Unit 5 vocab: AP Human Geo

Organic agriculture

Approach to farming and ranching that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs.

agriculture

The purposeful tending (cultivating) of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber.

Primary economic activity

Economic activity that is concerned with the direct extraction of natural resources from the environment—such as mining, fishing, lumbering, and agriculture.

Secondary economic activity

Economic activity involving the processing of raw materials and their transformation into finished industrial products; the manufacturing sector.

Tertiary economic activity

Economic activity associated with the provision of services—such as transportation, banking, retailing, education, and routine office-based jobs.

Quaternary economic activity

Service sector industries concerned with the collection, processing, and manipulation of information and capital. Ex. finance, administration, insurance, legal services.

Quinary economic activity

Service sector industries that require a high level of specialized knowledge or technical skill. Ex. scientific research, high-level management.

Plant domestication

Genetic modification of a plant such that its reproductive success depends on human intervention.

Root crops

Crop that is reproduced by cultivating the roots of or the cuttings from the plants.

Seed crops

Crop that is reproduced by cultivating the seeds of the plants.

First Agricultural revolution

Dating back 10,000 years, the First Agricultural Revolution achieved plant domestication and animal domestication.

Animal domestication

Genetic modification of an animal such that it is rendered (showing) more amenable to human control.

-five important domesticated mammals: cow, sheep, goat, pig, horse

Subsistence agriculture

Self-sufficient agriculture that is small scale and low technology and emphasizes food production for local consumption, not for trade. 

-mostly engaged by developing countries

Commercial agriculture

Term 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.

Shifting cultivation

Farmers move from place to place in search of better land after they abandon land after the soil becomes infertile. 

Slash-and-burn agriculture

Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning.

Second agricultural revolution

Dovetailing with and benefiting from the Industrial Revolution, the Second Agricultural Revolution witnessed improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce.

Von Thunen Model

A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. A process of spatial competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a central market city, with profit-earning capability the determining force in how far a crop locates from the market.

- assumptions: isolated state, one market

- location determines by transportation cost (the greater the distance, the higher the transport costs; need to add into the cost of producing a crop)

Third Agricultural revolution

Currently in progress, the Third Agricultural Revolution has as its principal orientation the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

Green Revolution

The recently successful development of higher-yield, fast-growing varieties of rice and other cereals in certain developing countries, which led to increased production per unit area and a dramatic narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs.

GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)

Crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods.

Rectangular survey system

Also called the Public Land Survey, the system was used by the U.S. Land Office Survey to parcel land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The system divides land into a series of rectangular parcels.

Township-and-range survey system

A rectangular land division scheme designed by Thomas Jefferson to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands of the U.S. interior.

-often connects to / forms disperse or uniformity village 

Metes and bounds system

A system of land surveying east of the Appalachian Mountains. It is a system that relies on descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of metes and bounds surveying, the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the rectangular survey system.

- forms irregular / cluster pattern

Long-lot survey system

Distinct regional approach to land surveying found in the Canadian Maritimes, parts of Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals.

- give equal access / maximize access to center and resources

- forms linear settlement

primogeniture

System which the eldest son in a family—or, in exceptional cases, daughter—inherits all of a dying parent’s land.

monoculture

Dependence on a single agricultural commodity. 

-the impact of colonial agriculture 

Koppen Climatic Classification System

Developed by Wladimie Koppen, a system for classifying the world’s climates on the basis of temperature and precipitation.

Climatic regions

Areas of the world with similar climatic characteristics.

Plantation agriculture

Production system based on a large estate owned by an individual, family, or corporation and organized to produce a cash crop. Almost all plantations were established within the tropics; in recent decades, many have been divided into smaller holdings or reorganized as cooperatives.

Livestock ranching

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

Mediterranean agriculture

Specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails.

-products are popular and command high prices (exported to distant markets)

Cash crops

Crops that are purposely planted to be sold on the market for as much profit as possible.

Luxury crops

Non-subsistence crops. Ex. Coffee, cacao, tea, tobacco.

agribusiness

General term for the businesses that provide that vast array of goods and services that support the agriculture industry. / industries that are organized to integrate the network of agriculture input and outputs all the way through to processing & distributing food consumables.

Food desert

An are characterized by a lack of affordable, fresh nutritious food.