Overview

The food system is vital to everyone since nothing is more basic to life than food!

The number of people involved in providing food to consumers in the United States is enormous. One recent study estimates that at least 20 million workers are involved in producing, processing and distributing food. This means that roughly one in every six workers in the United States is employed in the food system. Only healthcare comes close to employing as many people.

The food system delivers over 1.8 trillion dollars of goods and services to US consumers each year. Around 10 cents of every dollar spent by consumers on all goods and services is spent on food. This includes food purchased in food stores, such as supermarkets, and in food service establishments, such as restaurants.

We often take it for granted that food will be available when we want to purchase it, where we expect to purchase it, and in the form that we want. But meeting our food needs is complex and involves a high degree of coordination throughout the system. This course focuses on how that coordination is achieved.

The key factor that makes the food system work is the existence and operation of markets. We focus on how markets work to ensure that we will actually have the food we want, when and where we want it.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify the agents (economic actors) in the food marketing system
• Establish the stages of marketing
• Identify the functions performed by food markets
• Describe the essential components of the food system
• Understand how a dollar spent by consumers is distributed to participants in the system
• Describe what determines the location of production

Lesson Readings & Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 1 Course Schedule.