UNITTT 555555

organic agriculture

Approach to farming and ranching that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs.

agriculture

The purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber.

primary economic activity

Economic activity concerned with the direct extraction of natural resources from the environment - such as mining, fishing, lumbering, and especially agriculture.

secondary economic activity

Economic activity involving the processing of raw materials and their transformatoin into finished industrial products, the manufacturing sector.

tertiary economic activity

Economic activity associated with the provision of services - such as transportation, banking, retailing, education, and routine office-based jobs.

quarternary economic activity

Service sector industries concerned with the collection, processing, and manipulation of information and capital. Examples include finance, administration, insurance, and legal services.

quinary economic activity

Service sector industries that require a high level of specialized knowledge or technical skill. Examples include scientific research and high-level management.

plant domestication

Genetic modification of a plant such that its reproductive success depends on human intervention.

root crops

Crops that are reproduced by cultivating the roots of or the cutting from the plants.

seed crops

Crop that is reproduced by cultivating the seeds of the plants.

first agricultural revolution

Dating back 10,000 years, this revolution was the first time in recorded history in which human beings achieved plant and animal domestication.

animal domestication

Genetic modification of an animal such that it is rendered more tolerant in regards to human control.

subsistence farming

Self-sufficient agriculture that is small scale and low technology and emphasizes food production for local consumption, not for trade.

shifting cultivation

Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. These clearings are usually abandoned after a few years in favor of newly cleared forestland. Also known as slash-and-burn agriculture.

slash-and-burn farming

Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. These clearings are usually abandoned after a few years in favor of newly cleared forestland. Also known as shifting cultivation.

second agricultual revolution

Dovetailing with and benefiting from the Industrial Revolution, it witnessed improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce.

von thunen model

Explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. A process of spatial competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a central market city, with profit-earning capability the determining force in how far a crop locates from the market.

third agricultural revolution

Currently in progress, this Agricultural Revolution is closely linked to the development, distribution, and implementation of GMOs.

green revolution

the recently successful development of higher yield, fast growing varieties of rice and other cereals in certain developing countries, which led to increased production per unit area and a dramatic narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs

genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods.

rectangular survey system

Also called the Public Land Survey, the system was used by the U.S. Land Office Survey to parcel land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The system divides land into a series of rectangular parcels.

township-and-range system

A rectangular land division scheme designed by Thomas Jefferson to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands of the U.S. interior.

metes and bounds system

A system of land surveying east ofd the Appalachian Mountains. It is a system that relies on descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of metes and bounds surveying, the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the rectangular survey system.

long-lot survey system

Distinct regional approach to land surveying found in the Canadian Maritimes, parts of Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals.

primogeniture

System which the eldest son in a family-or, in exceptional cases, daughter- inherits all of a dying parent's land.

commercial agriculture

Term used to describe large-scale farming and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology.

monoculture

Dependence on a single agricultural commodity.

Koppen climatic classification system

Develped by Wladimir Koppen, a system for classifying the world's climates on the basis of temperature and precipitation.

plantation agriculture

Production system based on a large estate owned by an individual, family, or corporation and organized to produce a cash crop. Almost all were established within the tropics; in recent decades, many have been divided into smaller holdings or reorganized as cooperatives

luxury crops

Non-subsistence crops such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco.

livestock ranching

The raising of domesticated animals for the production of meat and other byproducts such as leather and wool.

mediterranean agriculture

Specialized farming that occurs only in areas where climate conditions are dry and moderate in the summer.

agribuisness

General term for the businesses that provide the vast array of goods and services that support the agriculture industry.

agricultural hearth

The place from which agriculture, or a form of agriculture originates.

Biotechnology

A form of technology that uses living organisms, usually genes, to modify products, to make or modify plants and animals, or to develop other microorganisms for specific purposes.

Cereal grains

Grains that include corn, oats, barley, etc. Grains are the harvested seed portions of cereal crops that serve as a high nutrient store. These grains can be fed to horses as the whole grain or processed by cracking, rolling, crimping, steam flaking, or extruding. Grains are very palatable, dense, and usually low in fiber if processed correctly.

colombian exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Americas and Europe, and Africa. Historic catalyst for the Triangular-Slave Trade.

desertification

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

dispersed settlement pattern

A rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.

Enclosure

A pen, or fenced in area.

erosion

The process by which wind, water, ice, or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another. Wears down rocks and soil.

extensive agriculture

A crop or livestock system in which land quality or extent is more important than capital or labor inputs in determining output.

horticulture

The cultivation of plants.

hunters and gatherers

The old nomadic tribes who would follow packs of animals for food and gather other plants so that they could survive.

mass depletions

loss of diversity through failure to produce new species, this contributes to mass extinctions

Environmental Stress

cutting forests, emission of pollutants, and spilling of oil

Hydrologic cycle

cycle of water throughout the environment that ultimately brings water from oceans to landmasses

Aquifers

underground stores of water

Deforestation

mass large scale cutting down of trees, usually for agriculture or cattle ranching