Agricuture Flashcards
Agriculture
The raising of animals or the growing of crops on tended land to obtain food for primary consumption by a farmer’s family or for sale off the farm
Biotechnology
A precise science that involves altering the genetic strands of agricultural products to increase productivity, biotechnology is developed mainly in science laboratories and is then tested on farm fields around the world, where it has been, for the most part, extremely successful
Commercial Farming
The farming of products for sale off the farm, commercial farming is usually a big business in developed countries and requires the use of heavy machinery
Continentality
Describes the fact that an area’s proximity to a body of water affects it temperature (e.g., because oceans have a moderating influence on temperature, areas near oceans experience less extreme temperature variation)
Creative Destruction
Removing what nature originally produced in a location to grow what is desired
Crop Rotation
The planting of different crops each year to replenish the soil’s nutrients that were lost to the previous crop
Double-Cropping
The growing of two crops per year to double agricultural output
Environmental Modification
The introduction of manmade chemicals and practices that, at times, have drastic effects of native soil and vegetation
Farm Crisis
Occurs when farmers are too productive, causing a surplus of crops and, therefore, lowering prices and producing less revenue for the farmers
Feedlots
Farms that specialize in cattle or hogs and may have thousands of head of livestock, feedlots can create large amounts of waste runoff, air pollution, and groundwater contamination
First Agricultural Revolution
The slow change from nonagriculturally-based societies to more agriculturally-based ones through the gradual understanding of seeds, watering, and plant care
Food Chain
After harvesting, commercial grain is sent to the market area, usually in semitrailers, where it is sold to a manufacturer who makes a product with the grain, such as bread. The product is then sold to a wholesaler, who sells it to a grocery store, where individual customers can purchase it
Grain Farming
The mass planting and harvesting of grain crops, such as wheat barley, and miller
Intertillage
The manual clearing of rows in the field through the use of hoes, rakes, and other manual equipment
Long Lots
A system of farming where lots up to a half mile or more extend back from a river, which farmers use as their primary means of hauling their agricultural products to the market
Mixed Livestock with Crop Production
A type of farming where cows raised on a farm are fed with crops that are grown on the same farm
Planned Economy (Government-Controlled Economy)
An economy in which the government dictates the quantity and type of agricultural products that farmers can produce
Plantation Agriculture
Often occurring in less developed countries, plantation agriculture involves the cultivation of one crop to be sold in more developed countries (e.g., coffee plantations in Costa Rica)
Primary Economic Activities
Subsistence farming based on little mechanization. This is currently performed by aboriginal tribes in Australia
Quartiary Economic Industries
Activities that produce nothing one can physically touch but are important in societies (e.g., selling Internet time or providing satellite technologies, such as cell phone usage)
Quinary Sectors
Usually involving only about 10-15 percent of the workforce in an economy, these sectors employ the people who make decisions concerning the trade of commodities at the governmental and business executive levels
Sauer, Carl
Professor of geography at the University of California- Berkeley who started the field of cultural ecology, and began the hearths of seed agriculture and vegetative planting, Carl Sauer was one of the most vehement critics of the philosophy of environmental determinism. Instead, he believed that humans had power over their environments and weren’t simply a product of them
Second Agricultural Revolution
Coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, the Second Agricultural Revolution used the increased technology from the Industrial Revolution as a means to increase farm productivity. This revolution started exponential population increase
Secondary Economic Activities
Industrial activities in which factories take raw materials, such as natural resources, and produce some type of product for either trade or sale. Many people in the United States are still employed in secondary economic activities
Seed Agriculture
The taking of seeds from existing plants and planting them to produce new plants
Shifting Cultivation
The moving of farm fields after several years in search of more productive soil after depleting the nutrients in the original field
Slash-and-Burn Agriculture
The process of burning the physical landscape for both added space and additional nutrients put in the soil
Subsistence Farmers
Producing the food that their families need to survive, subsistence farmers depend solely on the crops that they grow and the animal products they raise for their daily sustenance
Suitcase Farms
These farms, where no one resides permanently and migrant workers provide the majority of manual labor cheaply, go against the grain of traditional farming in the United States
Tertiary Economic Industries
Service activities in which an increasing number of people are involved in selling goods rather than producing them
Third Agricultural Revolution (Green Revolution)
This transformation began in the latter half of the 20th century and corresponded with the exponential population growth around the world.
von Thunen, Johann Heinrich
Developed an agricultural land use model that suggested that certain crops were grown in direct relation to their distance to market
