Unit 5 Vocab

Sustainable yield

The sustainable yield of a natural, renewable resource is the amount that can be consumed over a given period of time without depleting it to such an extent that it cannot be easily replenished. A farmer who owns 100 cattle and is concerned with sustainability would not order all of them to be killed at once for consumption. Instead, she would retain a sufficient population which can be used to breed a new generation of cattle, thus sustaining her cattle population through future generations.

Thomas Malthus model

Thomas Malthus was an economist whose 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population predicted that the global population would grow to such an extent that the food supply could no longer support all of the world's people. His model for population growth and food production predicted that by 2100, the number of people living on Earth would approximately triple the amount of food that Earth could provide.

Transhumance

Transhumance is the practice of migrating oneself and one's livestock to different areas depending on the season. A family of cattle farmers would be practicing transhumance if they lived in Vermont in the summer/warmer months, and Florida in the winter/colder months.

Wet rice/dry rice

Wet rice is rice that is cultivated through the process of being seeded on dry land before being transplanted to flooded fields after about a month, where they will continue to grow submerged in water. Wet rice is, by far, the predominant crop in many parts of East, South, and Southeast Asia, in terms of both cultivation and consumption. Dry rice, or upland rice, is rice that is cultivated through the process of scattering rice seeds on dry land and relying on rainfall and other natural processes for irrigation. Approximately 100 million people rely on dry rice as their staple food.

Cadastral system

A cadastral system is a system of determining a piece of land's value, size, and rightful ownership so that taxes may be levied accordingly. The United States Bureau of Land Management is responsible for conducting a cadastral survey.

Collective farm

A collective farm is one in which the ownership of and responsibility for the farm is shared among multiple farmers. China attempted to establish widespread collective farming as an extension of Communism into all aspects of daily life, but the system ultimately failed as productivity sharply dropped on non-voluntary collective farms.

Debt-for-nature swap

A debt-for-nature swap is a transaction between debtor (typically developing) states and creditor (typically developed) states in which part of the debt may be cancelled if the indebted country agrees to enact and support local environmental conservation measures. The United States recently forgave $21 million of Brazil's debt with the understanding that Brazil will instead use the money to protect and preserve tropical ecosystems.

Rural settlement - dispersed settlements/nucleated settlements

A dispersed rural settlement is one in which farmers live on individual, relatively isolated farms that are scattered throughout an area. Early agricultural settlements in the American Midwest were largely dispersed. A nucleated rural settlement is one in which farming families live in relatively close proximity to each other in a more communal environment, with houses and farm buildings clustered together and surrounded by fields. Amish communities in Lancaster, Pennsylvania often follow a nucleated pattern due to the high importance that the Amish ascribe to being part of a faith-based community.

Feedlot

A feedlot is an area that is designated for the feeding/fattening of livestock right before they are slaughtered. A densely-populated pen in which cattle live off a diet of corn, barley, and other grains mixed with nutrients would be an example of a feedlot.

Milkshed

A milkshed is the range surrounding a city from which milk can originate and be transported without spoiling. The development of improved refrigeration techniques and faster methods of transportation has greatly increased the size of milksheds. In colonial America, when a horse carriage would have been the most effective method of transporting milk, the milkshed for an urban area would have been relatively small. Today, however, with the ability to transport milk in refrigerated trucks and train cars, the milkshed for an urban area like New York is much greater.

Renewable/non-renewable resource

A renewable resource is a natural resource which is easily replenished, or never depleted at all. Solar power can be used to generate large amounts of electricity, and is considered a renewable resource because of the virtually unlimited supply of it. A non-renewable resource is one which is not sustainable for extended periods of time, and which will be depleted if humans continue to exploit it. Oil is considered a non-renewable resource because it takes hundreds of thousands of years to form, and at current consumption rates, will be depleted within several decades.

Suitcase farm

A suitcase farm is a farm in which most of the labor is performed by migratory workers, rather than permanent residents. Suitcase farming was a contributing factor to the Dust Bowl, as non-resident farmers with little concern for their land would farm it and then abandon it, barren and exposed, leaving it in prime condition for large-scale soil erosion.

Truck farm

A truck farm is a large-scale commercial horticultural operation (see earlier entries on commercial agriculture and horticulture) in which fruits and vegetables are produced for consumers in developed countries, then canned or shipped so they can be transported long distances to larger markets. A truck farm in Georgia might produce a variety of different berries which are then sold to large processing companies to be frozen, so that they may be shipped to markets in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Wattle

A wattle is a building material created from interweaving poles together with twigs, reeds, branches, etc. A farmer might use a wattle fence to contain small animals or crop areas.

Agrarian

Agrarian refers to anything related to the practice of agriculture. An agrarian society is one in which the economy, social customs, culture, and politics are all largely shaped by or entirely dependent upon agriculture, as in the case of the ideal society imagined by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

Agribusiness

Agribusiness is the system that combines all elements of the food production industry in developed countries. A corn farmer in Iowa does not turn a profit simply by growing corn; transportation, market analysis, competitive analysis, technology, packaging, and so many more elements of agribusiness are involved in the corn's journey from the farmer's field to the consumer's table.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the intentioned use of Earth's surface and resources to obtain sustenance or economic gain through the cultivation of plants and/or rearing of animals. A person who utilizes a personal garden to provide all of their meals would be practicing agriculture.

Extractive industry

An extractive industry is an industry that utilizes the extraction of raw materials (i.e. metals, minerals) from the Earth. Coal mining is an example of an extractive industry because it involves directly removing the mineral from the Earth's surface.

Aquaculture

Aquaculture is the practice of cultivating aquatic plants and animals in controlled environments. Aquaculture is an extensive practice in Maine, with such organisms as clams, scallops, oysters, urchins, mussels, coho salmon, and rainbow trout being cultivated in the state.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is the science of adapting living/biological/natural processes for human benefit. The genetic modification of crops is an example of biotechnology, as the genetic makeup of the crop may be altered to develop a crop that is more resistant to pests.

Cereal grains/staple grains

Cereal grains, or staple grains, are grains which are nearly-ubiquitous in people's dietary habits on a global scale. Three grains - maize (corn), wheat, and rice - account for 87% of all grains and 43% of all food produced.

Chemical farming

Chemical farming is the opposite of organic agriculture (see later entry), in that farmers heavily rely on the use of chemicals for the success of their crops. A cotton farmer that sprays his entire field with a pesticide that repels boll weevils would be practicing chemical farming.

Commercial agriculture

Commercial agriculture is agriculture for the purpose of selling one's crops and participating in a market. A largely-mechanized, 750-acre farm in Iowa that sells corn to a national chain of Mexican restaurants would be practicing commercial agriculture.

Commodity chains

Commodity chains are the full processes in which goods are transformed from raw, natural resources into commodities bought by consumers. In agriculture, commodity chains extend from the earliest phase of seeding into cultivating, harvesting, cleaning, packaging, transporting, shelving, and marketing them to consumers.

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is the practice of alternating between different crops throughout successive years. A farmer might utilize crop rotation by planting tomatoes one year and beans the next in order to maintain stable nitrogen levels in the soil, as tomatoes deplete nitrogen and beans replenish it.

Dairying

Dairying is an agricultural practice focused on producing milk and milk products. A cow farm in Vermont that supplies milk to the Ben & Jerry's ice cream company would be practicing dairying.

Double cropping

Double cropping is the practice of alternating between the cultivation of two different kinds of crops, depending on the season and climate. A farmer that plants eggplant (which thrives in hot weather) during the summer and turnips (which thrive in wet, cooler weather) during the winter would be practicing double cropping.

Environmental modification

Environmental modification is the practice of making physical changes to the environment for human benefit. A farmer that develops mountainside terracing would be partaking in environmental modification, as he would be altering the physical landscape to improve his access to agricultural land.

Ester Boserup model

Ester Boserup was an economist whose agricultural model focused on how the various types of subsistence agriculture are adapted according to population growth. As population grows, subsistence farmers are forced to intensify production by adopting new farming methods (for example, increasing mechanization) and gradually working to minimize the amount of time that land is left fallow. According to Boserup's model, farmers currently practicing shifting cultivation (in which land is left fallow for extended periods of time) will have to adapt to other forms of subsistence agriculture, like intensive subsistence agriculture (which is characterized by high productivity on an extremely limited area of land), as population increases.

Extensive subsistence agriculture

Extensive subsistence agriculture is a form of subsistence agriculture (see earlier entry) that requires little labor per unit of land area. Pastoral nomadism in the Central Asian highlands is an example of extensive subsistence agriculture, as animals have large areas of land in which they are free to graze at little to no labor costs to humans, though the productivity-per-land-unit of such a system may be quite low.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer is a substance applied to soil to promote fertility/plant growth. Manure was one of the first organic fertilizers to be scientifically studied.

Genetically modified organisms (GMO)

GMOs are crops whose genetic composition has been altered through the mixing of multiple species' genetic material. A potato that has been genetically engineered to be larger and hardier than the average (i.e. non-engineered) potato would be a GMO.

Carl Sauer model

Geographer Carl Sauer's theory on the origins of agriculture include the idea that agriculture began with vegetative planting (root crops) and seed agriculture, rather than the cultivation of grains, in Southeast Asia between 14,000 and 35,000 years ago. According to Sauer, the development of agriculture in such a manner " was carried out by acutely observing individuals, primitive systematists and geneticists we may assert, who taught others to identify and select, by lore and skill handed from generation to generation. The plants fashioned by man are artifacts of skilled craftsmen..."

Koppen Climatic Classifications for Agriculture

German climatologist Wladimir Koppen developed a system which classified the world according to six climatic regions: tropical humid, dry, mild mid-latitude, severe mid-latitude, polar, and highland (which was added to the classification system at a later date). Each climatic region may be further subdivided according to precipitation and temperature. Koppen's classification system may be useful for identifying in which regions of the world certain crops are most likely to thrive. Bananas, for example, require an abundance of water resources, and would therefore be unlikely to thrive in tropical and subtropical desert climates (like in Central Australia).

Herbicides

Herbicides are substances used to destroy or repel vegetation that is considered undesirable. Agent Orange is an herbicide that is most widely recognized for its use as an agent of warfare during the Vietnam War.

Horticulture

Horticulture is the practice of cultivating fruits, vegetables, and flowers. People who cultivated personal "victory gardens" to lessen the strain on the public food supply during World War II were practitioners of horticulture.

Intensive agriculture/extensive agriculture

Intensive agriculture is that which requires a large amount of labor. Plantation farming is labor-intensive, and is thus often located in developing countries (yet run by those in developed countries) in order to keep labor costs low. Approximately 5% of the land area in the East Asia and Pacific region is devoted to what the FAO designates as a "highland extensive mixed farming system."

Intensive subsistence agriculture

Intensive subsistence agriculture is a form of subsistence agriculture (see earlier entry) that requires a large amount of labor. A small farm in Kenya with mostly sandy dirt (and therefore few nutrients in the soil), a hot and dry climate, and limited access to irrigation and mechanical tools would likely require intensive subsistence agriculture - including hand-pulling weeds, carrying water to irrigate the crops, and carefully preparing the fields for plantings - in order to obtain just enough food to sustain oneself and one's family.

Intertillage

Intertillage is the practice of planting different crops in adjacent rows. A farmer who plants corn between rows of tomatoes in order to protect the smaller, weaker plant would be practicing intertillage.

Johann von Thunen model

Johann von Thunen's model for the location of commercial agriculture focused on the various factors contributing to the location of agriculture relative to the market, including the cost of land vs. the cost of transporting products to the market. According to von Thunen, the first "ring" of agriculture outside of a market center would largely consist of dairying operations and gardening because of the highly-perishable nature of the products, thus making them the most expensive products to transfer. The farthest ring from the market would largely consist of animal grazing, as it required the most land (i.e. the cost of land would be the highest). Although von Thunen's model was imperfect and did not account for such factors as social customs and government policies, it provided an important basis for understanding the relationship between agricultural land costs and costs of transportation.

Livestock ranching

Livestock ranching is a type of commercial agriculture that allows livestock to graze rather freely over a large area of land. A farm who owns 1,000 cattle and allows them to roam around on a 5,000-acre farm with little interference )until is time for the cattle to be rounded up) would be practicing livestock ranching.

Survey patterns - long lots, metes and bounds, township and range

Long lots are a French type of linear survey system in which property boundaries are long and narrow alongside a river, to ensure that each estate owner has access to the river. In the United States, Detroit has a relatively high proportion of long lots. Metes and bounds are an English type of survey system in which property boundaries are drawn according to directions which reference the natural geography of an area of land, or its pre-existing physical landmarks. Metes and bounds were used to divide land in colonial America. Township and range is a survey system in which property boundaries are drawn according to township lines (which run north and south along the designated base line) and ranges (which run east and west along the designated principal meridian). The territory thus delineated is called a township. The US Land Ordinance of 1785 established based lines and principal meridians.

Luxury crops

Luxury crops are crops typically marketed to wealthier consumers, or at least those with higher expendable incomes, which are enjoyable yet not necessary for survival. Coffee is a luxury crop.

Market gardening

Marketing gardening is the practice of operating a commercial gardening effort on a small scale. A family that grows tomatoes on a half acre of land and sells their crop to a local farmer's market would be practicing market gardening.

Mediterranean agriculture

Mediterranean agriculture is a type of agriculture that predominates in the coastal areas surrounding the Mediterranean sea, though it is also practiced in parts of California, Chile, South Africa, and Australia. The proximity to the sea, prevalence of sea breezes, hot temperatures, and hilly terrain are especially suitable for horticulture and the cultivation of tree crops. Olives, grapes, cereals (especially wheat), and citrus fruits are all example of crops grown as part of Mediterranean agriculture.

Monoculture

Monoculture is the practice of consistently growing only a single variety of crop over an extensive area and for an extensive amount of time. A farmer in Texas with a 500-acre cotton farm without any variety or diversity of crops would be practicing monoculture.

Organic agriculture

Organic agriculture is a form of agriculture characterized by the limited use of synthetic chemicals like pesticides and antibiotics. An apple farmer that uses physical coverings, insect traps, and pest-repelling plants like dahlias (which repel nematodes, one of the main pests afflicting apple production) instead of chemical pesticides would be practicing organic agriculture.

Paddy

Paddy is the Malay word for wet rice, though it is often used in reference to a paddy field (called a sawah), which is the flooded field in which wet rice (see later entry) is cultivated. In particularly hilly areas, paddy fields may be developed through the use of hillside terracing.

Pastoralism

Pastoralism is a form of subsistence agriculture in which people herd animals to obtain the benefits of animal by-products (like milk) and clothing and materials made from animals, as well as to trade them in exchange for grain. The Sami people of Scandinavia are pastoralists that herd sheep and reindeer.

Pesticides

Pesticides are substances used to destroy or repel living organisms that are deemed harmful to agriculture or otherwise inconvenient to humans. Organophosphates are a type of pesticide that attack the central nervous system.

Plantation agriculture

Plantation agriculture is a type of commercial agriculture that utilizes a large farm (often in developing countries) for the purpose of cultivating just one or two types of crops. A 10,000-acre farm in Colombia that specializes only in sugar cane, yet provides sugar to one of the United States' largest restaurant chains, would be an example of plantation agriculture.

Primary economic activity

Primary economic activity is the economic sector concerned with the extraction of raw materials from the earth. Coal mining would be considered a primary economic activity.

Primogeniture

Primogeniture is the right of the firstborn child (usually the firstborn son) to inherit all of a family's land. The practice of primogeniture, with favor given towards the male child, is particularly common in many agricultural communities in developing countries. A family farm in Ethiopia that passes through successive generation without being split up could be the result of primogeniture, in that the claim to the land in its entirety is singularly held by the eldest child.

Quaternary economic activity

Quaternary economic activity is the economic sector concerned with the pursuit of knowledge and research, in such field that may directly or indirectly affect consumer activities. An agricultural researcher who is focused on developing a hardier strain of corn would be an example of someone engaged in a quaternary economic activity.

Quinary economic activity

Quinary economic activity is the economic sector concerned with guiding/directing all other economic sectors. The CEO of a major clothing company would be an example of someone engaged in a quinary economic activity, because his or her decisions would impact everyone involved in all stages of the clothing's production, from the cotton farmers to the textile manufacturers to the store clerks to the market analysts.

Ridge tillage

Ridge tillage is a sustainable agricultural practice in which crops on planted on the tops of ridges, which typically measure 10 to 20 centimeters high. A North Carolina farmer practiced ridge tillage when growing cotton in order to promote higher-quality soil (due to the fact that the ridge tops are low-trafficked), reduce production costs (because ridge tillage requires fewer tractors, and no plow or field cultivator), and increase drainage capabilities (due to the fact that earthworms and decaying roots, which are left alone in ridge-till practices, create channels in the soil that help improve drainage).

Secondary economic activity

Secondary economic activity is the economic sector concerned with manufacturing the raw materials from the primary sector into a product that can be sold to consumers. A woodworker that shapes lumber into chairs would be engaged in a secondary economic activity.

Shifting cultivation - slash-and-burn, milpa, swidden

Shifting cultivation is a form of subsistence agriculture that involves cutting down and burning a field (i.e. slash-and-burn agriculture) to make room for crops and to enhance nutrients in the soil. The cleared field, which is sometimes referred to as a swidden or milpa, is then maintained for only several years, as the soil's nutrients are gradually depleted and the cycle is repeated over again in approximately six to twenty years. Shifting cultivation is practiced in developing regions around the world, including in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

Soil erosion

Soil erosion is the process by which soil particles are gradually displaced from an area due to either natural events (e.g. weather) or as an unintended consequence of human activities (e.g. agriculture). Overgrazing, which reduces the amount of vegetation that holds the soil in place, is one of many factors that contributes to soil erosion.

Spring wheat/winter wheat

Spring wheat is wheat which is best suited to being planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer. In North America, most spring wheat is grown in the Dakotas, Montana, and the southern portion of Canada's Saskatchewan province. Winter wheat is wheat which is best suited to being planted in the autumn, so that it may develop strong enough roots to survive throughout the winter months, and harvested the next summer after it has a chance to resume growth in the spring. In North America, most winter wheat is grown in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

Subsistence agriculture

Subsistence agriculture is agriculture for the purpose of provide sustenance to oneself and one's family. A family in China that cultivates a three-acre farm with a small variety of crops (perhaps rice, wheat, and some vegetables) that yields just enough food to support themselves throughout the year would be practicing subsistence agriculture.

Tertiary economic activity

Tertiary economic activity is the economic sector concerned with providing services to consumers (often selling the products created in the secondary sector). A clerk at a clothing storing would be engaged in a tertiary economic activity.

Tragedy of the commons

The "tragedy of the commons" in the theory proposed by Garrett Hardin which states that people will deplete and destroy openly shared resources out of their own self interest. The fact that the ocean is open to all has led to such problems as overfishing and pollution, thus illustrating the "tragedy of the commons." According to a 2005 article from the Science journal, current consumption rates could completely decimate all fisheries by the year 2048.

Green Revolution

The Green Revolution was the development of advanced agricultural practices, like using seeds that would yield more crops and applying fertilizer, with the intent of providing more food to more people. Farmers are becoming more involved with each step of the farming process, from sowing seeds to marketing their products, and rely increasingly on machines to assist their work.

Food chain

The food chain is a natural hierarchical system that describes the dietary habits of organisms. At the bottom of the food chain are primary producers, like grass, which survive off of inorganic compounds, often through photosynthesis. Higher on the food chain are primary, secondary, tertiary, and sometimes quaternary consumers, which survive off of organic matter. Primary consumers, like rabbits, typically only consume producers. Secondary consumers, like foxes, will eat primary consumers. Tertiary consumers will eat secondary consumers, and quaternary consumers will eat tertiary consumers.