Abstract:   During most of the past 50 years, the industri- alization of agriculture was led by input sup- pliers selling farmers substitutes for home-grown inputs. The leadership of the today's industri- alization is shifting from production-driven technologies of suppliers to the consumer-driven requirements of processors. To the input supplier, industrialization has changed from an opportunity to a threat. The size of the market available to the traditional farm supplier is shrinking and its traditional arms- length retailing relationship with the farmer is being replaced by the arms-twist management of the integrator and contractor. A tug-of-war is developing between the input supplier and the product processor. In the words of Downey, Akridge, and Erickson (p. 24), "a major strug- gle for control will occur among farm supply firms who want assurance of a continued market for their products and food processing/manu- facturing firms who want to control the produc- tion process."

Source: American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 75, No. 5, Proceedings Issue (Dec.,1993), pp. 1132-1136
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association