Unit 7 APHUG

● Agribusiness: Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps

in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

● Agricultural revolution: The process that began when human beings first domesticated

plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering.

● Agriculture: The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth’s surface through the

cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.

● Aquaculture/Aquafarming: The cultivation of seafood/aquatic creatures under controlled

conditions.

● Columbian Exchange: The transfer of plants and animals, as well as people, culture, and

technology, between the Western Hemisphere and Europe, as a result of European

colonization and trade.

● Commercial agriculture: Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale

off the farm.

● Commercial (or Market) Gardening and Fruit Farming: Relatively small-scale production

of fruits, vegetables, and other horticulture.

● Crop rotation: The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year

to avoid exhausting the soil.

● Dairy farm: A form of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk

and other dairy products.

● Desertification: Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of

human actions such as excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting. Also

known as semi arid land degradation.

● Double cropping: Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

● Fishing: The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in the waters.

● 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.

● Genetically Modified Organism (GMO): A living organism that possesses a novel

combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.

● Green Revolution: Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high

yield seeds and fertilizers.

● Intensive Subsistence Agriculture: A form of subsistence agriculture characteristic of

Asia’s major population concentrations in which farmers must expend a relatively large

amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.

● Milkshed: The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

● Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming: Commercial farming characterized by integration of

crops and livestock; most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly

by humans.

● Pastoral Nomadism: A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated

animals.

● Plantation: A large farming 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.

● Second Agricultural Revolution: An increase in agricultural productivity through

improvement of crop rotation and breeding of livestock, beginning in the United Kingdom

in the 17th century.

● Shifting Cultivation: A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from

one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow

for a relatively long period.

● Subsistence Agriculture: Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct

consumption by the farmer and the farmer’s family.

● Transhumance: Seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture

area.

● Truck Farming: Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named for the Middle English

word truck, meaning “barter” or “exchange of commodities.”