Unit 5: Agriculture & Rural Land-Use Patterns & Processes

A series of United Kingdom Acts of Parliament enclosed open fields and common land in the country, creating legal property rights to land that was previously considered common.

Enclosure Acts

a crop or livestock system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit area of land. May be part of either a subsistence or a commercial economy.

Extensive Agriculture

This type of farming uses low inputs of resources but aims to sell the product for profit. Ex: Ranching in the U.S., Canada, and Argentina.

Extensive Commercial Agriculture

Few inputs are used in this type of agricultural activity. Ex: Nomadic herding & shifting cultivation

Extensive Subsistent Agriculture

A geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates

Fertile Crescent

The origin of farming marked by the first domestication of plants and animals

First (Neolithic) Agricultural Revolution

farms were long thin sections of land that ran perpendicular to a river.

French long-lot system

A type of commercial agriculture is considered extensive and mechanized that produces mainly wheat.

Grain Farming

Development of higher-yield, more disease-resistant, and faster-growing varieties of grain are his most important contribution to the revolution.

Green Revolution

Practices are those in which farmers or ranchers use large amounts of inputs, such as energy, fertilizers, labor, or machines, to maximize yields.

Intensive Agriculture

Heavy investments in labor and capital are used in this type of agriculture which often results in high yields and profits.

Intensive Commercial Agriculture

This form of agriculture is often labor and animal-intensive. Ex: rice paddies in SE Asia using low paid labor rather than machines.

Intensive Subsistent Agriculture

The process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock for consumption and trade.

Agriculture

New techniques of fish farming may contribute as much to human nutrition as miracle cereal grains but also may create social and environmental problems.

Blue Revolution

Money invested in land, equipment, and machines.

Capital

Long term weather patterns in a region.

Climate

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Columbian Exchange

The primary goal farmer is to grow enough crops or raise enough livestock to sell for profit.

Commercial Agriculture

The intensive production of non tropical fruits, vegetables, and flowers for sale off the farm.

Commercial Gardening

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.

Crop Rotation

A form of commercial livestock production where cattle is used for the processing of milk and other dairy products. Prevalent in Northern Europe and in the Northern United States.

Dairy farming

This type of subsistent extensive agriculture is practiced in arid and semi-arid climates throughout the world.

Pastoral Nomadism

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country. Ex: Coffee, Coca, Sugarcane, & Bananas.

Plantation

Rectangles and grid system.Each area is 6 miles x 6 miles. Keep track of land sales and purchases, and utilize a uniform survey method.

Public Land Survey System/ (township and range system)

The primary goal is to grow enough food or raise enough livestock to meet the immediate needs of the farmer and his or her family.

Subsistence Agriculture

Commercial agriculture is characterized by integrating different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

agribusiness

When animals are tamed and used for food and profit.

animal domestication

A type of intensive farming. Rather than raising typical farm animals in close quarters with a controlled environment, fish, shellfish, or water plants are raised in netted areas in the sea, tanks, or other bodies of water.

aquaculture (aquafarming)

Can be used to determine the starting position for each land use relative to the market, as well as where each land use would end.

bid-price curve (bid-rent curve)

This is a distance-decay relationship between proximity to the urban market and the value of the land, meaning the closer the land is to an urban center, the more valuable it is.

bid-rent theory

Production process requiring large amounts of capital in relation to labor

capital intensive

The largest population that an area can support with its resources.

carrying capacity

a type of irrigation that waters crops using sprinkler systems on huge turning wheels

center-pivot irrigation

These settlements had groups of homes located near each other in a village and fostered a strong sense of place and often shared of services, such as schools.

clustered (nucleated) settlements

is a process used by corporations to gather resources, transform them into goods, and then transport them to consumers.

commodity chain

spaces where groups of people grow fruits, vegetables or ornamental plants on either a communal or an individual plot

community gardens

A system in which consumers pay farmers in advance for a share of their yield, usually in the form of weekly deliveries of produce.

community-supported agriculture (CSA)

The ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer.

comparative advantage

Transportation networks that keep food cool throughout a trip

cool chains

Lack of gender equality has resulted in women producing 20-30 percent less in farms. The worst food insecurities are found in LDCs, the area where gender-specific obstacles are the most prevalent.

crop gap

The removal of trees faster than forests can replace themselves.

deforestation

Alteration of the natural vegetation in arid areas causes fertile land to become infertile.

desertification

A rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.

dispersed settlements

Planting and harvesting a crop two ( or three) times per year on the same piece of land.

double cropping

factors that cause a producer's average cost per unit to fall as output rises

economies of scale

A capital-intensive livestock operation in which many animals

factory farming

An effort to promote higher incomes for producers and for more sustainable farming practices

fair trade movement

An area or building where livestock are fed and fattened up.

feedlots

A neighborhood where residents have little to no access to healthy and affordable food

food desert

A network of trade and transportation that get food from farms to consumers.

food distribution system

the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food

food insecurity

The transformation of agricultural products into food or taking food items and transforming them into a different type of food.

food processing

Economy-where supply and demand, not government policy, determine the outcome of competition for land the farmer who will have the greatest profit will pay the most at each location to occupy the land.

free-market economy

The unequal opportunities, treatment, or rights of a person based on gender.

gender inequality

discriminatory practices that prevent female farmers from reaching their potential productivity.

gender-specific obstacles

A process by which humans use engineering techniques to change the DNA of a seed.

genetically modified organism (GMO)

crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods

genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Type of agriculture that includes market gardening/truck farming and dairy farming, would occur.

horticulture

is the process of breeding two plants that have desirable characteristics to produce a single seed with both characteristics.

hybridization

a technique of growing plants (without soil) in water containing dissolved nutrients

hydroponics

Invention of the same phenomenon by two culture hearths without each knowing about the other's invention or, sometimes, existence.

independent innovation

The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

infrastructure

when farmers grow two or more crops simultaneously on the same field.

intercropping (multicropping)

A way of supplying water to an area of land

irrigation

A hypothetical portion of the earth's surface is assumed to be an unbounded, uniformly flat plain with uniform and unvarying distribution of population, purchasing power, transport costs, accessibility, and the like.

isotropic plain

Production that uses a large amount of labor

labor intensive

Process by which agricultural areas are lost to development

land cover change

a pattern of settlements in which homes and other buildings follow the lines taken by the road or body of water.

linear settlement

An extensive commercial agricultural activity that involves the raising of livestock over vast geographic spaces typically located in semi-arid climates like the American West.

livestock ranching

Purchasing food from nearby farms because you want to minimize the pollution created from the transportation of food around the world

local-food movement

a key component of economic geography, deals with why people choose certain locations for various types of economic activity- factories, stores, restaurants, or agriculture.

location theory

Non-subsistence crops such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco

luxury crops

Utilization of landmarks and physical features to establish boundary lines. Results in irregularly shaped plots of land.

metes and bounds

This is the geographic distance that milk is delivered

milk shed

Is only growing one type of crop or raising one type of animal year after year.

monocropping

in which only one crop is grown or one type of animal is raised per season on a piece of land.

monoculture

Also called economic imperialism, this is the domination of newly independent countries by foreign business interests that causes colonial-style economies to continue, which often caused monoculture (a country only producing one main export like sugar, oil, etc).

neocolonialism

foods produced without the use of antibiotics, hormones, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic improvements, or ionizing radiation

organic foods

to allow livestock to strip areas so bare that plants cannot grow back

overgraze

Deliberately planted and tended by humans that is genetically distinct from its wild ancestors as a result of selective breeding.

plant domestication

limit the quantity of a good imported to protect domestically produced goods.

quota

Accumulation of salts in soil that can eventually make the soil unable to support plant growth.

salinization

A square is normally 1 mile on a side. consisted of 640 acres, and it could be divided into smaller lots, such as half sections or quarter sections.

section

Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris.

slash-and-burn agriculture

Financial support from the government

subsidies

All the steps required to get a product or service to customers.

supply chain

tax on imports to protect domestically produced goods.

tariff

a farming system that is in the form of steps going up a mountain

terrace farming

Areas six miles long and six miles wide; each square equaling 640 acres

townships

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

transhumance

A company that conducts research operates factories and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.

transnational corporations

Refers to the production of farm goods within an urban area with the goal of providing locally grown food.

urban farming

occurs when farmers process their crops into high-value products, rather than simply selling it as it comes from the field.

value-added crops

occurs when farmers process their crops into high-value products, rather than simply selling it as it comes from the field

value-added farming

grow crops inside in stackable trays, using greenhouses, artificial lights, and hydroponics.

vertical farms

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

vertical integration

An agricultural model that spatially describes agricultural activity in terms of rent. Activities that require intensive cultivation and cannot be transported over great distances pay higher rent to be close to the market. Conversely, activities that are more extensive, with goods that are easy to transport, are located farther from the market where rent is less.

von Thunen model

a lowland area, such as a marsh or swamp, that is saturated with moisture, especially when regarded as the natural habitat of wildlife.

wetlands

Is when fruits and vegetables are grown near an urban market and sold to local suppliers, stores, and restaurants.

Market Gardening

This is practiced in regions with hot, dry summers, mild winters, narrow valleys, and often some irrigation.

Mediterranean agriculture

Both animals and crops are farmed in the same area, it is helpful because farmers can distribute the workload more evenly throughout the year.

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

Began in the 1700s, used the advances of the Industrial Revolution to increase food supplies and support population growth. Agriculture benefited from mechanization and improved knowledge of fertilizers, soils, and selective breeding practices for plants and animals.

Second Agricultural Revolution

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

Shifting Cultivation

This was born out of science, research, and technology, and it continues today. This revolution expanded the mechanization of farming, developed new global agricultural systems, and used scientific and information technologies to further previous advances in agricultural production.

Third Agricultural Revolution