Unit 5: Agriculture

Mediterranean Agriculture

An agricultural system practiced in the Mediterranean style climates (warm dry summers and cool winters), specialty fruits and vegetable crops are grown

Tropical Agriculture

Agriculture practiced in hot, rainy parts of the world where cash crops like sugar and coffee are grown

Intensive Agriculture

Involves lots of labor and small/medium areas of land

Extensive Agriculture

Involves large areas of land and minimal labor per acre

Market Gardening (Truck Farming)

the growing of vegetables, fruits, or flowers for market

Plantation Agriculture

raising a large amount of a "cash crop" for local sale or export

Shifting Cultivation

clearing forests to plant fields for a few years and then abandoning them to move to repeat the process

Mixed Crop and Livestock

both animal and crops are farmed in the same area, crops are used to feed animals, animals or their products are sold

Nomadic Herding

the raising of livestock for food by moving herds from place to place to find pasture and water

Ranching

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area.

Subsistence Agriculture

Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer's family

Commercial Agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to produce products for sale off the farm.

Survey Patterns

lines laid out to divided individual pieces of land

Settlement Patterns

The way groups organize themselves

Clustered settlement pattern

Many people live closely together, normally around a central village/area

Dispersed settlement pattern

Individual farmhouses lying quite far apart

Linear settlement pattern

Land is organized in lines along a road, railroad, or river

Metes and Bounds survey pattern

uses physical features of the local geography, along with directions and distances to define the boundaries of a piece of land

Township and Range survey pattern

the rectangular system of land subdivision of much of the agriculturally settled United States

long-lot survey system

divided land into narrow pieces stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals

Agricultural Hearths

Places from which farming practices diffused across the surface of the earth

Four major agricultural hearths

Fertile Crescent, Indus River Valley, Southeast Asia, Central America

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic Revolution)

Dating back 10,000 years, people first began cultivating (growing and raising) plants and animals on purpose

Second Agricultural Revolution

Agriculture was made much more efficient during the Industrial Revolution when tools and equipment were modified, and methods of soil preparation, fertilization, crop care, and harvesting improved

Green Revolution (Third Agricultural Revolution)

The development of higher-yield and fast-growing crops through increased technology, pesticides, and fertilizers which increased crop production

genetically modified organism (GMO)

an organism that has been genetically altered by humans, normally in agriculture seeds are modified to increase output and be resistant to disease or pests

Monocropping/Monoculture

Growing the same crop on the same field year after year

Bid rent theory

theory that explains how real estate values change with distance from the central city, ex. land far away from cities is usually cheaper

Desertification

the gradual transformation of habitable land into desert

Industrial Agriculture

Agriculture that uses machines and produces lots of crops