Introduction to Geography - Food and Climate Assignment

Introduction to Geography - Food and Climate - Assignment Example According to Moneo & Iglesias (2004, par. 2), â€Å"climate is one of the main factors which controls what natural resources we have and is an important element of sustainable development. Agriculture and water resources are intrinsically linked with climate†. In Asia for example, known for countries enjoying a tropical climate, the staple food is rice. This applies to countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, among others. Rice has been known to grow in tropical countries with lots of high temperatures the whole year round concurrent with a well defined rainy season, conducive to planting rice. Aside from rice, tropical countries are conducive to producing fruits such as pineapple, mango, banana; legumes; root crops like potatoes, cassava and yams, among a host of other foods. These crops like warm weather with intermittent rain. In the United States, where geography and climate differ across various regions, food production likewise varies depending on climatic conditions. The CIA World Factbook (2010) described the climate in the USA as â€Å"mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains†. As such, the major crops produced are corn, soybeans, hay, wheat, and sorghum (EPA, 2009). Foods in midlatitude climates such as those coming from Colombia are mostly coffee, banana, sugarcane, and other staple crops like â€Å"rice, beans, cassava, potatoes, barley, corn, and wheat† (US Library of Congress, n.d., para. 10). Corn is also considered a staple crop together with wheat and barley which is adaptable to a climate in higher grounds. The moist continental climate in regions such as Japan have foods such as â€Å"rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit.  Ã‚