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Unit
Introduction to Agribusiness
Agribusiness Management CD
Interest Approach
What does agriculture mean to you?
 What have you done today that relates to
agriculture?
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You and Agriculture…
Did you eat breakfast? Are you wearing
clothes that contain wool or cotton?
Did the vehicle that you arrived at school
in have ethanol in the fuel?
 Without agribusiness and its many
aspects, we would have less variety when
it comes to fabrics, fuels, foods, and
medicine.
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Student Learning Objectives
Define agribusiness and explain its effect
on our society.
 Identify successes in agribusiness in
America.
 Explain the size and importance of
production agriculture.
 Explain the size and importance of the
agribusiness sectors.
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Terms
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Agribusiness
Agribusiness input sector
Agribusiness output
sector
Agriservices sector
Export
Gross domestic product
Import
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Input
Output
Private agriservices
Production agriculture
Production efficiency
Public agriservices
Value-added
Agribusiness
 An
agribusiness is a business that:
 sells
items to farmers for production
 provides services to other agricultural
businesses
 or is any business that is engaged in
the marketing, transportation,
processing, and distribution of
agricultural products.
Inputs and Outputs
 Agribusinesses
process inputs into
outputs.
 An input is a resource used in
production.
 An output is the result of the production
process.
 What inputs are necessary to make
chocolate chip cookies?
Agribusiness and Society
 Agribusiness
provides people with
food, clothing, and shelter.
 It also provides jobs for millions of
people.
 Jobs in science, research, engineering,
education, advertisement, government
agencies, trade organizations, and
commodity organizations.
The History of Agribusiness
Before agriculture, early man hunted and
gathered for their food.
 Early developments included the
domestication of animals and crops.
 As time passed, man began to use tools to
cultivate, learned about crop rotations,
selective breeding, and learned to use
organic fertilizers.
 Agriculture advanced as the industrial
revolution came about.
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Ag Related Events in the 1800’s
 The
invention of the steel plow by John
Deere
 The introduction of barbed wire
 The building of the first gasoline
powered tractor
 Gregor Mendel began working with
genetics in plants
Ag Improvements in the 1900’s
 More
money and more machines
available made the following
improvements possible:
The formation of the U.S. Bureau of Forestry
 Vaccines were developed to improve animal
health
 the Smith-Hughes Act established vocational
agriculture courses in the high schools
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How Have We Benefited?
 As
a result of the advancements made
in agriculture over the years:
 The American farmer now produces
enough to feed and clothe 150 people.
 Americans also spend the least
amount of their disposable income on
food, only about 10%.
Exports
 Agribusinesses
in America produce
a variety of exports.
 Exports - commodities shipped
outside of the United States.
 Grains, tobacco, cotton, and
vegetables are examples of
agricultural exports.
Imports
 The
United States also imports a
variety of agricultural products.
 An
import is an agricultural product
brought into the U.S. from another
country.
Importance of Production Ag.
Without production agriculture, agribusiness
would not exist.
 Production agriculture refers to the use of
land to produce goods.
 There are approximately 2.3 billion acres of
land in the United States
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21% of which is used for crops
 25% is used for livestock production
 30% is used for forestry purposes.
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Gross Domestic Product
 GDP
is the value of goods and
services America produces in a year.
 Agriculture accounts for 17% of the
GDP.
 Of this 17%, 13% come from
agricultural related industries such as
feed mills and biotechnology firms.
Production Efficiency
 Production
efficiency refers to
receiving optimum output from an
input.
 The
production efficiency of
production agriculture in the United
States as compared to other
countries is enormous.
Production Efficiency
 The
most common method of
measuring efficiency is to determine
the number of people whom farm
workers supply with products.
 Today, the average farm worker
supplies 150 people with agricultural
products.
Production Efficiency
 In
the early 1950’s, one farm worker
supplied less than 20 people with
agricultural products.
 An increase in production efficiency
has helped the overall U.S. economy.
 Improved efficiency has allowed more
people to leave the farm and find work
in other industries.