| Term | Definition |
|---|
| organic agriculture | approach to farming and ranching that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs |
| agriculture | the purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber |
| primary economic activity | economic activity concerned with the direct extraction of natural resources from the environment-- such as mining, fishing, lumbering, and especially agriculture |
| secondary economic activity | economic activity involving the processing of raw materials and their transformation into finished industrial products; the manufacturing sector |
| tertiary economic activity | economic activity associated with the provision of services-- such as transportation, banking, retailing, education, and routine office-based jobs |
| quaternary economic activity | service sector industries concerned with the collection, processing, and manipulation of information and capital.. examples include fianance, administration, insurance, and legal services |
| quinary economic activity | service sector industries that require a highlevel of specialized knowledge or technical skill.. examples include scientific research and high-level management |
| plant domestication | genetic modification of a plant such that its reproductive success depends on human intervention |
| root crops | crop that is reproduced by cultivating the roots of or the cuttings from the plants |
| seed crops | crop that is reproduced by cultivating the seeds of the plants |
| First Agricultural Revolution | Dating back 10,000 years, the First Agricultural Revolution achieved plant domestication and animal domestication |
| animal domestication | Genetic modification of an animal such that it is rendered more amenable to human control |
| subsistence agriculture | Self-sufficient agriculture that is small scale and low technology and emphasizes food production for local consumption, not for trade |
| shifting cultivation | Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. These clearings are usully abandoned after a few years in favor of newly cleared forestland. Also known as slash-and-burn agriculture. |
| slash-and-burn agriculture | One kind of shifting cultivation; (also called milpa agriculture and patch agriculture) |
| Second Agricultural Revolution | Dovetailing with and benefiting from the Industrial Revolution, the Second Agricultural Revolution witnessed improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce |
| von Thunen model | A model that explains the location of agricultureal 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 |
| Third Agricultural Revolution | Currently in progress, the Third Agricultural Revolution has as its principal orientation the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) |
| Green Revolution | 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. |
| genetically modified organisms (GMOs) | Crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods |
| rectangular survey system | Also called the Public Land Survey, the system was used by the US Land Office Survey to parcel land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The system divides land into a series of rectangular parcels. |
| township and range system | A rectangular land division scheme designed by Thomas Jefferson to disperse settlers evenly across farmlands of the U.S. interior. |
| metes and bounds 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 metes and bounds surveying, the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the rectangular survey system. |
| longlot 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. |
| primogeniture | System which the eldest son in a family-- or, in exceptional cases, daughter-- inherits all of a dying parent's land |
| commercial agriculture | Term used to describe large scale farming and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factor-type labor forces, and the latest technology. |
| monoculture | Dependence on a single agricultural commodity |
| Koppen climatic classification system | Developed by Wladimir Koppen, a system for classifying the world's climates on the basis of temperature and precipitatiion |
| climatic regions | Areas of the world with similar climatic characteristics |
| plantation agriculture | 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 |
| luxury crops | Non-subsistence crops such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco |
| livestock ranching | The raising of domesticated animals for the production of meat and other byproducts such as leather and wool |
| Mediterranean agriculture | Specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails |
| agribusiness | General term for the businesses that provide the vast array of goods and services that support the agriculture industry |
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