Unit 5: Agriculture

Tragedy of the Commons

Tragedy of the Commons

An economic problem in which every individual tries to reap the greatest benefit from a given resource. As the demand for the resource overwhelms the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit directly harms others that can no longer enjoy the benefits.

Sawah

a flooded field for growing rice

Commercial/Industrial Agriculture

Large-scale production of crops and livestock for sale, intended for widespread distribution to wholesalers or retail outlets in order to make a profit.

Agriculture

The purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber for wither sustenance or economic gain.

First/Neolithic Agricultural Revolution

achieved plant domestication and animal domestication 10,000 years ago

Thunian patterns

Correlate with the Von Thünen Model; explain the location of activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. Sorts various farming activities into rings around a central market city, and profit-earning capability is the determining force in how far a crop is from the market.

Quaternary Economic Activity

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

Ranching

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

Reaper

A machine perfected by Cyrus McCormick which greatly improved the yield of farmers (by up to 10 times) by decreasing the amount of time and labor needed to harvest crops. Instead of harvesters cutting grain with a scythe and bundling grain into bales, the reaper was pulled by 2 horses and both cut and bundled grain.

Desertification

the encroachment of desert conditions on moister zones along the desert margin.

Tertiary Economic Activity

Economic activity associated with the provisions of services.(ex. transportation, baking).

Crop rotation

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

Double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field. OR The practice of growing two crops in the same space during one growing season.

Shifting cultivation

Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning.

Agribusiness

General term for the businesses that provide the vast array of goods and services that support the agriculture industry. Characterized by the integration of different steps in the food processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

Dispersed settlement

When individual farmhouses lie quite far apart.

Nucleated/Agglomerated settlement

When villages are close together with relatively small fields surrounding them; compact.

Crop

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

Diffusion routes

The routes through which cultural traits or other things are spread.

Plantation

An estate on which crops such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated by resident labor.

Cereal grain

A cereal is a grass, cultivated for the edible components of grain. Grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop. They are, therefore, stable crops.

Quinary Economic Activities

Activities that encompass higher education and research that require high levels of specialized knowledge or skill. These include researchers and top level executives. They are often highly sought after by the middle class.

von Thunen's Spatial Model of Farming

A model that displays a pattern of concentric rings that represents the use of land and distribution of agricultural activities in a city area. The innermost ring represents the central city, which is surrounded by an area that is used for market gardening, dairy production and other commodities that were perishable and commanded high prices. The ring surrounding that would be forested and would provide the inner city with wood. The ring surrounding that would contain farms that produced less perishables and bulkier goods like grains. Finally, the final ring would contain land that would primarily be used for ranching and livestock. The underlying message is that transport costs would govern the use of land.

Combine

A machine that harvests, threshes, and cleans grain crops.

Third Agricultural Revolution

Currently in progress, has as its principal orientation the development of genetically modified organisms and also involves increase in chemical fertilizers. It is corresponded with the exponential growth occurring around the world, a direct result of the second agricultural revolution and its profound effect on Europe's ability to feed itself. Mostly commercial farming.

Pasture

Area of land covered with grass and/or other plants used to feed and graze livestock such as cattle or sheep.

Traditional/Folk Architecture

The traditional building style that is constructed using the locally available resources for residents in the local area.

Primary Economic Activities

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

Secondary Economic Activities

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

The Second Agricultural Revolution

Precursor to Industrial Revolution in the 19th c., the second agricultural revolution used changes in methodology (crop rotation, harvesting, storage) and the increased technology from the Industrial Revolution (seed drill) as a means to increase farm productivity that allowed a shift in work force beyond subsistence farming. This led to greater and more reliable food supply, urbanization, and a shift of labor to work in factories .This revolution started exponential population increase.

Seed Agriculture

Reproduction of plants through annual introduction of seeds, which results in sexual fertilization.

Transhumance

A seasonal periodic movement of pastoralists and their livestock between highland and lowland pastures.

Market-gardening activities

A garden in which vegetables are grown for sale in a market.

Intensive Subsistence Farming

Agricultural system that uses large amount of labor, smaller amount of land, and is closer to market. (Mostly seen in less developed countries.)

Extensive Farming

Agricultural system that uses low inputs of labor per unit land area and large amounts of land. It often involves large farms or ranches and is often further from market.

Genetically Modified Plants and Animals/Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Foods that are mostly products of organisms that have had their genes altered in a laboratory for specific purposes, such as disease resistance, increased productivity, or nutritional value allowing growers greater control, predictability, and efficiency.

Green Agricultural Revolution

The recently successful development (through science and technology) of higher-yield fertilizers and fast-growing varieties of rice and other cereals. Successfully used in certain developing countries, this led to increased production per unit area and a dramatic narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs in those regions.

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape. The layers of buildings, forms, and artifacts sequentially imprinted on the landscape by the activities of various human occupants.

Paleolithic

The early phase of the Stone Age where people were still hunters and gatherers using stone tools.

Maladaptive diffusion

Diffusion of an idea or innovation that is not suitable for the environment in which it diffused into (e.g., New England-style homes in Hawaii, or Ranch-style homes in northeast US).

Wet rice

A paddy field --> which is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing semiaquatic rice.

Swidden

An area of land cleared for cultivation by slashing and burning vegetation.

Horticulture

The art or practice of garden cultivation and management; the cultivation of a garden, orchard, or nursery; the cultivation of flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants.

Milkshed

Ring surrounding a city from which milk can be supplied without spoiling.

Paddy

Rice as a growing crop or when harvested but not yet milled.

Animal domestication

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

Winnow

An agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from chaff by throwing it in the air and allowing the wind to blow away the chaff and allow the grain to fall back down.

Hamlet

A small village or small settlement in a rural area.

von Thunen's spatial model of agricultural location

Model of land use that illustrates the trade off between land values and the distance from a central point of attraction.

Plant domestication

Deliberate tending of crops to gain certain desired attributes.

Extractive industries

Concerned with the direct extraction of natural resources from the environment.

Pastoral nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

Deforestation

The removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.

Organic farming

The practice of raising plants—especially fruits and vegetables, but ornamentals as well—without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.

Truck farming

An agricultural and horticultural practice of growing one or more vegetable crops on a large scale for shipment to distant markets where cultivation is limited by climate.

Village

A small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town.

subsidy

The difference paid to farmers by a government between a target price and market price.