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Von Thunen Model

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Developed by German geographer Johann Heinrich von Thunen, this model explains and predicts agricultural land use patterns in a theoretical state by varying transportation cost. Given the model's assumptions, the pattern that emerges predicts more-intensive rural land uses closer to the marketplace, and more-extensive rural land uses farther from the city's marketplace. These rural land use zones are divided in the model into concentric rings.

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Agribusiness

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System of food production involving everything from the development of seeds to the marketing and sale of food products at the market.

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Agriculture

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Growing plants or raising animals to produce food for sustenance or sale at the marketplace.

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Biotechnology

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Using living organisms to produce or change plant or animal products.

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Capital-intensive farm

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Farm that makes heavy use of machinery in the farming process.

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Commercial farming

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Growing food to be sold in groceries and markets, not just to be eaten by the farmers themselves.

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Dairying

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Growth of milk-based products for the marketplace.

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Debt-for-nature swaps

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Efforts to preserve natural farmland by forgiving international debts owed by developing countries in exchange for those countries protecting natural land resources from human destruction.

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Desertification

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Loss of habitable land to the expansion of deserts.

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Double cropping

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Planting and harvesting a crop on a field more than once a year.

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Enclosure movement

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As feudalism faded away and capitalism grew, this movement divided the common farm- one the villagers all farmed together- into individual farming plots. Many farmers who did not get private plots moved to the growing cities.

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Ester Boserup

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Geographer who developed the theory that subsistence farmers want the most leisure time they can have, so they farm in ways that will allow them both to feed their families and to maximize free time. Boserup's theory also posited that farmers will change their approach to farming if the population increases and more food is needed, thus making the food supply dependent on human innovation, rather than humans dependent on the food supply.

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Extensive subsistence agriculture

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Using a large amount of land to farm food for the farmer's family to eat.

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Famine

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Mass starvation resulting from prolonged undernutrition in a region during a certain period.

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First agricultural revolution

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Period marked by the development of seed agriculture and the use of animals in the farming process just 12,000 years ago; also called the Neolithic Revolution.

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Genetic modification

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Form of biotechnology that uses scientific, genetic manipulation of crop and animal products to improve agricultural productivity and products.

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Green Revolution

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As an outgrowth of the third agricultural revolution, this effort began in the 1940s and developed new strains of hybrid seeds and fertilizers that dramatically increased the crop output possible from each farm.

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Hunters and gatherers

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Nomadic people who do not remain stationary but follow herds of wild animals and forage for plants for survival

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Intensive subsistence agriculture

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Cultivating a small amount of land very efficiently to produce food for the farmer's family.

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Intertillage

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Practice of mixing many types of seeds on the same plot of land.

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Labor-intensive farm

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Farm that uses much human labor.

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Land rent

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Price a farmer must pay for each acre of land.

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Large-scale grain farm

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Extensive commercial grain farm where the grain typically is grown to be exported to other place for consumption.

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Mediterranean agriculture

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Type of farming involving wheat, barley, vine, and tree crops and grazing for sheep and goats; primarily associated with the region near the Mediterranean Sea and places with climates that have hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.

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Milkshed

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Zone around the city's center in which milk can be produced and shipped to the marketplace without spoiling.

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Mixed crop and livestock farming

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Category of agriculture in which farmers both grow crops and raise animals.

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Open-lot system

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System of agricultural land distribution in which all villagers worked on one large plot of community farmland to produce a crop to eat.

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Pastoralism

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Breeding and herding of animals to produce food, shelter, and clothing for survival.

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Plantation agriculture

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Farming that involves large-scale operations, known as plantations or agricultural estates, specializing in the farming of one or two high-demand crops for export, usually to more-developed regions.

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Ranching

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Raising animals on a plot of land on which they feed or graze.

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Seed agriculture

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Developed later than vegetative planting, this type of farming involves plating seeds rather than simply planting part of the parent plant.

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Shifting cultivation

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Form of extensive subsistence agriculture in which farmers rotate the fields they cultivate to allow the soil to replenish its nutrients, rather than farming the same plot of land over and over.

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Slash-and-burn agriculture

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Common way that subsistence farmers prepare a new plot of land for farming; system in which the land is cleared by cutting the existing plants on the land and then burning the rest to create a cleared plot of new farmland.

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Soil erosion

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Loss of the nutrient-rich top layer in soil.

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Subsistence farming

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Growing only enough food to feed the farmer's own families.

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Sustainable yield

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Rate of crop production that can be maintained over time.

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Swidden

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Plot of land prepared by subsistence farmers using the slash-and-burn method.

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Third agricultural revolution

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Period in which agriculture became globalized and industrialized, and new technologies increased the food supply.

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Transhumance

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Movement of animal herds to cooler highland areas in the summer to warmer lowland areas in the winter.

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Truck farm

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Commercial flower farm or garden.

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Undernutrition

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Case of not getting enough calories or nutrients.

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Vegetative planting

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Process of cultivating by simply cutting off a stem of another plant or by dividing roots of a plant; developed before seed agriculture.

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