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Agricultural Patterns and Processes Overview

Apr 22, 2025

AP Human Geography: Unit 5 | Barron's

Overview

  • Focus on agricultural and rural land-use patterns and processes
  • Agriculture has evolved significantly over 10,000 years
  • Key historical developments: First plant cultivation, Industrial Revolution, Green Revolution, Biotechnologic Revolution
  • Transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture
  • Challenges: Increased human populations and unsustainable farming practices

Key Concepts and Terms

Agribusiness

  • Economic and political systems organizing commercial food production
  • Involves seed production to retailing and consumption

Agriculture

  • Art and science of producing food and tending livestock for human consumption

Animal Husbandry

  • Raising domesticated animals: cattle, horses, sheep, goats

Aquaculture

  • Farming aquatic species in controlled environments as opposed to commercial fishing

Biotechnology

  • Use of living organisms to modify products or develop other organisms

Capital-Intensive Agriculture

  • Utilizes machinery and minimal human labor to produce large agricultural outputs

Commercial Agricultural Economy

  • Agricultural activities aimed at market selling, not local consumption

Commodity Chains

  • Processes linking resource gathering, production, packaging, distribution, and sales

Dairying

  • Raising livestock for dairy products: milk, cheese, butter

Desertification

  • Transformation of fertile land into arid, unproductive desert

Domestication

  • Human manipulation of plant and animal species for sustenance

Extensive Agriculture

  • Low labor input per land area

Feedlots

  • Concentrated livestock areas for rapid fattening using hormones and grains

Fertile Crescent

  • Historic zone near Mediterranean known for early domestication and agriculture

Food Security

  • Access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food for a healthy life

Genetically Modified Foods

  • Laboratory-altered organisms for improved resistance, productivity, or nutrition

Green Revolution

  • Adoption of high-yield, fast-growing crops with advanced technology, pesticides, and fertilizers, primarily in developing countries to improve food supply

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