AP Human Geography, Unit 5: Agricultural and Rural-Land Use Patterns and Processes Concepts

Metes and Bounds

An irregular surveying system method that uses natural features and specific distances and directions to define properties.

Township and Range

A two-dimensional 6x6 grid surveying system method divided into square mile sections.

Long Lot

A surveying system method where land is divided into narrow strips that stretch back from rivers or canals.

Fertile Crescent

A crescent shaped region in the Middle East that was a prevalent agricultural hearth of plant and animal domestication.

Indus River Valley

A major agricultural hearth of grid-planned urbanization, flood-based agriculture, and sanitation practices located in Pakistan, Northwest India.

Southeast Asia

A culturally diverse region consisting of 11 sovereign states between China and Australia.

Central America

A culturally and physically diverse isthmus consisting of 7 sovereign states between Mexico and Colombia.

Columbian Exchange

The major spatial diffusion of plants, animals, disease, and ideas between the Old World (Eurasia) and New World (Americas) in 1492.

First Agricultural Revolution

The transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to settled agriculture in 10,000-12,000 B.C.E.

2nd Agricultural Revolution

The significant modernization of settled agriculture due to the industrial revolution and introduction to technologies.

Green Revolution

A massive tech-driven agriculture production that boosted the global economy introducing high-yield seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, and advanced irrigation.

Subsistence Farming

The small-scale agricultural production of labor intensive methods where family and community are prioritized.

Commercial Farming

The large scale agricultural production where profit is prioritized with advanced machinery rather than personal use.

Monocropping

The agricultural practice of specializing the growth of one crop overtime to maximize commercial profit and efficiency.

Bid-Rent Theory

The principle in which a land's price and demand decrease as distance from the Central Business District (CBD) increases.

Commodity

A product or raw material that's interchangeable and economically global.

Commodity Supply Chain

A global interconnected network following an upstream to downstream economic process of extraction, processing, and distribution.

Economies of Scale

The cost advantages taken by companies where the average cost per unit decreases as the volume increases when production is efficient.

Von Thünen Model

A theoretical framework created by Johann Heinrich von Thünen, stating that the central market's economic productivity is highly intensive and further away leads to extensive farming due to transport costs and perishability in 1826.

Global Supply Chain

A global interconnected network encompassing the organizations, transportations, and activities in relation to a commodity and its evolution from raw to value-based.

Desertification

The conversion of fertile land into degraded, dry, and inoperative land due to pressured human activities and natural factors.

Soil Salinization

The buildup of water soluble salts in a soil's root due to excessive irrigation and arid climate, causing difficulty for plants to absorb water and hinders agricultural practices.

Slash and Burn

A type of extensive agriculture where vegetation is slashed and burned to provide a nutrient-high swidden and recovered fallow overtime.

Terraces

An agricultural technique where steep-hill sides are created as flat stairs to cultivate crops reducing soil erosion and water-runoff.

Shifting Cultivation

A system of extensive agriculture that uses the process of slash and burn to cultivate new land and requires a long fallow period for regeneration.

Pastoral Nomadism

A type of subsistence agriculture practiced in arid climate, where seasonal movement with domesticated animals are relied on for necessities like food, clothing, and more.

Role of Women in Agriculture

The undervalued contributions of women in agriculture for food production, processing, and marketing worldwide defined by LDCs (Less-developed countries) with subsistence agriculture and MDCs (More-developed countries) with agribusiness.

Biotechnology

A major addition to the Green Revolution as the use of scientific technologies and genetic engineering to modify the DNA of a plant or animal to improve agricultural efficiency.

Genetically Modified Organism

A plant, animal, or microorganism whose DNA has been altered to change a trait to improve agricultural efficency.

Aquaculture

The cultivation and farming of aquatic organisms in controlled marine and freshwater environments.

Community Supported Agriculture

The local producer-consumer relationship where the consumer buys the share of a farm's market in advanced, providing them with capital and sharing the risks/benefits of the production.

Organic Farming

A sustainable agriculture method where farmers produce crops or raise livestock without synthetic chemicals but rather focus on natural processes, soil health, and biodiversity.

Value-Added Specialty Crops

Raw commodities that have been processed, packaged, or marketed differently to increase their economic value.

Fair Trade

A global, equitable agreement for producers in LDCs that guarantees them fair compensation and conditions for work but higher costs of their product.

Local Food Movements

The production, consumption, and processing of food at a local scale to support local economies and reduce carbon emissions.

Dietary Shifts

The long-term shift in food consumption patterns often driven by globalization and urbanization.

Food Insecurity

The limited, inconsistent access to affordable, nutritious, and fresh foods.

Food Desert

A small, geographic area where inhabitants have little to no access to affordable, nutritious, or fresh foods.