Unit 5 Vocabulary

Agriculture

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

Commercial Agriculture

To grow enough crops and raise eough livestock to sell for profit.

Subsistence Agriculture

To grow enough food to meet the immediate needs of the farmer and their family.

Extensive Agriculture

Fewer amounts of input which usually leads to less yields.

Intensive Agriculture

Large amounts of input to yield large amounts of crops.

Capital

The money invested in land, equiptment, and machines.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Practiced in regions with hot, dry, summers, mild winters, narrow valleys and some irrigation. Figs, dates, olives, and grapes. Transhumance. Intensive, commercial.

Market Gardening

Milk Shed

Pastoral Nomadism

In the Drylands/Desert. Extensive, sustenance. Nomads her to different pastures and trade animals and products. Rely on animals for survival. Not profit.

Livestock Ranching

In the Drylands/Desert. Extensive, Commercial. Commercial grazing of livestock. Eventually sold to feedlots and slaughtered.

Plantation Agriculture

In the tropics. Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South & Southeast Asia. Intensive, Commercial. Plantation specializes in 1 crop and is transported and for sale on the global market.

Mixed crop and Live stock Farming

In Cold and Mid-Latitude. Midwestern US, Canada, Central Europe. Intensive, Commercial. Most profit comes from the sale of livestock rather than crops.

Metes and Bounds

A method of land description which involves identifying distances and directions and makes use of both the physical boundaries and measurements of the land. Metes are used for short distances, Bounds for long.

Public land survey System

Land was to be systematically surveyed into square townships, six miles on a side. Each of these townships was sub-divided into thirty-six sections of one square mile or 640 acres (259 hectares).

Township

A square normally 6 miles on a side. The Land Ordinance of 1785 divided much of the United States into a series of townships.

French Long-lot system

Farms were organized in long thin sections that ran perpendicular to the river.

First Agricultural Revolution

Dating back 10,000 years, it achieved plant domestication and animal domestication. Hearths of Southwest Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Fertile Crescent

A geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Second Agricultural Revolution

tools and equipment were modified, methods of soil preparation, fertilization, crop care, and harvesting improved the general organization of agriculture made more efficient

Enclosure Act

Law passed in England in the late 1700's that converted public lands into private property. Land owners could purchase and enclose land for their own use.

Crop Rotation

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

Third Agricultural Revolution

Currently in progress, the Third Agricultural Revolution has as its principal orientation the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's)

Green Revolution

Agricultural revolution that increased production through improved seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation; helped to support rising Asian populations.

Hybridization

Breeding technique that involves crossing dissimilar individuals to bring together the best traits of both organisms.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

A living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.

Bid-Rent Theory

Different land users are prepared to pay different amounts, the bid rents, for locations at various distances from the city center.

Capital Intensive

Using more capital than labor in the production process.

Double Cropping

Planting and harvesting twice a year from the same field.

Monocropping

Only grouping one type of crop or animal per year.

Agribusiness

Farms that are ran as cooperations.

Commodity Chain

A chain of activities from the manufacturing to the distribution of a product

Carrying Capacity

The largest population that an area can support.

Von Thunen Model

An agricultural model that spatially describes agricultural activity in terms of rent. Activities that require intensive cultivation and cannot be transported over great distances pay higher rent to be close to the market. Conversely, activities that are more extensive , with goods that are easy to transport, are located farther from the market where rent is less.

Horticulture

Supply Chain

All of the steps to get a product or service to customers.

Fair Trade Movement

an effort to promote higher incomes for producers and for more sustainable farming practices

Desertification

alteration of the natural vegetation in arid areas causes fertile land to become infertile

Irrigation

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

Deforestation

The removal of trees faster than forests can replace themselves.

Slash and Burn Agriculture

all vegetation in an area of forest is cut down and burned in place

Aquaculture

Intensive farming. Fish, Shellfish, and water plants are raised in netted areas in the sea, tanks, or water.

Organic Farming/Food

Crops must be non-GMO, produced without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, and use sustainable growing practices.

Value Added Crops

crops for which consumers are willing to pay more because of special qualities or because they are difficult to acquire

Food Insecurity

Lacking access to nutritionally adequate and safe food.

Food Desert

a neighborhood where residents have little to no access to healthy and affordable food

Gender Specific Obstables

Discriminatory practices that present female farmers from reaching their potential productivity.

Crop Gap

The gap of crop production between male and female farmers. 20-30% gap of productivity.