APHG Unit 5 Terms
Agriculture - deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for subsistence or economic gain.
Climate Regions - areas that have similar climate patterns generally based on their latitude and the location on coasts or continental interiors.
Mediterranean agriculture - practice of crop cultivation undertaken in areas with mediterranean climates.
Subsistence agriculture - form of farming in which all of the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and their family.
Commercial agriculture - food is produced for sale.
CBD - where a large amount of businesses are located.
Intensive agriculture - crop and livestock cultivation with higher levels of inputs and outputs per unit of agricultural land area.
Clustered settlement - where a number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings.
Dispersed settlements - where a number of separate farmsteads are scattered throughout an area.
Linear settlements - settlement or group of buildings that are formed along a feature such as transportation routes, coasts or rivers..
Monocropping - practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land.
Monoculture - form of agriculture that is based on growing only one type of crop at a time on a specific field.
Crop rotation - growing specific groups of vegetables on a different part of the vegetable plot each year.
Plantation agriculture - form or farming that specializes in cash crops.
Market gardening - small-scale production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants.
Mixed crop and livestock systems - cultivation of crops alongside the rearing of animals for meat, eggs, or milk.
Extensive agriculture - system of crop cultivation using small amounts of labor and capital in relation to the area of land being farmed.
Shifting cultivation - form of agriculture where an area of ground is cleared of vegetation and cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for a new area until its fertility has been naturally restored.
Slash and burn - method of agriculture where existing vegetation is cut down and burned off before new seeds are sown, typically used for clearing forest land for farming.
Nomadic herding - farmers and herders travel from place to place with their flocks of animals.
Transhumance - movement of herds between pastures.
Domestication - the deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands, and using selective breeding to develop desirable characteristics.
Foragers - small nomadic groups who had primarily plant-based diets.
Agricultural hearth - areas where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals.
Fertile crescent - area in Southwest Asia where domestication first took place.
Columbian exchange - the exchange of goods and ideas between the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
1st agricultural revolution - shift from foraging to farming; beginning of agriculture and spread out from several hearths.
2nd agricultural revolution - start of new practices and tools diffusing from Britain, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands leading to better crop yields.
Enclosure system - communal land was replaced by farms owned by individuals, and use of the land was restricted to the owner or tenants who rented the land from the owner.
3rd agricultural revolution - More mechanization and new technologies brought about by changes outside agriculture, such as electric power rather than animal or human.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - the result of manipulating the genetic makeup of plants with things such as pest resistance.
Green revolution - increased knowledge of genetics to develop new high-yield strains of grain crops.
Infrastructure - the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.
Dual agricultural economy - two agricultural sectors in the same country or region that have different levels of technology and different patterns of demand.
Agribusiness - large-scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment.
Hybrid - different varieties of plants that are bred to enhance desired characteristics and improve disease resistance.
Vertical integration - the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production operated by separate firms.
Commodity chain - a complex network that connects places of production with distribution to consumers
Farm subsidies - low-cost loans, insurance, and payments from the government to farmers.
Tariffs - a tax or duty to be paid on a particular import or export.
Global supply chains - commodity chains on a global scale.
Cash crop - crop that is produced for its commercial value.
Fair trade - global campaign to fix unfair wage practices and protect the ability of farmers to earn a living.
Agricultural landscapes - landscapes resulting from the interactions between farming activities and a location’s natural environment.
Agroecosystem - an ecosystem modified for agricultural use.
Deforestation - loss of forests from slash and burn.
Terracing - process of carving parts of a hill or mountainside into small, level growing plots.
Reservoirs - an artificial lake and common source of irrigation for crops.
Aquifers - underground usable fresh water for both agricultural and home use.
Wetlands - areas of land that are covered by or saturated with water.
Desertification - a form of land degradation that occurs when soil deteriorates to a desert-like condition.
Biodiversity - the variety of organisms living in an area.
Salinization - process by which water-soluble salts build up in the soil.
Debt-for-nature swap - an arrangement where a foreign debt owed by a developing country is transferred to a particular organization in return for the country’s committing itself to specified conservation measures.
Biotechnology - the science of altering living organisms to create new products for specific purposes.
Agricultural biodiversity - the variety and variability of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture.
Precision agriculture - the science of improving crop yields and assisting management decisions using high technology sensor and analysis tools.
Food security - reliable access to safe, nutritious food that can support a healthy and active lifestyle.
Food insecurity - distribution of a household’s food intake or eating patterns because of poor access to food.
Suburbanization - the shifting of population from cities into suburbs.
Food deserts - an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good- quality fresh food.
Economy of scale - a proportionate saving in costs gained by an increased level of production.
Value-added crops - an agricultural commodity or product that is used to produce renewable energy on a farm or ranch.
Regional appellation - identifying word or words by which someone or something is called the classified or distinguished from others.
Polyculture - the simultaneous cultivation or exploitation of several crops or kinds of animals.
Agrarian - relating to cultivated land or the cultivation of it
Economic activities - a process that leads to the manufacture of a good or the provision of a service
Truck Farming - the production of crops of some vegetables on an extensive scale in regions especially suited to their culture primarily for shipment to distant markets
Hybridization - cross pollinating two genetically different strains to result in third strain with different traits
Food irradiation - the process of exposing food and food packaging to ionizing radiation
Rural Nucleated settlement - rural settlement where a number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings.
Rural Dispersed settlements - rural settlement where a number of separate farmsteads are scattered throughout an area
Malthusian Theory - named after English economist Thomas Malthus, states that population growth will always outpace food production. This can lead to famine, disease, war, and eventually a population decline.
Von Thunen model - model that predicts the perishability of the product and transportation costs to the market each factor into a farmer’s decisions regarding agricultural practices.