Sustainable Agriculture

Exam 1

Urban Agriculture

growing food in and around cities

Gentrification

Displacement of inhabitants in poor areas by land investors that renovate housing and increase cost of rent

Soil Erosion

detachment, transport, and deposition

Gullie

ravine formed by the action of water as soil is detached from hillside.

Contour Lines

practice of tilling sloped land along lines of consistent elevation to conserve rainwater and reduce soil losses.

Contour Swales

Ditch with a berm that runs along the landscape’s contour.

Contour Buffer Strips

Strips of perennial vegetation alternated down slope with wider cultivated strips farmed on the contour.

Terracing Farming

Exaggerated staircases that shapes soil into a series of flat planting areas for trees or annual crops.

Fanya-Yuu

“Throw it upward,” soil recovered from the bottom of the slope and thrown up to form terraces

Phytoremediation

Process of using plants to remove contaminants from the soil

Bioaccumulators

Plants that accumulate over time a substance in a living organism.

Tilling

Practice of aerating the soil to permit moisture and air to permeate, allowing seeds to germinate, encouraging root growth, controlling weeds and integrating fertilizers.

Sheet Composting

Layering organic matter, paper, compost and mulch, allowing time for the paper to decompose into the beds.

Tarping

layering compost and plastic tarp to smother weeds

Agrobiodiversity

Diversity found within agroecosystems.

Planned Agrobiodiversity

Plants that farmers choose to add or plant or conserve in garden/farm.

Associated Biodiversity

The great amount of biodiversity that spontaneously arrives at the agroecosystem.

Sociocultural Diversity

Various meanings, practices, skills, resource management, and foodways.

Seed Keeping

Act of saving seeds and keeping the stories of farmers that curated the seeds

Plant Domestication

The direct genetic change in agricultural plants.

Direct Selection

The natural process of genetic change

Artificial Selection

Direct selection performed by humans.

Mass Selection

Produces a gradual shift in the relative frequency of a trait(s) in a population

Bacteria

Digest sugar, starches, fresh materials. Fast and generate heat. “fast food crew”

Fungi

Breakdown tough materials, lignin, cellulose (things bacteria can’t). Richest and most stable in compost. “slow chefs”

Actinomycetes

White threads that break down medium to tough materials. “bridge builders”

Worms

Move nutrients and mix layers, leaving N-rich casings. “postal service”

Insects and Millipedes