Unit 5 Exploring Essential Vocabulary Agriculture and Farming

• Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs): An agricultural facility that keeps a large number of animals confined to a small, densely populated space.

• Agroforestry: Planting trees and crops together or combining trees with livestock. 

• Alley cropping: Planting of crops in strips with rows of trees or shrubs on each side. 

• Aquifer: An underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (like gravel and sand).

• Fertilizers: Substances added to the soil to enhance plant growth.

  • Organic fertilizers: Made from natural materials like compost, manure, blood meal, fish meal, or bone meal. Organic fertilizers usually contain all three nutrients (N, P, and K).

  • Inorganic fertilizers (synthetic): Made from chemical compounds and can contain all three primary nutrients (N, P, and K) or just one. They can also contain micronutrients like sulfur, magnesium, or calcium.

• Waterlogging: The oversaturation of soil with water, often due to excessive irrigation or poor drainage.

• Salinization: The buildup of salts in the soil, often caused by excessive irrigation, especially in arid regions.

• Pesticides: Substances used to control or kill pests that damage crops or livestock.

• Herbicides: Pesticides specifically designed to kill weeds.

• Fungicides: Pesticides used to control or kill fungi that can cause plant diseases.

• Rodenticides: Pesticides kill rodents, such as mice and rats.

• Insecticides: Pesticides used to kill insects that harm crops, livestock, or humans.

• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): Organisms whose genetic material has been altered using modern biotechnology techniques.

• Feedlots: Large, confined areas where livestock are raised for meat production.

• Free-Range Grazing: Allowing livestock to roam freely over a large area to graze on natural vegetation.

• Overgrazing: When too many animals graze in a particular area, exceeding the land's capacity to regenerate vegetation.

• Desertification: The process of fertile land becoming desert, typically due to climate change and human activities.

• Antibiotic Resistance: When bacteria evolve and become resistant to the antibiotics designed to kill them.

• Growth Hormones: Substances that stimulate the growth and development of animals.

• Integrated Pest Management (IPM): A sustainable approach to pest control that combines various methods, such as biological control, cultural control, and chemical control, to minimize environmental impact.

• Biocontrol: Using natural enemies (predators and parasites) to control pests.

• Pesticide resistance: This occurs when a pest population evolves to the point where a particular pesticide no longer effectively controls it.

• Pesticide treadmill: This describes the cycle of farmers needing to constantly develop and use new pesticides to combat pests that have become resistant to older ones.

• Windbreaks: Rows of trees or shrubs planted to reduce wind speed and protect crops from wind damage.

• Perennial Crops: Plants that live for more than two years and produce crops year after year (e.g., trees, shrubs, some grasses).

• Annual Crops: Plants that complete their life cycle within one year, producing crops only once before dying (e.g., corn, wheat, soybeans).

• Rotational Grazing: Moving livestock between different pastures to allow vegetation in each pasture to recover.

• Strip cropping: Planting regular crops and close-growing plants, such as hay or nitrogen-fixing legumes, in alternating rows or bands to help reduce the depletion of soil nutrients. 

• Terracing: Planting crops on a long, steep slope that has been converted into a series of broad, nearly level terraces with short vertical drops from one to another that run along the contour of the land to retain water and reduce soil erosion.

• Shifting agriculture: Clearing a plot of ground in a forest, especially in tropical areas, and planting crops on it for a few years (typically 2-5 years until the soil is depleted of nutrients or the plot has been invaded by a dense growth of vegetation from the surrounding forest. Then a new plot is cleared, and the process is repeated. The abandoned plot cannot successfully grow crops for 10-30 years.

• Slash-and-burn agriculture: Cutting down trees and other vegetation in a patch of forest, leaving the cut vegetation on the ground to dry, and then burning it. The ashes that are left add nutrients to the nutrient-poor soils found in most tropical forest areas. Crops are planted between tree stumps. Plots must be abandoned after a few years (typically 2-5 years) because of loss of soil fertility or invasion of vegetation from the surrounding forest. 

• Intercropping: Growing two or more different crops at the same time on a plot. For example, a carbohydrate-rich grain that depletes soil nitrogen and a protein-rich legume that adds nitrogen to the soil may be intercropped. 

• Contour plowing: Plowing and planting across the changing slope of the land, rather than in straight lines, helps retain water and reduce soil erosion. 

• Conservation-tillage agriculture: Crop cultivation in which the soil is disturbed little (minimum-tillage farming) or not at all (no-till farming) to reduce soil erosion, lower labor costs, and save energy. 

• Monoculture: Cultivation of a single crop, usually on a large area of land.

• Polyculture: Complex form of intercropping in which a large number of different plants maturing at different times are planted together.

• Crop Rotation: Planting a field, or an area of a field, with different crops yearly to reduce soil nutrient depletion. A plant such as corn, tobacco, or cotton, which removes large amounts of nitrogen from the soil, is planted for one year. The next year, legumes such as soybeans, which add nitrogen to the soil, will be planted. 

• Plantation Agriculture: Growing specialized crops such as bananas, coffee, and cacao in tropical developing countries, primarily for sale to developed countries. 

• Vertical farming: Farming on vertical surfaces rather than traditional, horizontal farming. By using vertically stacked layers, farmers can produce a great deal more food on the same amount of land.

• Cover crop: Plants that are planted to cover the soil rather than for the purpose of being harvested. Cover crops manage soil erosion, soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity, and wildlife in an agroecosystem,

• Regenerative Agriculture: A holistic approach to farming that focuses on improving the health and resilience of the soil, as well as the entire ecosystem surrounding it.

• Organic Agriculture: Food grown and processed using no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

• Animal husbandry:  A branch of agriculture dedicated to the breeding, raising, and care of domesticated animals for various purposes.

• Urban farming: The cultivation of food and raising of small livestock within the bounds of a city or densely populated area.

• Subsistence Agriculture: A form of farming in which nearly all of the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and the farmer's family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or trade.

• Hydroponics: Plants are grown using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil.

• Community Supported Agriculture: A system in which a farm operation is supported by shareholders within the community who share both the benefits and risks of food production.

• Surface irrigation: Water is distributed over and across the land by gravity.

  • Furrow irrigation: A type of surface irrigation in which trenches or “furrows” are dug between crop rows in a field. Farmers flow water down the furrows (often using only gravity) and it seeps vertically and horizontally to refill the soil reservoir. Flow to each furrow is individually controlled.

  • Flood irrigation: A type of surface irrigation where the entire field is flooded with water allowing the water to soak in evenly. 

• Localized irrigation: Water is distributed under low pressure through a piped network and applied to each plant.

• Drip (drop) irrigation: A type of localized irrigation in which drops of water are delivered at or near the root of plants. In this type of irrigation, evaporation and runoff are minimized.

  • Surface drip: Emitter lines or tubing lie on the soil surface, directly watering plant roots. Ideal for orchards and row crops.

  • Subsurface drip: Drip lines or tubing are buried beneath the soil surface, delivering water directly to the root zone. Efficient for water conservation and reducing evaporation.

• Sprinkler irrigation: Water is distributed by overhead high-pressure sprinklers or guns from a central location in the field or from sprinklers on moving platforms.

  • Overhead sprinklers: Spray water from above, mimicking natural rainfall. Simple and versatile, but prone to wind drift and evaporation.

  • Center pivot irrigation: Water is distributed by a system of sprinklers that move on wheeled towers in a circular pattern. This system is common in flat areas of the United States.

• Lateral move irrigation: Water is distributed through a series of pipes, each with a wheel and a set of sprinklers, which are rotated either by hand or with a purpose-built mechanism. The sprinklers move a certain distance across the field and then need to have the water hose reconnected for the next distance. This system tends to be less expensive but requires more labor than others.

• Subsurface irrigation: Water is distributed across the land by raising the water table through a system of pumping stations, canals, gates, and ditches. This type of irrigation is most effective in areas with high water tables.

  • Porous pipes: Water seeps out of perforated pipes buried beneath the soil surface, directly reaching plant roots. It is ideal for lawns, landscapes, and sports fields.

  • Ditches and tile drains: Water slowly fills underground ditches or drains, then seeps upward to plant roots. Often used in conjunction with other irrigation methods.

• Manual irrigation: Water is distributed across land through manual labor and watering cans. This system is very labor-intensive.

Part 2: Create a cheat sheet of Images to represent essential terms. 

Goal: Create visual representations of essential Unit 5 vocabulary for a quiz at the end of the week. 

Objective: Create a cheat sheet using icons, emojis, or diagrams on paper with colored pencils or markers. You can also use your Chromebook to help with design ideas. 

1. You will be partnering up on the quiz, so the more words each group member completes by the end of the period, the better. Each member should set a goal of 10 to 15 words.

2. The cheat sheet is allowed to have the vocabulary terms and the drawings they are connected to only. There should be no complete definitions or words without drawings on the page. You can use connected terms on a single drawing. 

3. These will be collected at the end of the period and returned before the quiz. 

4. A key will be posted in Google Classroom later today so you can continue to review the words during the week.