Donavan Spotz
Introduction
Terraforming or “Earth-shaping” from the Inca in Peru[i] has levelled entire mountain tops to build cities in the clouds. The Egyptians of antiquity that developed a vast irrigation system allowing them to transform the desert into a breadbasket feeding a nation. Here as elsewhere, food production has always been innovative. When we look at cultures and civilizations around the world, there are more displaced people migrating and more wars starting over famine than anything else. Shaping our environment may entail planting a community garden or developing a plot system for rotating crops within a field. Or it can be as simple as creating the environment you want in your immediate area perhaps more plants that are able to feed you and your community are that are more beneficial than acres of unproductive lawn.
“How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can’t scare him–he has known a fear beyond every other.”[ii]
As we strive to find global context for our students, the very eclectic nature of food from around the world can be an interesting and enlightening experience. However, it also gives us the opportunity to have our students look at the fact that many of these dishes have only evolved due to the availability or unavailability of local resources, and explore other dishes that have only recently, in historical context, been added to the diets of certain populations. For instance, China consumes over 40 million metric tons of peanut oil a year[iii] even though it was not until the 17th century that Portuguese traders introduced the plant to the Chinese people.[iv]
This unit gives students the opportunity to explore the science behind agricultural processes and the key cycles that are involved in food production as well as the diversity of farming practices being employed worldwide. Historically we can easily see the failures of destructive farming practices in the form of hardships they create as laid out in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath”. This harrowing account of individuals being forced to relocate due to a man-made ecological crisis is a cautionary tale of what happens when production is more important than balance. So, in this unit we will be looking at information in a global context to find local solutions to food necessities within the community. As we look at our different options, we will consider not only the wants of the community but available resources that can be harvested from the environment without over taxing it and ensuring a replenishment cycle.
Throughout human history many different cultures during many different ages have approached food production as one of society’s topmost goals. In this unit we will endeavour to educate students to a key reason for all human conflict and migration stemming from lack of resources. The number one resource at a base level to be required would be food. Throughout this unit we will discuss the historical and sociological implications on current day food resources around the world.
By looking at the entire world we can identify issues of inequality, lack of available resources, and a variety of cultures that are vastly different from the culture in our community. Commonalities can be difficult to identify. The importance of a forward-looking global outlook in today’s modern society where all information is at your fingertips cannot be underestimated. However, it is also important to stay grounded and focus your efforts where they have the most productivity to actively change your life directly. To that end we will be focusing on local agriculture whether that be forming a small farm, large farm, or urban farm.
School Demographics
As a science teacher at Carver Middle School, I work with 6th- 8th grade students preparing them for their high school career. We are also an International Baccalaureate/MYP magnet school in the historic Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma serving all of Tulsa working to forge students into upstanding members of the community. Our student body consists of: 30% White, 27% Black, 26% Hispanic, 4% Native American, and 2% Asian. The female to male ratio is 55:45 and 68% of our students come from low-income families. The knowledge of food production and how to grow quality food on your own is of paramount importance.
Unit Content
When educating our students, it is important to tie in fundamentals. A primary fundamental for life not only to exist but thrive is food. While this does seem simplistic it includes all the environmental cycles such as the hydrological cycle where we can examine water usage in given geographic areas. The hydrological cycle is extremely important for the chemical cycle which consists in part of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium all necessary to primary producers.
We have all experienced hunger, so this is a relatable topic for our students as well as the shared experience of good quality food. We can examine the difference between want and need and what is practical to produce based on the resources and environment in which you live. A “food desert is an impoverished area where residents lack access to healthy foods. Food deserts may exist in rural or urban areas and are associated with complex geographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as with poor diet and health disorders such as obesity. Most knowledge of food deserts has come from studies of the United Kingdom and the United States.”[v] We can tell by the definition that this is largely a first world issue and a push for more universal access is noble the reality is that we using our want for a commodity rather than our need for that commodity. However, sometimes there truly is a food desert but in most cases, it is not a lack of food but a lack of quality food.
If one lives in a place where tropical fruit does not grow, does the lack of fresh citrus make it a food desert? If one lives in a developing country without access to milled grains, are they living in a food desert? The answer is no we can scientifically look at the nutritional needs of the body; however, without fail you will find cultures around the world who do not necessarily meet all the scientific requirements, yet they thrive as a community. As we look at producing food in our local communities, we will examine closely the resources available to determine the foods that are practical to produce.
What do we eat – Need vs Want
Look at your own diet, what are you currently eating; how much of the food you consume is grown within 50 miles of you; how much of the food you eat could be grown within 50 miles of where you live? Looking at primitive people and their diet which often had little to no variety, consuming only what was available in the immediate area.[vi] Seasonal migration could change their diet through the course of the year; however, it is safe to say there were very few prehistoric food critics: they simply ate what was available. Discovery of new staple crops through the Columbian Exchange was a dramatic increase to the available caloric intake that it began a population increase that continues to this day.[vii]
Like so many things, when a need is met, we start looking beyond our needs and create wants. So, as our inability to achieve needs and wants the line begins to blur and we see everything as a need that must be fulfilled. However, if we find a way to take care of our needs more responsibly through things as simple as a local urban agriculture to fill a need of quality produce, recreate more space and extra resources to diminish impact on the environment those things we want that may not be available in our area. For example, if you were to import mangoes which do not grow in Tulsa how would you offset that environmental impact possibly by growing tomatoes in a residential trellis garden.
Table 1 The World’s Most Popular Foods in 2000
(Table 1 to tie into new world crop influence)
| Average Daily Consumption (calories | Annual Production (millions of tonnes) | Land Harvested (millions of hectares) |
| Rice 567 | Sugar cane 1,252.5 | Wheat 215.5 |
| Wheat 527 | Rice 598.8 | Rice 154.1 |
| Sugar 196 | Maize 592.5 | Maize 137.0 |
| Maize 147 | Wheat 585.9 | Soybeans 74.4 |
| Potatoes 60 | Potatoes 328.7 | Barley 54.5 |
| Cassava 42 | Sugar beet 247.1 | Sorghum 41.0 |
| Sorghum 32 | Cassava 176.5 | Millet 37.1 |
| Sweet Potatoes 29 | Soybeans 161.3 | Rapeseed 25.8 |
| Millet 29 | Sweet Potatoes 138.7 | Sunflower seed 21.1 |
| Soybeans 17 | Barley 133.1 | Potatoes 20.1 |
| Bananas 14 | Oil palm fruit 120.4 | Sugar cane 19.5 |
| Coconuts 12 | Tomatoes 108.9 | Cassava 17.0 |
| Apples 9 | Watermelons 76.5 | Oats 12.7 |
| Tomatoes 8 | Bananas 64.9 | Coffee, green 10.8 |
| Oranges 8 | Grapes 64.8 | Coconuts 10.6 |
| Rye 7 | Oranges 63.8 | Chickpeas 10.1 |
| Yams 7 | Apples 59.1 | Oil palm fruit 10.0 |
| Onions 7 | Sorghum 55.8 | Rye 9.8 |
| Plantains 7 | Coconuts 52.9 | Sweet potatoes 9.7 |
| Barley 7 | Onions, dry 49.8 | Olives 8.3 |
| Other Notable New World Foods: | ||
| Cacao Beans 3 | Eggplants 27.2 | Cacao beans 7.6 |
| Pineapples 2 | Sunflower seed 26.5 | Natural rubber 7.6 |
| Chilies/peppers, green 20.9 | Tobacco 4.2 | |
| Pineapples 15.1 | Tomatoes 4.0 |
Notes: All figures are for the year 2000. Bold type indicates a New World food crop. The table does not report the consumption of oils. Among oils, the fourth most consumed oil, sunflower oil, is derived from sunflowers, a New World crop.[viii]
Water usage
A large part of growing crops is making sure you have an ample amount of water for them to meet the crops requirements. We can see many crops require more water however this may be due to a longer life cycle of the plant.
Table 2 INDICATIVE VALUES OF THE TOTAL GROWING PERIOD [ix]
| Crop | Total growing period (days) |
| Alfalfa | 100-365 |
| Banana | 300-365 |
| Barley/Oats/Wheat | 120-150 |
| Bean green | 75-90 |
| Bean dry | 95-110 |
| Cabbage | 120-140 |
| Carrot | 100-150 |
| Citrus | 240-365 |
| Cotton | 180-195 |
| Cucumber | 105-130 |
| Eggplant | 130-140 |
| Flax | 150-220 |
| Grain/small | 150-165 |
| Lentil | 150-170 |
| Lettuce | 75-140 |
| Maize sweet | 80-110 |
| Maize grain | 125-180 |
| Melon | 120-160 |
Land Utilization
The idea of land management is an old practice in which knowledgeable individuals examine and decide the needs and required interactions. This can be due to overgrowth where removal of trees can prevent forest fires from uncontrolled spread. Eradication when disease or infestation is spreading through a forest, foresters may identify damaged trees for removal[x], or at times it can be for monetary reasons such as selecting species for construction or aesthetics related to furniture and cabinetry. We likewise manage the fields in which we produce food having a much more robust agricultural science understanding of the need for practices such as crop rotation as George Washington Carver himself wrote about in his papers.[xi]
Approximately 40 billion dollars a year is spent on lawn care[xii] in the United States on what is to be clear a mono crop agricultural product that has nothing but perceived aesthetic value. We have science that proves rooftop gardens reduce the need for air conditioning[xiii] and by doing so reduce the strain on power grids. So why is it that we resist green gardens on our roofs and trellises in our yards that would save us money and resources. The current societal thinking is that many of us are “too busy” to take the time and put forth the effort that is needed to cultivate, plant and nurture plants when it is so easy to go to the store and purchase what we need. However, this does not achieve a healthy diet but promotes a dependence on others to provide for us.
The ability to tie soilless farming into the solutions for feeding a growing global population has immediate and real-world implications for the students. With no more than a 5-gallon bucket, a vegetable plant, and some other miscellaneous parts, fresh produce can be grown virtually anywhere. Incorporating soilless options allows students to see how they can utilize the same footprint to produce a wider variety of products in the same amount of time and space.[xiv] This helps students understand managing water usage and how mitigating water waste can improve the environment. Using the minimal amount of water and space to feed their friends and families has a positive impact on the overall environment by leaving more water available in the hydrosphere.
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on small landholdings to meet their own and their family’s needs. Subsistence farming specialists aim to produce agriculture for survival instead of profit while concentrating on the needs of their local area, with little or no surplus.[xv] The decision to plant trees is primarily made keeping in mind what the family will need in the coming year, and then considering market prices. Tony Waters, a sociology professor, defines “subsistence farmers” as people “who grow what they eat, build their own homes, and make a living without regularly shopping at a market.”[xvi]
Intensive Agriculture is a method of farming which requires large amounts of labor and investment to increase the yield of the land. Agricultural science is a large part of this process in calibrating the right amount of chemicals in the form of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers.[xvii] The use of these chemicals may/will increase yields but can also be detrimental to the environment.[xviii] The acquisition and use of machinery to aid in planting, chemical application, and harvesting will increase yield, potentially decrease production time, and can increase profit.
Extensive Agriculture
Extensive farming is a measure of how much area of land is being exploited and potentially wasted, and how much/little individual input is required to manage that exploitation. For example, extensive farming involves a three-acre farm with five head of cattle that are raised for beef, which is a relatively low number based on the amount of land being used.[xix] The farmer needs to maintain the farm’s infrastructure to ensure that the cattle remain healthy, but the labor input is relatively low compared to many other farms: the cows can essentially take care of themselves. The ability of this type of agriculture to feed more than the farmer’s family is very limited.
Plantation agriculture is a form of agriculture in which a single person or company owns a large farm and grows a single crop which requires assistance from more than the farmer’s family and will help with the economy of the area by employing people to manage the farm (often corn, wheat, sunflowers, cotton, etc.).[xx] Plantation farming requires capital, modern machinery (especially for seeding and harvesting) and of course personnel, this type of agriculture is mainly for profit and not just to feed your family and friends.
This type of agriculture is not about feeding your friends and family but instead of feeding the masses while turning a profit.[xxi] Commercial agriculture runs a wide spectrum from corn to cattle and everything in between. Large agribusiness is at the heart of most countries’ food stabilities and it in many ways is what stops widespread famine by the bounty it provides.[xxii] Commercial agriculture is all done on a large scale to maximize profits on the product with quantity of the product often considered only after things like pest and disease resistance come in second.
Mixed farming is the form of agriculture that many of the early homesteaders practiced where all farm activities are happening at the same time. Initially, it mainly catered to domestic consumption.[xxiii] Many people who choose to live “off the grid” practice this type of farming so they produce most, if not all, of the food needed for their family and any additional food can be shared with their community.
Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or organic farming, is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as manure, green manure, bone meal, and compost and emphasizes techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting[xxiv]. There are several groups of plants that when planted together actually help one another to grow and produce. Organic agriculture emphasizes the use of management practices while giving priority to the use of off-farm inputs, keeping in mind that regional conditions require locally adapted systems.
Teaching Strategies
I believe that using a variety of teaching strategies is needed to keep students engaged. Some of the teaching strategies to be used are peer teaching, gallery walk, gamification, and positive feedback. Peer teaching will allow students that have knowledge of the activity’s concept to share their knowledge with their classmates. A gallery walk will allow the students to see what their peers have put together and hopefully open a dialogue between students about ideas for improvement, what they tried, and why they chose a particular method. Gamification is always a useful tool when you want students to learn without them thinking they are learning. A farming simulation game is an activity that I would use for this purpose. Since most of the students only hear when they do something wrong or are not performing up to expectations, I believe that positive feedback is needed every step of the process.
Classroom Activities
As students explore the process of designing a garden and the target community they are providing for, they will have to weigh in on three facets of their design. One would be what type of crop you can grow. This will entail looking at the individual species of plant and what requirements you will need to meet if your target crop is successful. How will you grow this crop in the space provided? The students should know the myriads of ways we can take advantage of space for growing and what are the options you will use. And three what is the water usage for the crop of plants from beginning to end of its life cycle and how much of the water resources will need to be dedicated to it.
It will help at this point to set the scenario that one of our main goals is water conservation regardless of our method. Students need to take many factors into consideration when determining the farming method that best fits their needs; but our focus should be on effective and minimal water usage. The need to maximum food production while mitigating water evaporation needs to be at the forefront of their plan. How will the students terraform their corner of the world?
Activity 1: Monoculture vs. Polyculture:
- Divide students into small groups and provide each group with small plant pots, soil, and seeds.
- Instruct students to plant one type of seed in each pot (monoculture) and then mix different seeds in another pot (polyculture).
- Have students observe and record the growth of the plants over the next few weeks.
- Facilitate a discussion on the differences between monoculture and polyculture farming practices and their impact on biodiversity and soil health.
Activity 2: Farming Simulation Game:
- Create a farming simulation game where students role-play different farming practices and their effects on the environment.
- Assign each student a role such as a monoculture farmer, polyculture farmer, or sustainable farmer.
- Have students make decisions on crop choices, fertilizer use, and pest control methods.
- Discuss with students the outcomes of their decisions and the implications for the environment.
Activity 3: Sustainable Farming Solutions:
- Instruct students to brainstorm and come up with sustainable farming solutions to improve current farming practices.
- Have students create posters or presentations to showcase their ideas.
- Facilitate a class discussion on the importance of sustainable farming practices and how students can make a positive impact on the environment through their choices.
Conclusion:
- Recap the key concepts learned about different farming practices and their impact on the environment.
- Encourage students to think critically about their food choices and how they can support sustainable farming practices in their communities.
Exploring Different Crops through Gallery Walk
Introduction:
- Begin the lesson by discussing the importance of agriculture and the role of different crops in our daily lives. Connect this discussion to the concept of biodiversity and the variety of crops grown around the world.
Engaging Activity 1: Crop Identification
- Divide students into small groups and provide each group with a set of pictures or posters of different crops.
- Instruct students to walk around the classroom in a gallery walk style and observe each picture or poster carefully. Encourage them to take notes on the characteristics of each crop.
- After the gallery walk, have the groups come together and share their observations. Create a chart on the board to categorize the information based on crop types (grains, legumes, fruits, etc.).
- Guide students in discussing the similarities and differences between the crops they observed.
Engaging Activity 2: Crop Characteristics Comparison
- Give each student an index card and ask them to choose one crop they found interesting during the gallery walk.
- On the index card, instruct students to write down the name of the crop, its characteristics, and any interesting facts they learned about it.
- Once all students have completed their index cards, have them participate in a “crop characteristics comparison” activity where they share their findings with a partner or small group.
- Encourage students to discuss similarities and differences between the crops they chose and to ask questions about crops they are unfamiliar with.
Engaging Activity 3: Crop Showcase
- Have students create a mini-poster or presentation showcasing the crop they chose during the gallery walk.
- Students can include information such as where the crop is commonly grown, its nutritional value, its uses, and any interesting facts.
- Allow students to present their mini-posters or presentations to the class, giving them the opportunity to share their knowledge and learn from their peers.
Conclusion:
- Wrap up the lesson by discussing the importance of crop diversity and the role of agriculture in providing food security around the world.
- Revisit the learning objectives and discuss how the activities in the lesson helped students achieve them.
Developing Best Agricultural Practices for Food Crops
Introduction:
- Begin the lesson by discussing the importance of agriculture and the impact it has on food production.
- Explain to students that they will be working in groups to develop best agricultural practices for a specific food crop.
- Share the learning objectives for the lesson and provide an overview of the activities they will be engaging in.
Activity 1 – Crop Selection:
- Divide students into small groups and provide them with a selection of food crop seeds.
- In their groups, students will discuss and decide on a food crop they would like to focus on for the project.
- Encourage students to consider factors such as climate, soil type, and growth requirements when selecting their crop.
Activity 2 – Experimental Design:
- Once students have selected their food crop, have them brainstorm and plan out the best agricultural practices they will implement.
- Guide students in creating a plan that includes details such as watering schedules, soil composition, and pest control methods.
- Encourage students to think creatively and consider innovative solutions for optimizing crop growth.
Activity 3 – Implementation and Evaluation:
- Provide students with the necessary materials to start implementing their chosen agricultural practices.
- Have students work together to plant their selected food crop and follow the plan they created.
- Throughout the growth process, students will be responsible for monitoring and recording observations in their journals.
- At the end of the project, have students evaluate the effectiveness of their agricultural practices and discuss any challenges they encountered.
- Encourage students to reflect on what worked well and what could be improved for future projects.
Conclusion:
- In a whole-class discussion, students share their findings and recommendations for best agricultural practices for their selected food crop.
- Summarize the importance of sustainable agriculture and how implementing best practices can lead to increased crop yields and healthier food production.
Conclusion
As the lead science teacher for George Washington Carver Middle School in the Greenwood District of North Tulsa, I have put together this curriculum to help highlight the process of how the world is able to feed itself.
By knowing the environmental cycles and chemical cycles that feed into our food production we can truly comprehend the vast global cooperation needed. The world, through understanding and increased quality and production, can ensure a full flourish for humanity and all its potential. Throughout human history many different cultures through many different ages have approached food production as one of society’s most important goals. When it comes to environmental issues, food production should be at the top of the list not only due to its necessity but the fact that abundant food production leads to a more peaceful planet.
In this unit students will conduct hands-on engaging experiments that help them understand the multiple/different cycles required for life as we know it to exist as well as creating and interpreting models and charts. It is this focused study that will help create the groundwork for the observational science of logging biological changes in a desired life form over the course of the module. By incorporating a longer observational lab over the required curriculum we can increase the depth of understanding as well as increase the engagement from Individual students.
In the end the students will have learned that growing food for themselves provides high-quality produce locally. This then results in less demand on the supply chain, reducing the need for resources and reducing emissions creating a global impact from our efforts. It is this chain of events which creates a terraforming effect that is engineered and driven by humanity hence being Anthropocentrism.
Appendix: Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science
7.ESS3.1 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes. Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how these resources are limited and typically non-renewable, and how their distributions are significantly changing as a result of removal by humans. Examples of uneven distributions of resources as a result of past processes include but are not limited to petroleum (locations of the burial of organic marine sediments and subsequent geological traps), metal ores (locations of past volcanic and hydrothermal activity associated with subduction zones), and soil (locations of active weathering and/or deposition of rock). Assessment Boundary: N/A
7.ESS3.3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment. * Clarification Statement: Examples of the design process include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts can include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land). Assessment Boundary: N/A
7.ESS3.4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems. Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence include grade-appropriate databases on human populations and the rates of consumption of food and natural resources (such as freshwater, mineral, and energy). Examples of impacts can include changes to the appearance, composition, and structure of Earth’s systems as well as the rates at which they change. The consequences of increases in human populations and consumption of natural resources are described by science, but science does not make the decisions for the actions society takes. Assessment Boundary: N/A
7.ESS3.5 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate evidence of the factors that have caused changes in global temperatures over the past century. Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures; atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane; and the impact humans have on the environment. Assessment Boundary: N/A
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Notes
[i] Graber, Cynthia. “Farming like the Incas.” Smithsonian.com, September 6, 2011. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/farming-like-the-incas-70263217/.
[ii] Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 1939. Reprint, Harlow: Pearson Education, 1939
[iii] Oilseeds: World markets and trade, April 2024. https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/oilseeds.pdf.
[iv] Wu, Chunming. “An Ethno-Archaeological Perspective of Maritime Cultural Interaction between Southeast China and the West World during the 16th and 17th Centuries.” Omeka RSS, May 15, 2014. http://www.themua.org/collections/items/show/1610.
[v] “Rogers, K.. “food desert.” Encyclopedia Britannica, March 31, 2023.
[vi] Jabr, Ferris. “How to Really Eat like a Hunter-Gatherer: Why the Paleo Diet Is Half-Baked [Interactive & Infographic].” Scientific American, February 20, 2024. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-paleo-diet-half-baked-how-hunter-gatherer-really-eat/.
[vii] Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. 2010. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24 (2): 163-88. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.24.2.163
[viii] “Product Statistics and Consumption Databases.” Faostat. Accessed 2000.
[ix] Dadhich, G, H Aboelsoud, N AbuSaada, and H Salah. Seasonal mapping of crop types and water use in Northern Gaza Strip, 2023. https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/29a72b33-a981-48f5-a5b9-8ef376cc650f.
[x] “How Cutting down Trees Can Improve Forest Health.” National Forest Foundation. Accessed April 22, 2024.
[xi] Carver, George Washington. “George Washington Carver: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit.” Omeka RSS, n.d. https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/carver/exhibits/show/bulletins/carver.
[xii] “America Spends More Money on Lawn Care than Foreign Aid: Why We Need Less Lawn.” People Powered Machines, May 15, 2009.
[xiii] The benefits and challenges of green roofs on public and commercial buildings, May 2011. https://www.gsa.gov/system/files/The_Benefits_and_Challenges_of_Green_Roofs_on_Public_and_Commercial_Buildings.pdf.
[xiv] Arumugam, T, M Maheswari, and G Sandeep. “Vol. 10, Issue 1 (2021).” The Pharma Innovation Journal, September 12, 2020. https://www.thepharmajournal.com/archives/?year=2021&vol=10&issue=1.
[xv] Wilcox, Walter w. “Planning a Subsistence Homestead.” Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/CAT85826145.
[xvi] Tony Waters, The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture: Life Beneath the Level of the Marketplace (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).
[xvii] “Intensive Farming.” NAL Agricultural Thesaurus, June 16, 2006. https://agclass.nal.usda.gov/vocabularies/nalt/concept?uri=https%3A%2F%2Flod.nal.usda.gov%2Fnalt%2F39540.
[xviii] Lomax, James. “10 Things You Should Know about Industrial Farming.” UNEP, June 20, 2020. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/10-things-you-should-know-about-industrial-farming.
[xix] Austin, Z., S. Aviron, S. Bamberg, T.N. Cason, T. Christensen, M. Czajkowski, J. Ekroos, et al. “Drivers of Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Extensive Farming Practices in a Globally Important Bird Area.” Land Use Policy, October 18, 2019. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264837719305381.
[xx] Janvry, A. de, N.R. Johnson, T. Akiyama, R.E. Baldwin, C. Barlow, R.M. Bautista, G.L. Beckford, et al. “Chapter 64 Plantations Agriculture.” Handbook of Agricultural Economics, August 31, 2009. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S157400720904064X.
[xxi] Subedi, Dipak, Anil K Giri, and Monika Ghimire. “Commercial Farms Led in Government Payments.” USDA ERS – Commercial Farms Led in Government Payments in 2021, May 15, 2023. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2023/may/commercial-farms-led-in-government-payments-in-2021/.
[xxii] Global Agriculture towards 2050, October 2009. https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf.
[xxiii] “Mixed Farming Systems: Livestock/Cash Crops.” ADAPT, April 20, 2021. https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/en/metadata/publications/mixed-farming-systems-livestock-cash-crops.
[xxiv] Paull, John. (2019). Organic Agriculture in Australia: Attaining the Global Majority (51%). 5. 70-74.