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Patterns of Livelihood: Primary Economic Activities

Explore the spatial patterns of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, and the variation of economic activities across the Earth's surface. Learn about primary activities such as resource extraction, agriculture, and resource exploitation. Discover the impact of commercial agriculture, the Green Revolution, and the merging of production, processing, and marketing in agribusiness.

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Patterns of Livelihood: Primary Economic Activities

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  1. Chapter 8 Livelihood & Economy: Primary Activities

  2. Economic geography • Study of how people support themselves, with the spatial patterns of production, distribution, and consumption of goods & services, and with the areal variation of economic activities over the surface of the earth. • To understand we use types of activities & organization to understand patterns

  3. Categories of activities • 1. Primary activities – • resource extraction or gathering • 2. Secondary activities – • value added to resources • 3. Tertiary activities – • provide services to primary, secondary sections, general community, to individuals • 4. Quaternary activities – • processing & dissemination of information/administration/control of enterprises • 5. Quinary activities – • high-level decision-making roles in large organization, public/private sphere

  4. These five sectors are linked and integrated by transportation & communication.

  5. National economies: 3 types • 1. Subsistence • Goods & services created for use of producers & kinship groups • 2. Commercial • Free market, supply & demand • 3. Planned • Goods & services were controlled by government agencies (collapsed, yet landscape & cultural ideologies remain) • All intermix – usually one is dominant • The key variable is transportation

  6. Patterns of access & isolation – white indicates areas within 20 miles of railroads, Motor transport, or water navigation.

  7. Primary activities • Involves the gathering or extracting natural resources • Hunter & gather groups • Two primary activity groups: • Agriculture • Resource exploitation

  8. Subsistence agriculture • Near total self-sufficiency – predominant occupation of mankind today • 2 types: • Extensive • Intensive

  9. Extensive subsistence agriculture • Represents a very small % of world population • 2 groups: • Nomadic herding • Shifting cultivation

  10. Nomadic herding • Wandering, but controlled movement of livestock • Solely dependent upon natural forage • Dry & cold regions • Requires large expanses of land • Transhumance • Small % worldwide

  11. Shifting cultivation • nomadic farming - swidden agriculture, slash & burn • Located in warm, moist, lowlands • Involves about 5% of world’s population • Renewable strategy if: • population is low • non-renewable when population is growing

  12. Intensive subsistence agriculture • Involves approximately 50% of the world’s population • Some exchange between subsistence & commercial • Warm, moist climates (primarily in monsoon regions), fertile soils, river valleys, deltas • Large labor requirements, small plots of land, intensive use of fertilizers, often double cropped

  13. Intensive farming continued • Urban subsistence farming /garden plots • Increasing phenomenon worldwide • Most prevalent in Asia • Both private and commercial use • Significant food source in cities • Converts waste products to fertilizers, but can spread disease

  14. Green revolution – 1950s to 2000 • “high-input, high-yield” concept • Characteristics & requirements: • Genetically improved seeds • Irrigation • Mechanization • Fertilization • Pesticide application • Outcome: • Food production increase, yet growing population • Environmental, cultural, economic impacts

  15. Impacts • Irrigation problems • Seed genetics • Displaced traditional farmers • Production gains dropping • Population growth uncontrolled

  16. Commercial Agriculture • Characteristics: • 1. Specialization • 2. Off-farm sales (not subsistence farming) • 3. Interdependence of producers & buyers through linked markets • Agribusiness

  17. Variables for profit • Uncertainties: • 1. Physical nature of farm land – weather • 2. Costs of production • 3. Uncertainties of growing conditions & total volume output • 4. Supply & demand

  18. Solution to uncertainties • Contractual agreements • Uniform product quality, timing of delivery • Guaranteed market & price • Agribusiness, the merging of: • 1. Production • 2. Processing • 3. Marketing

  19. von Thünen’s Model – 1783 -1850 • increasing distance from city = low-value crops, extensive land use • near city = high-value crops, intensive land use • can be affected by: topography, soil fertility, changes in market

  20. Intensive commercial agr. • High yields, high market value • Highly perishable • Limited field size, repeat plantings

  21. Extensive commercial agr • Farther from market, cheaper land • Large land size required • Dry farming / livestock ranching • Low labor requirements • Marginal land quality

  22. Livestock ranching & special crop agriculture Principal wheat-growing areas of the world

  23. Resources – primary activity • Two classifications: • Gathering industries • Harvesting of renewable resources • Extractive industries • Removal of non-renewable minerals

  24. Natural resources • Naturally occurring materials that humans view as necessary/useful for its economic/material well-being • Renewable • maximum sustainable yield • Non-renewable • Humans have a changing view of resources

  25. Fishing • Primary, renewable resource • 75% of world catch = human consumption • 1 billion people rely upon this resource • 25% = processed fish meal for livestock/fertilizers • One of the most dangerous industries • U.S.: 86 deaths per 100,000

  26. Fish supplies • 120 million tons harvested worldwide • Maximum sustainable yield is exceeded • Sources: • 1. Inland catch • 2. Fish farming • 3. Marine catch

  27. Overfishing & problems • Collapse of certain species • Problems: • 1. Effect of El Nino • 2. Pollution of inland & coastal waters • 3. Destruction of mangrove forests, coastal wetlands, estuaries, shallow continental shelf areas

  28. Tragedy of the Commons • Accepted view that world’s oceans are common property – open to all • No one is responsible for its maintenance, protection, improvement – no collective controls • Each user - exploits resource to maximum – otherwise someone else will do so

  29. Results • 1982 – United Nations Convention on the “Law of the Sea” treaty • Gave control of 200 nautical miles to nearest country • Increasing fish farming • Aquaculture – both marine & freshwater

  30. Forestry • Primary, renewable resource • 12,000 years ago forest covered 45% of earth • Today = 30% • Two large global belts of commercial forests: • Upper-middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere • Equatorial zones of South & Central America, Central Africa, Southeast Asia • One of the most dangerous industries • U.S.: 92 deaths per 100,000, highest danger rate

  31. Major commercial forest regions

  32. Mid-latitude forests • Largest, most continuous stand, extending around the globe • Boreal, temperate, 40°N to 70°N • Northern region of forest • Coniferous, softwoods • Pine, spruce, fir • Largest, most continuous stand, low diversity • Construction uses, lumber, pulp • Southern region of forest • Deciduous hardwoods • Oak, maple, hickory, birch • Greatly reduced

  33. Condition today • Both regions threatened by: • Acid rain, atmospheric pollution, over harvesting, invasive species • Areas held constant through: • Conservation, preservation/protection, reforestation

  34. Tropical lowland forests • South & Central America, Central Africa, Southeast Asia • Mahogany, teak • Biodiversity, heavy forests can restrict ease of extraction • Primarily located in the developing world • Primarily exploited for: • Fuel, charcoal, and increasingly for lumber

  35. Problems & threats • Northern forests: • 45% is for industrial use • Southern forests: • 55% is for fuelwood/charcoal use • Forest depletion = • Loss of a renewable resource • Conversion to agricultural lands – marginalized • Economic/ecological implications

  36. Fur trapping & trade • Ancient practice, dependent on northern forests • 1960s – anti-fur campaigns began & continue • Farmed furs = today, 85% of industry • Northern forest belt • Increasingly challenged for inhumane treatment of animals • Public banning of fur products

  37. Mining & quarrying • Primary, non-renewable resources • Distribution is uneven, determined by past geologic events • Extraction is possible with technology • First –most accessible, highest quality • Second – lower-grade quality ore • Requires higher energy consumption for extraction • Deeper in earth • Lower grade • Smaller deposits

  38. Mineral resources • Non-renewable resource • 1. Proven resources • 2. Known reserves • 3. Potential reserves • Mining & mineral extraction: one of the three top most dangerous industries

  39. Metallic minerals • Copper, lead, iron ore • Most abundant locations: • Russia, Canada, China, United States, Brazil, Australia • Production is balanced by: • 1. Quantity available • 2. Richness of ore • 3. Distance to markets • Dynamic market results in varying interests in deposits

  40. Non-metallic minerals • Common: sand/gravel, gypsum, limestone, building stone • Two types of usage: • Construction use (ingredients for cement) • Widest distribution, greatest use, least long-distance movement • Fertilizer use (potash, phosphate) • Unequal distribution • International trade higher market value

  41. Mineral fuels • Fossil fuels: coal, petroleum, natural gas • Made industrial revolution possible • Non-renewable

  42. Coal • Coal: earliest usage, most plentiful • Largest reserves • United States, China, Northern Hemisphere • open-pit (surface mining) • Very damaging to environment – cutting off of entire hilltops • relatively cheap extraction costs • shaft mining • expensive, more dangerous • Very polluting – slag heaps, ecosystem destruction • Bulky to move

  43. Petroleum • 75% of proven reserves in just 7 countries • Usage boomed in 20th century • Costs & effects: • Cheaper & easier to move than coal • Polluting – global warming • Reserves are diminishing • Due to distribution & lack of availability – market value fluctuations, politically sensitive

  44. Natural gas • 25% of global energy consumption • Popular due to: • Highly efficient, versatile • Requires little processing • Environmentally safe • Problems: • Uneven distribution • Difficult to move • Pipeline, good, but transoceanic, difficult at best • Limited supply

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