APHUG - Chapter 11 Vocab

Organic Agriculture

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 transformation 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

Quaternary 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 cuttings from the plants

Seed Crops

Crops that are reproduced by cultivating the seeds of the plants

First Agricultural Revolution

Dating back 10,000 years, the [________________] achieved plant domestication and animal domestication

Animal Domestication

Genetic modification of an animal such that it is rendered more amenable to human control

Subsistence Agriculture

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 Agriculture

See shifting cultivation - in other words, a form of agriculture in which vegetation is removed by hand ("slashed") and then burned in place to prepare a field for planting

Von Thunen Model

A model that 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, the [______________________] has as its principal orientation the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Biotechnology

Technology designed to manipulate seed varieties to increase crop yields

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 - GMO

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. See also rectangular survey system

Metes and Bounds System

A system of land surveying east of 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 [___________], the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the rectangular survey system

Long Lot Survey

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

Developed by Wladimir Koppen, a system for classifying the world’s climates on the basis of temperature and precipitation

Climatic Regions

Areas of the world with similar climatic characteristics

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 plantations were established within the tropics; in recent decades, many have been divided into smaller holdings or reorganized as cooperatives

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 the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails

Cash Crops

An agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit

Luxury Crops

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

Agribusiness

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

Food Desert

An area characterized by a lack of affordable, fresh, and nutritious food

Bonus: Second Agricultural Revolution

Dovetailing with and benefiting from the Industrial Revolution, the [______________] witnessed improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce