AS

Global Supply Chain

Factors Affecting Global Supply Chain Efficiency

  • Political relationships (e.g. subsidies, trade wars)

  • Infrastructure presence or absence

  • Shifting patterns of world trade

  • These factors can aid or harm the efficiency

Political Factors:

  • Subsidies: Government support for farmers in core countries

  • Can create unfair competition for developing countries

  • Trade wars: Disputes between countries (e.g. US- China 2018)

  • Disrupt supply chains, affect farmers and consumers

Infrastructure and Its Impact

  • Necessary for participating in global supply chain

  • Includes roads, bridges, facilities, electricty

  • Some countries lack funds to improve infrastructure

  • Can lead to exclusion from global food trade

Shifting Patterns in World Trade

  • Rise of semi-peripheral countries

  • Increasing participation in global food trade

  • Fair trade movement addressing inequality

  • Consumers pay more for products, farmers receive fair wages

Landscape Practices

Landscape-Altering Practice #1: Slash and Burn

  • Cutting and burning forests for farmland

  • Provides nutrient-rich soil initially

  • Part of “shifting cultivation”

  • Can lead to deforestation if not managed sustainably

Landscape-Altering Practice #2: Terrace Farming

  • Creating level plots on hillsides

  • Common in Southeast Asia for rice cultivation

  • Can be sustainable with proper water management

  • Destroys natural landscape

  • Erosion and Weathering

Landscape-Altering Practice #3: Irrigation

Landscape-Altering Practices #4 and #5: Wetlands and Nomadism

Wetlands

  • Increases farmland but destroys unique ecosystems

Pastoral Nomadism:

  • Moving with herds seasonally

  • Challenged by increased sedentary agriculture

Environmental Consequences:

  • Pollution from pesticides and fertilizers

  • Agricultural runoff contaminating water supplies

  • Desertification of poorly managed farmland

  • Soil salinization in arid regions

Social Effects

Social Effect #1: Changing Diets

  • Shift from grain and beef to poultry

  • Increased demand for fresh fruits and vegetables

  • Global shipping and refrigeration enabling dietary changes

Social Effect #2: Women

  • Traditionally primary farmers and are now often displaced by mechanization

Social Effect #3: Economic Shifts

  • Consolidation of small farms into large commercial operations

  • Risks of monocropping for local economies

Feeding the World

  • World population continues to grow

  • Modern agriculture can produce enough food for everyone

  • Major challenges remain in distributing food equitably

GMOs: Promise and Controversy

  • Genetically modified organisms introduced in 1990s

  • designed to resist disease, drought, and increase crop yields

  • require more chemicals to produce higher yields

  • debate over environmental and health impacts continues

Aquaculture: Fish Farming

  • Cultivation of aquatic organisms like fish and shellfish

  • Provides large portion of fish consumed globally

  • Critiqued for high energy/chemical inputs

  • Can potentially pollute water and produce toxins

Urban Farming

  • Growing good within cities on small plots

  • provides fresh produce for city dwellers

  • helps address food access issues in urban areas

Community Supported Agriculture

  • Consumers pay subscription for share of farmer’s crop

  • Gives consumers input on crops grown

  • Farmers get guaranteed buyers

  • Often sold at local farmers markets

Organic Farming

  • Uses only natural and renewable resources

  • Reaction to chemical-heavy commercial farming

  • avoids synthetic pesticides and fertilizers

  • products often more expensive but seen as healthier

Fair Trade and Local Food Movements

  • Fair Trade: Ensures farmers paid fair wages

  • Local Food: Produced and sold in same community

  • both aim to support small farmers

  • reduce environmental impact of long distance shipping

Challenges in Food Distribution

  • We produce enough food but distribution is uneven

  • Food insecurity and “food deserts” persist

  • Poor infrastructure in rural areas hinder delivery

  • Weather events can devastate crops

  • Loss of farmland to suburban sprawl