Unit 5B Vocab

AP Human Geography

Agribusiness

Large corporation that provides a vast array of goods and services to support the agricultural industry.

Aquaculture

The cultivation and harvesting of aquatic organisms under controlled conditions.

Aquifers

A body of porous rock or sediment saturated with groundwater.

Arable land

Land capable of being plowed and used to grow crops.

Biodiesel

Fuel made from vegetable oils.

Biotechnology

Any technological innovation that is designed to improve the usefulness of plant and animals species for human agricultural purposes.

Carrying capacity

The number of people a particular environment or Earth as a whole can support on a sustainable basis.

Chemical fertilizers

Any substance, such as manure, or a mixture of nitrates, added to soil or water to increase its productivity. 

Chemical pesticides

Used to treat agricultural crops so as to kill any insects or animals that might try to damage the crop.

Comparative advantage

A country’s ability to produce one product much more efficiently than it can produce other products within its economy.

Complex commodity chains

Link production and consumption of agricultural products. A commodity chain is a process used by firms to gather resources, transform them into goods or commodities, and finally, distribute them to consumers.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO)

Animal rearing system that confines livestock (such as cattle, sheep, turkeys, chickens, and hogs) in high-density cages only large enough to allow the animal body to grow and to accommodate equipment for feeding and waste removal.

Desertification

The process by which once-fertile land becomes desert as a result of climate variation or human activities.

Double cropping

Planting another crop on the same plot of land as soon as the first crop has been harvested.

Eat Local Movement

Local food (or locavore) movements aim to connect food producers and consumers in the same geographic region, to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; or to affect the health, environment, community, or society of a particular place.

Economies of scale

Cost advantages that can come with a larger scale of operations.

Embargo

Official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country.

Fair trade

A certification program that supports good crop prices for farmers and environmentally sound farming practices.

Fallow

Land that is left unsown in order to restore its fertility. 

Food desert

Area with limited access to fresh, nutritious foods.

Food security

According to the United Nations, the situation in which all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Global supply chain

Agribusinesses, organized at the global scale; encompasses all elements of growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food for people.

Horticulture

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Hunting and gathering societies

The first way humans obtained food. Nomadic groups around the world depended on migratory animals, wild fruit, berries, and roots for sustenance.

Monocropping (monoculture)

The cultivation of a single commercial crop on extensive tracts of land.

Overgrazing

The excessive use of grazing land by livestock, which can lead to the degradation of the land. It occurs when the number of livestock that are allowed to graze on a piece of land exceeds the land's carrying capacity.

Physiological density

The average number of people per unit area (a square mile or kilometer) of arable land.

Ridge tillage

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

Seed agriculture

Reproduction of plants through annual planting of seeds that result from sexual fertilization. Farming through planting seeds rather than simply planting a part of the parent plant.

Slash-and-burn (swidden) agriculture

Agriculture that involves cutting small plots in forests or woodlands, burning the cuttings to clear the round and release nutrients, and planting in the ash of the cleared plot.

Subsidies

Guaranteed prices for staple food crops.

Sustainable agriculture

A commitment to satisfying human food and textile needs and to enhancing the quality of life for farmers and society as whole, now and in the future; it requires a balance among feeding the growing population, minimizing environmental impacts, and ensuring social justice.

Truck farming

A scaled-up version of market gardening, with more acreage, less crop diversity, and a stronger orientation toward more distant markets.

Undernourishment

Dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity.

Vegetative planting

Reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants.

Winter wheat

A type of wheat crop that is planted in the late fall that stops growing during the winter before resuming growing in the spring.

Conservation

The sustainable management of a natural resource.