-15,000 years ago in the nile floodplain and along the tigress & euphrates. Leads people to settle permanently, move away from hunter-gatherer societies. Caused physical changes to the land (irrigation) Caused a division/specialization of labour, both within households & within society as a whole. Construction of irrigation systems, agriculture, trades etc. Experts undecided on whether surplus came before or after the division of labour. More of the population was settled, begging of a division/specialisation of labour, not everyone is engaged in food production.
