Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1
The business of agribusiness
Objectives
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Describe management's role in agribusiness
•
Provide an overview of the functional responsibilities of management
•
Describe the unique characteristics of the food and agribusiness industries
•
Describe the size, scope, and importance of the food production and marketing
system
•
Understand the farm-food marketing bill and what it means to producers and
consumers
•
Provide an overview of the food sector, the production agriculture sector, and the input
supply sector
•
Outline trends in home and away-from-home food consumption, and trends among the
types of fi rms that serve these markets
•
Explore the production agriculture sector, and some of the key changes occurring on
U.S. farms
•
Outline the major inputs used by the production agriculture sector and key trends in
input use
•
Understand the types of fi rms involved in producing and distributing inputs to produc-
tion agriculture
Introduction
It is exciting and diverse. It is changing quickly. It relies on the weather, uses an incredible
array of technology, is tied in every way to our natural resources, and embraces the world. If
you eat, you are involved in it as a consumer of its fi nal products. If you farm, you are
involved in it as a producer of the raw materials that ultimately make their way to the end
consumer. It is the extremely effi cient, very complex, global, food and fi ber production and
marketing system.
This system is vast and it is fascinating: the next time you walk through your local gro-
cery store, think about the number and type of diverse activities involved in growing, har-
vesting, transporting, processing, and distributing food throughout the 50 states in the United
States, and, more broadly, our world. The process by which a 260-pound hog moves from
Carroll County, Indiana to a suburban superstore in Los Angeles (now in the form of a hot
dog in a pre-packaged children's meal) is very complex, yet it occurs every day in the food
production and marketing system.
