Unit 5 Vocabulary

Question 1

Agribusiness

Answer 1

A large-scale commercial business characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry

Question 2

Agricultural Hearth

Answer 2

The origin of a type of agriculture or crop

Question 3

Agriculture

Answer 3

The science, art, and business of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock; farming.

Question 4

Biotechnology

Answer 4

A form of agricultural technology that uses living organisms, usually genes, to modify products, to make or modify plants or
animals, or to develop other microorganisms for specific purposes

Question 5

Cash Crop

Answer 5

A crop grown for its commercial use rather than use by the grower.

Question 6

Cereal Grains

Answer 6

A crop yielding from grain.

Question 7

Columbian Exchange

Answer 7

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following
Columbus’s voyages and resulted in commercial agriculture and the trade of it

Question 8

Combine

Answer 8

A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field.

Question 9

Commercial Agriculture

Answer 9

A form of agriculture undertaken in order to generate products for sale off of the farm in order to make a profit

Question 10

Commercial Fruit and Gardening Agriculture

Answer 10

Selling of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, trees or shrubbery. Predominant type of agriculture in the US Southeast; also known
as truck farming so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities.

Question 11

Commodity Chain

Answer 11

Series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then
exchanged on the world market.

Question 12

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO)

Answer 12

An animal rearing system that confines livestock (such as pigs, cattle, hogs, chickens, etc) in high density cages only large
enough for the animal’s body to grow and to accommodate equipment for feeding and waste removal

Question 13

Corn Belt

Answer 13

Formal region where main growth of corn agriculture is present in the USA

Question 14

Crop rotation

Answer 14

Switching fields crop to crop so that you do not overuse the soil.

Question 15

Dairy Farming

Answer 15

Raising cattle to sell dairy products.

Question 16

Desertification

Answer 16

The encroachment of desert conditions on moister zones along the desert margins, where plant cover and soils are threatened
by desiccation-through overuse, in part by humans and their domestic animals, and, possibly, in part because of inexorable
shifts in the Earth’s environmental zones.

Question 17

Double Cropping

Answer 17

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

Question 18

Economies of Scale

Answer 18

Cost advantages that can come with a larger scale of operations; ie big companies can control their costs more than small
companies can

Question 19

Erosion

Answer 19

The process of being eroded by wind water or other natural agents

Question 20

Export Commodity

Answer 20

A cash crop that is produced for export to wealthier countries at the expense of crop production for local consumption

Question 21

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

Answer 21

A form of subsistence agriculture characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area, often uses vast tracts of land

Question 22

Fallow

Answer 22

This is the stage of crop rotation in which the land is left uncultivated.

Question 23

Fertilizers

Answer 23

Any substance, such as manure, or a mixture of nitrates, added to soil or water to increase its productivity

Question 24

Food Desert

Answer 24

Urban or rural neighborhoods with limited access to fresh nutritious foods - low income neighborhoods where consumers
have little access to medium and large grocery stores.

Question 25

Food Insecurity

Answer 25

Occurs when large numbers of people experience long periods of inadequate diets due to wealth or environmental causes