AP Geo Unit 5 "Agriculture and Rural Land-use Patterns and Processes

Bid-rent Theory

Explains how the value of the land determines how a farmer will use the land.

Agriculture

The purposeful cultivation of plants and raising of animals to produce goods for survival.

Climate Regions

Areas with similar climates, generally based on latitude or location on coasts or continental interiors.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Wet, mild winters; hot, dry summers; good for growing hardy crops such as olives, nuts, grapes, fruits, and sheep and goats. Ex. Italy, Greece, Tunisia.

Tundra

A polar climate type, where it is too cold for farming, occasional reindeer herding. Ex. Alaska, Greenland, Siberia.

Ice Cap

The second polar climate type, where temperatures rarely rise above freezing. Ex. Artic, Antarctic.

Tropics

Warmer temperatures, year-round agriculture, multiple harvests possible in a year. Ex. Southeast Asia, Amazon rainforest.

Intensive Agriculture

When farmers expend a great deal of energy to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land.

Monocropping

When farmers grow one or two crops and rotate them seasonally.

Monoculture

The agricultural system of planting one crop or raising one animal annually.

Plantation Agriculture

The large scale commercial farming of a particular crop for the market, distant from the plantation.

Crop Rotation

The varying of crops from year to year to allow for the restoration of nutrients and the continued productivity of the soil.

Subsistence Agriculture

Growing and raising a diverse range of crops and livestock for their family's consumption.

Central Business District

CBD, the central location, where the majority of consumer services are located because the accessibility of the location attracts these services.

Extensive Agriculture

Relatively less input than intensive agriculture, less investment to capital/labor, but less output.

Market Gardening

Farming that produces fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and typically serves a specific market so they can easily sell to grocery stores, restaurants, farmer's markets, and road stands.

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

A type of intensive agriculture, where both crops and livestock are raised for profit.

Shifting Cultivation

The practice of planting crops or grazing animals on a piece of land for a year or two, then abandoning it and moving to a new place to repeat.

Commercial Agriculture

When farmers grow crops and raise livestock for profit to sell to consumers in a form of agriculture.

Temperate Zones

Long growing seasons, hardy crops, wheat in the north, corn in the south, rice at the very bottom.

Slash and Burn

A type of shifting cultivation where the land is cleared by cutting down trees and burning them to create an ash fertilizer.

Nomadic Herding

A type of extensive agriculture, where animals are moved seasonally to allow for the best grazing.

Transhumance

When herds move between pastures to higher, cooler altitudes in the summer, and lower altitudes in the winter.

Domestication

The deliberate effort to grow crops and raise livestock, making them adapt to human demands, and using selective breeding to enhance desired traits.

Foragers

Small nomadic groups that have primarily plant-based diets, eating small fish and animals for protein.

Agricultural Hearths

The areas where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals.

Fertile Crescent

Named because of its arc shape, in Southwest Asia, and it grows hardy crops like rye, barley, legumes, and livestock such as sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of goods and ideas between the Americas, Europe, and Africa, after Christopher Columbus came to the Americas in the 1940s.

First Agricultural Revolution

11,000 years ago, and lasted for several thousand more years, the shift from foraging to farming. It did not affect everywhere at the same time.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Early 1700s, new technologies such as improved oxen yokes, switch from oxen to horses, and irrigation systems.

Third Agricultural Revolution

20th century, newer technologies such as man-made pesticides and fertilizers, as well as the switch from mechanical to electrical.

Green Revolution

The 1950s to 1960s, where high-yield grain crops were made.

Dual Agricultural Economy

When two sectors of agriculture are present at the same time but with different levels of technology and patterns of demand. Commercial and subsistence agriculture.

Agribusiness

The large scale system of production, processing, packaging, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment.

Hybrid

The product of breeding different varieties together to enhance desired traits

Vertical Integration

When a company controls more than one step in the production process

Commodity Chains

The complex network that connects places of production with distribution to consumers

Farm Subsidies

A form of aid or insurance provided by the federal government, to certain farmers and agribusinesses.

Tariffs

A tax or duty to be paid on a specific import or export.

Von Thunen Model

Shows how different branches of agriculture are placed around the central market, mainly based on cost of transportation.

Global Supply Chain

A larger version of a commodity chain, but global, and it enables the deilvry of products between countries.

Cash Crop

A crop that is grown for its commercial value

Fair Trade

A global campaign to fix unfair wage practices, and to protect the ability of farmers to earn a living.

Von Thunen's Model Rings

Center -> Urban center/Market; First ring -> Dairy and market gardening; Second ring -> Forestry; Third ring -> Grain and field crops; Fourth ring -> Ranching and livestock; Outside -> Rural areas too far from the market.