AP Human Geography Unit 5 – Agriculture Test Answers

Unit 5 of AP Human Geography delves into various aspects of human geography, encompassing the study of populations, cultures, economies, and their relationship with the environment. The unit encompasses topics such as migration patterns, cultural processes, political organization, agriculture and land use, industrialization, economic development, and urbanization.

The course is tailored to offer an in-depth understanding of these areas to high school students across the United States and Canada. By the end of the course, students will be fully equipped to take the AP Human Geography exam, administered by the College Board. The comprehensive curriculum of Unit 5 offers students a diverse range of knowledge that they can apply to understand the complex world we live in.

Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes Answers

1. What is agriculture?
   Agriculture is the purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber.
2. What is subsistence agriculture?
   Subsistence agriculture is the level of farming in which a person raises only enough food to feed his or her family.
3. What is plant domestication?
   Plant domestication is the altering of the behaviors, size, and genetics of plants to benefit humans.
4. What was the First Agricultural Revolution?
   The First Agricultural Revolution was the period roughly 10,000 years ago during which humans first began domesticating crops and animals.
5. What is terrace farming?
   Terrace farming is the cutting of “steps” into the mountains that allowed for more agriculture.
6. What is irrigation?
   Irrigation is a system that supplies dry land with water through ditches, pipes, or streams.
7. What is carrying capacity?
   Carrying capacity is the largest population that an environment can support at any given time.
8. What is slash-and-burn?
   Slash-and-burn is a farming technique in which trees are cut down and burned to clear and fertilize the land.
9. What is swidden?
   Swidden is land that is prepared for agriculture by using the slash-and-burn method.
10. What is deforestation?
    Deforestation is the loss or destruction of forests, mainly for logging or farming.
11. What is desertification?
    Desertification is lower land productivity caused by overfarming, overgrazing, seasonal drought, and climate change.
12. What is the Enclosure Act?
    The Enclosure Act refers to laws passed by Parliament “closing off” common lands to small farmers.
13. What is barbed wire?
    Barbed wire is used for fencing and was invented to keep cattle from trampling crops.
14. What was the Third Agricultural Revolution?
    The Third Agricultural Revolution was seen in the 20th century and involved advances in farm equipment, monoculture, irrigation, Agro-Biotechnology, and GMOs.
15. What is the Green Revolution?
    The Green Revolution was the rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.
16. What are GMOs?
    GMOs are crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods.
17. What is pastoral nomadism?
    Pastoral nomadism is a form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.
18. What is livestock ranching?
    Livestock ranching is an extensive commercial agricultural activity that involves the raising of livestock over vast geographic spaces, typically located in semi-arid climates like the American West.
19. What is shifting cultivation?
    Shifting cultivation is a farming practice in which farmers aim to maintain soil fertility by rotating the fields they cultivate.
20. What are plantation farms?
    Plantation farms are estates where cash crops are grown on a large scale, especially in tropical areas.
21. What is truck farming?
    Truck farming is commercial gardening and fruit farming in the United States.
22. What is a milk shed?
    A milk shed is the circle around a dairy farm in which its products can be sold without spoiling.
23. What is winter wheat?
    Winter wheat is a crop planted in fall and develops strong roots to survive the winter. It is commonly grown in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.
24. What is spring wheat?
    Spring wheat is a wheat crop that is planted in the spring and harvested in late summer.
25. What is Mediterranean Agriculture?
    Mediterranean Agriculture is specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails. It includes crops such as olives, olive oils, grapes, wheat, and tomatoes.
26. What is double-cropping?
    Double-cropping is the practice of planting and harvesting on the same parcel of land twice per year.
27. What is intercropping?
    Intercropping, also known as multicropping, is when farmers grow two or more crops simultaneously on the same field.
28. What is a supply chain?
    A supply chain is the group of firms that make and deliver a given set of goods and services.
29. What is a commodity chain?
    A commodity chain is a chain of activities from the manufacturing to the distribution of a product.
30. What is monoculture?
    Monoculture is a farming strategy of planting a single, highly productive crop year after year.
31. What is a suitcase farm?
    A suitcase farm is a type of farm where individuals live in urban areas a great distance from their land and drive to the country to care for their crops and livestock. This practice lends itself well to the growth of wheat and allows families to continue their long relationships with the ancestral farm, but still enjoy the benefits of waged incomes in urban environments.
32. What are cool chains?
    Cool chains are transportation networks that keep food cool throughout a trip.
33. What are luxury crops?
    Luxury crops are non-subsistence crops such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco.
34. What is the fair trade movement?
    The fair trade movement is an effort to promote higher incomes for producers and for more sustainable farming practices.
35. What is a subsidy?
    A subsidy is a government payment that supports a business or market.
36. What is infrastructure?
    Infrastructure is the basic facilities that are necessary for a society to function and grow, such as roads, government buildings, electricity lines, and railroads.
37. What is a clustered settlement?
    A clustered settlement is when houses are grouped together in tiny clusters or hamlets.
38. What are dispersed settlements?
    Dispersed settlements are a rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.

39. What is metes and bounds?
    Metes and bounds is a method of describing real estate in which natural features are used to mark irregular parcels of land.
40. What is a township?
    A township is a subdivision of a county that has its own government.
41. What is the French long-lot system?
    The French long-lot system is a type of linear settlement where settlements are stretched out along a road or river.
42. What is the von Thunen model?
    The von Thunen model is an agricultural model that spatially describes agricultural activity in terms of rent. Activities that require intensive cultivation and cannot be transported over great distances pay higher rent to be close to the market. Conversely, activities that are more extensive, with goods that are easy to transport, are located farther from the market where rent is less.
43. What is horticulture?
    Horticulture is the cultivation of crops carried out with simple hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes, or the cultivation of plants for subsistence through non-intensive use of land and labor.
44. What is bid rent theory?
    Bid rent theory is a geographical economic theory that refers to how real estate prices and demand changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases.
45. What is comparative advantage?
    Comparative advantage is the ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer.
46. What is organic food?
    Organic food is a type of food that is produced without pesticides, bioengineering, or high-energy radiation.
47. What is aquaculture?
    Aquaculture is the raising of marine and freshwater fish in ponds and underwater cages.
48. What is the Blue Revolution?
    The Blue Revolution is modern aquaculture, which involves producing fish, shellfish, and other products.
49. What is overgrazing?
    Overgrazing is the depletion of vegetation due to the continuous feeding of too many animals.
50. What are economies of scale?
    Economies of scale refer to a proportionate saving in costs gained by an increased level of production.
51. What are adaptive strategies?
    Adaptive strategies are the unique ways in which each culture uses its particular physical environment, specifically those aspects of culture that serve to provide the necessities of life- food, clothing, shelter, and defense.
52. What does agrarian mean?
    Agrarian means characteristic of farmers or their way of life.
53. What is agribusiness?
    Agribusiness is highly mechanized, large-scale farming, usually under corporate ownership.
54. What is agricultural industrialization?
    Agricultural industrialization is the use of machinery in agriculture, like tractors.
55. What are agricultural origins?
    Agricultural origins include but are not exclusive to the Fertile Crescent – originated in the hearths of humanity (Indus River, Central-South America, East-Southeast Asia).
56. What is animal domestication?
    Animal domestication is when animals are tamed/bred and used for food and profit.
57. What is aquaculture?
    Aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic organisms (as fish or shellfish) especially for food.
58. What is biotechnology?
    Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.

59. What is a collective farm?

A collective farm is a large government-controlled farm formed by combining many small farms.

60. What is commercial agriculture?

Commercial agriculture is a term used to describe large-scale farming and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology.

61. What is intensive agriculture?

Intensive agriculture is a form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum yield from a parcel of land.

62. What is Core/Periphery?

Core/Periphery is a model that describes how economic, political, and/or cultural power is spatially distributed between dominant core regions, and more marginal or dependent semi-peripheral and peripheral regions.

63. What is crop rotation?

Crop rotation is the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.

64. What are cultivation regions?

Cultivation regions are the regions in which large amounts of agriculture take place.

65. What is dairying?

Dairying is the practice of raising female cattle, goats, or certain other lactating livestock for long-term production of milk.

66. What is double cropping?

Double cropping is a farming method where a second crop is planted after the first has been harvested.

67. What is the primary sector?

The primary sector is the portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth’s surface, generally through agriculture, although sometimes by mining, fishing, and forestry.

68. What are pesticides?

Pesticides are toxic substances released to kill living things.

69. What is soil salinization?

Soil salinization is the process in which in arid regions, irrigation water evaporates, leaving salts behind that can harm soil fertility.

70. What is desertification?

Desertification is the process of land becoming similar to that of a desert.

71. What is extensive subsistence agriculture?

Extensive subsistence agriculture is the practice of using a large amount of land to farm food for the farmer’s family to eat.

72. What is shifting cultivation?

Shifting cultivation is a form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

73. What is slash-and-burn?

Slash-and-burn is a farming method involving the cutting of trees, then burning them to provide ash-enriched soil for the planting of crops.

74. What is swidden?

Swidden is land that is prepared for agriculture by using the slash-and-burn method.

75. What is pastoral nomadism?

Pastoral nomadism, also known as herding, is a form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

76. What is the farm crisis?

The farm crisis is a mass production of farm products that lowers the prices, which lowers the profits for farmers.

77. What is a feedlot?

A feedlot is a plot of land on which livestock are fattened for market.

78. What is globalized agriculture?

Globalized agriculture refers to consumer-driven agriculture integrated on an international scale.

79. What is the growing season?

The growing season is the period of each year when crops can be grown.

80. What is hunting and gathering?

Hunting and gathering is the killing of wild animals and fish, as well as the gathering of fruits, roots, nuts, and other plants for sustenance.

81. What is market gardening?

Market gardening is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants.

82. Planned economy: What is an economic system in which a single agency makes all decisions about the production and allocation of goods and services?

• An economic system in which a single agency makes all decisions about the production and allocation of goods and services is called a planned economy.

83. Plant domestication: What is plant domestication?

• Plant domestication refers to the deliberate planting and tending of crops by humans that are genetically distinct from their wild ancestors as a result of selective breeding.

84. Renewable/non-renewable: What is a renewable/non-renewable resource?

• A renewable resource is a natural resource that can be replenished over time, while a non-renewable resource is a natural resource that is finite and cannot be replenished once it has been used up.

85. Second agricultural revolution: What was the second agricultural revolution?

• The second agricultural revolution, which took place in the 18th and 19th centuries, saw significant improvements in farming technology, such as the introduction of new machinery and techniques for crop rotation.

86. Staple grains: What are the most produced grains in agriculture?

• The most produced grains in agriculture are maize (corn), wheat, and rice, which are considered staple grains.

87. Sustainable yield: What is sustainable yield in agriculture?

• Sustainable yield in agriculture refers to the ecological yield that can be extracted without reducing the base of capital itself, required to maintain nature’s services at the same or increasing level over time.

88. Third agricultural revolution: What is the third agricultural revolution?

• The third agricultural revolution, currently in progress, has as its principal orientation the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

89. Mechanization: What is mechanization in agriculture?

• Mechanization in agriculture refers to the replacement of human labor with machines, such as tractors and combine harvesters, for tasks such as plowing, planting, and harvesting.

90. Chemical farming: What is chemical farming?

• Chemical farming refers to the increased use of chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides in agriculture to control pests and increase crop yields.

91. Transhumance: What is transhumance in agriculture?

• Transhumance is a seasonal periodic movement of pastoralists and their livestock between highland and lowland pastures to take advantage of seasonal differences in vegetation and weather patterns.

92. Commercial Agriculture: What is commercial agriculture?

• Commercial agriculture is agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm, rather than for the farmer’s own consumption.

93. Urban Farming Initiatives: What are urban farming initiatives?

• Urban farming initiatives are programs and projects designed to bring fresh foods to urban areas through the creation of small farms that are created by and cared for by residents.

94. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): What is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)?

• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a process in which consumers buy shares from local farmers in exchange for weekly produce, providing a direct connection between farmers and consumers.

95. Local food movement: What is the local food movement?

• The local food movement is a social movement that encourages people to purchase food from nearby farms in order to minimize the pollution created from the transportation of food around the world.

96. Columbian Exchange: What is the Columbian Exchange?

• The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of foods, goods, and ideas between Native Americans and Europeans following Columbus’ exploration of the Americas.

Multiple Choice Questions And Answers

1. What does the map above show the origin and diffusion of?
   Answer: Vegetative planting.
2. In which of the following areas is livestock most likely to be sold in the domestic market?
   Answer: The United States.
3. What were the two independent seed agriculture hearths that originated in the Western Hemisphere?
   Answer: Southern Mexico and Peru.
4. Which of the following may NOT be categorized as a primary activity?
   Answer: Refining petroleum into gasoline.
5. Labor-intensive intertillage is most likely to take place in areas where farmers practice what type of farming?
   Answer: Shifting cultivation.
6. In the Mediterranean area, what are the most important cash crops?
   Answer: Olives and grapes.
7. What is a farmer practicing if they produce only enough food for the immediate family?
   Answer: Subsistence farming.
8. According to von Thünen, what activity would take place in the outermost ring around a market center?
   Answer: Animal grazing.
9. What is the land survey system that makes use of natural features to mark irregular parcels of land called?
   Answer: The metes and bounds approach.
10. What is a way that commercial farmers differ from shifting agriculturalists in terms of crop rotation? Answer: They are less likely to allow fields to remain fallow.
11. What are both forms of extensive subsistence farming?
    Answer: Shifting cultivation and pastoral nomadism.
12. How did early hunter and gatherer societies differ from early agricultural societies?
    Answer: They were less likely to be characterized by gender inequality.
13. The Green Revolution has had the least impact on people who live in which region?
    Answer: Sub-Saharan Africa.
14. What type of agriculture is associated with the shaded area on the map above?
    Answer: Livestock ranching.
15. Which of the following does NOT characterize modern industrial agriculture?
    Answer: Prices met by individual needs of farmers.
16. What limits the increasing of global food production by expanding the amount of land under cultivation?
    Answer: Most of the world’s arable land is already under cultivation.
17. In which of the following areas was rice probably domesticated earliest? Answer: Southeast Asia.
18. Refrigerated ships and railroad cars most directly benefitted the long-distance transportation to global markets of what product?
    Answer: Beef.
19. In which of the following areas has desertification had the strongest negative impact on food production? Answer: The African Sahel.
20. What is the correct order of evolution of food production from the earliest development to the latest?
    Answer: Vegetative agriculture, seed agriculture, the Columbian exchange.
21. In what area of the United States are land parcels most likely to be rectilinear? Answer: The Midwest.
22. In which of the following countries is the largest percentage of workers employed in the primary sector?
    Answer: Nigeria.
23. What commodity was NOT first raised in the Americas and traded to the Eastern Hemisphere during the Columbian Exchange? Answer: Wheat.
24. What is one difference between subsistence and commercial agriculture?
    Answer: More extensive use is made of fertilizers with commercial agriculture.
25. Where is the “world’s breadbasket” located?
    Answer: The prairies of North America.