Posted: November 14th, 2015

Commodity Chain Analysis Paper

Commodity Chain Analysis Paper

The objective of this assignment is to conduct a commodity chain analysis for a product in order to understand the processes, institutions, places, and people involved in the creation of a commodity. Your analysis should also help you to better understand the increasing interconnectedness of disparate regions of the world today. Particular emphasis should be placed on the environmental, social, cultural, and economic

impacts of the commodity chain.

Instructions:

1. Choose a basic commodity that you can buy in the United States (e.g., chocolate, bananas, diamonds, gold, tea, roses). This is not an exhaustive list; I encourage you to be creative with your topic. Then choose a company that produces that commodity, for example, Chiquita produces bananas, and finally choose one country of origin (e.g. Ecuador). Please choose a commodity that originates outside of the United States.
2. General: Explain each step of the commodity chain, what is done, and where it occurs. Describe the processing, assembly or commercialization of the commodity before it departs for its final destination.
Analyze the processes and institutions involved in the production and consumption of the good. It is quite possible that the commodity, in its raw form, originates in one area, but is then transported to another region to be processed, and then shipped to the U.S. to be sold to the consumer. What is the significance of your chosen product for the consuming and producing country?
3. Geography and Environment: Where is it primarily produced? Examine the environmental conditions under which the commodity is produced/extracted. If you select a plant, what is particular about the environment in which it is grown? How is it grown? If you select a mineral, how is it extracted from the earth? No matter which commodity you choose, you must also examine the environmental costs (e.g. pollution, erosion, etc.)
associated with its production in your chosen region.
4. Examine the social, economic, and cultural impacts of the commodity. What kinds of people are employed (e.g. urban, rural, class, age, gender)? What kind of pay do they receive? How is work organized in the plantation/plant/mine/distribution center (i.e. who owns the means of production/ is it a cooperative/ are workers unionized)? What kinds of conditions do workers experience? Is the commodity a major export or source
of GDP for the country? Describe the cultural characteristics of the people or community involved in the production of the commodity and how influential the product is for their livelihood. Cultural characteristics may include customs, traditions, ethnic background, religion, etc. You can describe all these items in general terms, or you may offer a specific analysis of only one.
5. Conclusion: Conclude with what you believe are the major impacts of the commodity chain you analyzed. How does it impact your life, or the life of someone like you in the nation that consumes the commodity? How does it impact someone in the local producing economy?
Eight pages double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1” margins.
Include names, Group number, date submitted, course number in upper left corner on first page.
Must have an introduction with a clear thesis statement, body paragraphs, a conclusion, and a bibliography.
A good thesis statement will convey your main argument and hold the various lines of your analysis together.
A successful paper will conduct an analysis of the conditions of production, not simply provide a list of facts to fulfill the above requirements.
You may use any citation and bibliography style, but it must be consistent (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)
Your bibliography, which is not a part of the final page count, should include at least five sources, and may include websites, books, news sources, and articles from which you have collected information. Two of these sources should be scholarly, which you can collect from the FSU library system (e.g., journal articles, books, databases, etc.). If you pick Chiquita bananas or De Beers diamonds, you may look at their websites, while keeping in mind that commercial web sites function as advertisements.

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