An Ecological Investigation of Agricultural Patterns in the United States

Abstract

In a previous chapter, we suggested that the human ecological perspective can facilitate explanation of significant aspects of the structure of agriculture in the United States and external phenomena that impact America’s agriculturally dependent rural areas. In this chapter, we present two empirical analyses that derive from the human ecological perspective. The first examines the impact of the internationalization of agriculture on the rural United States. The second explores the implications of use of irrigation technology for the structure of agriculture and agriculturally dependent rural communities in the Great Plains. We have drawn these particular examples largely from our previous research (Murdock et al. 1991; Albrecht and Murdock 1986b), because they provide an apt demonstration of the utility of the human ecological perspective. Nevertheless, they represent only preliminary steps toward establishing a more complete human ecology of United States agriculture.KeywordsGreat PlainSustenance ActivityHuman EcologyIrrigation TechnologyFarm PopulationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.