ap hug agriculture vocab

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

Agriculture

The deliberate effort modify a portion of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.

Aquaculture

The cultivation of aquatic organisms especially for food.

Biotechnology

All technological improvements on biological systems to either make or enhance specific agricultural goods or food products.

Boserup hypothesis

Proposal that observed that agricultural production can accommodate increasing populations through new agricultural innovations which allow land to produce more food for more people.This contrasts Malthusian theories, emphasizing adaptability and technological advancements in agriculture.

Carl Sauer

Cultural geographer who emphasized the importance of human culture in shaping agricultural landscapes and practices, highlighting the impact of geography on farming techniques.

Commercial agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.

Commodity chain

Series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then exchanged on the world market.

Crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.This method helps maintain soil fertility and health by alternating crops with different nutrient needs.

Dairying

The “farming” and sale/distribution of milk and milk products.

Domestication

To convert animals or plants to domestic uses, through genetic modification, generations of breeding, or human intervention.

Double-cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

Extensive subsistence agriculture

A form of agriculture characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area. Two dominant systems are nomadic herding and shifting cultivation.

Fallow

Land previously cultivated that has been left unseeded for a season or more.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Plants or animals whose DNA has been genetically modified, often through combination of DNA from a similar plant or animal species. 

Green Revolution

Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.

Feedlot

A plot of land on which livestock are fattened for market.

Horticulture

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Intensive subsistence agriculture

A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.

Intertillage

Tillage between rows of crops of plants. The practice of planting taller, stronger crops to shelter lower, fragile ones from tropical downpours.

Livestock ranching

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

Luxury crops

Non-subsistence crops such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco.

Market gardening

The small scale production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers as cash crops sold directly to local consumers. Distinguishable by the large diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, during a single growing season. Labor is done manually.

Mediterranean agriculture

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

Milkshed

The area surround a city from which milk is supplied.

Neolithic Revolution

1st Agricultural Revolution that took place approximately 10,000 years ago when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering.

Pastoral nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

Plantation

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country.

Ranching

Commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area. 

Ridge-tilling

 System of planting cropping on ridge tops in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation.

Rural settlement

Sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities. 

Shifting cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

Slash-and-burn agriculture

Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris.

Swidden

A path of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning.

Subsidy

A government payment that supports a business or market.

Subsistence agriculture

Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer’s family.

Survey patterns

Three types: Long-lot surveying (French), Metes and bounds (English), and Township and range (U.S.)

Sustainable agriculture

Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides.

Thomas Malthus

One of the first to argue that the world’s rate of population increase was far outrunning the development of food production.

“Tragedy of the commons”

Social trap that involves a conflict over resources between interests and the common good.

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

Track farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities.

Vertical integration

Ownership by the same firm of a number of companies that exist along a variety of points on a commodity chain.

von Thünen’s model of agriculture

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.