What are negatives of agribusiness?

Question

OKay well i have a project about it but i cant find ANY negatives on agribusiness and i was hoping somebody could aid me :]

Answer 1

Cost not much money in Farming allot of farms don't get by with out subsidies or magor tax breaks of some kind.

There isn't much money per acre to be reaped from crops

and there is allot of work/effort/cost/machinery at least if your doing a highly managed system.

Even growing fodder youll need a baler

Animals at least free range get most of their nutrition still need some time and effort you'd need a livestock scale vacinations,  inspection fees, thats a big one right there.

Vets are generally reasonable.

But if your raising for slaughter you need to sell wholesale to a bigtime facility.

Or you could raise for local markets that sort of thing but you still need to fall withing local regulations.  Generally State department of agriculture.

Allot goes into everything usually much more than people realise.

you can look up the regs and stuff online usually from an association of some sorts or a co-op website,  they will usually link you to the relevent  usda webpages.

But federal websites like that are usually complicated and have thousands of pages and you can never find out what your actually looking for its best to go through a link on a co-ops or an associations page

Answer 2

I can only speak on the views of a dairy farm:

- Never have a day off.. The cows must be fed and milked every day, am & pm, every holiday, no calling in sick!

-You dont have a choice in your income.. you take what the milk plant pays for your milk, or you can dump it down the drain!  You cant store the milk until thepice goes up.

-You dont have employer healthcare or a retirement fund.. you are on your own.

-Prices for all inputs (Machinery, property taxes, feed, fertilizer, gas) have all gone up unbelievably in comparison to farm product prices at the farm level. Farmers get very little of the consumers dollar!

A big plus- You are your own boss, and you dont have to work with other people(if you have a family farm). After working with some idiots, this is a BIG benefit!!

Answer 3

Large agribusiness companies crowd the small farmer out.

They are also the companies that feed hormones to the animals and create new genetically engineered foods, that a lot of people think may be harmful.

Answer 4

Agribusiness lumps together all the businesses connected with agriculture.  Negative consequences from one agribusiness may well be positive consequences from another.

Answer 5

In agriculture there is a great deal of real work with no vacation for the most part. Income tends to be lower and dependent on so many variables with your actual paydays being limited to harvest times and dependent on your management skills. Farmers generally won't be millionaires but they have better mental health; much happier and healthier. For those that cling on and make their monies as middle "men", good luck to ya! Blood suckers get what they deserve. I favor keeping most agricultural products and harvests local as it is the only way to keep cost down and food prices reasonable. I surely favor a really limited export and import with the exception of helping the world's hungry. Cultural food diversity is all fine and dandy but the cost is too high and the ideology of balanced trade where food and oil is concerned (in a world of child labor and sweatshops) makes a handful of people wealthy while everyone suffers.

Answer 6

try watching "the future of food" or reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" for some info and good bibliographies.  There are also some good articles on the farm section of the website below.  and there is also a link to an article you might find helpful...

Answer 7

I'm from a purebred cattle background, and I went into post-secondary education in Agriculture. I'll try to sum up some of what those two things have taught me.

For one, market volatility is a huge negative factor in agriculture. This means, you can do everything the exact same from year to year, and your price can both increase or decrease significantly, without warning. Rising input costs (inflation... and prices never go back down...), and unstable selling prices make farming a very difficult industry to profit in.

Another downside is that many farmers, even though farming is a 365 day a year job with NO vacation, have to make time for off farm jobs. This is called diversification. They have to go out and get jobs elsewhere, or have another business that helps subsidize the cost of farming. So many small farmers these days could not pay their bills if they didn't have an income off-farm.

Now, when you get specific about which sector of the agriculture industry you are talking about, the pros and cons vary a lot. Cattle for example, which I am more familiar with, are easily subject to things like BSE or "mad cow" happening. Though this disease is possible in each type of animal, including humans, through negative press, BSE hit the cattle industry. It has been 5 years since it happened, and cattle prices are still in the gutter. My family farm has come close to being sold off a few times. Farmers have had to re-mortgage their houses, get loans, and many of them simply threw in the towel...

Farming is a very very hard 'job', if you can call it that. I have always said that farming isn't a job or a career, it's a way of life. A farmer doesn't leave the office and forget his worries, he comes in to the house, has a coffee and a hot meal, and wonders what tomorrow may bring. Every thing that happens in this world can affect a farmers ability to profit from what he farms. Farming is sometimes an unforgiving lifestyle... and it's certainly not as easy to 'quit' and find something new...

I hope that helps you understand some of the cons of farming. That's really just the tip of the iceberg. But don't get me wrong, farmers are probably the kindest, friendliest, and devoted people you will ever meet.... through thick and thin, they put the food on each and every single persons table on this great earth. And if they're real farmers, whether times are tough or times are great, they love every second of what they do.

Answer 8

Agribusiness is a vast subject. In one sentence for all those, negative thing about it is "all products are perishable", you cannot possibly sale all of it before it is spoiled. Grains may last for longer but are subject to attack from insects. Although every one requires food every day, it is difficult product to sale.

When you produce one thing, people don't want it! This is a mystery! And I always wonder how it happens?

Try selling a basket full vegetable and you will discover new things about this business.