AMSCO Unit 5 KC#1 (5.1-5.5) Terms 1-47

Agriculture

The process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock for consumption and trade.

Climate

The long-term weather patterns in a region.

Subsistence Agriculture

Primary goal is to grow enough food or raise enough livestock to meet the immediate needs of the farmer and his or her family.

Commercial Agriculture

The primary goal of the farmer is to grow enough crops or raise enough livestock to sell for profit.

Intensive

Concentrated on a single area or subject or into a short time; very thorough or vigorous.

Extensive

Obtaining a relatively small crop from a large area with a minimum of attention and expense.

Capital

The money invested in land, equipment, and machines.

Pastoral Nomadism

This type of subsistent extensive agriculture is practiced in arid and semi-arid climated throughout the world.

Shifting Cultivation

In this type of subsistent extensive farming, farmers grow crops on a piece of land for a year or two.

Plantation

A large commercial farm that specializes in one crop.

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

An intensive commercial integrated system that demonstrates an interdependence between crops and animals.

Grain Farming

In regions too dry for mixed crop agriculture, farmers often raise wheat.

Commercial Gardening

Typical fruits and vegetables grown in the United States include lettuce, broccoli, apples, oranges, and tomatoes.

Dairy Farming

Traditionally, diaries were local farms that supplied products to customers in a small geographic area.

Milk Shed

The geographic distance that milk is delivered.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Practiced in regions with hot, dry summers, mild winters, narrow valleys, and often some irrigation.

Transhumance

The seasonal herding of animals from higher elevations in the summer to lower elevations and valleys in the winter.

Livestock Ranching

The commercial grazing of animals confined to a specific area.

Clustered (nucleated) Settlements

These settlements had groups of homes located near each other in a village and fostered a strong sense of place and often shared of services, such as schools.

Dispersed Settlements

Patterns in which farmers lived in homes spread throughout the countryside.

Linear Settlement

In which buildings and human activities are organized close to a body of water or along a transportation route.

Metes and Bounds

Were used for short distances and often referred to features or specific points.

Public Land Survey System (Township and Range System)

Created rectangular plots of consistent size.

French Long-lot System

In which farms were long, thin sections of land that ran perpendicular to a river.

First (Neolithic) Agricultural Revolution

This was the origin of farming, it was marked by the domestication of plants and animals. Much of the farming that took place during this time was subsistence farming.

Hunters and Gatherers

Any person who depends primarily on wild foods for subsistence.

Animal Domestication

Is the process of using animals for human use.

Plant Domestication

Is the process of using plants for human use.

Major Agricultural Hearths

Known as the "birthplace" of a crop, or where a crop is known to have originated before its spread throughout the world.

Independent Innovation

Crops and animals were domesticated in multiple regions with seemingly no interaction among the people.

Columbian Exchange

Was the global movement of plants and animals between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Began in the 1700s, used the advances of the Industrial Revolution to increase food supplies and support population growth.

Enclosure Movement

Were a series of laws enacted by the British government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use.

2nd Revolution Advances

It involved the mechanization of agricultural production, advances in transportation, development of large-scale irrigation, and changes to consumption patterns of agricultural goods.

Crop Rotation

The technique of planting different crops in a specific sequence on the same plot of land in order to restore nutrients back into the soil.

Irrigation

The process of applying controlled amounts of water to crops using canals, pipes, sprinkler systems, or other human-made devices, rather than to rely on just rainfall.

2nd Revolution Impact on Deomgraphics

Rapid increase in population due to food availability as the era marked an increase in crop yields and animal productivity.

Third Agricultural Revolution

This revolution expanded mechanization of farming, developed new global agricultural systems, and used scientific and information technologies to further previous advances in agricultural production.

Green Revolution

Dr. Norman Borlaug laid the foundation for scientifically increasing the food supply to meet the demands of an ever-increasing global population.

Impact of Normal Borlaug

Successful for efforts to increase crop yields came to be known as the "Green Revolution".

Hybridization

The process of breeding two plants that have desirable characteristics to produce a single seed with both characteristics.

Machinery's Impact on Green Revolution

Mechanized agricultural production, thus making farm work easier.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

A process by which humans use engineering techniques to change the DNA of a seed.

Positive Impacts of the Green Revolution

Led to high productivity of crops through adapted measures, such as (1) increased area under farming, (2) double-cropping

Negative Impacts of the Green Revolution

Been widely criticized for causing environmental damage. Excessive and inappropriate use of fertilizers and pesticides has polluted waterways, poisoned agricultural workers, and killed beneficial insects and other wildlife.

Green Revolution Impact on Gender Roles

Generated an average 7 percent wage increase for male laborers, while women's wages registered a relative decline.

Why didn't GR help Africa?

The lack of irrigation facilities and that rainfall is very unreliable, while soil fertility is also very low.