Unit 5 Vocab unfamiliar
Pastoral Nomadism - the herding of domesticated animals in dry climates where planting crops is impossible.
Ex. Pastoral Nomads depend primarily on resources from animals and migrate a lot.
Nomadic Herding - the seasonal movement of livestock along routes to regions with available grazing land and water sources.
Ex. Cattle are common livestock in nomadic herding.
Monocropping - the practice of growing the same single crop every year after year.
Ex. Maize, soybeans, and wheat are three common crops often monocropped
Truck Farming - Commercial gardening and fruit farming; named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities
Ex. Large-scale production of crops like lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries transported across the U.S. to markets.
Second agricultural revolution - a period of time that increased productivity through the improvement of crop rotation and breeding livestock.
Ex. Newer plows enabled a huge increase in how much food could be grown.
Green revolution - rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.
Ex. Modern agricultural techniques that spread in the '70s and '80s is known as the Green revolution.
Conservation tillage - a methods of soil cultivation that reduces soil erosion and run off
Ex. Includes no-till, strip till, ridge till, and mulch till systems.
No tillage - leaves all of the soil undisturbed, and the entire residue of the previous year’s harvest is left untouched on the fields
Ex. Planting winter grains, crimson clover, or hairy vetch in the fall and cutting them before flowering to grow summer vegetables or mid-season brassicas.
Ridge tillage - a system of planting crops on ridge tops.
Ex. Leaving the crop stubble and residue on the field's surface at harvest to overwinter.
Fertile Crescent - the name given to a region of the Middle East that was particularly fertile several thousand years ago
Ex. Home to a variety of cultures, rich agriculture, and trade over thousands of years.
Labor intensive - an industry for which labor costs comprise a high percentage of total expenses.
Ex. Textiles are labor-intensive, even though workers are low-paid
Capital intensive - form of agriculture that uses mechanical goods, such as machinery, tools, vehicles, and facilities, to produce large amounts of agricultural goods—a process requiring very little human labor.
Ex. Machines that provide agricultural work are capital intensive due to the lack of physical labor one needs to put in.
Transhumance - the seasonal movement of livestock (herding) between mountains and lowland pastures.
Ex. The movement of livestock from valleys in the winter to mountainous regions in the summer
Von Thünen Model - the spatial organization of agriculture is influenced by the distance of the farm from the market and the cost of transportation
Ex. The von thünen model is an example of agricultural land use. This is how markets effectively obtain fresh produce and are able to make money.
Bid-rent Theory/Curve - a geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand for real estate change as the distance from the central business district (CBD) increases.
Ex. The bid rent theory implies that cities will organically create zones based on building function
Complex Commodity Food Chain - a linked system of processes that gather resources, convert them into goods, package them for distribution, disperse them, and sell them on the market.
Ex. Beans are grown in countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Ethiopia, and these are then exported to North American and European roasters for processing.
Columbian Exchange - the term given to the transfer of plants, animals, disease, and technology between the Old World from which Columbus came and the New World which he found.
Ex. Maize to China and the white potato to Ireland—have been stimulants to population growth in the Old World.
Economies of Scale - cost advantages reaped by companies when production becomes efficient
Ex. Stores like Costco utilize this principle by buying huge quantities of goods in order to receive low bulk prices, and they pass on the savings to their customers
Soil Salinization - occurs when soil in an arid climate has been made available for agricultural production using irrigation
Ex. The water evaporates quickly off the newly irrigated land, leaving residues of salt lying in the earth. Over time this causes the land to become infertile.
Irrigation - a man-made system whereby water is spread from its natural source (such as a lake or river) over a much larger geographic range to aid in agricultural production
Ex. A “sawah” is an irrigated, or flooded, field used to grow rice.
Local Food Movement/Locavore - a movement which aims to connect food producers and food consumers in the same geographic region; in order to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks, improve local economies, or for health, environmental, community, or social impact.
Ex. The organization, Green America, is an example of a local food movement. Their goal is to empower individuals to make purchasing and investing choices to build a sustainable world.
Economic Complementarity - when two countries help each other by trading different goods or services that each one needs but doesn’t produce on its own.
Ex. Brazil exports soybeans, coffee, and beef to the United States, which has high agricultural demand and the United States exports technology, machinery, and pharmaceuticals to Brazil, supporting Brazil’s agricultural and industrial sectors.
Indus River Valley - the region around the Indus River in modern-day Pakistan and northwest India
Ex. ancient city of Harappa, one of the major urban centers of the Indus Valley Civilization
Monoculture - the agricultural practice of growing only one type of crop or plant species over a large area, often over many seasons
Ex. Used a lot in farming crops like wheat, maize, or rice.
Carl Sauer - Geographer from the University of California at Berkeley who defined the concept of cultural landscape as the fundamental unit of geographical analysis.
Ex. Carl Sauer believed that agriculture and domestication of plants and animals had an effect on the physical environment.