APHUG 05 Vocab

Adaptive strategies

Tactics used and practiced to help ensure survival in a specific situation.

Agrarian

Relating to the cultivation of land.

Agribusiness

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

Agricultural Industrialization

The use of machinery in agriculture.

Agricultural landscape

The land that is farmed on and what is chosen to put where on fields.

Agricultural location model

Model displaying the location of different agricultural tiers.

Agricultural Origins

Nomadic people noticed the growing of plants in a cycle and began to domesticate them and use them.

Agriculture

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

Animal Domestication

Humans assume a significant degree of influence over the reproduction and care of animals to secure a more predictable supply of resources for the animal.

Aquaculture

The cultivation of aquatic organisms especially for food.

Biorevolution

The revolution of biotechnology and the use of it in societies.

Biotechnology

Using living organisms in a useful way to produce commercial products like pest-resistant crops.

Commercial Agriculture

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

Crop Rotation

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

Dairying

The "farming" and sale/distribution of milk and milk products.

Debt-for-nature swap

Agencies such as the World Bank are making deals with developing countries to cancel their debt if the country will set aside a certain amount of their natural resources.

Primary Activity

Involves jobs like lumber and mining.

Secondary activity

Manufacturing products and assembling raw materials.

Tertiary activity

The service sector that provides us with transportation, communication, and utilities.

Quaternary activity

Based around information and technology.

Quinary

Focuses on government, culture, and research.

Environmental Modifications (pesticides, soil erosion, desertification)

The potential destruction of the environment for the purpose of farming.

Extensive subsistence agriculture (shifting cultivation, nomadic herding/pastoralism)

——- the use of many fields for crop growing; each field is used for a couple of years then left fallow for a relatively long time. _____ is based on herding domesticated animals.

Feedlot

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

First agricultural revolution

Around 8000 B.C. when humans first domesticated plants and animals.

Green Revolution

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

Hunting and Gathering

Before agriculture, humans gained food by hunting for animals, fishing, or gathering plants. They lived in small groups, less than 50 people, and traveled frequently following game and seasonal growth of plants.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

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

Livestock Ranching

Commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Farming in the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and lands with similar climates.

Rural Settlement

Sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities, typically with an agricultural character.

Dispersed Settlement

Characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in the area.

Nucleated Settlement

A number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings.

Sauer, Carl O.

Defined cultural landscape as an area fashioned from nature by a cultural group, a combination of cultural, economic, and physical features.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Paralleled or prefaced the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, allowing a shift in the workforce beyond subsistence farming to work in factories.

Specialization

The process of concentrating on and becoming an expert in a particular subject or skill.

Staple Grains

Maize, wheat, and rice are the most produced grains worldwide, accounting for 87% of all grains and 43% of all food.

Suitcase Farm

Individuals who live in urban areas a great distance from their land and drive to the country to care for their crops and livestock.

Long Lots (French)

Houses erected on narrow lots perpendicular along a river, so that each original settler had equal river access.

Metes and Bounds (English)

Uses physical features of the local geography, along with directions and distances, to define the boundaries of a particular piece of land.

Township-and-Range (U.S.A)

Surveys used west of Ohio, after the Louisiana Purchase, where land is divided into six-mile blocks (township), which is then divided into one-mile square blocks (range). Ranges were then broken into smaller parcels to be sold or given to people.

Third Agricultural Revolution

Green Revolution - Rapid diffusion of new agricultural techniques between 1960's and 1980's, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.

Truck Farm

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

Von Thünen, Johann Heinrich

In 1826, Northern Germany, commercial farmers compared two costs; cost of land vs cost of transportation. Found that crops were grown in rings around the city.