The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of craps and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.
Crop
Grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season.
Vegetative planting
Reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants.
Seed agriculture
Reproduction of plants through annual introduction of seeds, which result from sexual fertilization.
Subsistence agriculture
Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer’s family.
Commercial agriculture
Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.
Agribusiness
Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.
Shifting cultivation
A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.
Slash-and-burn agriculture
Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris.
Swidden
A patch of land cleared for planting though slashing and burning.
Pastoral nomadism
A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.
Transhumance
The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.
Intensive subsistence agriculture
A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.
Wet rice
Rice planted on dryland in a nursery, then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth.
Paddy
Malay word for wet rice, commonly but incorrectly used to describe a sawah.
Sawah
A flooded field for growing rice.
Double cropping
Harvesting twice a year from the same field.
Crop rotation
The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.
Milkshed
The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.
Grain
Seed of a cereal grass.
Winter wheat
Wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the early summer.
Spring wheat
Wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer.
Reaper
A machine that cuts grain standing in the field.
Combine
A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field.
Ranching
A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area.
Horticulture
The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
Truck farming
Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because a truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities.
Plantation
A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country.
Sustainable agriculture
Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides.
Green revolution
Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.
Break of bulk point
A location where transfer is possible from one mode of transportation to another.
Industrial revolution
A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.
Maquiladora
Factories built by U.S. companies in Mexico near the U.S. border, to take advantage of much lower labor costs in Mexico.
Right-to-work state
A U.S. state that has passed a law preventing a union and company from negotiating a contract that requires workers to join a union as a condition of employment.
Site factors
Location factors related to the costs of factors of production inside the plant, such as land, labor, and capital.
Situation factors
Location factors related to the transportation of materials into and from a factory.
Textile
A fabric made by weaving, used in making clothing.
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