A scorche earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. Although initially referring to the practice of burning crops to deny the enemy food sources, in its modern usage the term is not limited to food stocks, and can include the destruction of shelter, transportation, communications and industrial resources. The practice may be carried out by an army in enemy territory, or its own home territory. It is often confused with the term "slash-and-burn", which is not a military tactic but rather an agricultural technique. It may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of an enemy's resources, which is done for strategic rather than tactical reasons.