APHG Unit 5 Vocabulary

Unit 5 vocabulary terms

Agriculture

The purposeful tending of crops and livestock to produce food and fiber

First Agricultural Revolution

Dating back 10,000 years, the First Agricultural Revolution achieved plant and animal domestication. Most of the farming was subsistence agriculture, using simple tools and manual labor.

Plant Domestication

Genetic modification of a plant such that its reproductive success depends on human interaction; wild plant species are bred for human use

Root crop

A crop that is reproduced by cultivating the cuttings from the plants. Cuttings are the vegetative parts of a plant, such as roots, stems, or leaves, that are severed from the parent plant to be regenerated into a new, genetically identical clone.

Seed crop

A crop that is reproduced by cultivating the seeds of the plants

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

The 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.

Slash-and-burn agriculture

The technique of actually clearing the forests for vegetation, often used interchangeably with shifting cultivation

Monoculture

The practice of depending on a single agricultural commodity

Monocropping

Also known as continuous monoculture, the practice of only having a single agricultural commodity year after year. These farmers purchased specialized equipment and can have lower per-unit costs of production, higher yields, and more profits. However, this can also lead to environmental issues and increased risk

Second Agricultural Revolution

Aligned with the Industrial Revolution, the Second Agricultural Revolution saw improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce. It helped increase the food supply, especially to countries that participate in the global trade networks.

Third Agricultural Revolution (Green Revolution)

Currently in progress since the 20th century, the Third Agricultural Revolution revolves around the development of GMOs. It was born out of scientific advancements, research, and technology. This revolution focuses on the expansion of mechanized agriculture to meet the increasing food supply.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Crops with traits that been inserted by advanced genetic engineering methods.

Center pivot irrigation

A system developed in the mid-20th century in which watering equipment rotates around a pivot to deliver water, fertilizer, or pesticides to the field, forming a large circular pattern.

Cadastral System

A method for systematically recording land ownership and property rights, which influences settlement patterns and land division for taxation and administration

Township-and-Range System

Also known as the Public Land Survey System, it is a system based on surveying rather than landscape features and created rectangular plots of consistent size, called townships. Because of this system, property west of the Appalachian Mountains often contains squares or rectangles.

Metes and Bounds survey

Metes are short distances and often refer to features of specific points, like trees, while bounds cover larger areas and are based on larger features, like streams or roads.

Long-lot survey

A system in which long, thin sections of land run perpendicular to a river, usually farms

Primogeniture

A system where the eldest child (absolute), nearly always the son (agnatic), inherits all of a dying parent’s land

Von Thunen Model

A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. The model states that as the distance from the central market increases, the cost to rent land decreases.

Livestock Ranching

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

Plantation agriculture

A production system located on a large estate, organized to produce cash crops. Almost all plantations were located in tropical areas.

Commercial Agriculture

Large-scale farming and ranching that use mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and new technology to produce a large profit

Cash crop

A crop primarily grown for sale and profit rather than personal consumption or subsistence

Luxury crop

Non-subsistence, commercial crops

Cartel

A group of competing firms of countries that conspires to control prices, restrict supply, and maximize profits, essentially acting as a monopoly

Bid Rent Theory

The decrease in value and demand for land as the distance from the market increases, based on the Von Thunen model

Intensive agricultural practices

Those in which farmers or ranchers use large amounts of inputs, such as energy, fertilizers, labor, or machines, to maximize yields

Extensive agricultural practices

Practices that use smaller amounts of the inputs and typically result in lower yields.

Organic

Organic agriculture is an approach to farming that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs

Food desert

An area without affordable, fresh, and nutritious food

Pastoral nomadism

A type of subsistent extensive agriculture that is practiced in arid and semi-arid climates. Nomads move their herds to different pastures within their territory and often trade with subsistence farmers.

Market gardening

When fruits and vegetables are grown near an urban market and sold to local suppliers, stores, and restaurants

Factory farming

A capital-intensive livestock operation in which many animals are kept in close quarters and bred and fed in a controlled environment

Aquaculture

A type of intensive farming, where fish, shellfish, or water plants are raised in netted areas in the sea, tanks, or other bodies of water

Economies of scale

Increasing production and production efficiency of a good so that the average cost of the good declines

Commodity chain

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

Comparative advantage

Naturally occurring beneficial conditions that would prompt farmers to plant crops differently from those predicted by Von Thunen’s model

Fair Trade Movement

This movement started in 1988, as many consumers became aware of the difference between high incomes in developed countries, who manage trade, and the low incomes of the producers in the developing world. It is an effort to promote higher incomes for producers and more sustainable farming practices. The movement promotes direct trade between producers and importers to ensure more money to the producers, fair prices paid promptly to workers and importers by producers, safe working conditions, no child or forced labor, environmental sustainability, and respect for local culture.

Subsidies

Financial assistance provided by the government to support a specific sector or activity, often with the aim of promoting economic stability and growth

Terrace farming

A method of farming where farmers build a series of steps into the side of a hill, giving farmers more flat land to work with and reducing soil erosion.

Value-added farming

Occurs when farmers process their crops into high-value products, rather than simply selling it as it comes from the field.

Community supported agriculture (CSA)

A network between farmers and consumers where consumers pledge support to a farming operation by purchasing a share of the expected harvest in advance of the season. This helps farmers buy things like seeds and labor.

Atmosphere

The layer of gases, primarily nitrogen and oxygen, surrounding Earth, held by gravity

Oxygen cycle

The cycle is crucial for maintaining atmospheric composition, with oxygen levels remaining relatively constant due to the balance between oxygen production through photosynthesis and consumption from human activity.

Ozone layer

The layer in the upper atmosphere located between 30 and 45 kilometers above Earth’s surface, where stratospheric ozone is most densely concentrated.

Pacific Ring of Fire

Ocean girdling zone of crustal instability, volcanic activity, and earthquakes resulting from the tectonic activity along plate boundaries in the region.

Glaciation

A period of global cooling during which continental ice sheets and mountain glaciers expand.

Anthropocene

A proposed current geological epoch defined by significant human impact on Earth’s ecosystems and geology, beginning around the mid-20th century

Land cover

The physical materials on Earth’s surface. Land cover change is the study of how land is used and the impact of changing land use.

Deforestation

The clearing and destruction of forests to harvest wood for consumption, clear land for agricultural uses, and make way for expanding settlement frontiers.

Soil erosion

The wearing away of the land surface by wind and moving water

Salinization

Occurs when salts from water used by plants remain in the soil, decreasing a plant’s ability to uptake water and nutrients, which results in lower yields and may render soil useless

Renewable resources

Resources that can regenerate as they are exploited.

Nonrenewable resources

Resources that are present in finite quantities because they are not self-replenishing or take a long time to replenish

Hydrologic cycle

Also known as the water cycle, the system of exchange involving water in its various forms as it continually circulates among the atmosphere, the oceans, and above and below the land surface.

Acid rain

A growing environmental peril where acidified rainwater severely damages organisms, caused by toxic gases released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned

Greenhouse gases

Gases in Earth’s atmosphere that absorb and emit infrared radiation radiated from the Earth’s surface. Excessive concentrations can lead to global warming. The primary ones are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

Biodiversity

The total variety of organisms in a particular region