Glossary

Commodity crop - a raw material or primary product (e.g. soya beans, corn, pork) traded internationally either through a commodities exchange or in the cash market.

Corporate Social Responsibility - the idea that corporations can voluntarily consider the interests of society and the environment in their decision-making.

Decoupling - some EU agricultural subsidies are currently linked to production levels , the CAP review proposes that the link between subsidies and production be broken or 'decoupled'.

Economies of scale - the idea that larger-scale production is more efficient because it permits higher productivity, e.g. for farms larger scale permits specialisation, division of labour, optimised use of large pieces of machinery and better access to capital. The opposite consideration, 'diseconomies of scale', refers to the problems experienced as size increases which put a brake on productivity, e.g. loss of personal control by the farmer, greater complexity and bureaucracy and de-skilling of workers.

Efficiency - conventional economics describes efficiency only in terms of economic factors, so an 'efficient' farm is one that produces food at a relatively low unit cost. An alternative definition of an 'efficient' farm might be one that produces food sustainably i.e. at a relatively low level of resource use per unit of food produced.

Enclosure of the Commons - The 'commons' was the name used in medieval England to describe parcels of land used 'in common' by peasant farmers, who had rights to use common land to pasture their livestock, to take water from streams, ponds or wells and to take fuel wood and turf. The UK parliament passed a series of Enclosure Acts that stripped commoners of these property rights and by the end of the 18th century 99% of the land in England and Wales was owned by individuals.

Export subsidies - financial incentives given to exporters of products e.g. EU sugar exporters.

Export dumping - the practice of exporting products at below the cost of production, especially to developing countries, often made possible by export subsidies.

Family farm - there is no legal definition, but the term broadly refers to a farm which is not run by an institution or company and in which the farm household makes all the significant management decisions, owns most of the assets and provides a significant proportion of the labour.

Farmgate price - the price paid to farmers for their produce.

Food clusters - the ownership by one company, or by a number of companies that have made a strategic alliance, of businesses at each level of the food system so that they have control of the food system from 'field to fork'.

Food democracy - see 'food sovereignty'.

Food miles - the distance agricultural produce travels from producer to consumer

Food security - The ability of a national government to feed its population. 'Food that is available at all times, that all persons have means of access to it, that is nutritionally adequate in terms of quantity, quality and variety, and that is acceptable within the given culture.'[225]

Food sovereignty - '... the right of people to decide their own agriculture and food policy. It is the right to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve sustainable development objectives, to determine the extent to which they want to be self reliant, and to restrict the dumping of products in their markets. It does not negate trade, rather it promotes it in a way that serves the rights of people to safe, healthy and ecologically sustainable production.'[226]

Free trade - the liberalisation of markets by the removal of barriers to trade including tariffs on food imports, production subsidies and export subsidies

Ghost hectares - the extra land (generally in the developing world) needed to support developed country demands for food or animal feed.

Globalisation (of the food system) - the increasingly international trade in agriculture and food products.

Headage payment - a direct payment to EU farmers per head of cattle and sheep produced.

Horizontal integration - the concentration of market power at each level of the food and agriculture industry, with control of each sector from seeds, fertilisers and machinery to processing, transportation and retailing in the hands of a small number of corporations.

Industrialisation (of farming) - the transformation of farming so that it more closely resembles a manufacturing industry; the creation of larger farms, a reliance on inputs manufactured off the farm (fertilisers, pesticides, machinery),the displacement of labour by capital (machinery and purchased inputs), the specialisation of labour and the mechanisation of production methods.

Intensification - the use of increasing levels of inputs (e.g. farm machinery, chemicals and fertilisers) and the related increase in output per acre.

Monoculture - the cultivation of a single crop in a field, farm or region.

Multinational corporation - company with operations in more than one country

Oligopoly - a market in which a small number of sellers (agrochemical corporations, supermarkets) exert power over a large number of buyers (farmers, consumers).

Oligopsony - a market in which a small number of buyers (food corporations) exert power over a large number of sellers (farmers).

Polyculture - the cultivation of a mixture of crops, utilising different root depths, plant heights or nutrients, on the same piece of land simultaneously.

Price discovery - the process of determining the market price of a product through the interactions of a buyer and a seller in an open marketplace.

Production subsidy - agricultural payment to farmers linked to production levels e.g. the amount of cereals subsidy paid to farmers is determined by the amount of land the farmer is growing cereals on.

Small farm - In the UK there is no legal definition of a small farm and the term 'small farm' is not recognised by the UK government. The Small and Family Farms Association defines a small farm in the UK as a farm of less than 250 acres (approx 100 hectares).

Structural adjustment programme - requirements imposed by international lending institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on developing countries as a condition of loans. The conditions are ostensibly aimed at stabilising economies but rely on neo-liberal economics and often have the opposite effect, e.g. reducing import tariffs, scrapping public commodity procurement boards, promoting exports and other measures to liberalise trade.

Sustainable agriculture - agriculture that is capable of meeting the needs of the present without diminishing the ability of those of future generations to meet their needs.

Trade liberalisation - see 'free trade'.

References
[225] United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (1996) World Food Summit, Rome www.fao.org: Viewed 12/2/04
[226] Via Campesina and others (2001) Our World is Not for Sale: Priority to Peoples' Food Sovereignty. www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/agri/Statements /03.htm; Viewed 12/2/04