Key Concepts in Agribusiness and Agriculture

Agribusiness

The integration of various steps of production in the food-processing industry.

Aquaculture

The practice of raising and harvesting fish and other forms of food that live in water.

Arable Land

Land that is capable of producing food and suitable for farming.

Bid-Rent

The theory that when something is in high demand (land near the market), it is going to cost more.

Biodiversity

The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum number of people that an environment can support.

Clustered Settlement

A rural settlement pattern where family homes and farm buildings are located close together, with farmland surrounding them.

Columbian Exchange

The global movement of plants and animals between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas following the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Commercial Agriculture

When crops are grown for profit only and not for personal consumption.

Commodity Chain

A process used by corporations to gather resources and transform them into goods, then transport them to customers.

Community-Supported Agriculture

Plots of land used for growing food that are farmed collectively and used to benefit the whole community.

Crop Rotation

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

Dairy Farming

Raising animals for the purpose of harvesting milk.

Deforestation

The removal of large tracts of forest by natural or manmade means.

Desertification

The transition of land from fertile to arid.

Dispersed Settlement

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

Distance Decay

A geographical theory that states that the interaction between two places decreases as the distance between them increases.

Domestication

Raising plants and animals for human use.

Double Cropping

The planting and harvesting of the same parcel of land twice a year.

Enclosure Acts

A series of laws enacted by the British Government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use that had previously been common land used by peasant farmers.

Extensive Farming

Agriculture that uses fewer inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the amount of space being used.

Fair Trade Movement

An effort to promote higher incomes for farmers, particularly in developing countries, and to protect workers' rights.

Feedlot

Places where livestock are concentrated in a very small area and raised on hormones and hearty grains that prepare them for slaughter at a fast rate.

Fertile Crescent

A region of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East.

Fertilizer

A chemical or natural substance added to soil or land to increase its fertility.

Food Desert

A community where there is no access to fresh, healthy, affordable food options because there is a lack of food or grocery stores or farmers markets.

Genetically Modified Organisms

A crop whose genetic structure has been altered to make it more useful for human purposes.

Grain Farming

Growing of grains, primarily wheat, for the consumption of people.

Green Revolution

The development of higher-yielding, disease-resistant, faster-growing varieties of grains.

Horticulture

A type of agriculture that produces perishable items that farmers need to get to the market quickly.

Intensive

Agriculture that involves greater inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the amount of space being used.

Irrigation

The process of diverting water from its natural course or location to aid in the production of crops.

Linear

A settlement pattern in which farms are clustered along a road with fields behind them.

Long Lot

A rural survey method used by the French and in regions of North America previously dominated by the French that involves long rectangular plots of farmland along rivers that have equal access to the water.

Luxury Crops

Crops that are not essential to human survival but have a high profit margin.

Market Gardening

Growing of fruits and vegetables, primarily for the purpose of freezing and canning.

Mediterranean Farming

Agriculture practiced in regions with hot dry summers and mild winters, narrow valleys, and simple vegetation systems.

Metes & Bounds

A rural survey method where land is divided based on the features of the physical landscape and distance and direction.

Mixed Crop/Livestock Farming

An integrated system where crops grown are used to feed the livestock on the same farm.

Monoculture

Specializing in the growing of a single crop.

Neolithic (First) Agricultural Revolution

The origin of farming, marked by the initial domestication of plants and animals.

Organic Food

Food produced without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or other unnatural processes.

Pastoral Nomadism

The movement of herds of animals to different pastures within a territory.

Pesticides

A substance used for destroying insects or other organisms that are harmful to cultivated plants or animals.

Plantation Farming

Large commercial farming specializing in one crop.

Ranching

The commercial grazing of animals confined to a specific area.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Beginning in the 1700s, the advances of the Industrial Revolution were used to increase food supplies and support population growth.

Shifting Cultivation

Farming that involves moving crops from one field to another, clearing the land by burning the vegetation.

Soil Degradation

When soil loses its ability to support plant growth and is more easily eroded by wind or water.

Soil Salinization

When soil in an arid climate has been irrigated for use as farmland and the water evaporates, leaving salt residue behind that eventually causes the land to become infertile.

Subsistence Agriculture

When farmers grow food crops to feed themselves and their families.

Suitcase Farm

A farm on which no one lives and the planting and harvesting is performed by farmers who live nearby or by migrant workers.

Sustainability

Use of the Earth's resources that ensure their availability for future generations to use.

Terrace Farming

When humans build a series of steps into the side of a hill, creating flat surfaces for the purpose of agriculture.

Third Agricultural Revolution

The revolution that began in the 1960s and included the Green Revolution. It was marked by an agribusiness model and involved better and more efficient farming equipment and practices.

Township & Range

A rural survey method where land is divided using latitude and longitude. Land is divided into large squares that can be subsequently divided into smaller squares.

Urban Agriculture

The practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around towns or cities.

Von Thunen's Land Use Model

An economic model that suggested a pattern for the types of products that farmers would produce at different positions relative to the market where they sold their goods.