Intensive Agricultural

Dr. Betty Faust

EST-200

SUNY ESF

Introduction What is special about this culture

type? How did we get here from there?

Fallowing & population Why 10,000 years ago and then

5,000 BC (BCE) or 7,000 BP?

Topics of Discussion techniques of intensification land vs. labor energy use - human, animal, or

fuel for machines risks

Techniques plows, wheels, oxen, and horses terraces on slopes - erosion

prevention irrigation - flood plains, canals labor intensive planting, weeding

and harvesting

Land vs. Labor Abundant Land - our history Abundant Labor - where? With

limited land Measuring productivity? Reliability

of statistics Decreased fallow, pressure to

intensify

Systems & Energy Gasoline, fertilizer, biocides Human energy - skills, more per

acre Animal energy - consumption of

grass manure as fertilizer

H. Odum, L. White (Darwin, Spencer)

What can go wrong? Risks erosion, degradation salinization compacting of wet soils w. clay dependency on imports more clearing of forests

What This Means Population - increases and

decreases Rich - cities/suburbs, poor -

peasants/cities Increasing misery, starvation, and

disease - for whom? Revolution and vulnerability Trickle down?

Peasant Life - Economics Ceremonial Fund Replacement Fund Rent (tax) Fund Corvée Labor - Taxes -

Sharecropping

Peasant Life - Social Structure Domestic Cycle Extended Family or Nuclear? Stem family Patrilocal Residence (again)

Next Steps

Opening opportunities Structural adjustment -

globalization Policies and pyramids of sacrifice,

CAREFUL Who pays the cost?

Examples

Zapatistas - Emilio Zapata and Subcomandante Marcos

Timling Villagers of Nepal Cucurpe, Mexico - struggling with

sharing Kofyar, Nigeria - migrating to the

frontier Rural Egypt and “Structural

Adjustment”