Helpful Definitions

Agroecology:

An ecological approach to agriculture that views agricultural areas as ecosystems and is concerned with the ecological impact of agricultural practices.

Agroforestry:

Agriculture incorporating the cultivation and conservation of trees in association with food crops or pastures.

Arable:

Fit for cultivation, as by plowing; used or suitable for growing crops.

Biodiversity:

The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Capital inputs:

Measures the services derived from the stock of physical assets and software used in production. The assets included are fixed business equipment, structures, inventories, and land.

Closed canopy forest:

A forest canopy that is dense enough that the tree crowns fill or nearly fill the canopy layer so that light cannot reach the forest floor directly.

Conventional farming:

A monoculture method of farming in which the use of GMO’s, chemical pesticides/herbicides and chemical fertilizers is allowed. Conventional farming dominated the late 20th century and accounts for most farming nowadays.

Cultivate:

Prepare and use (land) for crops or gardening; break up (soil) in preparation for sowing or planting.

Erosion:

The gradual destruction of something by natural forces (such as water, wind, or ice).

Fallow:

(Of farmland) plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation or to avoid surplus production.

Food forest:

(Also forest garden) a low-maintenance sustainable plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans.

Heterogeneous:

Consisting of dissimilar or diverse ingredients or constituents.

Industrial farming:

(Aka factory farming) a monocropping agricultural production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labor, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area.

Labor inputs:

An indicator characterizing the expenditure of labor expressed in man-hours on a project or technical operation.

Labor intensive:

Having high labor costs per unit of output; especially:  requiring greater expenditure on labor than in capital.

Monoculture:

The cultivation of a single crop in a given area.

Paleoecology:

A branch of ecology that is concerned with the characteristics of ancient environments and with their relationships to ancient plants and animals.

Perennial:

Of a plant : living for several years or for many years : having a life cycle that is more than two years long.

Permaculture:

An agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems.

Plow:

v. Turn up the earth of (an area of land) with a plow, especially before sowing.

Polyculture:

The simultaneous cultivation or growth of two or more compatible plants or organisms in the same space.

Resilience:

The capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly.

Succession:

(Ecological) the gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is established.

Swidden agriculture:

(Aka shifting cultivation) an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot.

Three sisters:

The three main agricultural crops of various Native American groups in North America: squash, maize (corn), and climbing beans (typically tepary beans or common beans).

Undergrowth:

Low growth on the floor of a forest including seedlings and saplings, shrubs, and herbs.