unit 4 agriculture exam review

Commercial agriculture

farming for money, large-scale expensive; largely in developed countries

Subsistence agriculture

production of food for small community, small-scale, local; largely in developing countries

Intensive subsistence

involves the regular application of intense physical labor

Market gardening

truck farms, grow large amount of fruit for commercial sale

Plantation

a large farm which produces 1 or 2 crops for sale; cash crops

Mixed crop/livestock

commercial farming that integrates crops and livestock, crops are fed to animals

Extensive agriculture

large farms are cultivated, lower outputs, large and inexpensive

Shifting cultivation

grow crops on cleared field for only a few years until soil nutrients are depleted

Nomadic

farming that relies on moving animals and livestock

Herding

relies on the herding of domesticated animals

Ranching

commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area

Clustered rural settlement

families live close together with fields surrounding the collection of houses and buildings

Dispersed rural settlement

separate farmsteads where families live isolated from neighbors

Linear rural settlement (long lot)

seen along roads or geographic features like water

Metes and bounds

uses physical features of local geography and directions and distances to define and describe the boundaries of a parcel of land; precise

Township and range

rectangular land division to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands

Agricultural revolution

when humans first practiced agriculture, removing reliance on hunting and gathering

Second agricultural revolution

new technology and increased food production, led to better diets and longer life spans

Columbian exchange

when christopher columbus made contact with the American continent; allowed for exchange of goods and cultural traits between western hemisphere and eastern hemisphere

Green revolution

advances made in mid-20th century that expanded agricultural productivity; GMOs, chemicals, mechanized farming

Monocropping/monoculture

agricultural practice where a single crop is cultivated over a large area for multiple seasons

Agribusiness

a system of commercial farming in developed countries

Global supply chain

supply chain of food being sold

Slash & Burn

technique where vegetation is cut down and burned to clear land for cultivation

Terraces

practice that involves creating stepped levels on sloped terrain

Irrigation

the artificial application of water to soil or land to grow crops

Deforestation

the clearing of forests for farming

Draining wetlands

removing water from exosystems to convert them into land suitable for agriculture

Shifting cultivation

subsistence agriculture with slash and burn techniques and regular rotation

Pastoral nomadism

a form of subsistence farming based on herding animals

arithemetic density

people/overall land

physiological density

people/arable land

agricultural density

farmers/arable land