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Agribusiness

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The interconnected industry of food production involving farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers.

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Agriculture

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Activities centered on cultivating domesticated crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber for use or consumption.

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Agro-biotech

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One facet of the third agricultural revolution that seeks to improve the quality and yield of crops and livestock using techniques such as cross-breeding, hybridization, and, more recently, genetic engineering.

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Agroforestry

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The purposeful integration of trees with crops and/or livestock in the same field simultaneously or sequentially.

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Biofuel

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Fuel derived from renewable biological material, such as plant matter.

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Cash Crop

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Broadly, any high-value crop sold for profit.

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Commercial Agriculture

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A farming system that relies heavily on purchased inputs and in which products are sold for use or consumption away from the farm.

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Commercial Dairy Farming

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The management of cattle for producing and marketing milk, butter, cheese, or other milk by-products.

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Commercial Gardening

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The intensive production of nontropical fruits, vegetables, and flowers for sale off the farm.

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Commercial Grain Farming

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Agriculture involving the large-scale, highly mechanized cultivation of grain.

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Crop Rotation

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Growing a sequence of different crops in the same field in order to maintain soil fertility and health.

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Desertification

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The creation of desert-like conditions in nondesert areas through human and/or environmental causes.

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Domestication

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An ongoing process of selecting plants or animals for specific characteristics and influencing their reproduction in ways that make them visibly and/or behaviorally distinct from their wild ancestors.

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Double Cropping

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Completing the cycle from planting to harvesting on the same field twice a year.

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Dual Economy

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An economy in which to production systems operate virtually independently from one another.

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Dual Society

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A society that is sharply divided into two social classes such as upper-class plantation managers and lower-class plantation laborers.

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Extensive Agriculture

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An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor, capital, or equipment per unit area of land.

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Factory Farm

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A farm that houses huge quantities of livestock or poultry in buildings, dry-lot dairies, or feedlots.

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Feedlot

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Confined space used for the controlled feeding of animals.

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First Agriculture Revolution

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The rise of agriculture, which began with the domestication of plants and animals some 11,000 yrs ago.

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Four-Course System

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A system of crop rotation that is based on a four-year planting regime that removes a fallow period, balances the planting of food crops with feed crops, and incorporates legumes that enrich the soil.

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Gene Revolution

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The shift, since the 1980's, to greater private and corporate involvement in and control of the research, development, intellectual property rights, and genetic engineering of highly specialized agricultural products, especially crop varieties.

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Global Food Crisis

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A protracted condition of food insecurity worldwide in scope of significance.

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Green Revolution

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The dramatic increase in grain production between 1965 and 1985 in Asia and Latin America from high-yielding, fertilizer-and irrigation- dependent varieties of wheat, rice, and corn

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Hunting and Gathering

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Hunting wild animals, fishing, and gathering wild plants for food.

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Intensive Agriculture

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An agricultural system characterized by high inputs, such as labor, capital, or equipment, per unit area of land.

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Intercropping

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The strategy of planting two or more crops in a field at the same time.

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Livestock Ranching

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A form of agriculture devoted to raising large numbers of cattle or sheep for sale to meat processors.

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Mediterranean Agriculture

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As historically practiced, a form of agroforestry that integrated cultivation of livestock, a grain crop, and a tree or vine crop, and that is today increasingly affected by specialization.

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Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

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A farming system in various stages of evolution worldwide from an integrated system based on raising crops to feed livestock and selling the animal products off the farm to a more specialized emphasis on cash grain production.

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Monoculture

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Planting a single crop in a field, often over a large area.

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Nutrition Transition

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A change in patterns of food consumption toward an increasingly Westernized diet consisting of more meat, wheat-based food products, and convenience food.

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Organic Agriculture

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A farming system that promotes sustainable and biodiverse ecosystems and relies on natural ecological processes and cycles, as opposed to synthetic inputs such as pesticides.

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Pastoralism

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An agricultural system in which animal husbandry based on open grazing of herd animals is the sole or dominant farming activity.

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Plantation

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A large estate in tropical or subtropical areas that specialize in the production of a cash crop.

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Precision Agriculture

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The application of technologies such as GPS and aerial imagery to measure and map the spatial variation in environmental conditions within a field, and the related use of this information to calibrate machinery to site-specific applications of fertilizers or pesticides.

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Salinization

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The accumulation of salts on the soil.

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Second Agricultural Revolution

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A fundamental change involving the adoption of new agriculture practices in western Europe, such as the moldboard plow and the horse collar, beginning in the Middle Ages.

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Shifting Cultivation

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An agricultural system that uses fire to clear vegetation in order to create fields for crops; it is based on a cycle of land rotation that includes fallow periods.

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Smallholder Agriculture

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A farming system characterized by small farms in which the household is the main scale of agricultural production and consumption.

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Smallholder Crop and Livestock Farming

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An agricultural system that is based on the management of a combination of plants and livestock that varies significantly from one region to another.

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Subsistence Agriculture

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Farming practices that carefully manage natural resources and minimize adverse effects on the environment while maintaining farm products.

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Third Agricultural Revolution

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A fundamental change in agriculture associated with technological innovations and scientific farming techniques developed in the 20th century including extensive mechanization, heavy reliance on irrigation and chemical applications, and biotechnology.

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Transhumance

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Moving hers on a seasonal basis to new pastures or water source.

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Truck Farming

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A form of commercial farming centered on the specialized production of fruits and vegetables for market.

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Urban Agriculture

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The use of vacant lots, rooftops, balconies, or other urban spaces to raise food for metropolitan households or neighborhoods.

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Von Thunen Model

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A model that relates transportation costs to agricultural land-use decisions and yields a concentric ring pattern showing progressively more extensive forms of agriculture practiced at greater distances from the city or market.

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Wet Rice Farming

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Rice cultivation in a flooded field.

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