HGAP Vocab Unit 5

Agriculture

The planting and harvesting of domesticated plants and the raising of domesticated animals for food.

Domesticated plant

A plant that is deliberately planted, protected, cared for, and used by humans and is genetically distinct from its wild ancestors.

Nutrients

Components of topsoil (ex: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) necessary for plants to survive, grow, and reproduce.

Monsoon

A seasonal reversal of winds with a general onshore movement in summer and general offshore movement in winter; onshore winds bring monsoon rains.

Intensive agriculture

Crop cultivation and livestock rearing systems that use high levels of labor and capital relative to the size of the landholding.

Subsistence agriculture

Food production mainly for consumption by the farming family and local community rather than principally for sale in the market.

Commercial agriculture

Farming oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market.

Cash crop

Crop raised to be sold for profit rather than to feed the farm family and livestock; common cash crops are cotton, flax, hemp, coffee, and tobacco.

Paddy rice farming

System of wet rice cultivation on small level fields bordered by impermeable dikes; the fields (paddies) are flooded with 4-6 inches of water for about 3 quarters of the growing season.

Grain farming

A highly mechanized commercial farming system that specializes in the production of cereal grains; requires large farms and widespread use of machinery, synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, and genetically engineered seeds.

Feedlot

Fenced enclosure used for intensive livestock feeding that serves to limit livestock movement and associated weight loss.

Extensive agriculture

Crop cultivation and livestock rearing systems that require little hired labor or monetary investment to successfully raise crops and animals.

Rural area

An area located outside of towns and cities; all the space, population, and housing not included in an urban area.

Rural settlement

A small group of people living outside of an urban area.

Agricultural landscape

Visible imprint of agrarian practices.

Settlement patterns

Ways in which people organize themselves on the land.

Clustered settlement/farm village

Tightly bunched farm settlement that has anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred inhabitants.

Farmstead

Center of farm operations, which includes the farmhouse, barns, shed, livestock pens, and family garden.

Dispersed settlement/isolated settlement pattern

A settlement pattern in which families live relatively distant from one another.

Linear settlement pattern

A settlement pattern in which buildings are arranged in a line, often along a road or river; limited to areas where legal systems dictated that property lines must be rectangular.

Survey methods

Methods used by surveyors to lay out property lines.

Cadastral survey

Systematic documentation of property ownership, shape, use, and boundaries.

Metes and bounds

A survey system that uses natural features such as trees, boulders, and streams to delineate property boundaries.

Township and range

Land survey system created by the U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785, which divides most of the country's territory into a grid of square-shaped townships with 6-mile sides.

Long-lot survey system

A unit-block surveying system whose basic unit is a rectangle that is typically 10 times longer than it is wide.

Domestication

A long-term process through which humans selectively breed, protect, and care for individuals taken from populations of wild plant and animal species to create genetically distinct species, also referred to as domesticates.

First Agricultural Revolution

A period during which the early domestication and diffusion of plants and animals, and the cultivation of seed crops, led to the development of agriculture.

Mesoamerica

A cultural region in the Americas that includes the diverse civilizations in modern-day countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

Biodiversity

Variety and variability among species and ecosystems.

Fertile Crescent

An area in Southwest Asia that includes the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates; the earliest center for domestication of seed plants.

Indus River valley

Area along the Indus River that flows from the highlands of Tibet and continues down along the border between present-day Pakistan and India; a site of the earliest domestication of plants and herd animals.

Columbian Exchange

Interaction and widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, disease, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Second Agricultural Revolution

A period that brought improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce, which began in the late 1600s and continued through the 1930s.

Mechanical reaper

A machine used to harvest grain crops mechanically, patented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831.

Agrichemicals

Chemical compounds obtained from petroleum and natural gas for use in agriculture; agrichemicals include fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

Synthetic fertilizer

Industrially manufactured nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, made from petroleum by-products; contains higher concentrations of nutrients for plants than natural fertilizers.

Pesticide

A material used to kill or repel animals or insects that can damage, destroy, or inhibit crop growth.

Herbicide

A pesticide designed to kill or inhibit the growth of unwanted plants (weeds) that compete with crops.

Nutrient pollution

Consequence of overuse of fertilizer; occurs when excess nutrients seep down into groundwater or are carried into nearby waterways as runoff.

Runoff

The flow of rain or irrigation water over land.

Green Revolution

The U.S.-supported development of high-yield seed varieties that increased agricultural production.

Crossbreeding

The act of mixing different species or varieties of plants or animals to produce hybrids.

Hybrid

The offspring of two plants or animals of different species or varieties.

Double-cropping

Planting another crop on the same plot of land as soon as the first crop has been harvested.

Multicropping

Planting 2 or 3 crops per year on the same land.

Endemic

Native to or characteristic of a certain environment.

Environmental contamination

Chemical residue that builds up with each application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Soil salinization

The concentration of dissolved salts in the soil.

Soil salinity

A measure of the concentration of dissolved salts in the soil; high soil salinity results from poor irrigation practices.

Capital expenditures

Assets that cost money, such as land, machinery, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, seeds, and livestock feed.

Bid-rent theory

Explains how the demand for and price of land decrease as its distance from the central business district increases.

Large-scale commercial operation

A large-scale farm oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market.

Monocropping (monoculture)

Cultivation of a single commercial crop on extensive tracts of land.

Agricultural cooperative

An organization where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity, such as services or production.

Family farm

A farming operation wholly owned by a family or family corporation that sells its products to some defined market.

Commodity

A primary product that can be bought and sold, such as coffee, rice, or milk.

Commodity chain

A series of links connecting a commodity's many places of production, distribution, and consumption.

Agribusiness

A large corporation that provides a vast array of goods and services to support the agricultural industry.

Concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO)

An animal rearing system that confines livestock in high-density cages only large enough to allow the animal's body to grow.

Hinterland

The area surrounding a city.

Global supply chain

Agribusinesses, organized at the global scale; encompasses all elements of growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food for people.

Contract farming

An arrangement between an independent farmer and an agribusiness company to produce a crop.

Proprietary seeds

Seeds that are developed and entirely owned by a company.

Export commodity

A cash crop that is produced for export to wealthier countries at the expense of crop production for local consumption.

Subsidies

Guaranteed prices for staple food crops.

Famine

Extreme scarcity of food.

Dead zones

Sections of a body of water where there is very little aquatic life.

Deforestation

Clearing and destruction of forests to clear land for agricultural use.

Desertification

The process by which once-fertile land becomes desert as a result of climate variation or human activities.

Water control land reclamation

The process of draining land inundated with either fresh water or salt water to increase areas for agricultural production.

Irrigated agriculture

Farming that relies on the controlled application of water to cultivated fields.

Aquifer

Underground water deposited hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Biofuel

A fuel derived from organic wastes or plant materials.

Sustainable agriculture

A commitment to satisfying human food and textile needs and to enhancing the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

Genetically modified organism (GMO)

A living organism, including crops and livestock, that is produced through genetic engineering.

Aquaculture

The cultivation and harvesting of aquatic organisms under controlled conditions.

Urban farming

The practice of growing fruits and vegetables on small private plots or shared community gardens within the confines of a city.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA)

A direct-to-consumer marketing arrangement in which farmers are guaranteed buyers for their produce at guaranteed prices.

Farmers' market

A venue in which farmers sell their produce directly to consumers.

Organic farming

The production of crops and livestock using ecological processes, natural biodiversity, and renewable resources.

Conventional agriculture

Farming that depends on manufactured synthetic inputs, GMO seeds, and other industrial practices.

Value-added specialty crop

A crop whose physical state or form has been changed.

Fair trade

A certification program that supports good crop prices for farmers and environmentally sound farming practices.

Food security

The situation in which all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food.

Food insecurity

Occurs when large numbers of people experience long periods of inadequate diets.

Division of labor

How a group divides the range of tasks within a social system.