Unit 5 Flashcards
What are the two main driving forces that have shaped agriculture?
A: Physical geography and economics.
How does physical geography influence agriculture?
A: Climate and landforms determine which crops can be grown and which animals can be raised in each region.
Q: How does economics affect agricultural practices?
A: The supply and demand for products influence what farmers decide to grow based on consumer preferences.
Q: How are climate and agriculture linked?
A: Climate, soil types, and precipitation levels directly influence what crops and animals can be raised.
Q: What regions of the world do not typically support agricultural activity?
A: High latitudes and high altitudes.
Q: What is plantation agriculture?
A: A large commercial farm that specializes in one crop, often found in low-latitudes, and relies on cheap labor. Examples include coffee, cocoa, and sugarcane.
Q: What is mixed crop and livestock farming?
A: A farming system where crops are grown to feed livestock, and livestock manure is used to fertilize the crops. This is common in developed regions like the Midwestern US.
Q: What are extensive farming practices?
A: Agriculture that uses fewer inputs of capital and labor relative to the amount of land being used.
Q: What is hunting and gathering?
A: The earliest form of food acquisition where men hunted and women gathered. This practice is now limited to isolated groups in less developed countries.
Q: What is pastoral nomadism?
A: A form of subsistence farming where people travel with domesticated animals like cattle and camels. Common in areas like Southcentral Asia and East Africa.
Q: What is shifting cultivation?
A: Subsistence farming where farmers move from field to field, often clearing land by burning vegetation to enrich the soil. Also known as slash-and-burn agriculture.
Q: What are the three main types of rural settlement patterns?
A: Clustered, dispersed, and linear.
Q: What is a clustered rural settlement?
A: A settlement pattern where homes are grouped near each other in a hamlet or village, fostering a strong sense of community.
Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of clustered rural settlements?
A: Advantages: Strong community, easy access to shared services like schools and churches. Disadvantages: Farmers had to walk long distances to their fields, and monitoring crops and animals was challenging.
Q: What is a dispersed rural settlement?
A: A settlement pattern where homes are spread throughout the countryside, common in North America, especially in the US and Canada.
Q: Why were dispersed settlements common in North America?
A: The government promoted westward expansion by offering land to farmers, leading to a sparse distribution of agricultural villages.
Q: What is a linear rural settlement?
A: A settlement pattern where houses and buildings follow the lines of road transport routes, designed for easy access to transportation.
Q: How does the English surveying system work?
A: It uses “metes” for short distances (often referring to specific features like trees) and “bounds” for larger areas (such as streams or roads).
Q: What are the three main rural survey methods?
A: English Surveying System (Metes and Bounds), American Surveying System (Townships and Range), French Surveying System (Long-lot system).
Q: What is the American surveying system?
A: A system based on dividing land into townships and ranges, with each township being six miles by six miles, and sections within each township being 640 acres.
Q: What was the purpose of the American surveying system introduced in 1785?
A: It organized land into a systematic grid for easier division and settlement, as opposed to using natural landscape features.
Q: How does the French long-lot system work?
A: Farms are long, narrow plots that run perpendicular to rivers, allowing many farmers to have river frontage for water access and trade. This system is common in Quebec and Louisiana.
Q: What was the Second Agricultural Revolution?
A: It was a period in the 1700s when farming became more efficient with new machines and better transportation.
Q: What were some key inventions during the Second Agricultural Revolution?
A: The steel plough and mechanized harvesting.
Q: How did new farming technology impact society?
A: It improved diets, increased life expectancy, and led to more people moving to cities for factory jobs.
Q: What were the Enclosure Acts?
A: Laws that allowed landowners to take over common lands used by farmers.
Q: What happened because of the Enclosure Acts?
A: Farms became bigger, more crops were grown for profit, and many people moved to cities to work in factories.
Q: What were the key advances of the Green Revolution?
A: Better crop varieties, use of fertilizers, pesticides, and large-scale irrigation.
Q: What is the Green Revolution?
A: A movement starting in the mid-1900s that created higher-yielding, disease-resistant, fast-growing crops, especially rice, corn, and wheat.
Q: How did the Green Revolution affect farming in developing countries?
A: It allowed farmers to grow more crops per year (double-cropping) and improve food production.
Q: What are the positive impacts of the Green Revolution?
A: Increased food production, higher yields, less hunger, lower death rates, and lower food prices.
Q: What are the negative impacts of the Green Revolution?
A: Environmental damage, soil erosion, pollution, and health issues from chemicals.
Q: What economic factors influence farming decisions?
A: The cost of land, labor, and capital.
Q: How do farmers use land differently based on cost?
A: If land is cheap and plentiful, farmers use it extensively. If land is expensive or scarce, farmers use it more intensively.
Q: What is commercial agriculture?
A: Agriculture aimed at producing crops for sale and profit.
Q: What is subsistence agriculture?
A: Agriculture where farmers grow food mainly for their own consumption, not for sale.
Q: What is the bid-rent theory?
A: It explains how land prices change the further you are from a central business district (CBD), with prices dropping as distance increases.
Q: What is monoculture or monocropping?
A: Growing a single cash crop on a large scale, common in large-scale farming.
Q: Why can’t small farmers compete with large-scale farming?
A: Large-scale farms can produce food at a cheaper cost per unit, making it difficult for small farmers to compete.
Q: What is agribusiness?
A: The integration of large-scale commercial agriculture, food processing, research, and development, often controlled by transnational corporations.
Q: How does agribusiness affect farming?
A: It involves highly mechanized, large-scale farming that uses chemicals and biotechnology. It often eliminates smaller, family-run farms.
Q: What is monoculture in large-scale farming?
A: Growing a single cash crop on large plots of land, common in large-scale farming operations.
Q: Why can’t small farms compete with large-scale agribusiness?
A: Large-scale farms produce food at a cheaper cost per unit, making it hard for small farms to compete.
Q: What is a suitcase farm?
A: A farm where no one lives on-site, and labor is done by migrant workers or nearby farmers.
Q: What is a supply chain or commodity chain?
A: A system involving resources, producers, transportation, and consumers, often controlled by one corporation.
Q: What is vertical integration in a supply chain?
A: When a company owns several smaller businesses involved in different steps of producing a product.
Q: How has globalization affected agriculture?
A: It has created a complex global system where products like bananas, coffee, and chocolate can be consumed around the world, thanks to improved transportation, biotechnology, and mechanization.
Q: How has technology improved farming productivity?
A: Advances in transportation, fertilizers, harvesting equipment, and refrigeration have allowed one farmer to feed more people.
Q: What are cool chains?
A: Transportation networks that keep food cold during its journey, enabling fresh produce to travel globally at low prices.
Q: What does the Von Thünen Model explain about agricultural land use?
A: It explains that land use around a central market depends on transportation costs. Perishable goods are grown closer to the market, while less perishable goods are grown farther away where land is cheaper.
Q: How are agricultural products part of the global supply chain?
A: Globalization has created interdependence between countries, with larger, developed countries exporting food to smaller, less developed ones.
Q: Which countries are top exporters of food products?
A: The United States, Brazil, China, and Argentina.
Q: What do countries with climate advantages export?
A: Luxury crops like coffee, sugar, tea, and bananas.
Q: How do Southern Hemisphere countries contribute to global food distribution?
A: They provide food to the Northern Hemisphere during winter months.
Q: What problems can arise from focusing on export crops in developing countries?
A: It can lead to economic and environmental issues, such as importing food at higher prices and environmental damage from poor farming practices.
Q: What environmental problems can result from monocropping in developing countries?
A: Water pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, and soil salinization.
Q: How do political relationships affect global agriculture?
A: Former colonies often have easier trade with their colonizers, and agribusinesses from developed countries control land and crop production in developing countries.
Q: What is the Fairtrade movement?
A: A movement that aims to promote equality and fair conditions for farmers in developing countries.
Q: How does infrastructure affect global agriculture?
A: Poor infrastructure in developing countries makes it hard to get crops to market, while developed countries can easily ship food products worldwide.
Q: What are some agricultural practices that alter the landscape?
A: Slash and burn, terracing, irrigation, deforestation, draining wetlands, shifting cultivation, and pastoral nomadism.
Q: What are the benefits of terracing in agriculture?
A: Easier planting, collecting rainwater, reducing soil erosion.
Q: What problems can arise from large-scale irrigation?
A: Salinization (salt buildup in soil), land submergence, and disruption of natural drainage.
Q: What environmental issues are caused by deforestation?
A: Soil erosion, desertification, decreased rainfall, increased atmospheric CO2, and global climate change.
Q: What is slash-and-burn agriculture and its impact?
A: Cutting down and burning trees to clear land. Small-scale is beneficial; large-scale can damage the environment.
Q: What are the side effects of modern food production?
A: Chemical fertilizers polluting water, overgrazing leading to desertification, and replacing forests with fields.
Q: What global conservation effort aimed to protect the Amazon rainforest?
A: The “Save the Rainforest” movement in the 1980s promoted agricultural practices that did not harm the Amazon.
Q: What are GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)?
A: GMOs are plants and animals modified in a lab by transferring genes from one species to another to improve traits like pest resistance.
Q: What are some concerns over GMOs?
A: Expensive for poor farmers, possible development of “super pests” and “superweeds,” and potential long-term health risks.
What is Fair Trade?
A: Fair Trade aims to ensure small farmers in poor countries earn more money for their crops by bypassing large corporations, especially for products like coffee, tea, bananas, and chocolate.
