APHG Agriculture

Agribusiness

The large-scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment. Term is is used to describe commercial agriculture.

Agriculture Hearths

Geographic locations where the crop was first cultivated

Agriculture

The deliberate modification of Earth's surface through the cultivation of plants and the rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain

Animal Domestication

The process where animals are artificially selected and become accustomed to humans and human contact.

Cereal Grain

A grass yielding grain for food. ex. oats, wheat, rye, or barley

Commercial Agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm

Crop

Grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season

Crop Rotation

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

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Double Cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field. To grow two crops on the same land.

Extensive Agriculture

An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area, scale is larger with more land needed for production.

Fertile Crescent

An area of rich farmland in Southwest Asia (Iraq-Egypt) an early agricultural hearth and the first civilizations began.

Agricultural Revolution (First)

Dating back 10,000 years, the First Agricultural Revolution achieved plant domestication (seed agriculture) and animal domestication. Also Neolithic Revolution.

Fishing

The catching of wild fish or sea creatures

Green Revolution

Agricultural revolution that increased production through improved hybrid seeds, fertilizers, monocropping, and irrigation; helped to support rising populations. 3rd Agricultural Revolution

Grain

Seed of a cereal grain

Horticulture

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers

Intensive Agriculture

An agricultural practice in which farmers expend a great deal of inputs (labor or capital) to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land

Mechanization

In agriculture, the replacement of human labor with technology or machines

Mediterranean Agriculture

Type of specialized farming occurring only in the areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails along the shores of warm bodies of water at 30 to 45 degrees of latitude

Milkshed

The area surrounding a city from which fresh milk is supplied

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock; most crops are feed to livestock and the animal protein sent to the market.

Pastoral Nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals over extensive areas, moving with the animals as they graze

Pesticides

Chemicals used on plants that do not harm the plants, but kill pests and have negative repercussions on other species who ingest the chemicals

Plantation

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country

Ranching

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area

Salinization

Irrigation in arid climates, water evaporates quickly off the ground surface, leaving salty residues that render the soil infertile

Sawah

A flooded field for growing rice also known as a paddy

Second Agricultural Revolution

A change in farming practices, marked by new tools/machinery and techniques(crop rotation), that diffused from Britain and the Low Countries starting in the early 18th century. (Industrial Revolution)

Shifting Cultivation

Subsistence agriculture in tropical region in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period. AKA Swidden

Slash-and-burn agriculture

Technique used in shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris

Specialty crops

Crops including items like peanuts and pineapples, which are produced, usually in developing countries, for export

Subsistence agriculture

Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer's family and community

Swidden

A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures

Commercial Gardening

The intensive production of nontropical fruits, vegetables, and flowers for sale off of the farm. Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities Truck farming

Wet Rice

Rice planted in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth

Plantation Agriculture

When cash crops are grown on large estates; usually are found in semi-periphery and periphery countries, primarily tropical countries, export to developed countries

Cultivation

Preparing the land to grow crops; improvement for agricultural purposes

Dept-for-Nature Swap

Conservation organization raises money and offers to pay off a portion of a developing nation's international debt in exchange for a promise to set aside land reserves and better manage protected areas

Hunting and Gathering

The killing of wild game and the harvesting of wild plants to provide food in traditional cultures.

Aquaculture

Raising marine and freshwater fish or crustaceans in ponds and underwater cages

agribusiness

The large-scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment. Term is is used to describe commercial agriculture.

agriculture

The deliberate modification of Earth's surface through the cultivation of plants and the rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain

desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field. To grow two crops on the same land.

extensive agriculture

An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area, scale is larger with more land needed for production.

Green Revolution

Agricultural revolution that increased production through improved hybrid seeds, fertilizers, monocropping, and irrigation; helped to support rising populations. 3rd Agricultural Revolution

iIntensive agriculture

An agricultural practice in which farmers expend a great deal of inputs (labor or capital) to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land

mechanization

In agriculture, the replacement of human labor with technology or machines

milkshed

The area surrounding a city from which fresh milk is supplied

pesticides

Chemicals used on plants that do not harm the plants, but kill pests and have negative repercussions on other species who ingest the chemicals

salinization

Irrigation in arid climates, water evaporates quickly off the ground surface, leaving salty residues that render the soil infertile

Second Agricultural Revolution

A change in farming practices, marked by new tools/machinery and techniques(crop rotation), that diffused from Britain and the Low Countries starting in the early 18th century. (Industrial Revolution)

specialty crops

Crops including items like coffee, coco (chocolate), and pineapples, which are produced, usually in developing countries, for export

subsistence agriculture

Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer's family and community

dept-for-nature swap

Conservation organization raises money and offers to pay off a portion of a developing nation's international debt in exchange for a promise to set aside land reserves and better manage protected areas

Von Thunen model

A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. Based on "bid rent" cost of land, transportation, and perishability.

metes and bounds

Land survey method that delineates boundaries by physical features in the landscape. Creates irregular lots. (British)

township and range

A grid-like pattern (six miles by six miles squires) used to create countries across the midlands throughout the west. (US patterns by Thomas Jefferson)

long-lots

A land survey method used by French and Spanish in North America in which long lots of land extended outward from river frontage or roads

clustered rural settlement

A rural settlement pattern in which residents live in close proximity to one another, with farmland and pasture land surrounding the settlement; also known as a nucleated settlement

Dispersed rural settlement

A rural settlement pattern in which houses and buildings are isolated from one another, and all the homes in a settlement are distributed over a relatively large area

liner clustered settlement

Rural settlements are clustered along transportation like roads or rivers. Associated with long lot survey patterns.

Von Thunen Model

An agricultural model that spatially describes agricultural activity

food security

Physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

undernourishment

Not enough calories or improper amounts of nutrients.

fair trade

A movement that tries to provide farmers and workers in peripheral and semi-peripheral countries with a fair price for their products by providing more equitable trading conditions

Local food movement

Purchasing food from nearby farms because you want to minimize the pollution created from the transportation of food around the world

food insecurity

The disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of poor access to food

food security

reliable access to safe and nutritious food that can support an active and healthy lifestyle

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

A process in which consumers buy shares from local farmers in exchange for weekly produce

commodity chain

A complex network that connects input providers (raw agricultural product) with processing and eventual distribution to consumers

biotechnology

The science of altering living organisms, often through genetic manipulation, to create new products for specific purposes, such as crops that resist certain pests

genetically modified organisms (GMO)

An organism produced by copying genes from a species with a desirable trait and inserting them into another species

agriculture biodiversity

A verity of plants and animals; movement away from monocultures

organic farming

The use of natural substances rather than chemical fertilizers and pesticides to enrich the soil and grow crops

conservation tillage

Method of cultivation in which residues from previous crops are left in the soil, partially covering it and helping to hold it in place until the newly planted seeds are established

ridge tillage

System of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation.

sustainable agriculture

An agricultural practice that provides crops or livestock to feed one's family and close community using fewer mechanical resources and more people to care for the crops and livestock

food desert

An area characterized by a lack of affordable, fresh and nutritious food.

herbicide

a substance for killing plants, especially weeds

Mathusian Theory

Population grows geometrically whereas food grows arithmetically leading to famines.

Neo-Malthusians

The theory related to the idea that population growth is unsustainable and that the future population cannot be supported by Earth's resources

Thomas Malthus

Eighteenth-century English intellectual who warned that population growth threatened future generations because, in his view, population growth would always outstrip increases in agricultural production.

Norman Borlaug

Founder of Green Revolution: Increased wheat and maize yield in developing countries (India), 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.

Ester Boserup

Principal critic of Malthusian theory who argued that overpopulation could be solved by increasing the number of subsistence farmers.