Commodity chains: Where does your breakfast come from?
This piece shows the extensive processes that are involved with capitalism and the market.
The act of understanding how to put a meal together involves such a large amount of
geographical insight that large articles could be written about it. The thing that makes the
location of “Where your breakfast come from” interesting is not the actual location but the
geographic information of that certain place. The geographic information can have to do
with economic, political, social, and all other factors that went in to creating a certain piece
of food. This piece focuses primarily on connections between supplier and consumer using
commodity chains.
A) Commodity chains are complicated but can be greatly simplified into a four piece flow
chart. This flow chart begins with inputs which are then transformed into goods that can be
sold. These goods are then distributed to the people who subsequently consume these
goods. Some items experience less of a transformation then others. For example, coffee
beans are nearly the same as when they are picked compared to soda which is complex and
goes through a lot more manufacturing. Commodity chains can also either be concentrated
or dispersed across lands. It proves to be difficult to find a commodity chain in today’s day
and age that is not global in nature. The coffee beans I mentioned earlier are used by
Starbucks which sells them all over the world. Commodity chains also change as a
company’s size increases. Sonny’s which was created in the Gainesville area used to have
