Rubenstein 13th Edition: Chapter 9 Agriculture

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

Agriculture

The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.

Aquaculture (or aquafarming)

The cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions.

Commercial agriculture

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

Crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.

Dairy farm

A form of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting. Also known as semiarid land degradation.

Double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

A living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology

Green Revolution

Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers

Horticulture

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Intensive subsistence agriculture

A form of subsistence agriculture characteristics of Asia's major population concentrations in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.

Milkshed

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

Mixed crop and livestock farming

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock; most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans.

Pastoral nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

Plantation

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country.

Ranching

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

Ridge tillage

System of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation.

Shifting cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

Slash-and-burn agriculture

Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris.

Subsistence agriculture

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

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

Truck farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning batering or the exchange of commodities.

First (Neolithic) Agricultural revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering.

Cereal grain

A grass that yields grain for food.

Crop

Any plant gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season.

Dietary energy consumption

The amount of food that an individual consumes, measured in kilocalories (Calories in the United States).

Fishing

The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in the waters.

Food security

Physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life

Grain

Seed of a cereal grass.

No tillage

A farming practice that leaves all of the soil undisturbed and the entire residue of the previous year's harvest left untouched on the fields.

Overfishing

Capturing fish faster than they can reproduce.

Paddy

The Malay word for wet rice, increasingly used to describe a flooded field.

Prime agricultural land

The most productive farmland.

Swidden

A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning.

Undernourishment

Dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity.

Wet rice

Rice planted on dry land in an nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth.

Sawah

A flooded field for growing rice.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails. Often grow grapes and olives.