Cash crops
Cash crops are agricultural products specifically cultivated for sale rather than for consumption by the farmers or their local communities. These crops are integral to commercial agriculture, where maximizing profit is the primary goal. Common examples of cash crops include wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and tomatoes, all of which are widely used in various food products globally. While traditional cash crops can yield significant profits, some of the highest-value crops are those associated with illegal narcotics, such as cannabis, coca, and opium poppies. Farmers growing these crops often face considerable legal risks, influencing their market pricing.
The rise of cash cropping has roots in the historical shift from subsistence farming, where farmers grow primarily for themselves, to a focus on commercial sales. Modern farming techniques, including the use of genetically engineered crops and industrial equipment, have greatly increased production potential but also raised environmental concerns, prompting a shift toward more sustainable practices. Cash crops are often tied to complex economic dynamics, including labor practices and global market systems, which can disadvantage smaller growers and those in developing regions. Understanding cash crops provides insight into agricultural economics, market demands, and the social implications of farming practices worldwide.
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Cash crops
Cash crops are agricultural products grown with the intention of sale, not for consumption by farmers, their livestock, or their local communities. Cash crops are developed to maximize profits, often utilizing modern industrial farming methods to ensure maximum yields on all available farmlands. Common cash crops include wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, tobacco, and tomatoes. However, the most profitable cash crops are those used in the production of illegal narcotics. Because growing these products is illegal throughout much of the world, farmers willing to engage in such practices can charge exorbitant prices for their product.
Background
Agriculture is the process of farming and its associated practices. This includes growing and harvesting both plants and livestock. In most cases, agricultural plants and animals are raised for the resources they provide, particularly food and raw materials. Some farmers practice subsistence farming, which means they only engage in agriculture to feed themselves and their families. This type of farming was practiced throughout much of the world’s history. However, as agricultural practices advanced, a small subset of the population was able to produce enough food for everyone. These farmers then traded or sold their excess food to the rest of the population, enabling people to dedicate their time to other pursuits.
Modern agricultural practices have drastically increased the potential yield of a given plot of land. The use of genetically engineered crops, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and industrial agricultural equipment has made farms more productive than ever before. However, research shows that overusing these tools harms the environment. Pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals cause pollution and harm biodiversity by killing native species of plants and insects, while monocropping and continually tilling the same field may stop soil from replenishing its nutrients. For these reasons, many farmers are adopting sustainable farming practices, which work to practice agriculture in a manner that does not permanently harm the environment.
Overview
Cash crops are an essential part of commercial agriculture. Commercial agriculture includes all types of farming that takes place to generate a profit. Commercial farmers are not concerned with using their resources to sustain themselves or their communities. Many commercial farmers that choose to produce food do not sell it locally. Instead, they sell it to large organizations to maximize profits.
Cash crops are those that are grown with the intention of selling them for a large profit. These are differentiated from staple crops, which are grown to feed the farmer, their family, or their livestock. In the past, subsistence farms would primarily grow staple crops, sometimes reserving a small portion of their farmland for excess crops that they could sell to people in their community for extra money. However, many modern farms are designed to maximize their output of cash crops, ensuring that the farmer profits as much as possible.
The first true cash crop to be introduced to North America was tobacco. Farmers in the American colonies quickly realized that tobacco grew well throughout much of North America. Because the recreational use of tobacco was popular throughout the British American colonies, farmers had a reliable market for tobacco crops. They dedicated plantations to growing tobacco, quickly producing more tobacco than the citizens of the colonies could consume, so they sold the excess tobacco to Great Britain and other nations.
Modern farmers throughout the world grow a wide variety of cash crops. Wheat and corn are two of the most commonly grown crops in the world. Other popular crops include soybeans and rice. These products are used in countless food products in many cultures, ensuring that farmers can sell the entirety of their harvest quickly and easily on the global market. However, while these crops are reliable and suitable to grow in many climates, they require large amounts of land to create the necessary yields for commercial farming, limiting the amount of money farmers make.
Some of the commercial crops that offer the highest yields on a given plot of land are tomatoes, sugarcane, and sugar beet. Like corn and wheat, tomatoes are used in many food products but require less land to grow. Sugar cane and sugar beet are both necessary to produce sugar, making them extremely valuable to other powerful global markets.
Several of the cash crops that offer the greatest economic value to farmers are used in the production of narcotics. Because these plants are illegal to grow throughout much of the world, they place farmers at significant risks. Because they must take such risks, the farmers who grow them charge much more than they do for traditional, legal crops. Common cash crops used in the production of narcotics are cannabis, coca, and opium poppies. Cannabis is often valued at $47.7 million per square kilometer, while coca is valued at $37.7 million per square kilometer, and opium poppies are worth $6 million per square kilometer. Comparatively, farmers can sell tomatoes for about $1.4 million per square kilometer.
Cash crops have been associated with various problematic economic trends. These crops are often grown in parts of the world where labor is the cheapest, allowing industrial farmers to maximize their profits by underpaying their workers. In the past, cash crops in North America and the Caribbean were grown with slave labor, allowing plantation owners to abuse their workers while keeping virtually all the money made from their work. Additionally, the modern cash crop industry is associated with the development of a complex global system of tariffs. Though these are legal, they heavily favor large growers, harming both small businesses and those in developing nations.
Bibliography
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Jansen, Calli. “Cash Crops Effect in North America.” Global EDGE, 2018, globaledge.msu.edu/blog/post/54462/cash-crops-effect-in-north-america. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Nugroho, Agus Dwi, et al. “The Impacts of Economic Globalization on Agricultural Value Added in Developing Countries.” PLOSOne, 2021, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8598014/. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Roessler, Philip. “The Cash Crop Revolution, Colonialism and Economic Reorganization in Africa.” World Development, 2022, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22001243. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.