ap human geography

• reservoirs are artificial lakes created by building dams and stores water for irrigation purposes
• aquifers are tapped in for water source (irrigation)
• time-space-compression due to efficient transportation expanded markets available to most producers
• increased interdependence of agricultural production and consumption resulted to global scale supply chain to be more complex
• due to population growth, the share of imports between peripheral and semi-peripheral and other peripheral and semi-peripheral is increasing.
• core countries are the leading agricultural exporters and importers
• components of agribusiness: distribution, finance, processing, marketing, production
• 5 trends for agrifood industry 2021: health, convenience and tech, alternative proteins, sustainability and reducing waste, new flavors and experiences
• economic factors that influence type of agriculture: consumer preferences and market demand, availability of capital, cost of materials, land, labor, gov't policies
• subsistence farming mostly occurs in rural parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America...farmers live in poverty
• labor costs are low relative to the cost of machinery
• farmers less access to financial capital and livelihoods of 90% of rural people depend on agri.
• when supply is high, price goes down. prices can drop so low that production rate would be higher than value of product, putting farmers out of business; HOWEVER, U.S. gov't protects farmers with low-cost loans, insurance and farm subsides, or direct payment.
• Debt-for-nature is not an organization, but a type of financial transaction in which a creditor forgives or reduces a debtor’s foreign debt in exchange for environmental conservation actions by the debtor
• benefits of female agriculture empowerment==> children nutrition and education when their mothers' income increases//communities benefit when women spend money on schooling etc.// may improve food insecurity
• steps to empowering female farmers: education, technical support, access to capital, and gov't policies that promote gender equality
• How to close the gender gap - Boost women farmers access to: own land, hire and manage labor, join farmer groups, access production inputs and market information
• challenges for women in the agri. industry:

  1. in peripheral countries, women are stuck to mostly to subsistence farming and don't have land rights
  2. cultural biases can block women from growing money
  3. poor quality of life and work condition
  4. rigid gender roles can keep women from selling their crops at the market
• A state is a politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population.
• • State governments have power over a population that works together to contribute to an economy and is connected by transportation and communication systems.
  • A state has sovereignty, which is the right to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders.
• • A nation-state is a territory in which a group that views itself as a nation is the same as the politically recognized boundaries the state calls its own. 
  • The concept of a nation-state is an ideal rather than a reality, because countries are home to at least small ethnic or cultural minorities. 
  • Estonia, Japan, Iceland, Iran, Albania, Croatia, and Poland are examples of countries that are often identified as nation-states. 
• • Irredentism is attempt to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation. 
  • example: Russia’s annexation of Crimea and other territory in Ukraine
• • A multi-state nation consists of a population that shares a cultural or ethnic background but lives in more than one country. 
  • example: ethnic Russians 
  • Multistate nations can pose challenges to political borders because people may feel a stronger affinity for a neighboring state that is home to others of their ethnic group than to their own state.
• • Multinational states may struggle 

  to create a sense of unity.

  • examples: Iraq, Yugoslavia following 

  the breakup of the Soviet Union
• • Some countries contain regions that are autonomous or semi-autonomous.
  • Autonomous and semi-autonomous regions are given some authority to govern their own territories.
  • examples: Hong Kong, American Indian reservations
  • A stateless nation is a people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state
  • examples: tribal nations in the United States, Basque people of Spain, Palestine, the Kurds
• • Territoriality is a concept with many dimensions. 
  • defined as “an attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area”
• • Colonialism describes the practice of claiming and dominating overseas territories.
  • Neocolonialism describes the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies. 
• • A choke point is a narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass.
  • Choke points can be straits, canals, or other restricted passages.
  • Today, large volumes of commodities such as oil and food pass through waterway choke points.
  • Choke points are sources of power, influence, and wealth for the countries that control them.
• • A shatterbelt is a region with ongoing political instability.
  • States form, join, and break up because of ongoing, sometimes violent, conflicts among parties and because they are caught between the interests of powerful outside states.
  • Long-lasting antagonism between religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups may exist in shatterbelt regions. 
  • example: Balkan Peninsula
• • Self-determination is the right of all people to choose their own political status.
  • The Balkan Peninsula shatterbelt is a consequence of nations fighting for self-determination against outside powers and against their neighbors.
  • A state may rely strongly on another for economic help.
• • Imperialism is the push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other peoples or nations.
  • Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium were imperial powers.
  • Impacts of imperialism are still felt today, particularly with regard to language and religion.
  • The Berlin Conference of 1884 divided Africa among European nations, disregarding existing boundaries\
• Devolution occurs when the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders.
• • defining: explicitly stating in legally binding documentation such as a treaty where borders are located
  • delimiting: drawing boundaries on a map in accordance with a legal agreement
  • demarcating: marking a boundary with stones, pillars, walls, fences, or other physical objects
  • administering: defending boundaries by managing the way they are maintained and how goods and people will cross them
• • Antecedent boundaries are established before many people settle in an area.
  • Subsequent boundaries are drawn in areas that have been settled by people and where cultural landscapes already exist or are in the process of being created.
  • A consequent boundary is a type of subsequent boundary that takes into account differences within an existing cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicities, or other traits.
• • Superimposed boundaries aredrawn over existing borders byan outside or conquering force.
• • Geometric boundaries are mathematical. They follow lines of latitude and longitude or are straight-line arcs between two points.
  • Relics are former boundaries that once existed but no longer have an official function.
• • Sea, or maritime, boundaries can exist miles out to sea.
  • Maritime boundaries allow countries to access offshore resources such as oil and coastal sites for wind farms.
  • Countries with maritime boundaries are often more economically developed than those that are landlocked because of the advantages conferred by having ports to facilitate trade.
• • The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) established the structure of maritime boundaries:
  • A country’s territorial seas extend 12 nautical miles off its coast.
  • A country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extends 200 nautical miles from its coast.
  • Coastal countries are required to employ sound environmental practices in the waters they control. 
  • Coastal countries must make public any dangers to navigation in their territorial waters.
• • ethnic separatism, when people of a 

  particular ethnicity identify more 

  strongly as members of their ethnic 

  group than as citizens of the state

  • economic and social problems
• • Devolutionary factors related to physical geography include:
  • distance of different groups within a state from its center of power
  • Friction of distance and distance decay play a role in dividing groups that are farther from the state’s capital.
  • fragmented physical geography
  • A state may be spread over a group of islands or disrupted by mountain ranges.