Agriculture, Food Production, & Rural Land Use - AP Human Geography

Food security is defined as a person's access to food that will meet their dietary needs. There needs to be enough food, good food, and affordable food.

99% of the world's undernourished people can be found in developing countries.

Seed crops were first cultivated 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of Southwestern Asia.

The mechanized reaper was invented in the 1830s by Cyrus McCormick. It quickly spread around the United States and was instrumental the growth of commercial farming in the plains of the central United States. To provide clarification, a “reaper” is a tool used by farmers to cut and gather crops.

A "cash crop" is an agricultural crop that is purposely made strictly to be sold in a market environment for as much money as possible. Most cash crops, which include cotton, opium, grains, and many other products, are grown in a monoculture environment, where they are the only product grown on a piece of land. By their nature, cash crops are not a form of subsistence farming, as they are always produced to be used beyond a grower's own home and family.

When farmers grow a few lucrative crops, they cash cropping. Cash cropping involves growing one or a few crops that can be sold for a relatively high price.

A cash crop is a crop like coffee or tobacco; something that is grown for profit and to meet some luxury rather than to sustain the population. Cash crops are primarily grown on plantations in the developing world. Cash crops, while generally grown in the developing world, are most often exported to the developed world.

Due to rising concerns about overfishing and the ability to control the supply of fish, aquaculture has become the main source of fish and shellfish in the world. Aquaculture typically happens in manmade ponds or sections of rivers and seas that are bracketed off to keep the fish under control. Aquaculture is now one of the largest sectors of agriculture in most advanced nations.

A salmon farm in Scotland and a kelp farm in southern California are two examples of the raising of fish and marine plants in controlled environments. This is called “aquaculture.”

“Aquaculture” is the name given to all farming and rearing of fish and marine plants that does not fall under the category of fishing. A salmon farm in which the salmon are reared and harvested in a controlled environment is an example of aquaculture.

Mixed-crop farming, livestock ranching, dairy farming, and grain farming are all historically prevalent in the United States of America.

“Hydroponics” is the name given to the method of growing crops in nutrient solutions instead of in soil. This allows food to be grown in arid climates and increases the geographic range in which many crops can be grown. It is common, for example, in desert climates where the soil is harsh and unforgiving.

A “combine,” also commonly called a “combine harvester,” is used to harvest crops such as wheat, corn, oats, and barley. Its name is derived from the fact that it “combines” the three steps of harvesting in one machine - reaping, threshing, and winnowing. Combine harvesters are commonly used in the developed world, but remain uncommon in the developing world.

A “feedlot” is the name given to livestock farming that has been concentrated into a relatively small area. Animals in feedlots are fed hormones to accelerate their growth and are generally kept in extremely close proximity to other animals of their kind. This has numerous benefits for the farmer, but of course raises moral and environmental questions. Chickens are most likely to be raised in feedlots because they can survive without any space and respond dramatically to hormone treatments.

The process of removing the chaff from a crop like grain, wheat, or rice by allowing it to be blown away by the wind is called “winnowing.” Mollification refers to the softening of a substance like soil. Threshing involves the separation of grains or seeds from their plant by mechanical means, such as with a threshing machine. Salinization is the process by which solutes accumulate in soil as a result of water evaporation, which leaves the soil unfavorable for agriculture. Monoculture involves the growth of a single crop within a given area.

Intensive farming is distinct from extensive farming. Intensive farming is carried out in relatively densely populated areas, like the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. It involves smaller land holdings than in extensive farming and requires a relatively large amount of manual labor. Thus none of these answer choices are false.

“Chaff” is the name given to the thin outer protective casing in which husks of corn, grain, or rice are encased. The process of separating the chaff from the crop that can be consumed is called “winnowing.” Fallow describes land that is left unsown in order to restore its fertility. The hull is the exterior of a fruit or seed.

In the developed world, particularly in Western Europe, the majority of commercial grain farming is used to feed livestock. This is because it is more profitable to raise meat products than it is to grow grain; so grain is grown and fed to livestock, which is in turn culled and sold on the market.

Monoculture refers to the practice of growing one species or variety of plant within a given area. The prefix "mono" means "one."

Eliminate options about the orchard, the redwood, and the organic farm. All you have left is Monsanto.