APHG Unit 5 (Agriculture) - Presser

climate

Overall weather in an area over a long period of time

subsistence agriculture

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

commercial agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm; also 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.

intensive agriculture

Any agricultural system involving the application of large amounts of capital and/or labor per unit of cultivated land; may be part of either subsistence or commercial economy

extensive agriculture

An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area

capital

money for investment in land, equipment, and machines

pastoral nomadism and shifting cultivation

Examples of extensive subsistence agriculture

plantation agriculture, dairy farming, market gardening and truck farms, grain farming, and mixed crop and livestock farming

Examples of intensive commercial agriculture

wet rice dominant and wet rice non-dominant

Examples of intensive subsistence agriculture

Livestock ranching

An extensive commercial agricultural activity that involves the raising of livestock over vast geographic spaces typically located in semi-arid climates like the American West.

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.

shifting cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

Mediterranean agriculture

An agricultural system practiced in the Mediterranean style climates (hot, dry summers, mild winters, narrow valleys) of Western Europe, California, and portions of Chile and Australia, in which diverse specialty crops such as grapes, avocados, olives, and a host of nuts, fruits, and vegetables comprise profitable agricultural operations.

metes and bounds system

An English system of land surveying prevalent east of the Appalachian Mountains that relies on descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of surveying, the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the township and range system.

township and range system

Land survey system that divides Earth into square parcels called townships (6 miles by 6 miles), each of which has 36 sections (1 mile by 1 mile). Commonly found west of the Appalachian Mountains; adopted by the United States in 1785 to replace the metes and bounds system.

Neolithic Revolution

The switch from nomadic lifestyles to a settled agricultural lifestyle is this revolution; in simple terms, the origin of farming; also called the First Agricultural Revolution .

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Second Agricultural Revolution

The unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain beginning in the mid-17th century, linked to new agricultural practices such as crop rotation, selective breeding, and more productive use of arable land; marked the transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

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. Paved the way for the Second Ag. Revolution.

irrigation

The process of supplying water to areas of land to make them suitable for growing crops.

Green Revolution

Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.

seed hybridization

The process of breeding together two plants that have desirable characteristics

double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

GMO (genetically modified organism)

An organism that is created when scientists take one or more specific genes from one organism and introduce them into another organism thus creating a new version

intercropping (multicropping)

An agricultural method in which two or more crop species are planted in the same field at the same time to promote harmonious interaction.

monocropping

Continous monoculture; growing the same crop on the same field year after year.

monoculture

The opposite of multicropping; only one type of crop is grown or one type of animal is raised per season on a piece of land.

feedlots

Places where livestock are concentrated in a very small area and raised on hormones and hearty grains that prepare them for slaughter at a much more rapid rate than grazing; often referred to as factory farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)

transnational corporation

A firm that conducts business in at least two separate countries; also known as multinational corporations.

vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

commodity chain

A series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a good that is then exchanged on the world market

Von Thunen 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.

horticulture

a type of agriculture that includes fruits, vegetables and flowers; a type of farming that includes truck farming/market gardening

bid-rent curve

A graph that shows the amount a bidder is willing to pay for land relative to the distance of that land from the market or central business district; Farmers are willing to pay more for land near the market than for land farther away.

luxury crops

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

Neocolonialism

Also called economic imperialism, this is the domination of newly independent countries by foreign business interests that causes colonial-style economies to continue, which often caused monoculture (a country only producing one main export like sugar, oil, etc).

fair trade movement

An alternative method of international trade which promotes environmentalism, fair wages, alleviation of global poverty and a fair price for growers

infrastructure

the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, overgrazing, and deforestation.

salinization

Accumulation of salts in soil that can eventually make the soil unable to support plant growth.

terracing

Carving small, flat plots of land from hillsides to use for farming

center pivot irrigation

a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot and crops are watered with sprinklers

deforestation

The removal of trees faster than forests can replace themselves; often done as a solution for the need of additional farmland

aquaculture (aquafarming)

The practice of raising and harvesting fish and other forms of food that live in water; its increasing practice has been called the Blue Revolution; now the fastest growing form of food production.

organic food

a food produced without the use of GMOS, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or growth hormones

local food movement

Purchasing food from nearby farms because you want to minimize the pollution created from the transportation of food around the world

Value-added costs

crops which consumers are willing to pay more for because of special qualities or because they are difficult to acquire (organic foods, rare subtropical plants, etc.)

food desert

An area that has a substantial amount of low-income residents and has poor access to a grocery store, defined in most cases as further than 1 mile.

food insecurity

the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food

government subsidies

When the government pays farms when certain commodity prices are low or when it is bought by the government and then the government sells that to foreign governments.

crop gap

inequality in production between male and female-run farms.

Agribusiness

The set of economic and political relationships that organize food production for commercial purposes. It includes activities ranging from seed production, to retailing, to consumption of agricultural products.