AP Human Geography Unit 5

• Population distribution refers to the pattern of where people live within a given area or region.
• Growing season


  the period of each year when crops can be grown

  
• Globalized agriculture

  consumer driven agriculture integrated on an international scale

  
• Forestry


  the art, science, and practice of studying and managing forests and plantations

  
• Food chain


  the feeding relationships between species in a biotic community

  
• Feedlot


  factory like farm devoted to either livestock fattening or dairying; all feed is imported and no crops are grown on the farm

  
• Farming


  the process of growing crops and raising livestock

  
• Farm crisis


  mass production of farm products that lowers the prices, which lowers the profits for farmers

  
• Extractive industry


  industries involved in the activities of: prospecting and exploring for a nonrenewable resource, getting them, further exploring them, developing them, or extracting them from the earth

  
• Herding/pastoralism


  continual movement of livestock in search of forage for animals

  
• Nomadic


  continual movement, often rotating livestock

  
• Swidden


  patch of land cleared for planting thorough slashing and burning

  
• Slash-and-burn


  the process of cutting down all vegetation and burning it to grow crops. Usually used in tropical areas in shifting cultivation

  
• Shifting cultivation

  cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. the clearings are usually abandoned after a few years in favor of newly cleared forest land

  
• Extensive subsistence agriculture


  the use of a lot of labor usually on a small plot of land

  
• Desertification


  the process of land becoming similar to that of a desert

  
• Soil erosion


  the wearing away of a fields topsoil by water or the environment

  
• Pesticides


  toxic substances released to kill living things

  
• Environmental modification


  changes made to the environment

  
• Quinary Activity


  high level of specialized knowledge or technical skill

  
• Quarternary Activity


  collection, processing, and manipulation of information and capital

  
• Tertiary activity


  transportation, banking, retailing, education, and routine office-based jobs

  
• Secondary activity

  the processing of raw materials into finished products; manufacturing

  
• Primary activity


  the extraction of natural resources, such as agriculture, lumbering, and mining

  
• Double cropping


  a second crop is planted after the first has been harvested

  
• Diffusion


  the spread of an idea from one area to another

  
• Debt-for-nature swap

  In a debt for nature swap, creditors agree to forgive debts in return for the promise of environmental protection; attempt to solve two problems with one agreement: 1) minimize the negative effect debt has on developing nations 2) minimize the environmental destruction that developing nations frequently cause

  
• Dairying


  raising female cattle, goats, or certain other lactating livestock for long-term production of milk

  
• Cultivation regions


  the regions in which large amounts of agriculture take place

  
• Crop rotation

  the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil

  
• Core/Periphery


  As one region or state expands in economic prosperity, it must engulf regions nearby to ensure ongoing economic and political success

  
• Intensive


  expenditure of much labor and capital on a piece of land to increase its productivity

  
• Commercial agriculture


  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

  
• Collective farm


  regards a system of agricultural organization whereas farm laborers are not compensated via wages. Rather, the workers receive a share of the farm's net productivity

  
• Biotechnology


  means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use

  
• Bio-revolution


  the rapid transformation, or evolution, into post-humanism

  
• Aquaculture


  the cultivation of aquatic organisms (as fish or shellfish) especially for food

  
• Animal domestication


  animals kept for some utilitarian purpose whose breeding is controlled by humans and whose survival is dependent on humans; differ genetically and behaviorally from wild animals

  
• Agricultural origins

  Fertile crescent - originated in the hearths of humanity

  
• Agricultural landscape


  the cultural landscape of agricultural areas