Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes Chapter 13: Topic 5.9 Flashcards
All the steps required to get a product or service to customers.
Supply Chains
Connections among regions of the world.
Interdependence
Crops that are not essential to human survival but have a high profit margin. Ex: Cocoa beans, which are eventually processed into chocolate, are often grown on large plantations commonly controlled by transnational companies.
Luxury Crops
The transnational companies, which are usually controlled by shareholders in core countries, provide the capital necessary to develop and run the plantations. They take advantage of the opportunity for inexpensive land and labor, and a favorable climate. In some situations, they also take advantage of weak labor and environmental laws, which allow them to reduce costs and increase profits.
Ways Rich Countries Exploit poor
The use of economic, political, and social pressures to control former colonies, can be one way to describe the current state of global food distribution
Neocolonialism
In recent years, many consumers have become more aware of the disparity between the high incomes of those in developed countries, who manage trade, and the low incomes of the producers in the developing world.
Fair Trade
It is an effort to promote higher incomes for producers and more sustainable farming practices. While these agreements often increase the price for consumers slightly, they provided a bigger share of revenue to producers and growers.
- Direct trade that will eliminate the intermediary. Transactions directly between the producer and the importer ensure more money to the producer
- Fair price paid promptly to farmers by importers. Also, the producer must pay workers a fair price.
- Decent conditions are provided for laborers, such as a safe working environment and no use of child or forced labor
- Environmental sustainability that required farmers to use environmentally safe practices and prohibited genetically modifies organisms (GMOs).
- Respect for local culture through shared agricultural techniques with farmers.
Fair Trade Movement Principles (5)
Governments often provide public financial support to farmers to safeguard food production. Ex: rice in Japan, wheat and corn in the US, soybeans in China.
Subsidies
Includes the roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, electrical grids, sewers, telecommunications, etc. of a country. This is critical to move agricultural products locally, nationally, and globally.
Infrastructure
The major rail lines in Ghana connect the interior, where resources are located, to the ports where they can be exported to the developed world. Ghana has significant mineral and agricultural resources. However, much of revenue from selling these resources leaves the country. Agricultural products commonly exported from Ghana include cocoa, cotton, coffee, palm oil, and cassava, and gold is the main mineral export. Consequently there was little money to spend on additional infrastructure, and the population received few benefits from the mineral wealth.
Ghana Vision 2020
