Where Are Agricultural Regions in More Developed Countries?

Ch. 10 Key Issue #3

“Where are Agricultural Regions in More Developed Countries?”

1. What are the six main types of commercial agriculture practiced in MDCs?

1. What is the most common form of commercial agriculture in the United States and much of Europe?

1. What is the most distinctive characteristic of mixed crop and livestock farming?

1. What are the benefits of mixed crop and livestock farming?

1. Describe the system of crop rotation and explain how it’s different from shifting cultivation?

1. What are the two most important crops in mixed crop and livestock farming and in what region does it mostly occur?

1. In what places is dairy farming the most important commercial agricultural practice?

1. What historical factor has contributed to the rising demand for commercial dairy production?

1. What country produced the most milk?

1. Why must dairy farms be located near urban areas?

1. What is the difference between dairy farming in Pennsylvania and in Wisconsin?

1. What are the particular challenges facing dairy farmers?

1. What is the difference between grain farming and mixed crop and livestock farming?

1. For what products are most grain crops used?

1. What are the major benefits of farming wheat rather than other grains?

1. Other than the US, what other countries produce large amounts of wheat?

1. In what three regions of the U.S. is large-scale grain production concentrated?

1. What mechanized advancements made large-scale grain production possible in MDCs?

1. What is the benefit of having planting and harvesting of grains in two regions occur at different times of the year?

1. What is Livestock Ranching and in what climate region does it occur?

1. What has helped publicize and popularize the challenges of cattle ranching?

1. How did ranching cattle, an animal that is not even native to the Americas, become one of the most important agricultural activities in North America?

1. Identify some of the most important locations involved in the great cattle drives of the American West.

1. What conditions led to a decline in the importance of cattle ranching in the 1880s?

1. What adaptations did cattle ranchers make once the open range for cattle drives was closed?

1. In what other regions outside the U.S. are also involved in commercial ranching?

1. What are the only climate regions where ranching still occurs?

1. In what places not actually on the Mediterranean Sea does Mediterranean agriculture occur?

1. What are the common physical environment characteristics shared by areas where Mediterranean agriculture is practiced?

1. What forms the commercial base for Mediterranean farming?

1. What are the crops of which Mediterranean farming produces the world’s most?

1. What are the two most important cash crops of the Mediterranean region?

1. What crops dominate the Mediterranean farming in California?
2. What factor has threatened the farming in California?

1. Where is commercial gardening and fruit farming the dominant agriculture, and what advantages does this region have for this kind of agriculture?

1. What is another name frequently used for this type of agriculture? Why?

1. What kinds of crops are prevalent in commercial gardening and fruit farming?

1. How are labor costs kept down in commercial gardening and fruit farming?

Importance of Access to Markets

1. What factor most influences commercial farmers’ choice of crop to plant?

1. What is one of the most important differences between farming near the market and farming farther away from the market?

1. According to German farmer, Johann Heinrich von Thunen, what two costs must commercial farmers compare in choosing an enterprise?

1. What two monetary values determine the most profitable crops for commercial farmers?

1. Based on these calculations what generalization dictate what farmers grow where?

1. Describe the appearance of von Thunen’s model, and describe the pattern of land use within each ring of the model.

1. What possible variations may occur that von Thunen did not take into account?

1. How does von Thunen’s model apply on a national or global scale that didn’t really exist when he created the model?