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AP Human Geography - Development - Chapter 9 Key Issue 4

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life of a girl in developing world

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Can you name the countries of the world?

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QUIZLET

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Countries of Asia | Let's Play

From Mongolia to Myanmar, from Kazakstan to Kyrgyzstan, Maria is taking us on a tour of Asia in our Sporcle-famous "Countries of Asia" quiz! Follow along and see if you can name them all!

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From Mongolia to Myanmar, from Kazakstan to Kyrgyzstan, Maria is taking us on a tour of Asia in our Sporcle-famous "Countries of Asia" quiz! Follow along and see if you can name them all! Your Account Isn't Verified! In order to create a playlist on Sporcle, you need to verify the email address you used during registration.

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QUIZLET

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Start studying Asia: Countries. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Can you name the countries of Europe? Test your knowledge on this geography quiz and compare your score to others.

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QUIZLET

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Start studying Europe Countries. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Can you name the African countries? Test your knowledge on this geography quiz and compare your score to others.

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QUIZLET

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Can you name the countries of North America? Test your knowledge on this geography quiz to see how you do and compare your score to others.

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QUIZLET

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North America Countries Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying North America Countries. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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QUIZLET

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Start studying 50 States. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Can you name the South American countries? Test your knowledge on this geography quiz to see how you do and compare your score to others.

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Chapter 10

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from Ms. Smith's Quizlet

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industrial Revolution Chapter 11

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WATCH: Coal, Steam, and the Industrial Revolution (video) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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from Ms. Smith's Quizlet

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Mr. Varley's AP Human Geography Website 

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Mr. Varley's AP Human Geography Website 

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Almost all the National Exam Material you can think of

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The link above will take you to the AP College Board website, where you can create an account and access your AP National Exam test score online. Read over the information on the webpage and create an account. Scores are usually released by early to mid July.

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Key Issue 1

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The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1

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Do you want to score a 4 or 5 on your AP Human Geography exam? If the answer is "yes," you're probably wondering how you can prepare and study for the exam. You're also probably overwhelmed with all of the information, study guides, and tips out there. Luckily, this comprehensive list of AP Human Geography tips, covering everything from multiple-choice study tips to important exam information is here to help you get through your coursework and feel confident about your geographical thinking.

To put things into perspective, it can be helpful to know how past students have scored on the AP Human Geography exam. In 2015, only 12.1% of test takers earned a score of 5. 20.5% of students received a 4, 21.2% scored a 3, 16.8% scored a 2, and 29.4% scored a 1. This means that nearly half of all test takers received a 1 or a 2 on the exam! This shows you just how difficult the exam can be. However, as long as you put the time in, stay focused, and remain confident, you'll have all the tools you need to get a great score!

Get ready... you're about to see the ultimate list of 50 AP Human Geography tips!

Overall How to Study for AP Human Geography Tips

1. Understand the structure of the exam. Before you even start studying for the AP Human Geography exam, it's helpful to know how the exam is structured. There are two sections on the exam, each counting for half of your score. In Section I, you have 60-minutes to answer 75 multiple-choice questions. Section II consists of 3 free-response essay questions, with a time limit of 75 minutes. Knowing the structure of the exam will help focus your studying and noting the time limits you have on each section will help you know what to expect.

2. Don't procrastinate! You've probably heard this tip many times before - but that's because it is one of the most important study tips ever. Too often, students say things like "I'll review that later," or "I'll read that chapter next week." If you find yourself saying these things often, you are probably procrastinating. The thing is, you can't afford to procrastinate in an AP course. Of course, it's okay to put things off every once in a while. We aren't perfect. But if you're doing it regularly, you need to reevaluate and come up with a plan. Try to study a little bit each day. It sounds terrifying to have to study for one class every single day, but it doesn't have to be a two-hour long study session each day. Aim to go through a pile of flashcards for 15 minutes every day. Try to read a few pages of an AP Human Geography review book after you've done your homework for the night. Go over your class notes after sports practice. Just try to incorporate studying into your everyday routine to combat procrastination.

Incorporate studying into your everyday routine to combat procrastination. Click To Tweet

3. Use a review book. Taking notes in class and reading your class's assigned textbook is helpful, but sometimes an outside review book can give you a more comprehensive look at what the AP Human Geography exam covers. Not only are they are a great way to learn the material, but they are almost essential when it comes to reviewing for the exam. There are a huge variety of APHG review books out there, so how do you choose one? Check out this article on The Best AP Human Geography review books of 2015 to narrow down your search.

4. Make flashcards. Don't go out and buy pre-written flashcards. The act of writing them out yourself actually helps you to retain the information. Make it interesting by color-coding your flashcards - red for words you've never heard before, green for words you're comfortable with, and purple for words you still need to practice. Don't stop at just adding the word and it's definition, either. Add things to help you memorize the word - whether that's diagrams, drawings, connections to other words, or specific examples. The CollegeBoard has a great aggregate list of all the APHG vocabulary terms you should know. Aim to make flashcards on all of these words.

5. Talk out loud when studying. As long as you're not in a library, this technique could work for you. There is research that shows studying out loud can help improve information retention and memorization. This is especially true if you are an auditory learner. You may feel ridiculous at first, but try it out next time you're studying in your bedroom. Take a flashcard and read the word out loud three times. Now read the definition of the word out loud three times.

6. Join or form an AP study group. Sometimes studying alone can become tedious. You can start to lose focus, get distracted, and just have a hard time motivating yourself to even start studying. That's why study groups are beneficial. Ask some of your AP Human Geography classmates if they want to meet once or twice a week to go over the materials. Your teacher may even want to join in and offer after school study sessions. Overall, study groups are a great way to add accountability and can help break up some of the monotony of studying by yourself.

7. Follow/like AP Human Geography social media accounts. Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or all four, there are teachers and students who run social media accounts dedicated to AP Human Geography. By following or liking these accounts, you will be incorporating APHG facts, study resources, videos, and graphics into your everyday life. These accounts aren't always boring or dry, either - you can find humorous takes on the exam, read about personal experiences, and get first-hand knowledge from real AP Human Geography teachers. So get out there and start following some accounts! Try following @APHumanGeog on Twitter, this AP Human Geography board on Pinterest, and Thornton Academy's AP Human Geography Facebook page. Do some research of your own to find accounts that you find helpful and interesting.

8. Watch AP Human Geography videos on YouTube. If you're a visual learner, sometimes it can be hard to focus or understand concepts when you're reading a textbook. It can be nice to change up your study technique and get your nose out from behind your review books. Look up YouTube videos about certain topics in Human Geography. Use keywords like " crash course " or "review" when searching for videos. There are entire playlists dedicated to AP Human Geography, as well as student-made videos, and videos created by teachers.

9. Read/watch the news regularly. Since global politics is such an important part of AP Human Geography, watching the news or reading the newspaper regularly is a habit you should form in the buildup to the exam. It's important to get your news from several different sources, so watch channels such as CNN, PBS, FOX news, MSNBC, read online publications such as the New York Times, and listen to NPR's "The World" regularly. Keep a journal of current events that strike a chord with you. By accumulating all of this current event knowledge, you're giving yourself potential examples to use on the exam and expanding your ability to make connections between events.

10. Listen to AP Human Geography podcasts. Another way to get your daily dose of APHG is to listen to podcasts. A quick Google search comes up with a wide variety of free AP Human Geography podcasts, which cover certain topics. Listen to them while you're at the gym, before bed, on your bus ride to school, or whenever you have extra time. Studying for the AP Human Geography exam is all about accumulating knowledge from different sources. This keeps things interesting and stops you from feeling bored.

11. Know geographic models and theories inside and out. Many past FRQs and multiple-choice questions have been about specific geographic models and theories. Make sure you know more than just the definitions, but also the significance and how the models and theories apply to real-life situations in the past and present.

Focus on how geographic models and theories apply to real-life situations in the past and present. Click To Tweet

12. Figure out your learning style. Study smarter, not harder. You need to find out what learning style works best for you. This is the key to being an efficient learner. If you don't know what your learning style is, test out different ways of learning the material. Try listening to audio lectures, watching AP Human Geography videos, reading on your own, and taking notes. Which method helps you understand the material better? Once you've found your ideal learning style, stick with it!

13. Manage your stress. It can be very easy to become stressed out when preparing for the exam, which is why positive affirmations, confidence, and trusting in your abilities are important when studying.

AP Human Geography Multiple-Choice Review Tips

1. Focus on specific themes. It's helpful to know that the multiple-choice questions on the AP Human Geography exam follow a pattern and are not just randomly selected. Based on previous exam, the breakdown goes like this:

2. Pay attention to keywords and commands in the question. When you first look at a multiple-choice question, circle the commands (EXCEPT, NOT, ALL, BEST, etc.). Sometimes, questions can trip you up if you don't read them correctly. By circling the commands, you're making sure you don't misinterpret the question or confuse yourself. Similarly, underline keywords in the questions, such as words that relate to places, people, vocabulary words, etc. This will help keep you focused and maybe even help jog your memory. By picking apart the questions, you can get a better understanding of it.

3. Don't skip any questions! On the APHG exam, there is no guess-penalty. This means that you don't get docked for answering a question incorrectly. It goes without saying that even if you have no idea what the answer to a question is, just make an educated guess! The key here is an educated guess, which will give you a better chance of getting the correct answer than if you just circled an answer willy-nilly.

4. Take lots of practice tests. Taking practice exams is an extremely beneficial way to determine your strengths and weaknesses. When you're first staring out studying, don't be too concerned with the 60-minute time limit. Just take however long you need to finish the questions. Once you've finished, grade the test and really take a look at the answers you got wrong. Why was your answer wrong? Make flashcards of the terms in the questions you answered incorrectly and make a note to study them in more depth. As you get more experience taking practice tests, you will need to factor in the time limit. Set a timer for 60-minutes each time you take a mock multiple-choice exam. Practicing under the same conditions as the actual exam will help show you what to expect on exam day.

5. Don't spend too much time on any one question. Think about it this way: if you manage to answer all 75 multiple-choice questions, within the time-limit, and get most of them right, you can end up with the same score as if you answered only 60 questions and got all of them right. Using this fact, make sure you're not spending too long on any one question. Your goal is to answer every single question, which can be difficult in the 60-minute time limit. Don't get stuck choosing between two options. Rule out answers, look at your remaining options, and take an educated guess. The goal here is to be efficient, without sacrificing accuracy.

6. Know the types of multiple-choice questions. It's important that you familiarize yourself with the types of questions on the AP Human Geography exam. There are several types of multiple-choice questions you will encounter, which are detailed in the following table

Type of Question Example

Graph/Chart/Map

On the map above, which one of the following boxes is in an area where the population density is high and the level of economic development is low?

(A) A

(B) B

(C) C

(D) D

(E) E

Source: CollegeBoard's AP Human Geography Course Description
For more practice multiple-choice questions like these, check out Albert.io.

7. Write your own multiple-choice questions. This can be a helpful trick to give you a better understanding of certain key terms and concepts. Pick an area that you're struggling with, or need to know more about, and create questions based on vocabulary words within that area. Have your friends or classmates write questions, too, so that you can take each other's tests. The act of writing out questions helps the information stick and the more practice tests you take (even if they're written by a classmate!) can only help.

8. Know how to interpret graphs, maps, charts, and illustrations. More than likely, there will be at least one multiple-choice questions on the APHG exam that deals with a graphic of some sort. Questions with graphics can sometimes seem overwhelming since you have to look at both the visual element and the question and relate them. As long as you practice answering these types of questions, know how to interpret graphs and maps, and have a good understanding of the concept in question, you should do well on these types of questions.

9. Take good notes. Reading textbooks and review books is not enough to actually learn the material. On the multiple-choice section, you absolutely have to know your stuff. Because of this, you need to actively, not passively, learn the material. As you're reading your text or review book, take meaningful notes. If you take well-organized and informative notes as you're reading, you can use your notes as a study guide, instead of having to go back and re-read everything again. Even better, the simple act of writing out notes helps the material sink in better than if you were to just read the information. Keep your notes in a large binder, sorted by theme. You'll be thankful you did it when it comes time to review in the weeks before the exam.

As you're reading your text or review book, take meaningful notes for AP Human Geography. Click To Tweet

10. Teach concepts to your friends or family members. When you come across a particularly tough concept while learning the material, jot the theme/concept/vocab word down. Find a way to dumb it down so that a friend (who is not taking the course), or a family member, can understand it. By doing this, you can pinpoint which parts of the concept you're not understanding and find ways to explain them. By teaching others, you're making the information stick and learning a lot about your strengths and weaknesses.

11. Read the question and think of the answer. Before you even look at the possible answer choices, think of what answer you would give if the question were a fill-in-the-blank type question. This can help you select the correct answer without being distracted or swayed by too many possibilities.

AP Human Geography Free Response Tips

1. Practice previous free-response essay questions. Practice makes perfect. The single most important FRQ tip for the AP Human Geography exam is to practice, practice, practice. The CollegeBoard website has valuable resources to help you do just that. There, you will find past free-response essay questions, scoring guidelines, and sample responses. Take advantage of this resource! Read through a few of the questions and the sample responses. Understand what makes an essay an 8 and what makes an essay a 4. Then, start practicing. Before you look at the scoring guidelines or the sample responses, attempt to write the essay yourself, closed book. Then, compare your essay to the sample responses and look through the scoring guidelines. Have your teacher or classmate objectively grade your practice essays for you. Learn what you need to improve on and what you're doing right. It's okay to start practicing without a time limit at first, but make sure you're writing essays under time limits, too.

2. Read and reread the question several times. Do not start writing immediately! Too often, students jump right into writing, without really understanding what the prompt is asking you. You need to carefully read and reread the question to make sure you know what's being asked. Spend a good 5 minutes planning out each essay, always referring back to the question to make sure you're staying on topic.

3. Locate the verb in the question. Locating the verbs in FRQ questions can really help you understand which action you should take when forming your response. The following verbs are common on AP Human Geography FRQs:

Using at least 2 sentences, find the relationship between two events or concepts. Explain this relationship and come to a conclusion using solid evidence, details, and specifics.

Assess/Evaluate: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of something using specific examples.

Identify/Define: Using examples, craft a simple list (in narrative form) of factors or characteristics, or give well thought out definitions.

Explain: Using specific details, discuss the logical connections or cause and effects of concepts, themes, or events.

Taking both points of view, debate about something using details. Use at least 3 sentences in your response.

As you can see, no matter what the question asks you to do, always use specific details and supporting evidence.

4. Figure out what geographic themes you can incorporate. Once you've read and reread the question and have a full understanding of the prompt, start to consider what geographic themes you can use in your response. You must remember that the exam is a Human Geography exam, which means you have to use geographic themes in your response. Incorporate information from maps or diagrams given to you. Write down evidence you learned during your studying that you think relates to the question. Find a way to connect these themes and ideas. Be sure to use "for instance" and "for example" in your response, so that you know you're including evidence and specific details.

5. Answer the question and nothing more. It may be tempting to just write down everything you know about a given topic in the hopes that at least one or two of your answers are correct. This is called a brain dump and you should not do this! Only answer the question and nothing more. If a question asks for two examples, do not give three in your response and do not restate the question in your answer. The APHG FRQ is not about adding flowery language and opinions (do not include "I think" or "in my opinion" in your response). You need to be succinct, while still making sure you're answering the question fully.

6. Remember that AP Human Geography FRQs are NOT 5-paragraph essays. It can be sort of confusing to refer to FRQs as essays. In reality, APHG FRQs are more like short-responses. You do not need to write a formal essay with a thesis, body, and conclusion. However, your response does need to be in a narrative format, meaning you can't simply respond with bulleted lists or listed facts.

7. Don't panic if you don't know how to answer the question. We've all been there. You read a question and you have absolutely no idea how to answer it. Maybe you don't understand the question, or maybe you just didn't focus enough of your study time on that particular topic. It's easy to freak out in these sorts of situations. Do not panic! Take a deep breath and reread the question. Break it down. Figure out what you can answer and answer it. Look at the map or charts given to you and try to find context clues. Move on to an essay prompt you're more comfortable with. This can help boost your confidence and even jog your memory. Whatever you do, don't leave the essay response blank. Answer the question any way you can, adding examples you think might relate to the prompt. You never know, you could make a lucky guess!

If you're stuck on an exam question, figure out what you can answer, and answer it. Click To Tweet

8. Think geographically. It's important to remember that the AP Human Geography exam is a geography test, not a history test. You need to think about the interconnections between people and places. Location, scale, time, and spatial perspective are important. You should think about your viewpoint when answering FRQs, meaning use local, regional, and global examples.

9. Make it easy for the reader to follow your thoughts. Remember that AP readers have to go through large volumes of FRQ responses. Make it easy for them to follow your answer. Label and number each part of your response in the margins of your answer booklet. Underline key terms and words you are defining. When using maps or charts in your response, use corresponding labels in your answer. It's also extremely important to keep your handwriting neat and legible. If the AP reader cannot read your response, you won't get the points, regardless of whether or not your answer is correct.

10. Manage your time wisely. Since you're given a large block of 75 minutes to complete 3 essays, it is imperative that you manage your time effectively. The best way to do this is to dedicate 5 minutes of planning for each essay and 20 minutes of writing for each essay. Make sure you bring a watch on exam day to monitor your time. Do not be tempted to spend more time on any one exam. It may be helpful to write the essays you're most comfortable with first because you might be able to write those faster, leaving more time for essays that are more difficult.

11. Be specific. This is one of the most important tips for the AP Human Geography FRQ. Make sure you are giving specific examples in your response. This means names of geographers, models, theories, concepts, and vocabulary words. Do not be vague. If a sentence does not include something specific, it does not need to be there.

Tips by AP Human Geography Teachers

1. Participate in class discussions. By speaking up during class discussions and listening to what your classmates and teacher have to say, you are opening yourself up to higher level thinking and can integrate yourself with the material on a richer and more meaningful level. Thanks to Mr. Z. at Windermere Preparatory School for the tip!

2. Focus on content in your FRQ responses. AP readers do not deduct points for spelling or grammar errors that do not detract from the meaning of the writing. Feel free to cross things out if necessary. Focus on content, not proper grammar and spelling. Integrate appropriate geographic terms whenever possible! Thanks to Sara D. at Stillwater Junior High School for the tip!

3. Read daily and go above and beyond when completing coursework. Read and reread all of your reading assignments, using both your textbook and a review book. Actively participate in class discussions, read guides and daily notes, and look for supporting details. Thanks for the tips from Mr. M. at Creekside High School!

4. Watch BBC World News. Watching the BBC World News helps you know what is going on in the world, which is important for understanding the AP Human Geography material. Thanks for the tip from Mr. S. at Murrieta Mesa High School!

5. Keep a yearlong media journal. Each week, find a current event news story that relates to human geography. In your journal, summarize the news story (who, what, when, where, why, how, etc.). Then, ask yourself, "How does this connect to Human Geography?" Try to explain this by using appropriate vocabulary words. Next, think about your opinion on the story. Try to make a personal connection to the story, beyond just "I liked it." Overall, media journals give you a better insight into what is going on in the world and can give you a wealth of examples to use in your APHG essay responses. Thanks to Mrs. M. from Kellam High School for the tip!

6. After a test or quiz, write out the questions you missed with the correct answers. This can help you understand why you got the question wrong and make sure you don't get it wrong again. Thanks to Ms. W. from South Effingham High School for the tip!

7. Be open to learning something new. Content mastery is not going to an easy journey. Do not be afraid to make mistakes or falter when learning about geographic models, techniques, and theories. The great thing about AP Human Geography is that you will learn a lot of new information, but you need to take the time to gain a full understanding of the information using the materials given to you. Thanks to Mrs. K. from Livingston High School for the tip!

8. Read outside materials. Don't just stick to textbooks and review books. Venture out into current books about culture, economics, and politics. Examples of interesting books to read during the APHG course are:

Thanks to Ms. Whitney W. from Lafayette High School for the tip and reading list!

9. Answer the question in the same format that it's written. For the FRQ, make sure you are answering the question in the correct format. For example, if the question has three parts labeled A, B, and C, write your response in the same format. Thanks to Mr. Robert C. from Pearland High School for the tip!

10. Write out definitions in your own words. If you can't put something in your own words, you don't know what it means. Do NOT use a glossary to look up vocabulary terms. Glossaries give you definitions without context or examples. This is not helpful for learning or understanding the word. Instead, use the text to learn the meaning of vocabulary words. Thank to Ms. Leslie G. at Vandergrift High School for the tip!

11. Study confidently. It is not enough to study frequently. You must also believe that you can be successful. Having the right attitude of being diligent to the point of confidence in mastery is a huge key to success. Thanks for the tip from Mr. H. at Elk River High School!

12. Cut the fluff in your FRQ responses. You will not receive points for filling your essay with flowery language and filler. Stick to the facts and make sure you are writing towards the answer, not away from it. Support your statements with proper examples. If you can throw in a concept, geographer's name, vocabulary word, or model in your answer, do it! Thanks to Mr. James C. at Eustis High for the tip!

13. Know where countries, global cities, and major landforms are located. The most important tool for geographers is a map. Consider purchasing a World Atlas to study from. Print out blank maps and practice labeling them with countries, important cities, landforms, rivers, etc. By learning where important areas are located, you'll be more successful on the AP Human Geography exam. Thanks to Waubonsie Valley High School for the tip!

14. Review concepts from earlier chapters. Don't just stop studying a topic because you're onto the next topic. Work concepts from earlier chapters/units into the topic you're currently studying. Find ways to connect and relate them together. Thanks for the tip from Mrs. Sharon S. from John Metcalf Junior High School!

15. Skip lines when writing your FRQ. When you're answering your FRQ, skip a line in between each line of your response. This gives you space if you need to go back and add additional information. Thanks to Mr. Ken K. from Mashpee High School for the tip!

16. Be sure to outline your FRQs using graphic organizers. By doing this, you will ensure that you at least answer every part of the FRQ.
For example: From the 2010 FRQ, part B of number 3. Discuss ONE positive impact of EACH country's population structure on its economic development.

The outline should be a T chart with a on one side and B on the other.
From the 2011 FRQ, part A of number 1 says to Define the following terms and describe how each relates to Mexico's c.

Students should also do a T chart with definition on one side and a description on the other.
Lastly, from the 2009 FRQ, part C says to give a detailed account of THREE consequences of the rapid growth of squatter settlements. The three consequences you discuss may be social, economic, political or environmental.

For this, students should create an four squared ESPN (economic, social, political, environmental) chart and jot down some economic, social, and political consequences and pick one from each category so they don't overlap, therefore losing points for double-dipping.

Thanks for the tip from Justin H.

17. When you study for a test or national exam, mimic test conditions. Sit up, no distractions, no drinks unless water. Helps to decrease nerves. Thanks for the tip from Brooke O.

18. One strategy that I use getting ready for the test is teaching the students how to grade the FRQ using the rubric. I show the the action words to look for so that they may anticipate how many points each question is worth. I then have them write FRQs throughout our review time and use their ID numbers so they may do peer grading using the rubric. Students must grade the FRQ and then have another student grade the same FRQ. If they do not agree, they must get together and discuss why the FRQ did or did not get points. This creates great academic conversations and gets them talking about content. Thanks for the tip from Randall W. from Irving High.

19. Think back what you learned from your history courses. The notes and materials you got probably covered more than 25% of what you need to know for AP Human Geography. Thanks for the tip from Pui Lam C.

20. When writing Free Response Questions, imagine that you are talking to a younger child or explaining the concept to a grandparent with no knowledge of the subject. In this way you can make sure that you are explaining the concepts and examples more fully. And as I often say, "You never lose points for adding details." Thanks for the tip from Tom L. at Virtual Virginia.

21. When in doubt on a written response the Demographic Transition Model can almost always be used. Since AP Human Geography is so "human" oriented talking about the finer points of the DTM: population growth, distribution, diffusion, or how the question is influencing these, could get you some points even if your totally guessing. Thanks for the tip from Jonathan S. from Somerset College Preparatory School.

22. Use the FRQs from previous years as class assignments. Be sure to review them in class. Allow them to correct their paper, discuss answers and help their classmates. Thanks for the tip from Sandra B.

23. My one tip would be for students to know the vocabulary. Thanks for the tip from Pete L.

24. Apply the concepts and topics to real world situations as much as possible. Find case studies that will give further understanding on real world application. Thanks for the tip from Kevin M.

25. It's all in the FRQ - M/C reflects your average M/C in class tests, but FRQ will make or break in the final AP exam. Break down the possible ways in which objective points could be awarded within a question - aim for 10 points - remember no points for opinion and its applying knowledge - so good rule of thumb - if you're answering the question in a way you might have answered the question before taking the class its probably wrong. APPLY WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT! Thanks for the tip from John M. at Morgan County High.

26. Watch or listen to global news daily. Thanks for the tip from Christina E.

27. Have students practice reading short articles from the Economist. This will help students keep updated on current events, it includes different types of maps and it covers high interest topics. Thanks for the tip from Yarazet O.

28. The main event, of course, is to know the vocab. Not just memorizing terms, but using and relating them to the world. A less obvious tip would be to listen to NPR (Public Radio) in particular a show called "The World". And a show that I continue to watch and learn from is Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN on Sunday's mornings. Thanks for the tip from Pam H.
Are you a teacher? Do you have an awesome tip? Let us know!
When it comes down to it, the AP Human Geography exam is not going to be easy, but it is definitely possible to get a great score as long as you keep these tips in mind. The main things you need to focus on are: understanding key vocabulary words, learning how to think geographically, and knowing how to connect events, themes, and concepts together in different ways. In addition to the material and content, you also need to be familiar with the format of the exam and know how to answer free-response questions in the correct way. Achieving a score of a 4 or a 5 is not a far-away dream - it can be a reality!

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The Ultimate List of AP Human Geography Tips | Albert.io

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Do you want to score a 4 or 5 on your AP Human Geography exam? If the answer is "yes," you're probably wondering how you can prepare and study for the exam. You're also probably overwhelmed with all of the information, study guides, and tips out there.

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AP Human Geography Exam – AP Central | College Board

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Teachers: Explore timing and format for the AP Human Geography Exam. Review sample questions, scoring guidelines, and sample student responses.

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AP Human FRQs | Piktochart Visual Editor

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In your AP Human Geography class, you'll learn about the dynamics of societies around the world in economic, social, political, and environmental contexts. This course focuses a lot on ideas and models, along with terminology that defines the ways in which we've chosen to inhabit and change our surroundings. The following AP Human Geography study guide is designed to guide you through all the concepts covered in the course, with an emphasis on cumulative preparation for the AP exam.

What Will You Get From This AP Human Geography Study Guide?

This guide will help you review for assessments in your AP Human Geography class by providing links to practice resources and tips on effective study strategies. I'll also give advice that's specific to preparing for the final AP exam.

In the first section, I'll detail a step-by-step process you can follow to create and execute a customized study plan for the test. This process includes taking a diagnostic test, evaluating your weaknesses, studying the content areas where you struggled the most, and taking additional practice tests to check your progress.

To follow up the study plan, I'll list a few key study tips to remember as you revisit the course content and take practice exams. I'll also give you notes for each topic area that you can use to study for in-class tests and review for the AP exam. Having all this information in one place will hopefully make studying for this class much less stressful!

Creating a Study Plan for AP Human Geography

In this section, I'll go through the steps of a basic study plan for the AP exam. Most of the principles will also apply to your studying for tests throughout the class, but full practice tests are only important when directly preparing for the final exam. You can use shorter topic-specific quizzes to diagnose your weaknesses in different units of the course earlier in the school year.

Step 1: Take and Score a Full Practice Test

The first step is to take a full practice test so you can get a better idea of your current score level. When you take the test, time it to the specifications of the real AP exam so that you'll be able to tell if you have any issues with time management. Keep in mind that on the AP test, you only have an hour to answer 75 multiple-choice questions. To be on the safe side, you should try to get your time down to around 30 seconds per question. The only way to get used to this pace is to take practice tests under the same conditions.

You might consider using this full practice test from Barron's , which offers both timed and untimed versions with automatic scoring for multiple choice. As you take your practice test, circle or make note of any questions where you feel anything less than totally confident in your answer. Even if you end up getting them right, you should reexamine that content later in your review to increase your comfort level with the material.

When you're done, score your test so you can see where you fall in the AP range. You can use this online calculator for a decent score estimation based on how many raw points you earned. Then, set a goal for improvement, and decide how many hours you'll need to put into your prep. This will be an appropriate amount studying if you're hoping to improve by more than one AP point. If you only need to improve by one point or are just looking to raise your score within the same range, you might be able to wait until the month before the test to start the rest of the process. You shouldn't need to study for more than 10-20 hours. If you have a couple of months, you should be able to put in 20+ hours of study time.

Step 2: Go Through Your Mistakes

If you decide to begin the rest of this process now, go through your mistakes on the practice test, and categorize them. This is how you'll decide which content and skill areas to focus on in your review. There's no point in studying concepts and terms that you've already mastered. If you want to see real improvements, this is the most important stage of the study process. You can't fix your mistakes unless you know what they are first!

Step 3: Study Appropriate Content

After you finish analyzing your mistakes, In this case, If you found the free response questions especially challenging, start looking at notes that correspond to the areas where you had the most trouble on the test. Make sure you're fully absorbing the information as you read. flashcards might be useful because there are so many terms to remember for AP Human Geography. practice a few more of those before you move on to the next step. You can also use some of the sites I'll link to later in this article to review specific topics with short multiple-choice quizzes.

Step 4: Take a Second Full Practice Test
take a second test to see if your scores have improved. C ompare your new score to the goal you set in the first step, and decide whether you want to go through the study process again or are happy with your current score. If you're satisfied, you can take a break and just do a bit of light review up until the test.

If you find that you haven't improved, you should reevaluate how you conducted this process and make some changes to your strategy in the next round. Were you in an environment that was too distracting? Did you skim over our notes without really absorbing them? These are the kinds of things that can cause your progress to stall.

For planning purposes, here's the estimated time required for each of the steps in the process for this exam:

Step 1: 2.5 hours

Step 2: 1 hour

Step 3: 2 hours

Step 4: 2.5 hours

It should take approximately eight hours total for a complete cycle. Of course, you can always extend the time you spend reviewing content if you're rusty on a bunch of different topics or just want to be extra thorough.

Clean off that rust with an acidic solution of facts.

AP Human Geography Study Tips

These are a few of the most valuable strategies to keep in mind as you go through your study plan to prepare for the AP exam. They should also be helpful in your preparation for smaller assessments throughout the school year in your class.

Tip #1: Know Your Regions

To get full credit for most free response questions, you have to provide specific examples to support your answers. That means being able to identify the characteristics of world regions regarding their various cultures, demographics, and physical environments. You'll see a map of the major regions covered by AP Human Geography in the content section of this guide along with a list of seven topics. You should be able to locate each region and identify the relationship it has with each of the seven topic areas.

Tip #2: Terms, Terms, Terms

Although knowing your way around a map is important, much of AP Human Geography is about your knowledge of terminology. I'd highly recommend making flashcards or using online flashcards in your studying (I'll put a link to some of these in the upcoming content section!). Many multiple-choice questions are essentially just asking for definitions, and some free response questions begin by asking you to define a term that the rest of the question addresses in more depth. Even if it's not this direct, knowing your way around the language of the field of geography will make it much easier to understand questions without relying on shaky assumptions or inferences.

Tip #3: Pay Attention to Important Models and Theories

Human Geography is mostly considered a humanities subject, but there are some scientific elements to it. These show up in the form of demographic models that are introduced throughout the course. It's important to know how to read models and understand what they represent. You should also know how they connect to major theories in human geography and what those theories say about the development of society. I'll give you a link to a comprehensive list of models and theories at the end of the next section.
Skylar, how many times do I have to explain homophones to you? YOU'RE. NOT. HELPING.
AP Human Geography Topics and Notes

I'll list each of them followed by notes that cover relevant subtopics. AP Human Geography covers seven major topic areas. In this section, You can use these notes in the content review stage of your final AP study process and during the year as you review for in-class tests. You might find these notes (from CourseNotes) difficult to get through because they're written in such a way that it's hard to pick out key concepts. There are a lot of long paragraphs with no bolding of important terms. If you find these notes borderline incomprehensible, you should try getting a review book that puts all the content in clearer terms. I think Cracking the AP Human Geography Exam is a good starting point.

As a precursor to the notes, here's a map of all the world regions that are discussed throughout the course. You'll need to consider how these topics apply differently to varying locations around the globe:

Topic #1: Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives

Topic #2: Population

Topic #3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Topic #4: Political Organization of Space

Topic #5: Agricultural and Rural Land Use

Topic #6: Industrialization and Economic Development

Topic #7: Cities and Urban Land Use

Since terms are so important on the exam, I'd also recommend checking out this full list of all vocab covered by the course (provided by Quizlet) so that you can review all the vocabulary you need to know in one place. You should also check out this overview of all the different theories and models covered throughout the course.

When lots of humans get together to form an urban community, they can't help but color on everything. What an adorable species.
Resources for Reviewing Content

In this section, I'll go over a few different resources that you can use to test your knowledge of the content and take practice tests and quizzes.

Review Books
Review books are helpful resources that provide access to additional practice questions and tests. They often include diagnostic tests that will help you diagnose your weak areas accurately and with less legwork on your part. Read my guide to the best review books for this course to get a better idea of which ones you should consider getting. Especially in a subject like Human Geography that can be a little elusive, review books will help you figure out exactly what you need to study and how you should study it. Some solid review books include:

This includes all the free response questions that have been asked on the AP Human Geography exam since 2001. Be aware that the scoring guidelines are only included for 2004 onwards, so the first three sets of questions for 2001-2003 don't have official answers that you can consult.

Sporcle Geography Quizzes
You don't need to be a complete expert on where every country is located, but these quizzes are both fun AND educational, so I'd recommend checking them out (warning: super addictive).
it's important to know your world regions for AP Human Geography so you can back up your answers with specific examples.
This site offers four diagnostic tests for AP Human Geography with 75 questions each (multiple-choice only). The tests have automatic scoring, and each is given a preliminary difficulty level rating. There are also tons of mini-quizzes listed by concept if you want to practice topic-specific questions as well as flashcards that will help you learn all the course terminology.

There are quizzes on every topic with questions categorized by difficulty level. Quizzes range in length from 10-40 questions, and t he site keeps a running tally of how many questions you've answered correctly in each category (easy, medium, and hard). Unfortunately, you do need to pay for access to the quiz questions in the "hard" category. It's $25 to get full access to all the AP Human Geography questions, including a bunch of free response practice.

If you select a chapter of this book on the left-hand navigation bar, you can scroll down and click on a link for a multiple choice quiz. These quizzes are helpful review materials even if your class isn't using this particular textbook.

Now, sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor in the form of an A and/or 5.

Conclusion

This AP Human Geography study guide has covered a review plan for the AP test, tips for success in studying throughout the year, and a list of all the topics included in the AP Human Geography curriculum. Let's recap! The steps in a successful study plan should look something like this:

Step 1: Take and Score a Practice Test

Step 2: Go Through Your Mistakes

Step 3: Study Appropriate Content

Step 4: Take a Second Practice Test

Again, you can go through this process multiple times if you don't get the results you want in the first round. Just pay close attention to whether or not you're improving. If not, make changes to amp up the effectiveness of your content review. Some study tips you should keep in mind as you study for both the AP test and in-class assessments include:

Tip #1: Know Your World Regions

Tip #2: Terms Are Important

Tip #3: Pay Attention to Major Geographic Models and Theories

After you're clear on the fundamentals of how to study, you can use the notes and practice resources in the second half of the article to prepare for unit quizzes, midterms, and the final AP test.

What's Next?

Are you thinking about self-studying this class or other AP classes? Find out more about whether AP self-study is right for your situation and which classes are the most manageable options.

If you're still planning out your schedule for the future, check out our article on which other history classes you should take after AP Human Geography.

You might also be interested in these articles that discuss AP credit policies at colleges and which classes you should take throughout the rest of your time in high school based on your college goals.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

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The Ultimate AP Human Geography Study Guide

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In your AP Human Geography class, you'll learn about the dynamics of societies around the world in economic, social, political, and environmental contexts. This course focuses a lot on ideas and models, along with terminology that defines the ways in which we've chosen to inhabit and change our surroundings.

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We have identified all the best practice tests and exams for your AP Human Geography review. See below for descriptions and links to each of these great free resources. We also have links to the top AP Human Geography vocab, notes, study guides, multiple choice, and free response questions. If you want to ace your AP Geography exam, this is the place to start.

AP Human Geography Practice Exams

Albert.io Geography Tests. Hundreds of challenging AP Geography questions that are organized by topic. Mostly free, but full access requires a subscription.

AP Human Geography Practice Test. A great set of free practice tests that cover all 7 topics from the course. Includes detailed explanations.

Barron's Test. This is a free online AP Human Geography practice test from Barron's. A complete test that includes free response questions as well.

Geography Quiz. Online quizzes for each unit of the course. Use these throughout the year for your test prep.

REA Practice Test. Another full-length practice test that features multiple choice and free response questions. Detailed explanations are included.

Practice Test and Practice Test 2010 and Practice Exam 2011. These AP Human Geography practice tests from Mrs. Bell are awesome. For dozens of additional quizzes, games, and vocabulary lists click here and then scroll down.

Textbook Self Tests. Multiple-choice quizzes for each of the 14 chapters of Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture by de Blij, Murphy, and Fouberg.

More Chapter Quizzes. At the Student Center for Fellmann's Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities you will find two interactive quizzes for each chapter. Tons of practice questions!

Exam Flashcards & Course Review & All Terms. Thousands of amazing flashcards to help with your exam review!

Varsity Tutors. 948 free AP Human Geography practice questions covering a variety of topics.

AP Human Geography Vocab

APHG Exam Vocab. Awesome collection of vocabulary terms and definitions for your exam review. Hundreds of AP Human Geography vocabulary words, divided into 9 units.

Rubenstein Vocab Flashcards. This huge set of vocabulary flashcards is great for exam prep. A total of 334 terms. More sets for specific chapters and topics are .

StudyStacks Geography. Dozens of flashcard sets. Pick a set to review by topic or chapter.

AP Human Geography Free Response

FRQ from 2001 to 2017. These are the actual free response questions from the past 14 years. Also has scoring guidelines, statistics, distributions, and sample responses.

Free-Response Strategies. If you are looking for tips and strategies for answering your AP Human Geography free response questions, then be sure to check this out.

AP Human Geography Notes

Big Ideas Packet. A huge AP Geography cram packet that reviews the entire course.

Exam Review. This is a 98 page exam review from Ms. Ramirez. Covers all the key themes and concepts.

Stanton PowerPoints. Excellent collection of PowerPoint presentations from Mr. Stanton. These are based on Introduction to Human Geography text by Rubenstein.

Geo Notes . A nice set of AP Human Geography notes. This 35 page document is in Microsoft Word format. Works great as a final exam study guide!

AP Human Geography Outlines

Outline Notes This PDF is probably the best of the AP Human Geography outlines that are available! It's 45 pages and has very detailed notes which cover all the key material.

AP Human Geography Videos

Midterm Review and Final Exam Review. A couple of great exam prep videos.

Mr. Foti's AP Human Geography Channel. These AP Geography videos give excellent overviews and are organized by unit/topic.

Highest-Rated AP Human Geography Study Guides from Amazon

Cracking the AP Human Geography Exam, 2018 Edition. This book from Princeton Review is definitely one of the best AP Human Geography study guides. Includes great summaries of key information, large section on test-taking strategy, and 2 full-length practice exams.

Barron's AP Human Geography, 6th Edition. The Barron's book is another excellent choice. Solid review of the course along with 3 full-length practice exams. A five-star rating on Amazon!

About the Exam

The AP Geography course deals with the patterns and processes that effect human's understanding and use of the earth's surface. Spatial concepts and data are used along with landscape analysis. Topics include:

1.) Geography
2.) Population
3.) Cultural Patterns & Processes
4.) Political Organization of Space
5.) Agriculture & Rural Land Use
6.) Industrialization & Economic Development
7.) Cities & Urban Land Use

The AP Statistics Exam format is:
Multiple-Choice Section: 60 minutes
-75 Questions

Free-Response Section: 75 minutes
-3 Essay Questions
The multiple choice and the frq sections each make up half of the final grade.
When is the AP Human Geography Exam?

The exam date for the 2017/2018 school year is Friday, May 18th 2018 at 8 a.m. This test is offered once per year.

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AP Human Geography Review | AP Practice Exams

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We have identified all the best practice tests and exams for your AP Human Geography review. See below for descriptions and links to each of these great free resources. We also have links to the top AP Human Geography vocab, notes, study guides, multiple choice, and free response questions.

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Chapter 1

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Chapter 8

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AP Human Geography - Political Geography - Chapter 8 Key Issue 4

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Chapter 13

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information on every unit

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Chapter 4,5,6,7

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Start studying Rubenstein Vocab. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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from Ms. Smith's Quizlet

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Key Issue 1

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Instructor: Patricia Chappine Show bio

Patricia has a Ph.D. in Progress, History and Culture as well as a master's degree in Holocaust and genocide studies. She has taught heritage of the western world and U.S. history.

The Agricultural Revolution in 18th-century Europe was a time of growth and improvement for the farming and agriculture industry. Learn more about the timeline, causes, inventions, and effects of new farming techniques, such as crop rotation and improved livestock utilization, which led to new types of crops, land patterns, and social change throughout Europe. Updated: 09/22/2021

Historians have often labeled the first Agricultural Revolution (which took place around 10,000 B.C.) as the period of transition from a hunting-and-gathering society to one based on stationary farming. During the 18th century, another Agricultural Revolution took place when European agriculture shifted from the techniques of the past.

New patterns of crop rotation and livestock utilization paved the way for better crop yields, a greater diversity of wheat and vegetables and the ability to support more livestock. These changes impacted society as the population became better nourished and healthier. The Enclosure Acts, passed in Great Britain, allowed wealthy lords to purchase public fields and push out small-scale farmers, causing a migration of men looking for wage labor in cities. These workers would provide the labor for new industries during the Industrial Revolution.

The Agricultural Revolution began in Great Britain around the turn of the 18th century. Several major events, which will be discussed in more detail later, include:

The perfection of the horse-drawn seed press, which would make farming less labor intensive and more productive.

The large-scale growth of new crops, such as potato and maize, by 1750.

The passing of the Enclosure Laws, limiting the common land available to small farmers in 1760.

Video

Quiz

Course

Contributing Factors to the Agricultural Revolution

In many ways, British agriculture advanced more rapidly than any other European nation. The increased agricultural production of the 18th century can be traced to four interrelated factors:

The increased availability of farmland

A favorable climate

More livestock

Improved crop yield

Let's look at each of these areas in more detail. The available farmland increased due to changes in landholding patterns spurred on by new methods of cultivation. Previously, the open-field system was prominent. This system was problematic because it allowed part of the land to remain unplanted at all times in order to avoid depleting the soil. Since growing crops removes nutrients from the soil, a field must be replenished in order to continue to yield food.

One solution to this situation was to continue to move crops to different land. This was not feasible in Great Britain because the country lacked a large percentage of available land. Instead, farmers began to utilize barren soil by planting different crops, such as clover or turnips.

These plants have roots rich in nitrogen, a necessity for replenishing soil. The cultivation of turnips was important because they could be left in the ground through the winter. This ultimately led to an increase in livestock because these plants were also utilized for grazing. The boost in livestock fundamentally changed the diet of much of Europe.

Not only were Europeans consuming more meat, but the livestock was producing much needed fertilizer for crops. The addition of fertilizer allowed an improved production rate per acre. By the beginning of the 18th century, the colder climate of the 'little ice age' had ended. The resulting mild summer months created ideal conditions for crop cultivation.

Important Inventors

Several innovators created tools that greatly influenced the new agriculture. For instance, a significant step forward was pioneered by Jethro Tull, an English agriculturist.

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The Agricultural Revolution: Timeline, Causes, Inventions & Effects - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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The Agricultural Revolution in 18th-century Europe was a time of growth and improvement for the farming and agriculture industry. Learn more about...

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Unit Vocab

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AP Human Geography: Political Geography Vocabulary

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Vocabulary from the Advanced Placement course of Human Geography regarding political geography Learn with flashcards, games, and more - for free.

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Key Issue 1

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Key Issue 1

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Industrial agriculture is one of the most unsustainable practices of modern civilization. From start to finish, factory farming is responsible for the abuse of land, animals, and natural resources all for the express purpose of providing cheap, unhealthy food to large amounts of people. Industrial agriculture only really crept its way into normative American culture in the 1970s (thanks to President Nixon's Agricultural Secretary, Earl Buttz), but in just four decades, it has spread like a disease across the globe. Our current global food system is responsible for one-third of global greenhouse emissions and it completely depends on fossil fuels for transportation and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Replacing small-scale farms, where a variety of crops and animals were raised in congruence with single-crop farms and " animal production facilities," factory farming has wrought economic problems, public health concerns, inhumane conditions for billions of animals, and a huge carbon debt on the world's agricultural system.

With rising concerns over food security and the future of our rapidly deteriorating environment, more attention has been put on the multitudinous ways factory farming contributes to these issues. It is easy to fall into the traps of contradictory information that Big-Ag manufactures to justify their unsustainable practices, but I urge you not to believe a word of it! Below are the top five ways that factory farming harms the planet - read, learn, and pass it on!

1. Air Pollution

Over 37 percent of methane emissions result from factory farming. Methane has a global warming potential 20 times higher than carbon dioxide. But that doesn't make the carbon dioxide emissions any less staggering...the fossil fuels used in energy, transportation, and synthetic pesticides/fertilizers emits 90 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. On a lesser note, factory farming also releases harmful compounds like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia that can cause immediate negative health effects in humans.

2. Deforestation

In the United States alone, over 260 million acres of forest have been cleared to make room for crop fields, most of which are used to exclusively grow livestock feed. This is not a practice that only occurs in the U.S., land clearing in Brazil to grow chicken feed is responsible for the destruction of about 3 million acres of rainforest. And these numbers only account for land cleared to feed animals. Clearing land to grow soybeans in the Amazon rainforest is responsible for clearing over 100 million hectares of forest, releasing enough carbon into the atmosphere to increase the rate of global warming by 50 percent.

3. Water Pollution

Industrial agriculture sucks up 70 percent of the world's freshwater supplies. To follow up that staggering number, the EPA estimates that 75 percent of all water-quality problems in America's rivers and streams. Water polluted with agricultural run-off can destroy whole ecosystems and be toxic, if not lethal to humans and animals alike.

Industrial livestock farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (sounds warm and fuzzy, right?), contain massive cesspools that store animal waste. These "factory-farm lagoons" have been known to leak into adjacent waterways. Nitrates, dangerous microbes, and drug-resistant bacteria run rampant in these lagoons. When these by-products get into local waterways, they cause toxic algae blooms which lead to "dead zones" and massive fish kills. High levels of nitrates in drinking water can cause spontaneous abortions and blue baby syndrome and bacteria outbreaks from agricultural water pollution is responsible for several disease outbreaks across the United States.

Click here to see how levels of animal waste impact your state's water supplies.

4. Monocultures

Monocultures in industrial farming pose an incredible threat to future food security across the globe. Single-crop farms are one of the "ingenious" developments that have come out of industrial agriculture. To support the livestock industry, a small group of "commodity" crops have taken up the majority of the world's agricultural land. In the United States, corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans are planted at an unprecedented rate, yet only a small percentage of these crops feed people.

Planting millions of acres of genetically similar plants has become a global phenomenon due to the high-yields that these plants can produce under certain conditions. The problem with this, however, comes when environmental conditions change (good thing our climate is so stable...) or in the form of a crop epidemic (the potato famine sound familiar?).

Large-scale farming of monocultures depends on massive amounts of synthetic fertilizers to replace nutrients that are continually drained from soil. This practice also requires high levels of synthetic pesticides to stave off insects that are attracted to certain crops. If farmers did not receive subsidies for growing commodity crops, then crop fields could be populated with a diverse mixture of plant species that can naturally fix nitrogen into soil and control insects.

5. Fossil Fuels and Carbon Emissions

In the satirical web series " Farmed and Dangerous," industrial farms begin feeding livestock " petro-pellets," animal food that is really concentrated pills of fossil fuels. While this outrageous practice does not happen in real life (...yet), it does highlight how heavily factory farms rely on fossil fuels to raise animals and grow crops. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are derived from petroleum, the majority of crops grown with the use of these chemicals are turned into animal feed - hence the comedic irony of cutting out the crop-middle man and just feeding animals straight petro.

Between transportation, synthetic fertilizers/pesticides, and the incredible amount of energy it takes to run Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, factory farms use about 5.5 gallons of fossils fuels per acre. The average farm in the United States spans 418 acres, meaning it will devour about 2,300 gallons of fossil fuels. Just think about how many thousands of farms there are across the globe...

What You Can Do

It is more than clear that industrial agriculture needs to stop. There are many things you can do to help reform the farming industry, so don't feel like you are powerless in the face of the factory farming machine! Here are a few simple things you can do that make a huge impact:

If you haven't already: STOP eating meat, the livestock industry is a major driver behind these 5 examples.

Only purchase local and organic produce to support small-scale farming that grow crops without ridiculous amounts of petroleum fertilizers and pesticides. Check out this guide to find local produce near where you live.

OR better yet, grow your own vegetables and fruits.

Check out this awesome article for more ideas, including a directory of petitions you should sign!

Join the #EatForThePlanet movement and spread the word!

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter ! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider by donating!

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5 Ways Factory Farming Is Killing the Environment

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Industrial agriculture is one of the most unsustainable practices of modern civilization. From start to finish, factory farming is responsible for the abuse of land, animals, and natural resources all for the express purpose of providing cheap, unhealthy food to large amounts of people.

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Key Issue 2

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What is the relationship between hunger and nutrition?

Farmers uprooting a healthy cassava grown from a cutting resistant to the African cassava mosaic virus in Kalemie, Tabac Valley, Katanga Region, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

This seems an obvious question - if one doesn't eat enough food to fill current physiological needs - they feel hunger. Hunger can be temporary, such as not having enough to eat for a meal or a day, or can be long lasting when the person does not get enough to eat to maintain his or her physical needs over many days, weeks, months or years. When a person has hunger for a sustained period of time, he or she can develop malnutrition, either mild or severe, depending on one's body needs and food intake.

Consequences of malnutrition

Malnutrition is defined as any disorder of nutrition. It may result from an unbalanced, insufficient or excessive diet or from impaired absorption, assimilation or use of foods. Overnutrition, a condition of excess nutrient and energy intake over time, may be regarded as a form of malnutrition when it leads to morbid obesity. Undernutrition is a condition of malnutrition caused by an inadequate food supply or an inability to use the nutrients in food. Undernutrition and its consequences is the focus of this article. (Definitions from Mosby Medical Dictionary 2009)

The term 'Chronic malnutrition' refers to lower intake of nutrients than the body needs over a long period of time. This type of undernutrition can cause young children to be

stunted in height,

underweight,

delayed in developmental capacities such as brain function, and

more prone to disease.

Additionally, undernutrition can cause:

swollen and bleeding gums,

diaainess and fatigue,

decaying teeth, among other symptoms.

It is not as visible as severe malnutrition, hence receives less media attention than famines or outright starvation, for instance, nevertheless it is a much larger and chronic problem. Severe malnutrition, particularly in young children and infants, can lead to death.

Extent of the Problem

Hunger is the world's number one health risk, greater than HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined (World Food Programme 2012). Statistics from the 2014 State of Food Insecurity in the World from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate that 805 million people in the world are chronically malnourished, down more than 200 million over the last decade, indicating progress.

Undernutrition can begin in the womb. If undernutrition carries on in the first 1,000 days of a child's life it can also lead to stunted growth, which is irreversible at that point and associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced performance in school and later in life at work. Undernourished children that are chronically malnourished are more likely to become short adults that birth smaller infants who have lower educational achievement and economic status in adulthood (Lancet 2008). This cycle carries on from mother to child when chronic undernutrition continues generation to generation. Stunting and its effects typically become permanent because reversal usually means changing the basic and underlying causes of malnutrition.

Who is most at risk for undernutrition?

The most vulnerable are:

children under five, pregnant and lactating women, and the elderly and disabled;

poor people;

people who live in developing countries

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 98 million children under five years of age are underweight, or about one in every six children. Most underweight children live in Southern Asia (WHO 2013).

Vitamins and minerals (micronutrients)

If a specific essential nutrient is not consumed in adequate quantities, a nutritional deficiency can develop, such as the most common form of nutritional deficiency from lack of iron that may result in anemia. This kind of malnutrition does not cause obvious hunger per se, yet the body silently 'hungers' for the right nutrients. Vitamin A deficiency, which impacts eyesight among other physiological effects, is a common deficiency. WHO estimates that as many as 2 billion people worldwide, or about 30% of the world's population, are not getting enough nutrients such as vitamin A, iron, or zinc in their diets. For a more detailed discussion of micronutrients, see the 2015 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics.

UNICEF's model of malnutrition

To understand how hunger and malnutrition relate to each other, UNICEF developed a widely recognized model of the underlying causes of malnutrition (Figure 1). Hunger is a result of the immediate causes of malnutrition.

UNICEF Model of Malnutrition (adapted from 1991 UNICEF model)

The ultimate manifestation of poor nutrition is malnutrition, due to basic, underlying and immediate factors that contribute to this condition.
The immediate cause of undernutrition is a result of a lack of dietary intake, or disease. This can be caused by consuming too few nutrients or to an infection, which can increase requirements and prevent the body from absorbing those nutrients consumed.

At this level, infection and malnutrition are actually a vicious cycle where inadequate diet can cause weight loss and growth faltering as well as lowered immunity. This in turn can lead to increase incidence, severity and duration of disease. Disease, in turn leads to loss of appetite, mal-absorption of nutrients and an increased need for nutritional requirements, leading back to an inadequate diet. The primary diseases that contribute to this cycle in the developing word are diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, measles and malaria. Both treating the disease and efforts to improve their nutritional status can break the cycle.

At the next level are the underlying causes of malnutrition. Whether or not an individual gets enough food to eat or whether s/he is at risk of infection is mainly the result of factors operating at the household and community level.

Within the UNICEF framework described these are classified as underlying causes. They can be grouped into three broad categories:
-household food insecurity
-inadequate care
-unhealthy household environment and lack of health services.

Household food insecurity can be defined as the household having access to foods that are needed to sustain life; or the inability to obtain enough affordable food for the nutritional needs of the family and for the intake of food with the right balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. Inadequate care includes practices such as inadequate breast-feeding or poor dietary intake. Sometimes cultural taboos play a negative role in food security, such as withholding nutrition foods during pregnancy or illness. Lastly, lack of public health services, poor sanitation and access to clean water can contribute to food insecurity.

The basic causes of malnutrition arise from a variety of complex social, economic and political factors. These factors can defeat household food security: for instance, social and food safety nets are not available for families who may suffer economic hardships; or women and girls are not protected by countries' laws and customs; and governments' political and ideological practices may impact income and resource distribution.

Poverty is one of the underlying causes. If a family doesn't earn enough income through consistent and sufficient work to buy food and other needs for a family, that resulting poverty can lead to inadequate food security, and inability to access health care services.

Conclusion

The basic causes of malnutrition are very difficult and expensive to address, often requiring changes in government programming, protection of vulnerable ethnic groups, and the building up of health, water and sanitary infrastructures, among other infrastructures such as roads, that allow people easier access to the services and foods they need. Until these are adequately addressed, malnutrition will remain the large-scale problem that it is.

There are promising signs of progress. Since the early 1990s, 11 of the 63 developing countries had reached the undernourishment levels of below 5% and demonstrate that meeting the Millennium Development Goal's target of halving the proportion of undernourished people by 2015 is within reach. (FAO State of Food Insecurity 2014). Despite overall progress, there has been only modest improvements in reducing the food insecure in parts of the world plagued by natural disasters and conflict, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia.

True today as when the Presidential Commission on World Hunger was established: " he eventual alleviation of world hunger will require many long-range programs of hard work which officer no promises of quick and dramatic results"

Bibliography and Resources

Food and Agriculture Organization. State of Food Insecurity 2014

Food and Agriculture Organization- http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4030e.pdf

Kidshealth.org

The Lancet. http://www.indianpediatrics.net/apr2008/298.pdf

Mosby's Medical Dictionary 2009

Report of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger (early 1980's). Washington, DC

UNICEF.org

UNICEF Nutrition Training Module http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/training/

World Food Program 2013 Hunger Stats

World Health Organization 2015

World Health Organization 2011

World Health Organization 2012. Micronutrient Deficiencies

World Health Organization 2013. Obesity and Overweight Fact Sheet http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/

World Food Program. 2012. Two minutes to learn about school meals

World Health Organization. 2011. Global Health Observatory. Underweight in Children

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Hunger and Nutrition Facts -World Hunger Education - World Hunger News

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Farmers uprooting a healthy cassava grown from a cutting resistant to the African cassava mosaic virus in Kalemie, Tabac Valley, Katanga Region, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano This seems an obvious question - if one doesn't eat enough food to fill current physiological needs - they feel hunger.

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The CBD CBDs are very accessible because they are where roads and train lines met. A CBD's accessibility makes it prime for different types of land use and big competition for buyers which makes it very valuable and puts up the price. The buyers of this land are usually shops, banks or offices.

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Write: AP Human Geography Unit 3 Vocab | Quizlet

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Quizlet is a lightning fast way to learn vocabulary.

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definition of folk culture vs. popular culture

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definition of folk culture vs. popular culture

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ch4. ki 1

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hearth and diffusion of folk vs. popular culture 

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hearth and diffusion of folk vs. popular culture 

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ch. 4 KI 1

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ch 4 KI 2

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Ch 4 KI. 1

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Start studying Ch. 5 AP Human Geography (Language). Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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ch. 4 Key Issue 1

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Folk and Popular Culture Introduction Geographers study where folk and popular cultures are located and the reasons why their distribution...

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US quota laws

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ch. 6 Key Issue 1

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World Religions Map

Explore religious beliefs around the world through an interactive map produced by WGBH. The interactive opens to show a map that displays the religions that are the most prevalent in each country around the world. You may then click on one of eight religious groupings listed in the menu to examine its relative popularity in each country. The map features brief descriptions of each religious grouping and bar graphs that reflect the percentage of a country's population associated with each grouping. The religious groupings are (in alphabetical order) Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, indigenous religions, Islam, Judaism, non-religious people, and other religions. This resource is part of the Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler Collection.

Learn more at the series' website.

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Explore religious beliefs around the world through an interactive map produced by WGBH. The interactive opens to show a map that displays the religions that are the most prevalent in each country around the world. You may then click on one of eight religious groupings listed in the menu to examine its relative popularity in each country.

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Key Issue 1

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Can you fill in the map by naming any official national language used by every country? ('De facto' languages are accepted for countries with no official language.) Test your knowledge on this language quiz to see how you do and compare your score to others.

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state shapes

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Chapter 2,3

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what is a state?

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Global Policy Forum is a policy watchdog that follows the work of the United Nations. We promote accountability and citizen participation in decisions on peace and security, social justice and international law.

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State, nation, nation-state

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State, Nation and Nation-State: Clarifying Misused Terminology | GEOG 128: Geography of International Affairs

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A nation is a group of people who see themselves as a cohesive and coherent unit based on shared cultural or historical criteria. Nations are socially constructed units, not given by nature. Their existence, definition, and members can change dramatically based on circumstances.

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A multinational state is a sovereign state that comprises two or more nations. This is in contrast to anation state, where a single nation accounts for the bulk of the population

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Colonies/territories in modern day

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United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories - Wikipedia

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The United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories is a list of places that the United Nations General Assembly deems to be "non-self-governing" and subject to the decolonization process.

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Types of boundaries, explaining physical and cultural boundaries, gerrymandering, state shapes

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ch. 6

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AP Human Geography Course: Unit 3: Religion Introduction

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Gerrymandering explained

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Gerrymandering -- drawing political boundaries to give your party a numeric advantage over an opposing party -- is a difficult process to explain. If you find the notion confusing, check out the chart above -- adapted from one posted to Reddit this weekend -- and wonder no more.

Suppose we have a very tiny state of fifty people. Thirty of them belong to the Blue Party, and 20 belong to the Red Party. And just our luck, they all live in a nice even grid with the Blues on one side of the state and the Reds on the other.

Now, let's say we need to divide this state into five districts. Each district will send one representative to the House to represent the people. Ideally, we want the representation to be proportional: if 60 percent of our residents are Blue and 40 percent are Red, those five seats should be divvied up the same way.

Fortunately, because our citizens live in a neatly ordered grid, it's easy to draw five lengthy districts -- two for the Reds , and three for the Blues. Voila! Perfectly proportional representation, just as the Founders intended. That's grid 1 above, "perfect representation."

Now, let's say instead that the Blue Party controls the state government, and they get to decide how the lines are drawn. Rather than draw districts vertically they draw them horizontally, so that in each district there are six Blues and four Reds. You can see that in grid 2 above, "compact but unfair."

With a comfortable Blue majority in this state, each district elects a blue candidate to the House. The Blues win 5 seats and the Reds don't get a single one. Oh well! All's fair in love and politics.

In the real world, the results of this latter scenario are similar to what we see in New York, though there are no good examples of where a majority party gives itself a clean-sweep. In 2012, Democrats received 66 percent of the popular House vote. But they won 21 out of 27 House seats, or three more than you'd expect from the popular vote alone. And from a purely geometric standpoint, New York's congressional districts aren't terribly irregular -- at least not compared to other states.

Finally, what if the Red Party controls the state government? The Reds know they're at a numeric disadvantage. But with some creative boundary drawing -- the type you see in grid 3, "neither compact nor fair" -- they can slice the Blue population up such that they only get a majority in two districts. So despite making up 40 percent of the population, the Reds win 60 percent of the seats. Not bad!

In the real world, this is similar to what we see in Pennsylvania. In 2012, Democrats won 51 percent of the popular House vote. But the only won 5 out of 18 House seats -- fewer than one third. This was because when Pennsylvania Republicans redrew the state's Congressional districts, they made highly irregular districts that look like the one below, PA-7, one of the most geographically irregular districts in the nation.

Now, this exercise is of course a huge simplification. In the real world people don't live in neatly-ordered grids sorted by political party. But for real-world politicians looking to give themselves an advantage at redistricting time, the process is exactly the same, as are the results for the parties that gerrymander successfully.

The easiest way to solve this issue, of course, would be to take the redistricting process out of human hands entirely. There is already software capable of doing just that -- good luck getting any politicians to agree to it, though.

More on gerrymandering:
This computer programmer solved gerrymandering in his spare time "
America's most gerrymandered congressional districts "
What 60 years of political gerrymandering looks like "
One easy way to end gerrymandering: Stop letting politicians draw their own districts "

Note: The chart above was adapted from one posted to Reddit this weekend. Credit to redditor N8theGr8 for finding the original image. He couldn't track down the original creator using a reverse image search, and neither could I. If you made the original chart, drop me a line so I can give you credit! UPDATE: The original creator reached out -- his name is Stephen Nass, and he posted the original chart on Facebook on Feb. 21.
Update: An earlier version of this post used California as an example of a majority party giving itself a bigger majority through redistricting. California's districts are drawn by an independent commission, not by the parties.

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This is the best explanation of gerrymandering you will ever see

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Gerrymandering -- drawing political boundaries to give your party a numeric advantage over an opposing party -- is a difficult process to explain. If you find the notion confusing, check out the chart above -- adapted from one posted to Reddit this weekend -- and wonder no more.

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The Cold War

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After World War II, the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its satellite states began a decades-long struggle for supremacy known as the Cold War. Soldiers of the Soviet Union and the United States did not do battle directly during the Cold War. But the two superpowers continually antagonized each other through political maneuvering, military coalitions, espionage, propaganda, arms buildups, economic aid, and proxy wars between other nations.

The Soviet Union and the United States had fought as allies against Nazi Germany during World War II. But the alliance began to crumble as soon as the war in Europe ended in May 1945. Tensions were apparent in July during the Potsdam Conference, where the victorious Allies negotiated the joint occupation of Germany.

The Soviet Union was determined to have a buffer zone between its borders and Western Europe. It set up pro-communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, and eventually in East Germany.

As the Soviets tightened their grip on Eastern Europe, the United States embarked on a policy of containment to prevent the spread of Soviet and communist influence in Western European nations such as France, Italy, and Greece.

During the 1940s, the United States reversed its traditional reluctance to become involved in European affairs. The Truman Doctrine (1947) pledged aid to governments threatened by communist subversion. The Marshall Plan (1947) provided billions of dollars in economic assistance to eliminate the political instability that could open the way for communist takeovers of democratically elected governments.

France, England, and the United States administered sectors of the city of Berlin, deep inside communist East Germany. When the Soviets cut off all road and rail traffic to the city in 1948, the United States and Great Britain responded with a massive airlift that supplied the besieged city for 231 days until the blockade was lifted. In 1949, the United States joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the first mutual security and military alliance in American history. The establishment of NATO also spurred the Soviet Union to create an alliance with the communist governments of Eastern Europe that was formalized in 1955 by the Warsaw Pact.

In Europe, the dividing line between East and West remained essentially frozen during the next decades. But conflict spread to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The struggle to overthrow colonial regimes frequently became entangled in Cold War tensions, and the superpowers competed to influence anti-colonial movements.

In 1949, the communists triumphed in the Chinese civil war, and the world's most populous nation joined the Soviet Union as a Cold War adversary. In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, and the United Nations and the United States sent troops and military aid. Communist China intervened to support North Korea, and bloody campaigns stretched on for three years until a truce was signed in 1953.

In 1954, the colonial French regime fell in Vietnam.

The United States supported a military government in South Vietnam and worked to prevent free elections that might have unified the country under the control of communist North Vietnam. In response to the threat, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed in 1955 to prevent communist expansion, and President Eisenhower sent some 700 military personnel as well as military and economic aid to the government of South Vietnam. The effort was foundering when John F. Kennedy took office.

Closer to home, the Cuban resistance movement led by Fidel Castro deposed the pro-American military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Castro's Cuba quickly became militarily and economically dependent on the Soviet Union. The United States' main rival in the Cold War had established a foothold just ninety miles off the coast of Florida.

Cold War rhetoric dominated the 1960 presidential campaign. Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon both pledged to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism. Kennedy warned of the Soviet's growing arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles and pledged to revitalize American nuclear forces. He also criticized the Eisenhower administration for permitting the establishment of a pro-Soviet government in Cuba.

John F. Kennedy was the first American president born in the 20th century. The Cold War and the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union were vital international issues throughout his political career. His inaugural address stressed the contest between the free world and the communist world, and he pledged that the American people would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty."

Before his inauguration, JFK was briefed on a plan drafted during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that support from the Cuban people and perhaps even elements of the Cuban military would lead to the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.

Kennedy approved the operation and some 1,400 exiles landed at Cuba's Bay of Pigs on April 17. The entire force was either killed or captured, and Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure of the operation.

In June 1961, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, Austria. (See a memorandum below outlining the main points of conversation between President Kennedy and Khrushchev at their first lunch meeting.) Kennedy was surprised by Khrushchev's combative tone during the summit. At one point, Khrushchev threatened to cut off Allied access to Berlin. The Soviet leader pointed out the Lenin Peace Medals he was wearing, and Kennedy answered, "I hope you keep them." Just two months later, Khrushchev ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall to stop the flood of East Germans into West Germany.

As a result of these threatening developments, Kennedy ordered substantial increases in American intercontinental ballistic missile forces. He also added five new army divisions and increased the nation's air power and military reserves. The Soviets meanwhile resumed nuclear testing and President Kennedy responded by reluctantly reactivating American tests in early 1962.

In the summer of 1962, Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with the Cuban government to supply nuclear missiles capable of protecting the island against another US-sponsored invasion. In mid-October, American spy planes photographed the missile sites under construction. Kennedy responded by placing a naval blockade, which he referred to as a "quarantine," around Cuba. He also demanded the removal of the missiles and the destruction of the sites. Recognizing that the crisis could easily escalate into nuclear war, Khrushchev finally agreed to remove the missiles in return for an American pledge not to reinvade Cuba. But the end of Cuban Missile Crisis did little to ease the tensions of the Cold War. The Soviet leader decided to commit whatever resources were required for upgrading the Soviet nuclear strike force. His decision led to a major escalation of the nuclear arms race.

In June 1963, President Kennedy spoke at the American University commencement in Washington, DC. He urged Americans to critically reexamine Cold War stereotypes and myths and called for a strategy of peace that would make the world safe for diversity. In the final months of the Kennedy presidency Cold War tensions seemed to soften as the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was negotiated and signed. In addition, Washington and Moscow established a direct line of communication known as the "Hotline" to help reduce the possibility of war by miscalculation.

In May 1961, JFK had authorized sending 500 Special Forces troops and military advisers to assist the government of South Vietnam. They joined 700 Americans already sent by the Eisenhower administration. In February 1962, the president sent an additional 12,000 military advisers to support the South Vietnamese army. By early November 1963, the number of US military advisers had reached 16,000.

Even as the military commitment in Vietnam grew, JFK told an interviewer, "In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it-the people of Vietnam against the Communists. . . . But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake. . . . [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate-we may not like it-in the defense of Asia." In the final weeks of his life, JFK wrestled with the need to decide the future of the United States commitment in Vietnam-and very likely had not made a final decision before his death.

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During World War II, despite mutual suspicion and distrust, the United States and Great Britain joined the Soviet Union in an effort to defeat their common enemy, Nazi Germany. The alliance began to crumble immediately after the surrender of the Hitler government in May 1945.

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In depth Prezi covering all AP Human Geography Models and Theories by Liam Page.....Simple Version- http://tinyurl.com/q637dl8

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primary industrial regions, globalization, new industrial regions the four tigers, maquiladoras, NAFTA, key review terms

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why are site and situation factors important?

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11.2 Why Are Situations and Site Factors Important? Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying 11.2 Why Are Situations and Site Factors Important?. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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effects of industrial pollution

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Industries and factories give off various pollutants into the environment including the land, air, and waters. It is estimated that about 50% of all pollution is as a result of industrial and manufacturing activities. It only displays how industries and factories are responsible for giving off toxic and dangerous materials into the environment. Illnesses, loss of life, and destruction of the ecosystem are some of the pollution outcomes that take years to manifest. Even so, there are a wide range of industrial pollution effects along with their serious consequences.

Below are some of the prime effects of industrial pollution.

Global warming is among the most serious outcome of industrial pollution, witnessed on the account of the steady rise of industrial activities. Industries release into the atmosphere a variety of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). These gases absorb thermal radiation from the sun thereby increasing the general temperature of the earth, leading to global warming.

Global warming has several severe effects on human health and the environment. Rise in water levels, melting of glaciers, extinction of polar species, tsunamis, flooding, and hurricanes are some of the dire effects of global warming. Furthermore, global warming has threatened human survival and presented health risks such as the increased incidences of diseases like cholera, plague, malaria, Lyme disease and so on.

Pollutants discharged from the industries have widespread implications, and one of the unpleasant effects is on water bodies. Industries demand lots of water for efficient production such as cooling, cleaning, and treatment and as such, the water drawn from the water sources is never the same after use. Inappropriate contamination of used water and the discharge of different industrial waste water into water sources often result in water pollution.

In most cases, the water is contaminated with dangerous chemicals, radioactive materials, heavy metals or organic sludge. For this reason, dumping of the wastewater directly into waterways or oceans negatively impacts on marine life, humans, and the environment on various aspects.

Based on the increased counts of factories and manufacturing processes, both large and small scale, gaseous emissions have continued to compound. This makes industrial pollution one of the main causes of air pollution. The emissions from different industries contain gaseous contaminants such as sulfur, carbon dioxide (CO2), oxides of nitrogen, methane, and so on.

These gases, when too much in the atmosphere, frequently results in several illnesses and environmental hazards. Formation of acid rains, the presence of smog, and heightened incidences of respiratory disorders among humans are some of the implications of air pollution.

Soil pollution occurs when the soil loses its fertility and structure owing to diverse natural and artificial phenomenon. Disposal of industrial wastes into landfills is among the artificial aspects contributing towards soil pollution. Industrial wastes have in them varied amounts of toxic materials and chemicals such that when deposited in landfills, it accumulates in the top soil thereby depreciating the fertility and biological activity of the soil due to soil poisoning.

Such implications eventually contribute to ecological imbalances thus creating problems in crop productivity. Apart from that, the chemicals and toxic materials in poisoned soils accumulate in plants grown in such areas causing health problems to those who consume such crops.

The world Health Organization (WHO) revealed that outdoor air pollution accounts for about 2% of all lung and heart diseases. WHO also underscores, around 5% of all lung cancers and 1% of all chest infections are implications of outdoor air pollution.

In brief, these statistics indicate just how industrial air pollution depreciates human health. For instance, one of the worst industrial disasters of all times that took place in Bhopal, India, in 1984 claimed the lives of more than 8,000 people and the effects were still being felt more than two decades later. This means, industrial air pollution may not manifest immediately but takes several years.

Industrial toxic and chemical wastes that are disposed into water bodies or landfills are also responsible for cancers and human cell poisoning. For instance, exposure to inorganic arsenic causes tumours to form. Above all, industrial pollutants are responsible for thousands of illnesses and premature deaths across the globe.

The tendency of industrial and manufacturing processes that constantly demands production resources and repeated exploitation of raw materials has cumulatively led to the destruction of forests and the natural habitats that support wildlife.

Acts such as mining, deforestation, and utilization of water resources for industrial production have destroyed natural habitats and forced organisms to move further into the wild, exposing them to predators and intolerable living conditions. Consequently, some wildlife species have faced extinction while several others remain highly endangered. Industrial wastes, chemicals, emissions, or accidental leaks, fires, oil spills and so on have also been prime contributors to wildlife extinction.

Furthermore, these environmentally damaging materials take several years to clean-up thereby compounding the effects. For example, the BP oil accidental spill in 2012 claimed thousands of marine life, and some of them were among the rarest species on earth. Even after some time had passed, marine animals continued to die.

Other common implications of industrial pollution encompass damage to structures and buildings and increased risks of different occupational hazards like exposure to asbestos, chemical dust, among other mineral or metallic particles.

Comments

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7 Terrible Effects of Industrial Pollution | Earth Eclipse

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Terrible Effects of Industrial Pollution Industries and factories give off various pollutants into the environment including the land, air, and waters. It is estimated that about 50% of all pollution is as a result of industrial and manufacturing activities. It only displays how industries and factories are responsible for giving off toxic and dangerous materials into the environment.

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new/old/developing/developed industrial regions

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unit vocab

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The security system for this website has been triggered. Completing the challenge below proves you are a human and gives you temporary access.

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types of services

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Central place theory, rank size rule, primate city

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Rank-Size Rule, Primate City, Central Place Theory

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Vocab: trade area: area around a city/town where its influence dominates rank-size rule : pop of a city is inversely proportional to its hierarchical rank primate city : the largest city, can be a...

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QUIZLET

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South American Countries Flashcards | Quizlet

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Enterprise Junior High, Mrs. Stein, My World Geography Learn with flashcards, games, and more — for free.

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Read first two paragraphs

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​What it is: Subsistence farming or smallholder agriculture is when one family grows only enough to feed themselves. There is not usually much harvest to sell or trade, and what surplus there is...

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Key Issue 3

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Agricultural Regions in developed Countries and where they are located

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Agricultural Regions in developed Countries and where they are located

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Key issue 3

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6 Agricultural regions for Developed Countries Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying 6 Agricultural regions for Developed Countries. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Agricultural Regions in developing Countries and where they are located

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Agricultural Regions in developing Countries and where they are located

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Key Issue 3

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5 Agricultural Regions for Developing Countries Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying 5 Agricultural Regions for Developing Countries. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Break down of each type of Agriculture for developing countries

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Break down of each type of Agriculture for developing countries

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10.3.2-10.3.5

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First, farmers have to find a designated spot where they want to plant, somewhere that is close to their villages or settlements. Before they can plant, they have to remove the plants and vegetation...

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What is Malnutrition?

Think back on everything you have eaten over the last 24 hours. Do you think that your diet is well balanced and that you are getting the appropriate nutrients you need? Proper nutrition is very important to maintaining a healthy body and mind. The body requires over 40 essential nutrients to function properly, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, protein and carbohydrates.

In addition to the quality of nutrients consumed, the body must also maintain a certain quantity of food to remain healthy. Humans must consume a certain amount of calories each day in order to maintain a productive and energetic lifestyle.

A large problem facing the human population today is malnutrition. Malnutrition is when a person's diet has an imbalance of the essential nutrients that the body needs to remain healthy. This imbalance in nutrients can weaken the person's immune system and body and make them more susceptible to illnesses. Malnutrition can also cause delays in a child's physical and mental development.

Malnutrition is often divided into two different types, which are under-nutrition and over-nutrition. These two different types of malnutrition vary by what the person is consuming, how it is influencing their body and the prevalence in certain regions of the world.

Under-Nutrition

When most people think of malnutrition, they often think of someone who is suffering from under-nutrition. Under-nutrition occurs when a person consumes a diet that does not meet the necessary requirements for the amount of essential nutrients or calories a person needs to remain healthy.

This type of malnutrition can occur when people are not eating enough food, or when the food they are eating does not contain well-balanced nutrients. The World Health Organization estimates that one out of every three people is suffering from a deficiency in one or more essential nutrients.

The symptoms associated with under-nutrition vary by deficiency, but all deficiencies will eventually cause permanent harm to the body. Throughout the world, there are three common deficiencies that people suffer from. Lack of vitamin A in the diet is a very large problem worldwide and results in many cases of blindness in children each year. A deficiency in iron can cause a person to become anemic, which can result in fatigue, increased risk of infection and increased risk of hemorrhaging during childbirth.

Iodine deficiency is also very common, with one-third of the human population suffering from a lack of iodine. Iodine is important for proper functioning of the thyroid gland, which is responsible for producing hormones that manage the body's metabolic rate. A lack of iodine can cause stunted growth, mental delays and the creation of goiters, which are when the thyroid glands at the base of the neck become swollen.

Prevalence of Under-Nutrition

Under-nutrition is most common in low-income, developing countries and is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, where access to a well-balanced diet is very limited. More specifically, almost two-thirds of the people that suffer from under-nutrition live in only seven countries, which include India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most people in these poor countries survive on diets that include low amounts of protein, high amounts of carbohydrates and are mainly vegetarian, with wheat, rice and corn as large staples in the diet.

In many low-income, developing countries, people do not have access to well-balanced diets because of variations in local climate, political issues and increases in population. Specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, the climate is extreme and has limited rainfall, which reduces the amount of food that can be produced.

Political unrest can also lead to under-nutrition when it results in food not being distributed equally to people of all social groups. Low-income, developing countries also suffer from dramatic increases in the human population, which can lead to less food available per person.

Over-Nutrition

Although over ten percent of the world is suffering from a lack of proper nutrition, there are some areas on Earth where food is plentiful, but people still exhibit a type of malnutrition. Over-nutrition occurs when a person consumes a diet that exceeds the necessary requirements for the amount of essential nutrients, or the amount of calories a person needs to remain healthy.

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malnutrition: causes of over-nutrition and under-nutrition & most affected regions - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Malnutrition: Causes of Over-nutrition and Under-nutrition & Most Affected Regions - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Think back on everything you have eaten over the last 24 hours. Do you think that your diet is well balanced and that you are getting the appropriate nutrients you need? Proper nutrition is very important to maintaining a healthy body and mind.

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Key issue 4

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Agriculture is a fundamental economic activity that found in virtually every corner of our planet. You and I depend on agriculture to survive. It is also important to you because the effects of agriculture on the human population are an essential part of the study of AP Human Geography. In the early eighteenth century, Johann Heinrich von Thünen designed one of the very first geographical models. The von Thünen model was key to solving a big problem in his day-how to balance the cost of land with the best crop to produce. This study guide will help you understand this model and how it applies to the AP Human Geography Exam.

Agricultural (Rural) Land Use Theory

Rural land use is not a matter of chance. Rather, it is almost always the result of logical human decisions. Long before von Thünen came up with his model on agricultural land use, farmers all over the world made rational land-use decisions. Von Thünen analyzed these decisions based on the land's physical characteristics and its position relative to market centers. His significant contribution was that he was able to identify and explain the spatial elements that help decide how to use the land.

In the time since von Thünen, changes in communications and transportation technologies and progress in food preservation methods, such as refrigeration, have changed the significance of some of his theory's variables. However, the basic concepts of the von Thünen model are still valid. This AP Human Geography study guide will help you understand how his theory is used to explain agricultural land use and the changing spatial patterns in rural areas.

Who was Von Thünen and why is He Important to AP Human Geography?

Access to markets has been, and still is, a huge problem for farmers all over the world. The agrarian revolution that accompanied the industrial revolution caught the eye of a German economist-farmer named Johann Heinrich von Thünen. He owned a large farming estate near the German city of Rostock, and for more than 40 years, he kept precise records of his estate's transactions.

His attention to detail turned into a passion for a subject that still is of interest to economic geographers of today-the effects of distance and transportation costs on the location of productive activity. Von Thünen's model helps explain the relationship between the cost of land and the cost to transport the crop to market. Using all the data he collected, von Thünen began to write about the spatial structure of agriculture. He published his studies under the title The Isolated State, and his conclusions are still being discussed and debated among geographers today.

The Von Thünen Model

Von Thünen called his model The Isolated State because for the purpose of analysis, he wanted to establish a self-contained country. This country would be devoid of outside influences that would disturb the inner workings of the economy.

In essence, he created a pseudo-regional laboratory, where he could identify the factors that would affect the locational distribution of farms surrounding a central urban area. Von Thünen made some limiting assumptions to accomplish this experiment.

First, he stated that the soil and the climate would be uniform throughout the region. Second, there would be no river-valleys or mountains to interrupt a flat land area. Third, there would be a single, centrally located city in the Isolated State, surrounded by an empty, unoccupied wilderness. Fourth, von Thünen contended that the farmers would transport their own goods to market (no FedEx here), and that they would do so by oxcart, overland, straight to the city.

Von Thünen integrated these assumptions with what he had learned while running his estate. He then asked himself: What would be the best spatial arrangement of agricultural activities within this Isolated State?

The von Thünen model incorporated four areas surrounding the city center. He concluded that farm products would be grown in a series of concentric zones outward from the central market city. The cost of transporting different farm products to the central market determined the agricultural use of the land around the city. The most productive activities were located closest to the market on more expensive land, and less productive activities were further away on cheaper land.

The Four Zones of the Von Thünen Model

The first and innermost belt, which was outside the central marketplace, would be a zone of intensive agriculture and dairying. Farmers who supplied fresh milk and dairy products to the city needed to be close to the marketplace or risk spoilage. Other crops that spoiled easily and yielded the highest returns, such as fruits and vegetables, would also be grown nearest to the central city because this accessible farmland was in high demand and, therefore, very expensive. Today, regions of specialty farming, such as in South Florida and California's Central Valley, do not always conform to von Thünen's concentric rings.

The second zone, he said, would be an area of forest, used for firewood and fuel. These forest resources could be grown further out from the center city and used for fuel and building materials. You might think that the forest zone being located so close to the city center a bit odd, but remember, during the time that von Thünen lived, the forest was still important as a source of building materials and fuel. That changed with the onset of the industrial revolution. Modern applications of his model no longer have the forestry ring.

There are still, however, a great number of cities that are considered preindustrial. Take Addis Ababa, for example. The capital city of Ethiopia still contains a broad and continuous belt of eucalyptus forest surrounding the city, positioned just about where von Thünen predicted it to be.

The third zone is a belt of increasingly extensive field crops, such as grains for bread and tubers. Grain could be grown, harvested and stored easily and cheaply until needed. Since grains last longer than dairy products and are much cheaper to transport than forest resources, they could be situated further from the city market.

Ranching and animal products occupy the fourth and outermost zone. Livestock is raised in the outer ring where cheap pasture land is plentiful. In von Thünen's day, livestock taken to market were driven to the city market "on the hoof," and did not have the luxury of refrigerated trucks to carry processed meat.

Beyond the ranching area would be the wilderness. Eventually, since transportation costs increase with distance, there would be a line across which it would be uneconomical to produce crops. This is the area that the wilderness would begin. This isolated the region from the rest of the world.

Is the Von Thünen Model Still Applicable Today?

Some geographers argue that models like von Thünen's do not apply to our world today. But it is a great tribute to von Thünen that his work still retains the attention of many geographers. The economic-geographic landscape has changed considerably since his time, but geographers still compare present-day patterns of economic activity to the von Thünenian model. Over time, geographers use and modify the traditional models to find new ways to look at rural land-use patterns.

What are the factors that explain why agricultural land-use patterns today differ from those developed by von Thünen's model in 1826? The major spatial change, since von Thünen's time, is the change in transportation technology, which allowed the Isolated State to move from a micro-scale to a macro-scale. Some other factors are modern refrigeration and food preservation methods, government policy on rural land use, global markets, and the multi-use of agricultural products. The fact that forests no longer occupy a zone close to the marketplace is true because we do not use wood as our main source of fuel. Today, we depend on other sources like coal and nuclear energy.

The Von Thünen Model on the AP Human Geography Exam

In the AP Human Geography Course Description, the idea of the von Thünen model falls under the category of "Agriculture, Food Production, and Rural Land Use". On the AP Human Geography Exam, you could be asked to use the von Thünen model to explain rural land use and the importance of transportation costs associated with the distance from the city market. You most likely be asked to use the model to explain the contemporary distribution of the agricultural regions, such as dairy and grain farming.

To help you apply this study guide to the exam, here is an FRQ from the 2007 AP Human Geography Exam (Question 1):
1. The drawings above reflect agricultural activities in the hinterland of a large urban area.

1. Apply the underlying principles of von Thünen's agricultural land-use model to predict the locations of the activities shown in X and Y relative to a large urban area.

2. Choose either activity X or activity Y and apply the underlying principles of von Thünen's agricultural land-use model to explain the location of the activity.

3. Discuss two factors that explain why agricultural land-use patterns today differ from those developed by von Thünen's model in 1826.

For Part A, make sure you apply the underlying principles of von Thünen's agricultural land-use model to predict the locations of the activities shown in X and Y relative to a large urban area. You must identify the location of both agricultural activities relative to the city. Activity X is a farmer providing fresh produce, which comes from the intensive farming area. Activity Y depicts extensive field crops, which are grown farther from the city marketplace.

For Part B, you need to choose one of the two activities and apply the underlying principles of von Thünen's agricultural land-use model to explain the location of the activity. Activity X is intensive agriculture, and the land is of higher value when producing perishable goods that are accessible to the market. This allows the farmers to maximize their profit. In activity Y, extensive agriculture is grown on lower-value land with less accessibility to the market. Since the products are less perishable, the farmer can maximize their profit with cheaper land. To get full credit, explain why the concept caused this type of farming to locate at X or Y.

For Part C, you will need to discuss two factors that explain why agricultural land-use patterns today differ from those developed by von Thünen's model in 1826. Those factors include refrigeration and food preservation, improved transportation, regional/global markets, and government policy.

Wrapping up the Von Thünen Model

In conclusion, the von Thünen model, explains the reasons why we use agricultural land the way we do. His theory concluded that farm products would be grown in a series of concentric zones outward from the central marketplace and the cost of transporting different farm products to the city center determined the rural use of the land surrounding the city. The most productive activities will be located closest to the market on more expensive land, and less productive activities will be located further away on cheaper land. The role of distance in the development of the spatial pattern of the economy remains the subject of many modern studies and geographers today. All owe von Thünen credit for formulating the crucial questions answered in his model.

Are you ready for an AP Human Geography FRQ on the von Thünen model? You are most likely be asked to explain his model on the AP Human Geography Exam, as a way to test your understanding of the contemporary distribution of agricultural regions. How else are you studying for the AP Human Geography Exam?

Let's put everything into practice. Try this AP Human Geography practice question:

Looking for more AP Human Geography practice?
Check out our other articles on AP Human Geography.
You can also find thousands of practice questions on Albert.io. Albert.io lets you customize your learning experience to target practice where you need the most help. We'll give you challenging practice questions to help you achieve mastery in AP Human Geography.
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The Von Thünen Model: AP Human Geography Crash Course | Albert.io

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Agriculture is a fundamental economic activity that found in virtually every corner of our planet. You and I depend on agriculture to survive. It is also important to you because the effects of agriculture on the human population are an essential part of the study of AP Human Geography.

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key issue 4

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Strategies to increase food supply. Increase food supply by identifying new food sources. Increase food supply through higher productivity Expand the land area for agriculture use Late 18th and early 19th centuries When the worlds population began to rapidly grow, pioneers migrated to different regions for more land.

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key issue 4

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As we start 2013, many people will be thinking about plans and promises to improve their diet and health.

But we think a broader collection of farmers, policymakers, and eaters need new, bigger resolutions for fixing the food system - real changes with long-term impacts in fields, boardrooms, and on plates all over the world.

Here are13 resolutions that the world can't afford to break with nearly 1 billion people still hungry and more than 1 billion others suffering from the effects of being overweight and obese. We have the tools - let's use them in 2013!

Growing in cities: Food production doesn't only happen in fields or factories. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide produce food in cities. In Kibera, Kenya, the largest slum in Africa, farmers are growing seeds of indigenous vegetables and selling them to rural farmers. At Bell Book & Candle restaurant in New York, customers are served rosemary, cherry tomatoes, romaine, and other produce grown from the restaurant's aeroponic rooftop garden.

Creating better access: People's Grocery in Oakland, Calif., and Fresh Moves in Chicago bring mobile grocery stores to food deserts, giving low-income consumers opportunities to make healthy food choices. Instead of chips and soda, they provide customers with affordable organic produce, not typically available in their communities.

Eaters demanding healthier food: Food writer Michael Pollan advises not to eat anything that your grandparents wouldn't recognize. Try eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole foods without preservatives and other additives.

Cooking more: Home economics classes have declined in schools in the United Kingdom and the United States. and young people lack basic cooking skills. Top Chefs Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, and Bill Telepan are working with schools to teach kids how to cook healthy, nutritious foods.

Creating conviviality: According to the Hartman Group, nearly half of all adults in the US eat meals alone. Sharing a meal with family and friends can foster community and conversation. Recent studies suggest that children who eat meals with their families are typically happier and more stable than those who do not.

Focus on vegetables: Nearly 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies worldwide, leading to poor development. The World Vegetable Center, however, is helping farmers grow high-value, nutrient-rich vegetables in Africa and Asia, improving health and increasing incomes.

Preventing waste: Roughly one-third of all food is wasted - in fields, during transport, in storage, and in homes. But there are easy, inexpensive ways to prevent waste. Initiatives like Love Food, Hate Waste offer consumers tips about portion control and recipes for leftovers, while farmers in Bolivia are using solar-powered driers to preserve foods.

Engaging youths: Making farming both intellectually and economically stimulating will help make the food system an attractive career option for youths. Across sub-Saharan Africa, cell phones and the internet are connecting farmers to information about weather and markets. In the US. Food Corps is teaching students how to grow and cook food, preparing them for a lifetime of healthy eating.

Protecting workers: Farm and food workers across the world are fighting for better pay and working conditions. In Zimbabwe, the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe protects laborers from abuse. In the US, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers successfully persuaded Trader Joe's and Chipotle to pay the premium of a penny-per-pound to Florida tomato pickers.

Acknowledging the importance of farmers: Farmers aren't just farmers, they're business-women and men, stewards of the land, and educators, sharing knowledge in their communities. Slow Food International works with farmers all over the world, helping recognize their importance to preserve biodiversity and culture.

Recognizing the role of governments: Nations must implement policies that give everyone access to safe, affordable, healthy food. In Ghana and Brazil, government action, including national school-feeding programs and increased support for sustainable agricultural production greatly reduced the number of hungry people.

Changing the metrics: Governments, NGOs, and funders have focused on increasing production and improving yields, rather than improving nutrition and protecting the environment. Changing the metrics, and focusing more on quality, will improve public and environmental health, and livelihoods.
Fixing the broken food system: Agriculture can be the solution to some of the world's most pressing challenges, including unemployment, obesity, and climate change. These innovations simply need more research, more investment, and ultimately more funding.
* Danielle Nierenberg and Ellen Gustafson are the co-founders of Food Tank: The Food Think Tank (www.FoodTank.org). Danielle is based in Chicago, Ill., and Ellen is based in San Diego, Calif.

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13 resolutions to improve the world's food supply in 2013

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As we start 2013, many people will be thinking about plans and promises to improve their diet and health. But we think a broader collection of farmers, policymakers, and eaters need new, bigger resolutions for fixing the food system - real changes with long-term impacts in fields, boardrooms, and on plates all over the world.

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key issue 4

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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.

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key issue 4

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In the next 40 years, the world population is expected to explode from 7 billion to more than 9 billion people [source: Negative Population Growth]. More people means more hungry bellies, and if we're going to feed the growing world population, we need to increase the world's food supply.

So, if the population is "only" increasing by about 28 percent, why do we want to double the food supply? Don't forget that hundreds of millions of people worldwide go hungry every day. We're actually producing enough to feed the world, right now, but the hunger problem is there because the people who need it most can't afford to purchase food or don't have enough land to grow what they need [source: Hunger Notes]. We have to not only produce more food as our population increases, but also make sure that the people who need it have access - and can afford - the food we're producing. In fact, the United Nations is calling for a 70 percent increase in food production by 2050.

Food produced doesn't equal food on the plate, and the extra production allows for food that spoils in transit, rots in the field, and for failed crops due to extreme weather.

No single idea is going to fix the world hunger problem, but there are some farming methods, changes to the food system, and even consumer actions that can make a difference.

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5 Ideas for Doubling the World's Food Supply

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In the next 40 years, the world population is expected to explode from 7 billion to more than 9 billion people [source: Negative Population Growth]. More people means more hungry bellies, and if we're going to feed the growing world population, we need to increase the world's food supply.

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The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society's food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Practitioners of sustainable agriculture seek to integrate three main objectives into their work: a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. Every person involved in the food system-growers, food processors, distributors, retailers, consumers, and waste managers-can play a role in ensuring a sustainable agricultural system.

There are many practices commonly used by people working in sustainable agriculture and sustainable food systems. Growers may use methods to promote soil health, minimize water use, and lower pollution levels on the farm. Consumers and retailers concerned with sustainability can look for " values-based" foods that are grown using methods promoting farmworker wellbeing, that are environmentally friendly, or that strengthen the local economy. And researchers in sustainable agriculture often cross disciplinary lines with their work: combining biology, economics, engineering, chemistry, community development, and many others. However, sustainable agriculture is more than a collection of practices. It is also process of negotiation: a push and pull between the sometimes competing interests of an individual farmer or of people in a community as they work to solve complex problems about how we grow our food and fiber.

Topics in sustainable agriculture

Directory of UC Programs in Sustainable Agriculture

The UC Programs | Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems directory is a catalog of UC's programmatic activities in sustainable agriculture and food systems. The directory can be searched and sorted by activities and topic areas. This tool is useful for:

Institutions and individuals seeking to expand their networks

UC researchers, staff, outreach professionals, and students seeking opportunities for collaboration or learning across campuses

Prospective undergraduate or graduate students interested in knowing more about UC's contributions to these fields

Media and other external entities seeking to quickly access relevant information on UC's activities in broad or specific areas of sustainable agriculture and food systems

The Philosophy & Practices of Sustainable Agriculture
The rest of this page delves further into the philosophy and practices underpinning sustainable agriculture. Or visit the links to the right to visit practical pages for practicing sustainable agriculture.

Background

Since World War II the number of U.S. farms has declined and the average farm size has increased. Data from USDA Census of Agriculture.

Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fiber productivity soared due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favored maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labor demands to produce the majority of the food and fiber in the U.S.

Although these changes have had many positive effects and reduced many risks in farming, there have also been significant costs. Prominent among these are topsoil depletion, groundwater contamination, the decline of family farms, continued neglect of the living and working conditions for farm laborers, increasing costs of production, and the disintegration of economic and social conditions in rural communities.

Potential Costs of Modern Agricultural Techniques

Topsoil
Depletion

Groundwater
Contamination

Degradation of
Rural Communities

Lowered Conditions
For Farmworkers

Increased Production
Costs

A growing movement has emerged during the past two decades to question the role of the agricultural establishment in promoting practices that contribute to these social problems. Today this movement for sustainable agriculture is garnering increasing support and acceptance within mainstream agriculture. Not only does sustainable agriculture address many environmental and social concerns, but it offers innovative and economically viable opportunities for growers, laborers, consumers, policymakers and many others in the entire food system.

This page is an effort to identify the ideas, practices and policies that constitute our concept of sustainable agriculture. We do so for two reasons: 1) to clarify the research agenda and priorities of our program, and 2) to suggest to others practical steps that may be appropriate for them in moving toward sustainable agriculture. Because the concept of sustainable agriculture is still evolving, we intend this page not as a definitive or final statement, but as an invitation to continue the dialogue

What is Sustainable Agriculture?

A variety of philosophies, policies and practices have contributed to these goals. People in many different capacities, from farmers to consumers, have shared this vision and contributed to it.

Despite the diversity of people and perspectives, the following themes commonly weave through definitions of sustainable agriculture:

Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Therefore, stewardship of both natural and human resources is of prime importance. Stewardship of human resources includes consideration of social responsibilities such as working and living conditions of laborers, the needs of rural communities, and consumer health and safety both in the present and the future. Stewardship of land and natural resources involves maintaining or enhancing this vital resource base for the long term.

A systems perspective is essential to understanding sustainability.
The system is envisioned in its broadest sense, from the individual farm, to the local ecosystem, and to communities affected by this farming system both locally and globally. An emphasis on the system allows a larger and more thorough view of the consequences of farming practices on both human communities and the environment. A systems approach gives us the tools to explore the interconnections between farming and other aspects of our environment.

Everyone plays a role in creating a sustainable food system.

A systems approach also implies interdisciplinary efforts in research and education.
This requires not only the input of researchers from various disciplines, but also farmers, farmworkers, consumers, policymakers and others.

Making the transition to sustainable agriculture is a process.
For farmers, the transition to sustainable agriculture normally requires a series of small, realistic steps. Family economics and personal goals influence how fast or how far participants can go in the transition. It is important to realize that each small decision can make a difference and contribute to advancing the entire system further on the "sustainable agriculture continuum." The key to moving forward is the will to take the next step.

Finally, it is important to point out that reaching toward the goal of sustainable agriculture is the responsibility of all participants in the system, including farmers, laborers, policymakers, researchers, retailers, and consumers. Each group has its own part to play, its own unique contribution to make to strengthen the sustainable agriculture community.

The remainder of this page considers specific strategies for realizing these broad themes or goals. The strategies are grouped according to three separate though related areas of concern: Farming and Natural Resources, Plant and Animal Production Practices, and the Economic, Social and Political Context. They represent a range of potential ideas for individuals committed to interpreting the vision of sustainable agriculture within their own circumstances.

Farming and Natural Resources

When the production of food and fiber degrades the natural resource base, the ability of future generations to produce and flourish decreases. The decline of ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean region, Pre-Columbian southwest U.S. and Central America is believed to have been strongly influenced by natural resource degradation from non-sustainable farming and forestry practices.

Water

Water is the principal resource that has helped agriculture and society to prosper, and it has been a major limiting factor when mismanaged.

Water supply and use. In California, an extensive water storage and transfer system has been established which has allowed crop production to expand to very arid regions. In drought years, limited surface water supplies have prompted overdraft of groundwater and consequent intrusion of salt water, or permanent collapse of aquifers. Periodic droughts, some lasting up to 50 years, have occurred in California.
Several steps should be taken to develop drought-resistant farming systems even in "normal" years, including both policy and management actions:
1) improving water conservation and storage measures,

2) providing incentives for selection of drought-tolerant crop species,

3) using reduced-volume irrigation systems,

4) managing crops to reduce water loss, or

5) not planting at all.

Water quality. The most important issues related to water quality involve salinization and contamination of ground and surface waters by pesticides, nitrates and selenium. Salinity has become a problem wherever water of even relatively low salt content is used on shallow soils in arid regions and/or where the water table is near the root zone of crops. Tile drainage can remove the water and salts, but the disposal of the salts and other contaminants may negatively affect the environment depending upon where they are deposited. Temporary solutions include the use of salt-tolerant crops, low-volume irrigation, and various management techniques to minimize the effects of salts on crops. In the long-term, some farmland may need to be removed from production or converted to other uses. Other uses include conversion of row crop land to production of drought-tolerant forages, the restoration of wildlife habitat or the use of agroforestry to minimize the impacts of salinity and high water tables. Pesticide and nitrate contamination of water can be reduced using many of the practices discussed later in the Plant Production Practices and Animal Production Practices sections.

Wildlife. Another way in which agriculture affects water resources is through the destruction of riparian habitats within watersheds. The conversion of wild habitat to agricultural land reduces fish and wildlife through erosion and sedimentation, the effects of pesticides, removal of riparian plants, and the diversion of water. The plant diversity in and around both riparian and agricultural areas should be maintained in order to support a diversity of wildlife. This diversity will enhance natural ecosystems and could aid in agricultural pest management.

Energy

Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on non-renewable energy sources, especially petroleum. The continued use of these energy sources cannot be sustained indefinitely, yet to abruptly abandon our reliance on them would be economically catastrophic. However, a sudden cutoff in energy supply would be equally disruptive. In sustainable agricultural systems, there is reduced reliance on non-renewable energy sources and a substitution of renewable sources or labor to the extent that is economically feasible.

Air

Many agricultural activities affect air quality. These include smoke from agricultural burning; dust from tillage, traffic and harvest; pesticide drift from spraying; and nitrous oxide emissions from the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Options to improve air quality include:

incorporating crop residue into the soil
using appropriate levels of tillage
and planting wind breaks, cover crops or strips of native perennial grasses to reduce dust.

Soil

Soil erosion continues to be a serious threat to our continued ability to produce adequate food. Numerous practices have been developed to keep soil in place, which include:

reducing or eliminating tillage
managing irrigation to reduce runoff
and keeping the soil covered with plants or mulch.

Enhancement of soil quality is discussed in the next section.

Plant Production Practices

Sustainable production practices involve a variety of approaches. Specific strategies must take into account topography, soil characteristics, climate, pests, local availability of inputs and the individual grower's goals. Despite the site-specific and individual nature of sustainable agriculture, several general principles can be applied to help growers select appropriate management practices:
Selection of species and varieties that are well suited to the site and to conditions on the farm;
Diversification of crops (including livestock) and cultural practices to enhance the biological and economic stability of the farm;
Management of the soil to enhance and protect soil quality;
Efficient and humane use of inputs; and
Consideration of farmers' goals and lifestyle choices.
Selection of site, species and variety

Preventive strategies, adopted early, can reduce inputs and help establish a sustainable production system. When possible, pest-resistant crops should be selected which are tolerant of existing soil or site conditions. When site selection is an option, factors such as soil type and depth, previous crop history, and location (e.g. climate, topography) should be taken into account before planting.

Diversity

Diversified farms are usually more economically and ecologically resilient. While monoculture farming has advantages in terms of efficiency and ease of management, the loss of the crop in any one year could put a farm out of business and/or seriously disrupt the stability of a community dependent on that crop. By growing a variety of crops, farmers spread economic risk and are less susceptible to the radical price fluctuations associated with changes in supply and demand.

Properly managed, diversity can also buffer a farm in a biological sense. For example, in annual cropping systems, crop rotationcan be used to suppress weeds, pathogens and insect pests. Also, cover crops can have stabilizing effects on the agroecosystem by holding soil and nutrients in place, conserving soil moisture with mowed or standing dead mulches, and by increasing the water infiltration rate and soil water holding capacity. Cover crops in orchards and vineyards can buffer the system against pest infestations by increasing beneficial arthropod populations and can therefore reduce the need for chemical inputs. Using a variety of cover crops is also important in order to protect against the failure of a particular species to grow and to attract and sustain a wide range of beneficial arthropods.

Optimum diversity may be obtained by integrating both crops and livestockin the same farming operation. This was the common practice for centuries until the mid-1900s when technology, government policy and economics compelled farms to become more specialized. Mixed crop and livestock operations have several advantages. First, growing row crops only on more level land and pasture or forages on steeper slopes will reduce soil erosion. Second, pasture and forage crops in rotation enhance soil quality and reduce erosion; livestock manure, in turn, contributes to soil fertility. Third, livestock can buffer the negative impacts of low rainfall periods by consuming crop residue that in "plant only" systems would have been considered crop failures. Finally, feeding and marketing are flexible in animal production systems. This can help cushion farmers against trade and price fluctuations and, in conjunction with cropping operations, make more efficient use of farm labor.

Soil management

A common philosophy among sustainable agriculture practitioners is that a "healthy" soil is a key component of sustainability; that is, a healthy soil will produce healthy crop plants that have optimum vigor and are less susceptible to pests. While many crops have key pests that attack even the healthiest of plants, proper soil, water and nutrient management can help prevent some pest problems brought on by crop stress or nutrient imbalance. Furthermore, crop management systems that impair soil quality often result in greater inputs of water, nutrients, pesticides, and/or energy for tillage to maintain yields.

In sustainable systems, the soil is viewed as a fragile and living medium that must be protected and nurtured to ensure its long-term productivity and stability. Methods to protect and enhance the productivity of the soil include:

using cover crops, compost and/or manures
reducing tillage
avoiding traffic on wet soils
maintaining soil cover with plants and/or mulches

Conditions in most California soils (warm, irrigated, and tilled) do not favor the buildup of organic matter. Regular additions of organic matter or the use of cover crops can increase soil aggregate stability, soil tilth, and diversity of soil microbial life.

Efficient use of inputs

Many inputs and practices used by conventional farmers are also used in sustainable agriculture. Sustainable farmers, however, maximize reliance on natural, renewable, and on-farm inputs. Equally important are the environmental, social, and economic impacts of a particular strategy. Converting to sustainable practices does not mean simple input substitution. Frequently, it substitutes enhanced management and scientific knowledge for conventional inputs, especially chemical inputs that harm the environment on farms and in rural communities. The goal is to develop efficient, biological systems which do not need high levels of material inputs.

Growers frequently ask if synthetic chemicals are appropriate in a sustainable farming system. Sustainable approaches are those that are the least toxic and least energy intensive, and yet maintain productivity and profitability. Preventive strategies and other alternatives should be employed before using chemical inputs from any source. However, there may be situations where the use of synthetic chemicals would be more "sustainable" than a strictly nonchemical approach or an approach using toxic "organic" chemicals. For example, one grape grower switched from tillage to a few applications of a broad spectrum contact herbicide in the vine row. This approach may use less energy and may compact the soil less than numerous passes with a cultivator or mower.

Consideration of farmer goals and lifestyle choices

Management decisions should reflect not only environmental and broad social considerations, but also individual goals and lifestyle choices. For example, adoption of some technologies or practices that promise profitability may also require such intensive management that one's lifestyle actually deteriorates. Management decisions that promote sustainability, nourish the environment, the community and the individual.

Animal Production Practices

In the early part of this century, most farms integrated both crop and livestock operations. Indeed, the two were highly complementary both biologically and economically. The current picture has changed quite drastically since then. Crop and animal producers now are still dependent on one another to some degree, but the integration now most commonly takes place at a higher level-- between farmers, through intermediaries, rather than within the farm itself. This is the result of a trend toward separation and specialization of crop and animal production systems. Despite this trend, there are still many farmers, particularly in the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. that integrate crop and animal systems--either on dairy farms, or with range cattle, sheep or hog operations.

Even with the growing specialization of livestock and crop producers, many of the principles outlined in the crop production section apply to both groups. The actual management practices will, of course, be quite different. Some of the specific points that livestock producers need to address are listed below.

Management Planning

Including livestock in the farming system increases the complexity of biological and economic relationships. The mobility of the stock, daily feeding, health concerns, breeding operations, seasonal feed and forage sources, and complex marketing are sources of this complexity. Therefore, a successful ranch plan should include enterprise calendars of operations, stock flows, forage flows, labor needs, herd production records and land use plans to give the manager control and a means of monitoring progress toward goals.

Animal Selection

The animal enterprise must be appropriate for the farm or ranch resources. Farm capabilities and constraints such as feed and forage sources, landscape, climate and skill of the manager must be considered in selecting which animals to produce. For example, ruminant animals can be raised on a variety of feed sources including range and pasture, cultivated forage, cover crops, shrubs, weeds, and crop residues. There is a wide range of breeds available in each of the major ruminant species, i.e., cattle, sheep and goats. Hardier breeds that, in general, have lower growth and milk production potential, are better adapted to less favorable environments with sparse or highly seasonal forage growth.

Animal nutrition

Feed costs are the largest single variable cost in any livestock operation. While most of the feed may come from other enterprises on the ranch, some purchased feed is usually imported from off the farm. Feed costs can be kept to a minimum by monitoring animal condition and performance and understanding seasonal variations in feed and forage quality on the farm. Determining the optimal use of farm-generated by-products is an important challenge of diversified farming.

Reproduction

Use of quality germplasm to improve herd performance is another key to sustainability. In combination with good genetic stock, adapting the reproduction season to fit the climate and sources of feed and forage reduce health problems and feed costs.

Herd Health

Animal health greatly influences reproductive success and weight gains, two key aspects of successful livestock production. Unhealthy stock waste feed and require additional labor. A herd health program is critical to sustainable livestock production.

Grazing Management

Most adverse environmental impacts associated with grazing can be prevented or mitigated with proper grazing management. First, the number of stock per unit area (stocking rate) must be correct for the landscape and the forage sources. There will need to be compromises between the convenience of tilling large, unfenced fields and the fencing needs of livestock operations. Use of modern, temporary fencing may provide one practical solution to this dilemma. Second, the long term carrying capacity and the stocking rate must take into account short and long-term droughts. Especially in Mediterranean climates such as in California, properly managed grazing significantly reduces fire hazards by reducing fuel build-up in grasslands and brushlands. Finally, the manager must achieve sufficient control to reduce overuse in some areas while other areas go unused. Prolonged concentration of stock that results in permanent loss of vegetative cover on uplands or in riparian zones should be avoided. However, small scale loss of vegetative cover around water or feed troughs may be tolerated if surrounding vegetative cover is adequate.

Confined Livestock Production

Animal health and waste management are key issues in confined livestock operations. The moral and ethical debate taking place today regarding animal welfare is particularly intense for confined livestock production systems. The issues raised in this debate need to be addressed.

Confinement livestock production is increasingly a source of surface and ground water pollutants, particularly where there are large numbers of animals per unit area. Expensive waste management facilities are now a necessary cost of confined production systems. Waste is a problem of almost all operations and must be managed with respect to both the environment and the quality of life in nearby communities. Livestock production systems that disperse stock in pastures so the wastes are not concentrated and do not overwhelm natural nutrient cycling processes have become a subject of renewed interest.

The Economic, Social & Political Context

In addition to strategies for preserving natural resources and changing production practices, sustainable agriculture requires a commitment to changing public policies, economic institutions, and social values. Strategies for change must take into account the complex, reciprocal and ever-changing relationship between agricultural production and the broader society.

The "food system" extends far beyond the farm and involves the interaction of individuals and institutions with contrasting and often competing goals including farmers, researchers, input suppliers, farmworkers, unions, farm advisors, processors, retailers, consumers, and policymakers. Relationships among these actors shift over time as new technologies spawn economic, social and political changes.

A wide diversity of strategies and approaches are necessary to create a more sustainable food system. These will range from specific and concentrated efforts to alter specific policies or practices, to the longer-term tasks of reforming key institutions, rethinking economic priorities, and challenging widely-held social values. Areas of concern where change is most needed include the following:

Food and agricultural policy

Existing federal, state and local government policies often impede the goals of sustainable agriculture. New policies are needed to simultaneously promote environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. For example, commodity and price support programs could be restructured to allow farmers to realize the full benefits of the productivity gains made possible through alternative practices. Tax and credit policies could be modified to encourage a diverse and decentralized system of family farms rather than corporate concentration and absentee ownership. Government and land grant university research policies could be modified to emphasize the development of sustainable alternatives. Marketing orders and cosmetic standards could be amended to encourage reduced pesticide use. Coalitions must be created to address these policy concerns at the local, regional, and national level.

Land use

Conversion of agricultural land to urban uses is a particular concern in California, as rapid growth and escalating land values threaten farming on prime soils. Existing farmland conversion patterns often discourage farmers from adopting sustainable practices and a long-term perspective on the value of land. At the same time, the close proximity of newly developed residential areas to farms is increasing the public demand for environmentally safe farming practices. Comprehensive new policies to protect prime soils and regulate development are needed, particularly in California's Central Valley. By helping farmers to adopt practices that reduce chemical use and conserve scarce resources, sustainable agriculture research and education can play a key role in building public support for agricultural land preservation. Educating land use planners and decision-makers about sustainable agriculture is an important priority.

Labor

In California, the conditions of agricultural labor are generally far below accepted social standards and legal protections in other forms of employment. Policies and programs are needed to address this problem, working toward socially just and safe employment that provides adequate wages, working conditions, health benefits, and chances for economic stability. The needs of migrant labor for year-around employment and adequate housing are a particularly crucial problem needing immediate attention. To be more sustainable over the long-term, labor must be acknowledged and supported by government policies, recognized as important constituents of land grant universities, and carefully considered when assessing the impacts of new technologies and practices.

Rural Community Development

Rural communities in California are currently characterized by economic and environmental deterioration. Many are among the poorest locations in the nation. The reasons for the decline are complex, but changes in farm structure have played a significant role. Sustainable agriculture presents an opportunity to rethink the importance of family farms and rural communities. Economic development policies are needed that encourage more diversified agricultural production on family farms as a foundation for healthy economies in rural communities. In combination with other strategies, sustainable agriculture practices and policies can help foster community institutions that meet employment, educational, health, cultural and spiritual needs.

Consumers and the Food System

Consumers can play a critical role in creating a sustainable food system. Through their purchases, they send strong messages to producers, retailers and others in the system about what they think is important. Food cost and nutritional quality have always influenced consumer choices. The challenge now is to find strategies that broaden consumer perspectives, so that environmental quality, resource use, and social equity issues are also considered in shopping decisions. At the same time, new policies and institutions must be created to enable producers using sustainable practices to market their goods to a wider public. Coalitions organized around improving the food system are one specific method of creating a dialogue among consumers, retailers, producers and others. These coalitions or other public forums can be important vehicles for clarifying issues, suggesting new policies, increasing mutual trust, and encouraging a long-term view of food production, distribution and consumption.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Contact the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, (530) 752-7556. Written by Gail Feenstra, Writer; Chuck Ingels, Perennial Cropping Systems Analyst; and David Campbell, Economic and Public Policy Analyst with contributions from David Chaney, Melvin R. George, Eric Bradford, the staff and advisory committees of the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

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The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society's food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Practitioners of sustainable agriculture seek to integrate three main objectives into their work: a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social and economic equity.

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Sustainable Agriculture

In simplest terms, sustainable agriculture is the production of food, fiber, or other plant or animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. This form of agriculture enables us to produce healthful food without compromising future generations' ability to do the same.

The primary benefits of sustainable agriculture are:

Environmental Preservation

Sustainable farms produce crops and raise animals without relying on toxic chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified seeds, or practices that degrade soil, water, or other natural resources. By growing a variety of plants and using techniques such as crop rotation, conservation tillage, and pasture-based livestock husbandry , sustainable farms protect biodiversity and foster the development and maintenance of healthy ecosystems.

Protection of Public Health

Food production should never come at the expense of human health. Since sustainable crop farms avoid hazardous pesticides, they're able to grow fruits and vegetables that are safer for consumers, workers, and surrounding communities. Likewise, sustainable livestock farmers and ranchers raise animals without dangerous practices like use of nontherapeutic antibiotics or arsenic-based growth promoters. Through careful, responsible management of livestock waste, sustainable farmers also protect humans from exposure to pathogens, toxins, and other hazardous pollutants.

Sustaining Vibrant Communities

A critical component of sustainable agriculture is its ability to remain economically viable, providing farmers, farmworkers, food processors, and others employed in the food system with a livable wage and safe, fair working conditions. Sustainable farms also bolster local and regional economies, creating good jobs and building strong communities.

Upholding Animal Welfare

Sustainable farmers and ranchers treat animals with care and respect, implementing livestock husbandry practices that protect animals' health and wellbeing. By raising livestock on pasture, these farmers enable their animals to move freely, engage in instinctive behaviors, consume a natural diet, and avoid the stress and illness associated with confinement.

Industrial Agriculture

Unfortunately, most food produced in the US is no longer grown or raised on sustainable farms. During the mid-1900s, US agriculture began to industrialize, becoming increasingly mechanized and reliant upon resource-intensive inputs like synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Over time, farms became larger, more specialized, and centralized, creating a process of extreme consolidation that drove many small farms out of business, and ultimately resulted in market control by a handful of powerful corporations.

Although industrial agriculture now produces great quantities of food at low prices, it is able to do so only by implementing practices that threaten the environment, human health, rural communities, and animal welfare.

Industrial Crop Production

Today, industrial crops are produced on huge monocrop farms, which rely extensively on chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and genetically modified crop varieties. These practices deplete and degrade soil, reduce biodiversity, and generate air and water pollutants that degrade the environment and threaten the health of farmworkers, neighbors, and consumers.

Industrial Livestock Production

The majority of meat, eggs, and dairy products are now produced on enormous industrial livestock facilities. Also known as factory farms or CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations ), these facilities confine thousands (and, in some cases, hundreds of thousands) of animals in cramped conditions without access to the outdoors. In addition to compromising animal welfare, factory farms generate a huge amount of waste, which pollutes air, water, and soil, degrading the natural environment and threatening public health.

A Sustainable Food Future

Although industrial agriculture currently dominates the US food system, public awareness of the problems caused by this model has grown rapidly, building extensive support for sustainable agriculture, creating a robust market for sustainable foods, and inspiring formidable demand for agricultural policy and regulatory reform.

Sustainable Table works to support the transition to a sustainable food future by educating people about the benefits of sustainable agriculture (and the problems with the industrial alternative), and by providing tools and resources to help consumers make better food choices. Find detailed information about the food system on our issue pages, learn to shop and cook sustainably by visiting In the Kitchen, and find farms, stores, restaurants, CSAs, and other sources of sustainable food using our Eat Well Guide. Be sure to visit our Take Action page to learn how you can spread the word and help build a better food system.

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In simplest terms, sustainable agriculture is the production of food, fiber, or other plant or animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. This form of agriculture enables us to produce healthful food without compromising future generations' ability to do the same.

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distribution of services in North America

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HDI map

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HDI explained

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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI. The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. Refer to Technical notes for more details.

The HDI can be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities.

The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. The HDRO provides other composite indices as broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity and poverty.

A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the HDR statistical annex.

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Human Development Index | Human Development Reports

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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

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unit vo

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AP Human Geography Chapter 9: Development Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying AP Human Geography Chapter 9: Development. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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what determines development

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why does development vary by gender?

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AP Human Geography - Development - Chapter 9 Key Issue 2

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why are energy resources important for development?

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AP Human Geography - Development - Chapter 9 Key Issue 3

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obstacles in the way of developing countries

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Published:

Disclaimer: This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. You can view samples of our professional work here.

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The following essay discusses the most serious obstacles to development in Less Developed Countries during the twenty first century. This paper analyzes those obstacles to development in LDCs based on the definition of the level of development and the components and criteria of the development measurement. So this paper argues that in the less developed countries, the most serious obstacles to development are high population growth, human capital weakness and high economic vulnerability.

Before proceeding any future, some definitions and relationships are in order. There are two key words in this paper which should be clarified and narrowed. The first term is "LDCs" (Less Developed Countries). From Wikipedia, we get the definition of "Less Developed Countries" are countries whose development indicators are below a certain level. Then it comes to the following key words "development" and "development indicator". What does "development" mean? In definition, "development" means both economic development and social development within a country. In detail, "social development" includes improvement in human capital and political stability. Then, "economic development" includes rising income associated with population growth. Therefore, associated with "economic development" and "social development", United Nations defines the level of development of a country based on "Human Development Index" rate as "development indicator". According to definition in Wikipedia, the main components of Human Development Index are based on three criteria: "income associated with population size", "Human capital" and the degree of "economic vulnerability". With a lower HDI rate in DLCs, the lower levels of these three criteria conditions are the most obstacles to development. That is high population growth, human resource weakness and high economic vulnerability.

After narrowing and clarifying the key words and relationships in this paper, I will analyze each obstacle in detail.

1 High Population Growth

As we know, although GDP may expand a lot, GDP per capital has a serious negative relationship with population size. In other words, the bigger the population size is, the lower GDP per capital as an indicator of living standard will be. Realizing this reverse relationship between average income and population size well, China has taken one-child policy to reduce the population. Compared with 1978, the urban people's per-capita incomes for living expenses increased 10-fold, at an annual increase of 15.5 percent; the per-capita net incomes for rural families went up 9-fold, at an annual increase of 14.8 percent. (Wikipedia, 2010) Therefore, we can get the point that the obstacle to achieving meaningful economic expansion is related in great part to their disability to limit population growth in most LDCs.

However, high population size is not a obstacle to economic development for all LDCs. In other words, in some developing countries such as "Africa, Latin America and even parts of Asia where there are underpopulated situation and lack of labor force in agricultural sector" (Kay, 2002). In this case, population growth is desirable.

2 Human Capital Weaknesses

Human capital which contains education and health mainly determines the productivity. In other words, lower human capital has a negative relationship with GDP in LDCs through lower labor productivity. Firstly, education can increase the economic growth a lot in LDCs via increasing productivity. According to data from Todaro's article, "in developing countries such as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, the private return to higher education is 28% and 20% which is higher than developed countries' return scale, 12%." However, since the poor countries' people usually get married very early and produce children that they can't educate or even support. So the reduction in population growth among educated people in the developing countries is being more than compensated by the increase among the underprivileged. Take the example of Bangladesh, the seventh largest country in the world in population. By every measure the country has made improvements in education and most importantly achieved a respectable economic growth rate of, on average, 5 per cent annually in recent years. (Mahfuz, 2009) Therefore, obstacle to improve economic development is related in great part to the low level of education in LDCs. Secondly, heath can also affect productivity in LDCs. In other words, the healthier works are the more better-paying jobs they will get. For example, India's action of eliminating deformity of from leprosy brings more than triple earnings of workers. (Mahfuz, 2009) However, on the worldwide scale, developing countries have worse health conditions than developed countries which make an obstacle to their development.

3 High Economic Vulnerability

Next, I will analyze the obstacles of high economic vulnerability in LDCs at two levels: the domestic level of high political instability and the international level of high inequality in international trade.

(1) High Political Instability

Wikipedia defines "PI as situations, activities, or patterns of political behavior that threaten to change fiscal policy". As used here, the key attribute of PI is that it generates uncertainty about the stability of the fiscal policy of changing the saving rate.

Table one

AVERAGE SAVING RATE, GROWTH RATE AND POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: SELECTED YEARS(*)

1975 1980 1985 1989

Savings Rate (%) 10.47 7.21 7.08 5.72

Growth Rate (%) 2.42 2.54 3.83 3.40

Political Instability -0.0406 0.0381 -0.651 0.2907

* Calculated from World Bank, African Economic Indicators, 1992 and

Centre for Social Analysis, Cross-National Time-Series Data Archives, 1993.

Table one shows the average savings rate and real GDP growth rates as well as average PI in Sub-Saharan Africa for selected years. PI increased dramatically during this period of falling savings, inviting the suggestion that there is a causal relationship between PI and the savings rate. While PI has, on the average, increased in Sub-Saharan Africa with the attendant decrease in economic performance, there are cross-country differences in the degree of PI and economic performance. For example, in 1960, "the savings rates for Ethiopia, Chad, Ghana, and Zaire, four countries with high incidence of PI were 11, 5, 17, and 21 per cent respectively. By 1992, savings rates in these countries had fallen to -1, -20, 2, and -8 per cent respectively" (Levine, 1997).

2) High Inequality in International Trade

In the theory of "international-dependence" from text book, it mainly pointes out that international trade will benefit rich and powerful group who has a great bargaining power in international institution, at the expense of lower the wider poor population's welfare. For example, according to data, "during the most recent period of rapid growth in global trade and investment (1960 to 1998) inequality worsened both internationally within developing countries" (Ivanova, 1999). For example, "as tariffs on manufactured imports from developing countries are on average 4 times greater than those on manufactured imports from industrial countries, "the majority of LDCs with strong import liberalization have experienced negative growth over the past 20 years" (Richard, 2000).

Conclusion:

In short, as we see from previous discussion of the three criteria (average income associated with population growth, human capital and economic vulnerability) for HDI which are measures of the level of development in the world, the lower level in each component directly determines the lower level of development. Therefore, the most serious obstacles to development in less developed countries which have lower HDI rate are the lower level components in the three criteria which are high population growth, human capital weakness and high economic vulnerability.

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Obstacles To Development In Less Developed Countries Economics Essay

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two paths to development

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Self Sufficiency and International Trade

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Population density