AP HuG Unit 5 - Agriculture

Agribusiness

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

Agricultural revolution

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

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/aquafarming

The cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions

Cereal grain

A grass that yields grain for food

Commercial agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm

Crop

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

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 such as excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting, also known as semiarid land degradation

Dietary energy consumption

The amount of food that an individual consumes, measured in kilocalories (calories)

Double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field

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 nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life

Genetically modified organism (GMO)

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

Grain

Seed of a cereal grass

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 much 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

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

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

Prime agricultural land

The most productive farmland

Ranching

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

Ridge tillage

A system of planting crops on ridge tops in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation

Sawah

A flooded field for growing rice

Shifting cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another, each field is used for crops for a 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 vegetation and burning the debris

Subsistence agriculture

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

Swidden

A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures

Truck farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named for the Middle English word truck, meaning "barter" or "exchange of commodities"

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 a nursery and then move to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth

Biotechnology

The use of advances in molecular biology for applications in human and animal health, agriculture, and the environment

Chaff

The lightweight, inedible husks of grain that are separated from the edible seed during the threshing process

Combine

A large agricultural machine that simultaneously harvests, threshes, and cleans grain crops

Conservation agriculture

A farming system that can prevent losses of arable land while regenerating degraded lands

Enclosure System

The historical practice of consolidating common land into privately owned plots, typically fenced off, which allowed landowners to have exclusive control over the land

First Agricultural Revolution

The transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to settled agricultural communities, marked by the domestication of plants and animals

Feedlot

A concentrated area where large numbers of livestock are confined and fed a high-energy diet to rapidly increase their weight before slaughter

Hull

The outer covering or protective layer of a seed or grain

Hunting and Gathering

A subsistence lifestyle where people obtain food primarily by hunting wild animals and gathering edible plants

Intertillage

The agricultural practice of tilling the soil between rows of crops, also cultivating crops between others

Long Lot Survey System

Primarily used by the French, Long Lots are long strips of farmland, also commonly known as ribbon farms

Metes and Bounds System

Uses landmarks surrounding a property to decide the property's boundaries

Monoculture

The agricultural practice of growing only one single crop species over a large area of land

Organic farming

An agricultural practice that prioritizes sustainability by avoiding synthetic chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and instead relies on natural methods like crop rotation, compost, and biological pest control to cultivate crops and raise livestock, aiming to maintain soil health and biodiversity

Pasture

A piece of land specifically used for grazing animals, where grass or other plants are grown to feed livestock like cattle or sheep

Polyculture

The agricultural practice of growing multiple crop species together in the same field at the same time

Primary economic activity

The extraction and harvesting of raw materials directly from the Earth

Reaper

A mechanical machine used to harvest crops, specifically grains like wheat

Rectangular Survey System

A method of dividing land into a grid of rectangular parcels, using a system of principal meridians running north-south and baselines running east-west

Saur, Carl (cultural landscape)

The visible imprint of human activity on a geographic area

Second Agricultural Revolution

A period between the 17th and 19th centuries where significant advancements in farming techniques and technology, like crop rotation, selective breeding, and new machinery like the seed drill, led to a dramatic increase in agricultural productivity

Sedentary

A lifestyle where people live in a permanent settlement, primarily relying on agriculture for their food supply

Shifting agriculture

Another word for shifting cultivation

Specialty farming

A type of agriculture focused on producing high-value crops in smaller quantities, often with unique characteristics or niche markets

Threshing

The agricultural process of separating grain kernels from the chaff (the inedible plant material) by mechanical means

Township and Range System

This method of surveying divides a rectangular piece of land into a grid of smaller rectangular plots

Urban subsistence farming

The practice of growing food within an urban area, primarily for personal consumption by residents, rather than for large-scale market sale

Vertical integration

A business strategy where a company takes control of multiple stages of its production process, like acquiring or merging with companies at different levels of the supply chain

Winnowed

The process of removing chaff (the lightweight outer husks) from grains like wheat or rice by allowing the wind to blow it away

Winter Wheat

A type of wheat crop that is planted in the late fall, goes dormant during the winter months, and then resumes growth in the spring, typically harvested in early summer