Human Geography Unit 6 Flashcards
What is the most common job in LDCs?
Farmers
What type of job is agriculture?
Primary
What is any plant that humans have cared for?
A crop
How did hunters and gatherers obtain their food?
Hunting animals and gathering wild plants
True or false: Hunters and gatherers were the most common before agriculture became a common practice.
True
What region was the first to domesticate animals and use them to cultivate crops?
Southwest Asia
When do scientists think that Southwest Asia started domesticating plants?
~10,000 years ago
About how long ago did Latin America begin practicing agriculture?
4,000-5,000 years ago
True or false: Agriculture is thought at have developed after the end of the last Ice Age.
True
What form of agriculture is most common in MDCs? LDCs?
MDCs- Commercial
LDCs- Subsistence
What five characteristics distinguish the two forms of agriculture from each other?
- Purpose of farming
- Percentage of farmers in the labor force
- Use of machinery
- Farm size
- Relationship of farming to other businesses
What is prime agricultural land?
The most productive farmland
What is the system of commercial farming found in many MDCs called?
Agribusiness
What is shifting cultivation?
A form of farming in which farmers grow crops on a cleared field for a few years after cutting all crops that are there and setting them on fire. They only use the land for a few years before leaving it fallow for many years.
What is another name for shifting cultivation
Slash-and-burn agriculture
What is a swidden?
The cleared area used for slash-and-burn agriculture
True or false: Shifting cultivation is becoming increasingly popular.
False
What is pastoral nomadism?
A form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals
What are some common species used by pastoral nomads?
- Camels
- Sheep
- Goats
- Horses
What is the seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas?
Transhumance
What is a pasture?
An area grown for grazing animals
True or false: Pastoral nomadism is becoming increasingly popular.
False
What biome is pastoral nomadism commonly found in?
Desert
What is intensive subsistence agriculture?
A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers produce a large amount of food to feed many people
What does the term wet rice mean?
Planting rice on a dry land in a nursery then moving the seedlings to a flooded field to speed up growth
What is a sawah/paddy?
The flooded field used in wet rice
What is the process of gaining two harvest from one field called?
Double cropping
What is crop rotation?
The process of using different fields to get more than one harvest a year
What is a plantation?
A large farm that specializes in one or two crops
What is one main crop that is produced during mixed crop and livestock farming?
Cereal grains
What are some forms of cereal grains?
- Oats
- Wheat
- Rye
- Barley
What is one problem that is constantly encountered when dealing with livestock in agriculture?
Livestock needs constant care and attention.
What is the dairy farm that forms a ring around an urban area called?
A milkshed
What is the purpose of a milkshed?
To transport milk quickly where it will not spoil.
What is grain?
The seed from various grasses such as wheat, corn, oats, barley, rice, and millet
What is ranching?
The commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area
What is horticulture?
A form of agriculture common in Mediterranean agriculture that consists of growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers
What is truck farming?
Bartering or the exchange of goods for raw materials
What makes up the Von Thünen model?
A city in the center surrounded by rings of different forms of agriculture
How can overproduction in commercial farming be a bad thing?
It drives down the price and demand of goods.
What is sustainable agriculture?
An agricultural practice that preserves and enhances environmental quality
What is ridge tillage?
An element of sustainable agriculture that protects soil by planting seeds on ridge tops
True or false: Sustainable agriculture encourages the use of genetically engineered foods.
False
How does the rapid growth of populations impact subsistence farmers?
Subsistence farmers have to produce more food which gives the land that they use less time to rest
How do subsistence farmers pay off debts that form from purchasing modern agricultural machines?
Producing extra things that they can sell in MDCs
How do laws against drug possession harm subsistence farmers?
Many farmers rely on drug crops for income
What are four ways to increase the food supply?
- Expanding the land area used for agriculture
- Increasing new productivity of land currently used for agriculture
- Identifying new food sources
- Increasing exports from other countries
What is the green revolution?
A movement to increase agricultural productivity
What does it mean to increase a food’s palatability?
Increase its consumption in a specific area
What is a maquiladora?
A manufacturing plant in Mexico that assembles materials from the United States then ships the final product back to America to be sold
What was the main form of industry before the Industrial Revolution in which people manufactured items in their home called?
The cottage industry
What was the Industrial Revolution?
A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods
What are situation factors?
Factors that deal with transporting materials to and from a factory
Why is it important for a bulk-reducing industry to be close to their source of raw materials?
It makes it cheaper to transport goods from the source to the factory.
What is a single-market manufacturer?
A manufacturer that generally has only one customer
What are two main examples of perishable products?
Food and newspapers
What is the cheapest method of transporting goods long distances?
By ship
What is the break-of-bulk point?
The point where a certain form of transportation becomes possible
What is a site factor?
The unique characteristics of a location.
What are the three main site factors?
- Labor
- Land
- Capital
What is a labor-intensive industry?
An industry that requires lots of physical labor
True or false: The textile industry is labor-intensive.
True
What is the opposite of a labor-intensive industry?
A capital-intensive industry
True or false: The textile industry is becoming increasingly labor-intensive.
False
Why did factories relocate away from cities?
Land was much cheaper in rural and suburban areas.
How does access to capital impact the success of a business?
Most businesses need loans to start and run their business
What are right-to-work laws?
Laws that prevent workers from joining unions
True or false: The United States is currently losing jobs in manufacturing.
True
Why does Europe encourage relocation of factories?
Western Europe has a much higher concentration of factories than the other parts, limiting jobs in some areas.
What does the phrase “new international division of labor” mean?
Many companies move low-skill jobs to LDCs and keep high-skill jobs in MDCs.
What is outsourcing?
The process of giving independent suppliers lots of responsibility in manufacturing a product
What is the difference between a Fordist approach and a post-Fordist approach?
Fordist- based on mass production
post-Fordist- based on flexible production and lots of rights given to employees
What is a pro and con to just-in-time delivery?
Pro- products needed arrive daily if not hourly
Con- slowed greatly by extreme weather and labor strikes
