APHUG U5 Vocab

Agriculture

The deliberate modification of the Earth’s surface through cultivating plants and raising animals for food or economic gain.

What do site and situation factors determine?

What gets farmed and where depends on site and situation factors

Site factors

Characteristics of the place itself (climate, soil, natural resources, and terrain)

Situation factors

Describes a place’s relationship to its surroundings (nearby rivers, roads, markets, and transportation networks)

What are the two categories of agricultural practices?

Intensive and extensive

Intensive agriculture

Uses less land but requires more labor and capital, and is typically closer to population centers.

• Requires less land

• Require more capital and labor

• Located near larger population centers

• Maximizes agricultural production

What are the types of intensive agriculture?

Plantation agriculture; market gardening; mixed crop and livestock farming

Plantation agriculture

Large-scale farms in tropical climates, often in periphery countries with low labor costs, producing cash crops for export.

Cash crops (plantation agriculture)

Grown for sale and not for use by the grower

• Often grown by farmers in less economically developed areas to export to wealthier areas for income

Examples of cash crops

Coffee, sugar, tobacco, tea

Market gardening

Smaller farms focused on fresh fruits and vegetables, common in areas with long growing seasons (e.g. the southeastern part of the U.S.)

Mixed crop and livestock farming

Found in more economically developed countries, where crops like corn and soybeans are grown to feed livestock.

Extensive agriculture

Uses more land but requires less labor and capital, and is generally found farther from urban areas. 

• Requires more land

• Requires less capital and labor

• Located further from larger population centers, more in rural areas

• Crops have a lower yield

What are the types of extensive agriculture?

Shifting cultivation; nomadic herding; ranching.

Shifting cultivation

Involves the land being cleared, then farmed until soil is depleted, after that the land is left to fallow (set aside for some time to allow nutrients to return to the soil) while farmers move to a new plot of land.

• It is found in tropical climates such as Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia.

Nomadic herding

Where herders migrate with their livestock through areas where sedentary farming isn’t feasible.

Ranching

Involves raising livestock on large areas of inexpensive land not ideal for crop farming.

What does intensive and extensive agriculture describe?

Intensive and extensive agriculture describes how farming is done.

Commercial agriculture

Focuses on producing food for sale and profit. 

Where does commercial agriculture occur?

Core countries (more economically developed countries).

Subsistence agriculture

Focuses on producing food for the farmer’s family or local community.

Where does subsistence agriculture occur?

Periphery countries (less economically developed countries).

Can commercial/subsistence agriculture be paired with intensive/extensive agriculture?

Yes!

• e.g. Extensive subsistence agriculture

• e.g. Intensive commercial agriculture

Aquaculture

The farming of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic organisms. 

What are the 3 types of rural settlement patterns?

Clustered; dispersed; linear

Clustered settlement patterns

The homes and buildings are close together.

Dispersed settlement patterns

Homes and buildings are farther from each other.

Linear settlement patterns

Created to follow the line of transportation (river, railway, road) in the area.

What are the 3 rural survey methods?

Metes and bounds; long lots; township and range

Metes and bounds

Use natural landmarks in the area to define irregular parcels of land.

• A specific measured boundary usually represented as a straight line.

• Used in the east coast of the U.S. (rest of the country uses more township and range).

• Often used for short distances.

Metes

Straight lines that connect to different parts of a geographic area

• Measurements of direction and distance between points.

Bounds

Key natural or human-made landmarks that define the edges of the property.

Long lots

Land divided into parcels of land with each lot connected to a transportation system (river or road).

• Common in French-influenced areas like Louisiana and Quebec.

• Helps facilitate the transportation of goods and services.

Township and range

Land divided by longitude and latitude to create a grid pattern (divides land into uniform square parcels).

• Based on baseline and principal meridian.

• Townships going North to South

• Ranges going East to West

Chemical farming

The increased use of potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus on plants to maximize production

The Fertile Crescent

Hearth for crops like wheat, oats, and barley.

• Located between the Euphrates River and the Tigris River.

Where did crops from the Fertile Crescent diffuse to?

Crops from the Fertile Crescent later diffused to Europe.

First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic Revolution)

When humans shifted from hunting and gathering (nomadic - moving around once animals/hunting had been depleted) to sedentary farming (staying in one place).

What was the impact of the First Agricultural Revolution?

Stable population growth formed due to food surplus, which led to more complex societies to form.

Crops from Sub-Saharan Africa

Yams, sorghum, and coffee (Kenya, South Sudan)

Crops from Central America

Potatoes, maize or corn, squash, and peppers (Cuba, Mexico, Panama)

Crops from East Asia

Hearth for rice and soybeans (Japan, Korea)

Crops from Southeast Asia

Tropical fruits like mango and coconuts (Indonesia)

Crops and countries in tropical climate

Countries: Indonesia, African countries near the equator (Uganda), some countries in South America (Brazil)

• Crops: coffee, sugar, pineapple

Crops and countries in subtropical climate

Countries: West Indies (e.g. Jamaica, Haiti), Panama, Vietnam

• Crops: rice, cotton, tobacco

Crops and countries in dry climate

Countries: Australia, Northern Africa (Egypt, Morocco), West Asia (Mongolia), Western U.S. (Utah, Colorado)

• Too dry for crops, so animals rule (cattle ranching - horses, sheep, goats).

Crops and countries in mediterranean climate

Countries: California (state), Spain, Italy, Greece

• Crops: grapes, olives, dates (think Italian vineyards).

Crops and countries in warm-mid latitude climate

Countries: Southern U.S. (Alabama, Mississippi)

• Crops: vegetables, fruits, rice.

Crops and countries in cold-mid latitude climate

Countries: Canada, Russia, Eastern Europe (Poland)

• Crops: wheat, barley, livestock, dairy cows.

Colombian Exchange

Transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the New World.

• Old World: Europe, Asia, and Africa

• New World: The Americas (north and south)

Silk Road

Network of trade routes that connected China and the Mediterranean from roughly 120 BCE to 1450 CE.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Took place in England during the industrial revolution around the 18th and 19th centuries and brought new technology that made farming more efficient.

Inventions from the Industrial Revolution (seed drill, steel plow, and mechanical reaper) dramatically improved agricultural output.

• Transformed subsistence farming into commercial agriculture, driven by industrial technology and new techniques in Britain.

Seed drill

Mechanical planting device (drops seeds into soil) invented by Jethro Tull in 1701

Steel plow

Allowed farmers to break through tough soil efficiently, invented by John Deere

Mechanical reaper

Horse-drawn machine that cut and harvested grain crops much faster than manual labor, invented by Cyrus McCormick

The Norfolk system

Eliminated fallow fields by rotating four different crops in sequence to maintain soil fertility (wheat, turnips, barley, clover/ryegrass)

Enclosure Movement

Movement in England that privatized publicly owned agricultural land

Benefit of the Enclosure Movement

Having individuals own the land gave them an incentive to be more efficient since they had direct benefit from producing more crops and raising more animals

Impact of the Enclosure Movement

Countered tragedy of the commons (overexploitation, degradation & depletion of resources), increasing food production

Green Revolution

A mid-20th-century agricultural transformation (roughly 1950s–1970s) that massively increased global food production (particularly wheat and rice) by introducing:

• High-yield seed varieties

• Chemical fertilizers (nitrogen and phosphate)

• Pesticides

• Herbicides

• Mechanized farming

Pesticides

Chemical inputs used to kill or control pests, insects, and weeds

Herbicides

Chemical agents used to kill unwanted plants and weeds that compete with crops

How did the Green Revolution start?

It started with Dr. Norman Bourlaug’s work with crossbreeding wheat varieties in Mexico.

Crossbreeding

Combines different plant varieties to produce hybrid seeds with stronger traits (e.g. shorter growing seasons and climate resistance).

What do hybrids come from?

Hybrids come from traditional crossbreeding

What do GMOs (genetically modified organism) come from?

GMOs came later (after the Green Revolution). GMOs come from altering the DNA of an organism to promote specific traits for increased production.

Positive impacts of Green Revolution

• Lower production cost of crops

• Food supply increased

• Food prices decreased (more people could buy food)

• Saved ~1 billion people from starvation

• More economic opportunities — creation of industrial farms and large profits.

Negative impacts of Green Revolution

• Loss of biodiversity

• Soil degradation

• Water pollution from chemicals

• Increased fossil fuel use

• Displacement of small family farms

Monoculture

Broader practice of growing one type of crop on a large scale over a wide area to maximize yields and efficiency.

• Can be done continuously (monocropping) or rotated with other crops

Monocropping

Specific, often continuous, practice of planting the same crop in the same field year after year.

Bid-rent theory

Price of land increases the closer it is to the city due to scarcity

Why is intensive agriculture closer to city/market?

Require less land and have lots of money for capital/investments, so being near the city is fine for them

Why is extensive agriculture further from city/market?

Because this agriculture requires more land and they want to minimize costs, so they’ll be situated further from the expensive city

Von Thunen Model

Explains rural land use by showing how transportation costs and distance from the market shape what farmers grow and where.

Von Thunen Model 5 assumptions

1. All land is flat

2. All the land has similar site characteristics

3. One, single market

4. All land has equal access to the market

5. Farmers want to maximize profit

What is the center of the Von Thunen Model?

The center is the Market.

What is the first ring of the Von Thunen Model?

The first ring is dairy farming and horticulture (most perishable form of agriculture).

• Because these goods are perishable (short shelf-life), they have to get to the market quickly.

• Note: Von Thunen created this model before the invention of fridges.

What is the second ring of the Von Thunen Model?

The second ring is forestry.

• Historically forests/lumber were needed for fuel and construction.

• Lumber was heavy and hard to transport, so having it close to the market makes getting it convenient and bring transportation costs down.

• Von Thunen is all about maximizing profit.

What is the third ring of the Von Thunen Model?

The third ring is grains and field crops.

• Grains and field crops require a lot of land to grow, which means locating further from the center/market will be cheaper (assuming that farmers want to maximize profit).

• These crops are also lightweight, which makes them cheap to transport.

• These crops don’t need to be consumed immediately/refrigerated/perishable.

What is the fourth ring of the Von Thunen Model?

The fourth ring is ranching and livestock.

• Located the furthest from the market where land is the cheapest.

• It requires a lot of land to graze.

• Farmers can offset some of the transportation costs with the savings they get from cheaper land.

• Livestock can walk to the market or slaughterhouse.

What is outside the fourth ring of the Von Thunen Model?

Outside of the fourth ring is wilderness.

• There is no commercial agriculture here because it’s too far away from the market that it would not be able to generate a profit.

What are parts of the Von Thunen model that no longer make sense today/changed?

1. Forest is no longer on the second ring and is replaced with crop production, due to shifts in society’s needs (lower demand for lumber) and advancements in transportation (reduce cost of transporting certain goods).

2. Changes in production of livestock due to CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation, aka “factory farms”), industrial farms, and agribusinesses.

3. Change in technology and transportation because cities can trade across the world and companies can create large commodity chains and global supply chains.

Economies of scale

As production increases, average cost per unit decreases.

• As companies get larger, they can purchase better machines and more access to capital which lets them scale up

• Large agribusinesses have achieved economies of scale

• Many family farms have been purchased by larger farms to consolidate farms under one business

Agribusiness

Large-scale, industrialized, corporate-controlled food production system

• Agribusinesses has led to the rise of monoculture (growing one type of crop across a wide area) and monocropping (when the farmer grows the same crop each year).

Commodity chain

The series of steps involved in gathering resources, producing a good, and distributing it to consumers.

Supply chain

Follows multiple inputs, commodities, and components from sourcing through manufacturing to distribution.

Commodity dependence

When more than 60% of a country’s exports are raw materials or agricultural products.

• Countries with commodity dependence are vulnerable to price swings in global markets.

Carrying capacity

Maximum number of people, animals, or crops that an area can support

Biotechnology

The use of biological systems and living organisms in technology to create new products

Deforestation

When forests are cleared to make room for farming.

Desertification

When former arable land is no longer useful and becomes a desert

Soil salinization

Salt develops in the soil making it difficult to grow crops, often caused by monocropping

Chemical runoff

Chemical runoff can pollute rivers and lakes.

Soil erosion

Wearing away and removal of the upper layer of soil due to human activities (intensive agriculture)

Slash and burn

Burning forests to put nutrients back into the soil

Land Cover Change

When natural land is converted to farmland.

• Ecosystems are destroyed.

• Carbon stored in soil and trees are released into the atmosphere.

Pastoral nomadism

Farming livestock that grazes on land and moves around with the seasons

Food desert

An area where there are little to no sources of fresh or healthy food available

Irrigation

Movement of water from one place to another to help grow vegetation

Terrace farming

A method of agriculture that involves growing crops on the side of hills or mountains by creating terraces that are built into the slope.

• Found in Vietnam