Trading in the secretive commodity

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2159751
AutoresSusanne Freidberg (0000-0001-5916-8519, Dartmouth College)
Ano2017
Volume46
Fascículo3-4
Páginas499-521
Data de publicação2017-10-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2017.1397359
OpenAlexW2778781780
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas72

Over the past century and a half, a handful of transnational corporations have built fortunes trading commodity crops such as corn, soy and wheat. Graded and standardized, these commodities are considered uniform and therefore fungible; information about their origins need not accompany them to market. But in recent years major food brands, as part of broader 'sustainable sourcing' commitments, have begun to ask about the places and practices that produce these crops. Their inquiries have exposed the limits of the commodity traders' supposedly unrivalled market intelligence. They also raise questions about how the advent of agricultural grades and standards made knowledge of crop origins seem unnecessary in certain commodity supply chains, and about how those supply chains might henceforth change, now that lack of such knowledge has become a liability

Agriculture · Business · Commerce · Commodity · Commodity market · Economics · Geography · Market economy · Supply chain · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Organic Food and Agriculture · Finance · Marketing