APHUG - Chapter 11 Vocab

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

The purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber

Economic activity concerned with the direct extraction of natural resources from the environment--such as mining, fishing, lumbering, and especially agriculture

Economic activity involving the processing of raw materials and their transformation into finished industrial products; the manufacturing sector

Economic activity associated with the provision of services--such as transportation, banking, retailing, education, and routine office-based jobs

Service sector industries concerned with the collection, processing, and manipulation of information and capital. Examples include finance, administration, insurance, and legal services

Service sector industries that require a high level of specialized knowledge or technical skill. Examples include scientific research and high-level management

Genetic modification of a plant such that its reproductive success depends on human intervention

Crops that are reproduced by cultivating the roots of or the cuttings from the plants

Crops that are reproduced by cultivating the seeds of the plants

Dating back 10,000 years, the [________________] achieved plant domestication and animal domestication

Genetic modification of an animal such that it is rendered more amenable to human control

Self-sufficient agriculture that is small scale and low technology and emphasizes food production for local consumption, not for trade

Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. These clearings are usually abandoned after a few years in favor of newly cleared forestland. Also known as slash-and-burn agriculture

See shifting cultivation - in other words, a form of agriculture in which vegetation is removed by hand ("slashed") and then burned in place to prepare a field for planting

A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. A process of spatial competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a central market city, with profit-earning capability the determining force in how far a crop locates from the market

Currently in progress, the [______________________] has as its principal orientation the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Technology designed to manipulate seed varieties to increase crop yields

The recently successful development of higher-yield, fast-growing varieties of rice and other cereals in certain developing countries, which led to increased production per unit area and a dramatic narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs

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

Also called the Public Land Survey, the system was used by the U.S. Land Office Survey to parcel land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The system divides land into a series of rectangular parcels

A rectangular land division scheme designed by Thomas Jefferson to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands of the U.S. interior. See also rectangular survey system

A system of land surveying east of the Appalachian Mountains. It is a system that relies on descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of [___________], the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the rectangular survey system

Distinct regional approach to land surveying found in the Canadian Maritimes, parts of Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals

System which the eldest son in a family--or, in exceptional cases, daughter--inherits all of a dying parent’s land

Term used to describe large-scale farming and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology

Dependence on a single agricultural commodity

Developed by Wladimir Koppen, a system for classifying the world’s climates on the basis of temperature and precipitation

Areas of the world with similar climatic characteristics

Production system based on a large estate owned by an individual, family, or corporation and organized to produce a cash crop. Almost all plantations were established within the tropics; in recent decades, many have been divided into smaller holdings or reorganized as cooperatives

The raising of domesticated animals for the production of meat and other byproducts such as leather and wool

Specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails

An agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit

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

General term for the businesses that provide the vast array of goods and services that support the agriculture industry

An area characterized by a lack of affordable, fresh, and nutritious food

Dovetailing with and benefiting from the Industrial Revolution, the [______________] witnessed improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce