APHG Unit 5 Agriculture TWHS-9

Agribusiness

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

Agricultural hearth

Areas of settlement during the neolithic period, especially along major rivers, from where farming and cultivation of livestock eminates.

Agriculture

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

Aquaculture

Raising aquatic organisms for food in a controlled environment. e.g.marine and freshwater fish in ponds and underwater cages.

Bid Rent Theory

Position of land used relative to market location and the farmer's willingness to pay for the land.

Biotechnology

A form of technology that uses living organisms, usually genes, to modify products, to make or modify plants and animals, or to develop other microorganisms for specific purposes.

Clustered Settlement Pattern

Areas where houses are grouped closely together with relatively small surrounding fields; most common worldwide pattern of agricultural settlement.

Columbian Exchange

Widespread transfer of plants, animals, and ideas between the Old World and Americas in the 15th/16th century.

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 (product) that is then exchanged on the world market.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

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

Conservation

Protecting and preserving natural resources and the environment.

Desertification

Process of a dry region becoming drier and losing vegetation primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal overgrazing, and tree cutting.

Economy of scale

A proportionate saving in costs gained by an increased level of production.

Dispersed Settlement Pattern

Agricultural region where homes are spread out over a large area.

Export commodity

Goods or services sold to a foreign country.

Extensive Agriculture

Agriculture that uses fewer inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the space being used. Shifting cultivation and pastoral nomadism are examples.

Fair Trade Movement

An alternative method of international trade which promotes environmentalism, fair wages, alleviation of global poverty and a fair price for growers.

Feedlot

A plot of land on which livestock are kept in tight quarters and are fattened for market.

Fertile Crescent

A crescent shaped area in SW Asia where settled farming first began to emerge, leading to the rise of cities.

Fertilizer

A substance that provides nutrients to help crops grow better.

First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic Revolution)

Transformation from Hunter Gatherer existences to sedentary agriculture involving deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming and breeding of particular animals.

Food Desert

An urban area characterized by a lack of affordable, fresh and nutritious food.

Food insecurity

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

Global Supply Chain

A system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer; transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

An organism that has acquired one or more genes by artificial means; also known as a transgenic organism.

Green Revolution/Third Agricultural Revolution

Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers; most recently using modern techniques of GMO's.

Intensive Agriculture

A form of agriculture that uses greater inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the space being used. Market gardening and plantation farming are examples.

Irrigation

The process of supplying water to areas of land to make them suitable for growing crops.

Linear Settlement Pattern

Settlement where buildings are constructed in lines, often along roads or rivers.

Livestock Ranching

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area. Ex: Pampas in Argentina

Long-Lot Survey System

French rural survey method of dividing land into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals.

Luxury Crop

Cash crops that are non-essential to human survival, such as tea, coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugarcane, etc; often grown on plantations

Local Food Movement

Purchasing food from nearby farms to minimize the pollution created from the transportation of food around the world.

Market Gardening and Fruit Farming (Truck Farming)

Farming with a long growing season and humid climate; products were traditionally driven to urban markets and sold; found in Southeast USA

Mediterranean Climate

A climate marked by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters-olives, grapes, and citrus are common crops. Found in SW Europe, California and portions of Chile, Australia and South Africa.

Metes and Bounds

A method of land surveying which involves identifying distances and directions and makes use of both the physical boundaries and measurements of the land. Often had irregular shapes.

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 (monoculture)

The cultivation of a single crop in a given area (commercial farming).

Organic farming

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

Pastoral Nomadism/Nomadic Herding

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals; groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water.

Pesticide

A chemical intended to kill insects and other organisms that damage crops.

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.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Coincided with and benefiting from the Industrial Revolution; increased yields and access through machines and transportation.

Soil Salinization

The slow buildup of salt in soil, particularly in irrigated areas, that makes soil unable to grow plants.

Shifting Cultivation (Slash and Burn Agriculture)

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

Subsistence Agriculture

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

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.

Terrace farming

The cutting out of flat areas into near vertical slopes to allow farming; appears as steps cut into a mountainside.

Township and Range

Rural surveying method that uses a rigid, grid-like pattern of dividing land parcels to facilitate the dispersal of settlers evenly across farmlands.

Tropical Climate

A type of climate found in the areas around the equator, where weather is usually hot and wet.

Urban Farming

Integrating growing crops or raising animals into an urban ecosystem.

Value-Added Specialty Crops

A change in the physical state or form of an agricultural product in a way that increases its worth (such as milling wheat into flour or making strawberries into jam).

Von Thünen Model

Used to explain the importance of proximity to market in choice of crops on commercial farms. Must combine the value of high yield crop per hectare and the cost of transporting the yield per hectare. E.g. Something like dairy products could not be located far away from towns because the milk would spoil before they could get it to the town.

Wetlands

Lands consisting of marshes or swamps; saturated land.