Subsistence · Shifting cultivation · Pastoral nomadism — the subsistence family
Extensive commercial — big area, low inputs (grain & grazing)
Intensive commercial — high inputs, high yield (horticulture, dairy, feedlots)
Mediterranean — olives, grapes, citrus
Plantation — one export cash crop from the tropics
7.4.2
Spatial distribution
7.4.2 Where each system sits
The pattern is not random
Climate sets the limits; soils, water & markets refine it. Extensive = interiors; plantations = tropics.
7.4.3
Extensive commercial
7.4.3 Case study
Canadian Prairies & the Australian outback
Grain & grazing on a continental scale
Prairies (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) — wheat & canola, huge mechanised farms. Australia's wheat-sheep belt + outback grazing (Anna Creek Station ≈ 23,000 km²). Very large area, low inputs per hectare, global export markets.
Extensive = spread thin over lots of land, high total output.
7.4.4
Mediterranean
7.4.4 Place study
Tuscany — olives, grapes & wine
Hot dry summers · mild wet winters
Central Italy: olives, grapevines & cereals — drought-tolerant tree & vine crops with strong cultural value (Chianti, olive oil). The same climate & crops reappear in Napa Valley (California) & southern Australia.
One climate type reproduces the same high-value system in five world regions.
7.4.5
Plantation
7.4.5 Case study
Coffee, tea & rubber
The system
Large estates, single export cash crop (monoculture), tropical, often a colonial legacy. Brazil = world's largest coffee producer.
The trade-offs
Export income & jobs — but monoculture, deforestation, exposure to a single world price, and labour/ethics questions.
Commercial agriculture organised around global trade — interconnection + sustainability.
7.4.6
Evolution of agriculture
7.4.6 From domestication to the Green Revolution
Farming has changed the world in stages
Fertile Crescent = an origin of domestication · Green Revolution (mid-20thC) = HYVs + irrigation + synthetic fertiliser/pesticide → much higher yields.
7.4.7
Environmental & climate impacts
7.4.7 The cost of feeding the world
Impacts & the sustainability question
On the land
Soil erosion & salinity · water depletion (≈ 70% of freshwater use, FAO) · biodiversity loss · fertiliser/pesticide run-off.
On the climate
Agriculture, forestry & land use ≈ a fifth to a quarter of GHG emissions (IPCC/FAO). About a third of food is lost or wasted (FAO).
Climate change cuts both ways — farming drives it, and it threatens farming.
End of 7.4
Recap
Seven systems · a climate-driven spatial pattern · prairies/outback, Tuscany & plantations · Neolithic → Green Revolution · environmental & climate impacts. Next: interpreting production & climate graphs (Skill 7).