UNIT 5 AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY - AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL LAND USE

Transhumance

The movement of herds between pastures at cooler, high elevations during the summer months and lower elevations during the winter

Vertical Integration

The combining of a company’s ownership of and over more than one stage of the production process of goods

Suburbanization

The shifting of population from cities to surrounding suburbs

Agriculture

The purposeful cultivation of plants or raising of animals to produce goods for survival

Climate

The average weather conditions in an area over a long period of time

Climate Regions

Areas that have similar climate patterns generally based on their latitude and their location on coasts or continental interiors.

Subsistence Agriculture

An agricultural practice that provides crops or livestock to feed one’s family and close community using fewer mechanical resources and more people to care for the crops and livestock

Commercial Agriculture

An agricultural practice that focuses on producing crops and raising animals for the marker for others to purchase

Bid Rent Theory

Explains how land value determines how a farmer will use the land - either intesively or extensively

Clustered Settlements

Residents live in close proximity

Monocropping

The cultivation of one or two crops that are rotated seasonally

Plantation Agriculture

Large - scale commercial farming of one particular crop grown for markets often distant from the plantation

Nomadic Herding

People who practice this type of agriculture move their animals seasonally or as needed to allow the best grazing

Domestication

The deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands and using selective breeding to develop desirable characteristics

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

A plant or animal with specific characteristics obtained through the manipulation of its genetic makeup

Dual Agricultural Economy

Refers to two agricultural sectors in the same country or region that have different levels of technology and different patterns of demand.

Cash Crop

A crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the power

Deforestation

Loss of forests land

Terracing

The process of carving parts of a hill or mountainside into small, level growing plots.

Reservoirs

Artificial lakes that store water for human use

Wetlands

Areas of land such as marshes, swamps and bogs that are saturated with water and that support aquatic plants

Biodiversity

The variety of organisms living in a location

Salinization

The process by which water - soluble salts build up in the soil, which limits the ability of crops to absorb water

Economies of Scale

Cost reductions that occur when production rises

Mediterranean Agriculture

Consists of growing hardy trees (such as olive, fruit, and nut trees) and shrubs (like grape vines) and raising sheeps and goats

Central Business District (CBD)

The central location where the majority of consumer services are located in a city or town because the accessibility of the location attracts these services

Intensive Agriculture

Farmers expend a great deal of effort to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land

Dispersal Settlement

Houses and buildings are isolated from one another, and all the homes in a settlement are distributed over a relatively large area.

Linear Settlement

Houses and buildings extend in a long line that usually follows a land feature.

Monoculture

The agriculture system of planting one crop or raising one type of animal annually.

Crop Rotation

The varying of crops from one year to year to allow for the restoration of valuable nutrients and the continuing productivity of the soil

Market Gardening

Farming that produces fruits, vegetables, and flowers and typically serves a specific market, or urban area, where farmers can conveniently sell to local grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets, and road stands.

Slash and Burn

A farming method involving the cutting of trees, then burning them to provide ash - enriches soil for the planting of crops. A type of shifting cultivation

Foragers

Small nomadic groups who had primarily plant - based diets and ate small animals or fish for protein

Agricultural Hearths

Each area where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals

Fertile Crescent

A geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world Following Columbus’s voyages

First Agricultural Revolution

The shift from foraging for food to farming about 11,000 years ago, marking the beginning of agriculture.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Began in 1700s, used the advances of the Industrial Revolution to increase food supplies and support population growth

Enclosure System

Communal lands - lands owned by a community rather than by an individual - where replaces by farms owned by individuals, and use of the land was restricted to the owner or tenants who rented the land from the owner

Third Agricultural Revolution

A shift to further mechanization in agriculture through the development of new technology and advances that began in the early 20th century and continues to the present - day

Green Revolution

Movement beginning in the 1950s and 1960s in which scientists used knowledge of genetics to develop new high - yield strains of grain crops.

Infrastructure

The many systems and facilities that a country needs in order to function properly

Agribusiness

The large - scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment

Hybrid

The product created by breeding different varieties of species to enhance the most favorable characteristics

Commodity Chain

A network of people, information, processes, and resources that work together to produce, handle, and distribute a commodity or product

Farm Subsidies

Low cost loans, insurance and payments. (distributed by the federal government to some farmers and agribusiness’s)

Tariffs

A tax or duty to be paid on a particular import or export

Von Thunen Model

A model that suggests that perishability of the product and transports costs to the market each factor in the location of agricultural land use activity

Global Supply Chains

A new network of people, information, processes, and resources that work together to produce, handle and distribute goods around the world

Fair Trade

A movement that tries to provide farmers and workers in peripheral countries with a fair price for their products by providing more equitable trading conditions.

Agricultural Landscapes

A landscape resulting from the interactions between farming activities and a location’s natural environment

Agroecosystem

An ecosystem modifies for agricultural use.

Aquifers

Layers of sand, gravel, and rocks that contain and can release a usable amount of water.

Desertification

A form of land degradation the occurs when soils deteriorates to a desert like condition

Debt - for - Nature Swap

Agreement between a bank and a peripheral country in which the bank forgives a portion of the country’s debt

Biotechnology

The science of altering living organisms, often through genetic manipulation, to create new products for specific purposes, such as crops that resist certain pests

Agricultural Biodiversity

The variety and variability of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture.

Food Security

Reliable access to safe an nutritious food that can support an active and healthy lifestyle

Food Insecurity

The disruption of a household’s food intake or eating patterns because of poor access to food.

Food Deserts

Areas were residents lack access to healthy, nutritious foods because stores selling these goods are too far away