AP HUG chapter agg

Agriculture

purposeful cultivation of plants and animals to produce goods for survival

Climate region

Areas that have similar climate patterns and conditions affecting ecosystems and agriculture.

Medditerenean agriculture

A type of agriculture characterized by the cultivation of crops like olives, grapes, and citrus fruits in regions with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.

Subsistence agriculture

farming system where farmers grow food primarily for their own consumption, rather than for sale.

commercial agriculture

farming system focused on producing crops and livestock for sale in the market, aimed at generating profit.

Bid rent theory

A theory that explains how land determines how intensively or extensively land is used

Central Business District

the commercial and business center of a city

Intensive agriculture

high-input, high-output farming system designed to maximize crop and livestock yields per unit of land

Clustered settlement

residents live in close proximity with farmland surround settlement

Disperesed settlement

houses and buildings are isolated from one another, and all the homes in a settlement are distributed over a relatively large area.

Linear settlement

houses and buildings extend in a long line that usually follows a land feature, such as a riverfront, coast, or hill, or aligns along a transportation route.

monocropping

Growing the same plant year after year on the same field without rotation.

Monoculture

is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop species in a given area for a consecutive number of seasons.

Crop rotation

alternating different crops on the same field across seasons or years to maintain soil fertility

Plantation agriculture

involves large-scale commercial farming of one particular crop grown for markets often distant from the plantation.

Market gardening

is farming that produces fruits, vegetables, and flowers and typically serves a specific market, or urban area, where farmers can conveniently sell to local grocery stores.

Mixed crop and livestock system

a commercial agricultural system that integrates crop cultivation and animal growing on the same farm

Extensive agriculture

Farming that requires low inputs.

Shifting Cultivation:

A farming technique where farmers clear a plot of land, grow crops for a few years, then move on to a new plot, allowing the old land to recover.

Slash-and-Burn:

A method of land clearing where vegetation is cut down and burned to prepare fields for planting.

Transhumance:

The seasonal movement of livestock between winter and summer pastures.

Nomadic Herding:

A form of pastoralism where people move with their animals to find grazing land and water.

Domestication:

The process of adapting wild plants and animals for human use, like farming or companionship.

Foragers:

People who gather food by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants—often before agriculture.

Agricultural Hearth:

A region where agriculture first began; examples include the Fertile Crescent.

Fertile Crescent:

A crescent-shaped region in the Middle East known as one of the earliest centers of agriculture.

Columbian Exchange:

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, and people between the Americas and the Old World after 1492.

First Agricultural Revolution:

The Neolithic Revolution, when humans first domesticated plants and animals and settled into farming communities.

Second Agricultural Revolution:

A period during the Industrial Revolution when innovations like mechanization and new crop rotations improved farming.

Enclosure System:

A system in which common land was fenced off and privatized, leading to more efficient but also more unequal farming.

Third Agricultural Revolution:

Also known as the Green Revolution, when new technologies, hybrid seeds, and chemical fertilizers dramatically increased food production.

Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs):

Organisms whose DNA has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally, often to improve crop yield or resistance.

Green Revolution:

A period of rapid agricultural development in the mid-20th century, leading to high-yield crop varieties and global food production boosts.