Unit 5 All Words

Question 1

Agribusiness

Answer 1

farming engaged in as a large-scale business operation embracing the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and the manufacture of farm machinery, equipment, and supplies;

commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations

Agribusiness is like a huge farming business that does a lot more than just grow crops or raise animals. It’s not only about farming, but also about making and selling things needed for farming, like tractors and fertilizers. Plus, it includes turning the crops and livestock into food products that you can buy in stores.

So, agribusiness is not just about farming; it’s about the whole process of making food, from start to finish.

Examples
- John Deere
- Tyson Foods (make chicken)

Question 2

Agricultural Location Theory

Answer 2

AKA von Thünen Model; a model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy;

process of spatial competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a central market city, with profit-earning capability the determining force

This is about a way to understand where different kinds of farming happen in areas where people farm to make money. Imagine a big city at the center, like the middle of a target. Around this city, there are rings, like the circles around a bullseye. Each ring has different types of farming. The type of farming in each ring depends on how much money the farmers can make. The closer a crop is to the city, the more expensive it is to transport, so only the crops that make a lot of money are grown close to the city. As you move further away from the city, you start to see crops that don’t need to be sold as quickly or are cheaper to transport. This idea helps us understand why farmers in how far a crop locates from the market

Question 3

Agriculture

Answer 3

deliberate modification of Earth’s surface through cultivation of plans and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain

Question 4

Aquaculture

Answer 4

use of river segments or artificial bodies of water such as ponds for the raising and harvesting of food products including fish, shellfish, and seaweed

Question 5

Bid-rent Theory

Answer 5

a geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand for real estate changes as the distance from the Central Business District (CBD) decreases

Question 6

Biodiversity

Answer 6

the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat

Question 7

Biotechnology

Answer 7

use of genetically engineered crops in agriculture and DNA manipulation in livestock in order to increase production

Question 8

British Enclosure Movement

Answer 8

the process of consolidating small landholdings into a smaller number of larger farms in England during the eighteenth century

Question 9

Cash crop

Answer 9

an agricultural crop that is purposely made strictly to be sold in a market environment for as much money as possible;

most cash crops, which include cotton, opium, grains, and many other products, are grown in a monoculture environment, where they are the only product grown on a piece of land

Question 10

Center pivot irrigation

Answer 10

a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot and crops are watered with sprinklers

Question 11

Columbian Exchange

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Commercial agriculture

Answer 12

agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm

Question 13

Commercialization

Answer 13

the organization of something in a way intended to make a profit

Question 14

Commodity chain

Answer 14

(global supply 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

Question 15

Community-supported agriculture (CSA)

Answer 15

network between agricultural producers and consumers whereby consumers pledge support to farming operation in order to receive a share of the output from farming operation

Question 16

Conservation

Answer 16

sustainable use and management of Earth’s natural resources to meet human needs such as food, medicine, and recreation

Question 17

Corn Belt

Answer 17

area of the United States (Midwest) in which more land is used for the cultivation of corn than any other crop

Question 18

Crop

Answer 18

any plant cultivated by people

Question 19

Crop rotation

Answer 19

the practice of growing different crops in succession on the same land chiefly to preserve the productive capacity of the soil

Question 20

Debt-for-nature swap

Answer 20

financial transactions in which a portion of a developing nation’s foreign debt is forgiven in exchange for local investments in environmental conservation measures

Question 21

Deforestation

Answer 21

the destruction of forest or forested areas by human or natural means; notable human-based causes are slash and burn agriculture and production of forest products (i.e. logging)

Question 22

Desertification

Answer 22

a type of land degradation in drylands involving loss of biological productivity caused by natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly more arid

Question 23

Double cropping

Answer 23

the planting and harvesting on the same parcel of land twice per year

Question 24

Economy of scale

Answer 24

lower production costs as a result of larger volume of production

Question 25

Extensive agriculture

Answer 25

an agricultural production system that uses small inputs of labor, fertilizers, and capital, relative to the land area being farmed - Small amounts of input (people/labor, fertilizers, money) compared to amount of land - low production per unit of land - Farmers work with the environment (little fertilizers/chemicals) - Types - shifting cultivation - nomadic herding - livestock ranching

Question 26

Factory farm

Answer 26

a large industrialized farm; a farm on which large numbers of livestock are raised indoors in conditions intended to maximize production at minimal cost

Question 27

Fair Trade

Answer 27

global movement to improve the lives of farmers and workers in developing countries by ensuring that they have access to export markets and are paid a fair price for their products

Question 28

Fallow

Answer 28

a field not being used for any productivity

Question 29

Fertile Crescent

Answer 29

the region where the first settled agricultural communities of the Middle East and Mediterranean basin are thought to have originated by the early 9th millennium BCE; area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

Question 30

First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic Revolution)

Answer 30

- the transformation of human societies from hunting and gathering to farming; - occurred worldwide between 10,000 BC and 2000 BC, with the earliest known developments taking place in the Middle East; - farming and the raising of livestock tied people to land for cultivation and grazing grounds, and this transition gave rise to permanent settlements; - for tens of thousands of years, the dominant structure of human life had been small nomadic bands; - from this point on, most humans would live in fixed locations that ranged from villages to cities; - this settlement, in turn, led to the development of job specialization, complex political structures, non-portable possessions, architecture, and the rise of industry and commerce

Question 31

Food desert

Answer 31

an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food, in contrast with an area with higher access to supermarkets or vegetable shops with fresh foods, which is called a food oasis

Question 32

Food insecurity

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Genetically modified crop / GMO

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Green Revolution

Answer 34

AKA Third Agricultural Revolution; the development of higher-yield and fast-growing crops through increased technology, pesticides, and fertilizers transferred from the developed to developing world to alleviate the problem of food supply in those regions of the globe

Question 35

High-yield seeds

Answer 35

seeds that have been bred, genetically modified, or fertilized to increase their production yields

Question 36

Horticulture

Answer 36

AKA market gardening; cultivation, processing, and sale of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and ornamental plants

Question 37

Hunter-gatherer

Answer 37

the killing of wild animals and fish as well as the gathering of fruits, roots, nuts, and other plants for sustenance

Question 38

Indus River Valley

Answer 38

one of the original agricultural hearths; located in the valley of the Indus River in South Asia

Question 39

Industrial agriculture

Answer 39

modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops

Question 40

Intensive agriculture

Answer 40

a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per cubic unit of agricultural land area

Question 41

Intensive subsistence agriculture

Answer 41

a form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land

Question 42

Livestock ranching

Answer 42

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

Question 43

Local-food movement

Answer 43

a principle of sustainability relying on consumption of food products locally grown

Question 44

Long lot

Answer 44

long, narrow land divisions, usually lined up along a waterway

Question 45

Luxury crop

Answer 45

a crop that is grown to serve some purpose other than sustaining human life

Question 46

Mediterranean agriculture

Answer 46

practice of crop cultivation undertaken in areas with Mediterranean climates; named for climate prevalent in the Mediterranean sea, but found anywhere that has such a climate; features crops like grapes and olives and is practiced in countries like Italy, Greece, and Spain on the Mediterranean and in regions of other countries such as Chile, Australia, the United States, and Argentina

Question 47

Mediterranean climate

Answer 47

a climate distinguished by warm, wet winters under prevailing westerly winds and calm, hot, dry summers, as is characteristic of the Mediterranean region and parts of California, Chile, South Africa, and southwestern Australia

Question 48

Metes and bounds

Answer 48

limits or boundaries of a tract of land as identified by natural landmarks, such as rivers, or by man-made structures, such as roads, or by stakes or other markers; a principal legal type of land description in the United States, metes-and-bounds descriptions are commonly used wherever survey areas are irregular in size and shape

Question 49

Milkshed

Answer 49

the ring surrounding a city from which milk can be supplied without spoiling

Question 50

Mixed crop and livestock

Answer 50

Integration of crops and livestock on a single farm

Question 51

Monocropping / Monoculture

Answer 51

the deliberate cultivation of only one single crop in a large land area

Question 52

Multicroppping

Answer 52

when farmers grow two or more crops simultaneously on the same field (AKA intercropping)

Question 53

Organic Farming

Answer 53

approach to farming and ranching that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs

Question 54

Overgrazing

Answer 54

excessive grazing which causes damage to grassland

Question 55

Overproduction

Answer 55

production of more of a product, commodity, or substance than is wanted or needed

Question 56

Paddy / sawah

Answer 56

a field where rice is grown (sawah in Indonesia)

Question 57

Pastoral Nomadism / Pastoralism

Answer 57

people travel from place to place with their herds of domesticated animals seeking pastureland

Question 58

Pesticide

Answer 58

a substance used for destroying insects or other organisms harmful to cultivated plants or to animals

Question 59

Plantation Farming

Answer 59

agriculture featuring a large commercial farm that specializes in one crop, usually found in the low latitudes (tropics), and in hot, humid climates with substantial precipitation; typically labor intensive and exploitive of cheap labor available in nearby villages and towns

Question 60

Primary Sector

Answer 60

any industry involved in primary production, that is the extraction and collection of natural resources; such as farming, forestry, hunting, fishing and mining

Question 61

Ridge Tillage

Answer 61

system of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation

Question 62

Saturated Market

Answer 62

a market with little or no chance of further sales as all prospective customers have the product or a substitute that will do the same job

Question 63

Second Agricultural Revolution

Answer 63

the introduction of new crop rotation techniques and selective breeding of livestock that led to a marked increase in agricultural production and coincided with the Industrial Revolution

Question 64

Shifting Cultivation

Answer 64

subsistence agriculture in which farmers, usually in tropical climate regions, move from one field to another; alternately known as slash-and-burn or swidden agriculture because farmers sometimes clear the land by vegetation, plant and harvest crops until the land becomes less fertile, then move to another are of dense, wild vegetation and repeat the process

Question 65

Slash-and-burn

Answer 65

all vegetation in an area of forest is cut down and burned in place, providing nutrients to the soil so it can be farmed

Question 66

Soil salinization

Answer 66

occurs when soil in an arid climate has been made available for agricultural production using irrigation; water evaporates quickly off the newly irrigated land, leaving residues of salt lying in the earth; over time this causes the land to become infertile

Question 67

Subsidies

Answer 67

sums of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive

Question 68

Subsistence agriculture

Answer 68

farming primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer's family

Question 69

Suitcase farm

Answer 69

a grower of wheat or other crops who lives outside the community except during the plowing, seeding, and harvesting seasons, often has a farm without buildings, and does much of the farming by hired custom operators

Question 70

Sustainability

Answer 70

the ability to meet humanity’s current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs

Question 71

Sustainable agriculture

Answer 71

farming that has as its goal to meet society’s food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Question 72

Terraced agriculture

Answer 72

method of growing crops on sides of hills or mountains by planting on graduated terraces built into the slope

Question 73

Township and Range

Answer 73

a rectangular land division scheme designed by Thomas Jefferson to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands of the U.S. interior

Question 74

Tragedy of the Commons

Answer 74

the observation that in the absence of collective control over the use of a resource available to all, it is to the advantage of all users to maximize their separate shares even though their collective pressures may diminish total yield or destroy the resource - over pumping (mining) of groundwater - diverting of fresh water from rivers for agriculture, cities and industry that very little reaches the sea - overfishing of seafood in the Atlantic and Pacific - Air pollution (adding GHG and smog to the air) - water pollution (nitrogren, phosphorus, pesticides, heavy metals and so on) - Uncontrolled human population growth leading to overpopulation - Deforestation for agriculture - Habitat disruption and fragmentation

Question 75

Transhumance

Answer 75

seasonal herding of animals from higher elevations in the summer to lower elevations and valleys in the winter

Question 76

Tropical climate

Answer 76

a climate characteristic in areas from the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south and to the Tropic of Cancer in the north; a non-arid, frost-free climate in which the mean temperature is about 64°F throughout the year; temperatures in tropical climates, remain relatively constant all year long as variations for different seasons are dominated by rainfall; comprise of only two seasons which are the dry season and the wet season

Question 77

Truck Farming

Answer 77

commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities

Question 78

Urban Farming

Answer 78

the production, distribution, and marketing of food and other products within the geographical limits of a metropolitan area

Question 79

Value-added speciality crop

Answer 79

a crop whose physical state or form has been changed, allowing the producer to charge a higher price (such as organic crops or fruit preserves)

Question 80

Wheat Belt

Answer 80

the part of the North American Great Plains where wheat is the dominant crop