unit 5 Flashcards
Agribusiness
Agribusiness. Definition: Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.
Agricultural Health
Agricultural safety and health is an aspect of occupational safety and health in the agricultural workplace.
Agricultural Landscapes
AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE. the land that is used to farm on and what is chosen to put on the fields.
Agriculture
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.
Agrosystem
An agroecosystem is the basic unit of study in agroecology, and is somewhat arbitrarily defined as a spatially and functionally coherent unit of agricultural activity, and includes the living and nonliving components involved in that unit as well as their interactions.
Aquaculture
Explanation: “Aquaculture” is the name given to all farming and rearing of fish and marine plants that does not fall under the category of fishing
Aquifers
Aquifers. Subterranean, porous, water-holding rocks that provide millions of wells with steady flows of water.
Bid-rent theory
The bid rent theory is 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.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity. The number of different species within a specific habitat. Biomass fuel. Fuel that derives from plant material and animal waste.
Biotechnology
The term “biotechnology” is applied to any technological innovation that is designed to improve the usefulness of plant and animals species for human agricultural purposes.
Boserup’s Theory
Esther Boserup is a famous agricultural geographer. Her theory is based on the premise that population growth is a positive force in agricultural innovation, that it drives technology forward.
Cash Crop
A “cash crop” is an agricultural crop that is purposely made strictly to be sold in a market environment for as much money as possible.
Central business district (CBD)
Explanation: The central business district (CBD) is where a large amount of businesses are located.
Climate regions
Climatic region refers to a continuous geographic area in which similar climate characteristics are observed.
Clustered settlement
Clustered rural settlement. a rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other and fields surround the settlement.
Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange. The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus’s voyages.
Commercial Agriculture
Commercial Agriculture: A form of agriculture undertaken in order to generate products for sale off of the farm in order to make a profit
Commodity Chain
Definition. Commodity chain. Series of links connecting the main places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then exchanged on the world market.
Contour Plowing
Contour Plowing. An agricultural technique in which plowing and harvesting are done parallel to the topographic contours of the land, in order to prevent erosion. Crop Rotation.
Crop
crop. Grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season.
Crop rotation
Crop rotation: The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil.
Dairying
dairying. an agricultural activity involving the raising of livestock, most commonly cows and goats, for dairy products such as milk, cheese, and butter. domestication.
Debt-For-Nature Swaps
Debt-for-nature swap. When agencies such as the World Bank make a deal with third world countries that they will cancel their debt if the ocuntry will set aside a certain amount of their natural resources.
Deforestation
Deforestation is the destruction of forest or forested areas by human or natural means.
Desertification
The term “desertification” is used to describe the process by which previously fertile lands become arid and unusable for farming.
Dispersed settlement
dispersed settlement pattern. A rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.
Domestication
Domestication is the process of adapting wild plants and animals for human use.
Double-cropping
Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting. Double Cropping.
Dual Agricultural Economy
Dual Economy. The existence of two separate economic sectors within one country, divided by different levels of development, technology, and different patterns of demand.
Economy of Scale
Economies of scale are the reduction in the per unit cost of production as the volume of production increases
Enclosure System
individual farm houses lying far apart; Midwestern U.S. enclosure. process of taking over and fencing off land once shared by peasant farmers. erosion.
Extensive agriculture
extensive agriculture. yields a large amount of output per acre through less intensive farming (uses a large amount of land) intensive subsistence agriculture. a form of subsistence agriculture where farmers expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum crop yield. extensive subsistence agriculture.
Fair Trade
Fair trade is a concept used in developing countries to help create sustainability.
Farm Subsidies
An agricultural subsidy is a government incentive paid to agribusinesses, agricultural organizations and farms to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the cost and supply of such commodities.
Feedlot
Feedlots. Places where livestock are concentrated in very small area and raised on hormones and hearty grains that prepare them for slaughter at a much more rapid rate than grazing; often referred to factory farms.