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Agroindustrialization, globalization, and international development: the environmental implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2001

Christopher B. Barrett
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853–7801
Edward B. Barbier
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Thomas Reardon
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Extract

‘Agroindustrialization’ comprises three related sets of changes: 1 growth of commercial, off-farm agro-processing, distribution, and input provision activities; 2 institutional and organizational change in the relations between farms and firms both upstream and downstream, such as a marked increased in vertical integration and contract-based procurement; and 3 related changes in product composition, technologies, and sectoral and market structure (Reardon and Barrett, 2000). The actual and potential environmental effect of these changes have been sparsely documented to date. There does not seem to have been any attempt at a reasonably general analysis of the pathways by which such effects might occur or of the instruments governments might have at their disposal to influence these pathways. This essay is meant to fill the latter gap while the articles and policy forum that follow provide more detailed findings and perspectives on constituent issues.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This special issue originated with the international preconference to the 1999 annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association, held in Nashville, TN, USA. We thank the AAEA Foundation, the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development, the Farm Foundation, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the International Livestock Research Institute, and Michigan State University for generous financial support of the preconference, and Charles Perrings and Rosalind Stockley for their excellent editorial guidance. Related papers appear in two other special journal issues born of the conference, Barrett and Reardon (2000) and Reardon and Cook (forthcoming).