Systems of Agriculture

Commodities

Raw materials or primary agricultural products that can be bought and sold in a variety of places

Examples of commodities

wheat, cotton, coffee, cacao, corn, chickens

Commodity chain

A complex network that connects the place of production with consumers

Commodity chains follow agricultural products from

seeds and fertilizers all way to finished goods

Agribusiness

Large corporation that provides a vast array of goods and services to support the agricultural industry

A key part of the commodity chain

Agribusinesses

Examples of Agribusinesses

John Deere, Smithfield, Monsanto, Dole

Vertical Integration (Important)

when an agribusiness controls multiple steps in a commodity chain

What has influenced much of global agriculture today

Agribusinesses

Agribusiness have ______ tremendously since the ___________

Agribusiness have grown tremendously since the mid-1900s

The growth of agribusinesses have caused commercial farming in MDCs to become…

more industrialized and turn into corporate farms

Corporate farms have

More capitol to invest in farming and larger economies of scale

Economies of Scale

As production of good increase, the fixed costs go down

Smaller, family farms cannot compete with

Corporate farms

True or False: MDCs produce all of its own food

False, no country produces all of its own food

Network for getting food from ground to table is

large and involves many steps

Global Supply Chain

Agribusinesses that are organized at a global scale

Global Supply Chains are

Growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, marketing, consuming & disposing of foods

Systems require _____________ to work

Systems require infrastructure to work

Infrastructure

The basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

Examples of infrastructure

Sewage, water, electricity & transportation networks

What are the most efficient ways of transporting commodities?

Railways and waterways

Supply chains work best when

trade partnerships are stable

Economic decisions (or conflicts) in one place can result in

a domino effect

Examples of Economic decisions (or conflicts) in one place resulting in a domino effect

• Countries shutting borders due to COVID-19

• Food prices in the UK after Brexit

• Sanctions against Russia (Breadbasket of the world)

Since 1995, global trade in food has nearly

doubled

As developing countries become more involved in global markets

demand for products has increased

Emerging economies like China, Brazil, India & Indonesia continue to

increase their presence in global food trade

Developing countries joining the global market creates more

competition with MDCs that previously dominated agricultural trade