AP Human Geo unit 5 agirculture

agribusiness

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

agricultural revolution

the time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering.

agriculture

it’s the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock.

aquaculture or aqua farming

the cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions.

bid-rent theory

an economic theory that refers to how the price and demand for real estate changes as the distance from the central business district increases. It states that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city center.

biodiversity

a variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

biotechnology

the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, etc.

carrying capactiy

the largest number of people that an environment of a particular area can sustainably support.

cash crop

a crop that is grown for sale, rather than for a farmer’s own use.

cereal grain

a grass that yields grain for food.

climate

the usual condition of the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, and other meteorological elements in an area of the Earth’s surface for a long time. It is the average condition for about thirty years.

clusterd

when objects are located close to one another.

columbian exchange

the transfer of plants and animals, as well as people, culture, and technology, between the western hemisphere and Europe as a result of European colonization.

commercial agriculture

agriculture is undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.

community supported agriculture

a system in which a farm operation is supported by shareholders within the community who share both the benefits and risks of food production.

complex commodity chains

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

conservation

preservation of wasteful use of a resource

conservation tillage

a method of soil cultivation that reduces soil erosion and runoff.

crop

a cultivation plant that is grown as food especially a grain fruit or vegetable.

crop rotation

the practice of rotating the use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil.

dairy farm

a form of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk and other diary products.

deforestation

the permanent removal of trees to make room for something besides the forest. this can include clearing the land for agriculture or grazing or using the timber for fuel construction or manufacturing.

desertifcation

degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions such as excessive crop plating, anima grazing, and tree cutting.

dietary energy consumption

the amount of food that an individual consumes measured in kilocalories.

dietary shifts

the shift in dietary consumption and energy expenditure that coincides with economic, demographic, and epidemiological changes.

dispersed

distribute or spread over a wide area.

double cropping

harvesting twice a year from the same field

draining wetlands

draining water from a wetland to clear an area for farming; may have negative effects on the environment.

economies of scale

increase in efficiency of production as the number of goods being produced increases.

Ex: Ford Motor Companies

extensive farming

using small inputs of labor, fertilizers, and capital relative to the land area being farmed.

fair trade

trade between companies in developed countries and producers in developing countries in which fair prices are paid to the producers.

fertilizer

a chemical or natural substance added to soil or land to increase fertility.

fishing

the activity of catching fish for food or as a sport.

food deserts

an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food, in contrast with an area with higher access to supermarkets or vegetable shops with fresh foods, which is called a food oasis.

food insecurity

the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

food securtiy

physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

genetically modified organism

a living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.

global supply chain

a worldwide network when a company purchases or uses goods or services from overseas. it involves people, information, processes, and resources involved in the production, handling, and distribution of materials and finished products or providing a service to the customer

grain

seed of cereal grass.

green revolution

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

herbicicde

a chemical to control unwanted plants.

high yield seeds

crops that produce more food per farming cycle than other wild varieties. high-yield seeds are often genetically modified to produce desirable shapes and sizes for increased food production.

horticulture

the art or practice of garden cultivation and management

intensive subsistence agriculture

a form of subsistence agriculture characteristic of Asia’s major popular concentrations in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum possible yield from a parcel of land.

irrigation

the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops.

land cover change

the loss of natural areas, particularly the loss of forests to urban or exurban development, or the loss of agricultural areas to urban or exurban development.

local food movement

people promoting the belief that you should consume food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.

long lot

a system implemented in Quebec, Louisiana, Texas, or areas of French influence, that divides the land into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals.

market gardening

relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables, and other horticulture.

mechanized farming

process of using agricultural machinery to mechanize the work of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity. in modern times, powered machinery has replaced many farm jobs formerly carried out by manual labor or by working animals such as oxen, horses, and mules.

metes and bounds

a system of land surveying east of the Appalachian mountains relies on the land description of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of the system, the U.S. land office survey abandoned it for the Township and range system.

milkshed

the area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

mixed crop and livestock farming

commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock; most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans.

monocropping

the practice of growing the same single crop year after year.

no tillage

a farming practice that leaves all of the soil undisturbed and the entire residue of the previous year’s harvest left untouched on the fields.

organic agriculture

farming that depends on the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances, such as herbicides, pesticides, and growth hormones.

overfishing

capturing fish faster than they can reproduce.

paddy

the Malay word for wet rice is increasingly used to describe a flooded field.

pastoral nomadism

a form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

pesticide

a substance used for destroying insects or other organisms harmful to cultivated plants or to animals.

plantation agriculture

the production of one or more usually cash crops on a large swathe of land.

pollution

the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects.

ranching

the activity or business of breeding cattle on a ranch.

ridge tillage

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

rural settlement patterns

rural settlement patterns refer to the shape of the settlement boundaries, which often involve interaction with the surrounding landscape features. the most common patters are linear, rectangular, circular or semi-circular, and triangular.

sawah

a flooded field for growing rice.

second agricultural revolution

an increase in agricultural productivity through the improvement of crop rotation and breeding of livestock, begging in the United Kingdom in the 17th century.

shifting cultivation

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

slash-and-burn agriculture

Another name for shifting cultivation so named because they slash the field and burn the debris.

soil salinization

a process that occurs when soils in arid areas are brought under cultivation through irrigation. in arid climates, water evaporates quickly off the ground surfaces, leaving salty residues that render the soil infertile.

subsistence agriculture

agriculture designed primarily to provide food fore direct consumption by the farmer and te farmer’s family.

terraces

each of a series of flat areas made on a slope, used for cultivation.

township and range

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

transhumance

the seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

truck farming

commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named for the Middle English word truck, meaning “barter” or “exchange of commodities”.

undernourishment

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

urban farming

the practice of cultivating processing and distributing food in or around urban areas.

value added specialty crops

the process of changing or transforming a product from its original state to a more valuable state.

von thunen model

a mode that explains and predicts agricultural use patterns in a theoretical state by varying transportation costs. 4 rings the first one being dairy, second ring the woodlots, third ring was crops like wheat, and the fourth being grazing land/livestock.

wet rice

rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth.