Human Geography: Chapter 7

Front 1

Agribusiness

Back 1

The set of economic and political relationships that organize food production for commercial purposes. It includes activities ranging form seed production, to retailing, to consumption of agricultural products.

Front 2

Animal husbandry

Back 2

The art and science of producing food from the land and tending livestock for the purpose of human consumption.

Front 3

Capital-intensive agriculture

Back 3

Form of agriculture that uses mechanical goods such as machinery, tools, vehicles, and facilities to produce large amounts of agricultural goods--a process requiring very little human labor.

Front 4

Domestication

Back 4

The conscious manipulation of plant and animal species by humans in order to sustain themselves.

Front 5

Extensive agriculture

Back 5

An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area.

Front 6

Fertile Crescent

Back 6

Area located in the crescent-shaped zone near the southeastern Mediterranean coast (including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey), which was once a lush environment and one of the first hearths of domestication and thus agricultural activity.

Front 7

Intensive cultivation

Back 7

Any kind of agricultural activity than involves effective and efficient use of labor on small plots of land to maximize crop yield.

Front 8

Labor-intensive agriculture

Back 8

Type of agriculture that requires large levels of manual labor to be successful.

Front 9

Mediterranean agriculture

Back 9

An agricultural system practiced in the Mediterranean-style climates of Western Europe, California, and portions of Chile and Australia, in which diverse specialty crops such as grapes, avocados, olives, and a host of nuts, fruits, and vegetables comprise profitable agricultural operations. Climate is usually warm wet winters and dry summers.

Front 10

Pastoralism

Back 10

A type of agricultural activity based on nomadic animal husbandry or the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter.

Front 11

Shifting cultivation

Back 11

The use of tropical forest clearings for crop production until their fertility is lost. Plots are then abandoned, and farmers move on to new sites.

Front 12

Swidden

Back 12

Land that is prepared for agriculture by using the slash-and-burn method.

Front 13

Transhumance

Back 13

The movements of livestock according to seasonal patterns, generally lowland areas in the winter, and highland areas in the summer.

Front 14

Urban sprawl

Back 14

The process of urban areas expanding outwards, usually in the form of suburbs, and developing over fertile agricultural land.

Front 15

von Thunen model

Back 15

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 closet 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.