Global Agriculture and Cold Storage

Each year, 80 million people are added to the global population. In this growing populace, food consumption rates are soaring. As global agriculture grows, there is a worldwide demand to expand the cold storage industry. Perishable foods are the largest, most profitable and fastest growing sector of agricultural trade.

Additionally, the frozen and refrigerated food categories for both the retail and food service industries are on the rise. Given these dynamic increases, the cold chain is quickly becoming central to all kinds of global trade in just about all commodities. In turn, refrigerated warehouses are growing to keep up, and offering more specialized and individualized services to those in the food manufacturing industry.

Globalization has made the relative distance between areas of the world much smaller; however, the physical separation of these same regions is still a very important reality. The greater the physical separation, the more likely freight becomes damaged moving in the import and export processes. To ensure that shipments are not compromised during transport, many businesses are turning to, and relying on cold chain technology.

The cold storage industry is expanding and moving beyond a traditional freezer unit. The market consists of many quality warehouse facilities, but the ones that offer individualized, added value services as part of a complete package succeed far beyond competitors. In the current market, customers are demanding services such as inventory tracking, recall efforts, exporting and transportation services throughout the cold supply chain. They are looking for a single refrigerated warehouse company to perform all functions.

Factors such as high service levels, lower cost, faster inventory turns, quicker reporting and the ability to provide customers with faster and more efficient service have also prompted change. Instead of simply operating as overflow warehouses, refrigerated warehouses are offering much more to customers.

Refrigerated warehousing companies are consolidating services, making it more convenient and cost effective for their clients. The storage facility is no longer just storage. The facility receives fresh products, blast freezes them, obtain certificates of export and USDA stamps of approval. Certified third party logistics professionals pick and pack the containers, consolidate the load for distribution, and make all arrangements until the shipment leaves port.

Food companies are also being pressured to address the challenges that arise in food transportation. Fortunately, increasingly efficient global transport networks are making it possible to bring food from distant places to stores, restaurants and homes before it spoils. In turn, the manufacturers benefit from a further developed, more optimized, more streamlined cold supply chain. This link in the chain ensures that they are not burdened by the large investment of holding onto loads of inventory.

Since cold storage businesses carry such flexibility, their potential is unlimited. As cold storage services become more important with each passing day, the growing future of such facilities is difficult to deny. A cold storage warehouse that offers third party logistics is one of the most important links in the cold chain. It guarantees the most fresh and sanitary food and produce make it to shelves and onto kitchen tables.

The Reasons Agriculture is Important

Why is agriculture important? The concept of 'food security' is fundamentally important, and for that reason, agriculture is important. The task of feeding its people has been perhaps the first priority of its rulers throughout history. As such, agriculture is considered to be the very basis of political and social stability of a nation since times immemorial.

Moreover, the agricultural sector plays an important role in the sphere of providing large scale employment to people. Large and moderately large farms employ workers to undertake the various jobs relating to cultivation of crops and care of farm animals. In most of the countries of the world, agriculture still remains the biggest sector responsible for the employing and feeding a large percentage of the population.

Agriculture is also important from the point of view of appraising the standard of a country's development, based on the competence of its farmers. Poorly trained farmers cannot apply the advanced methods and new technologies. The prominence of science and technology in the development of agriculture is quite clear from the words of Deng Xiaoping -

The development of agriculture depends first on policy, and second on science. There is neither any limit to developments in science and technology, nor to the role that they can play in the field of agricultural growth'.

Though agriculture often plays a contributory role in the 'Gross Domestic Product' - GDP - of most countries, it nevertheless requires a substantial boost from both the local and the international community.

Agriculture is traditionally based on bulk manufacturing. Harvesting is done once a season, most of the times, and stocked and used later. In fact, some thinkers opine that people have begun to adopt 'batch processing' and 'stocking' in manufacturing, as a result of the practices from agricultural thinking. Before industrialization, people with the biggest stocks of food and other supplies were considered more stable, and they were able to face challenges of nature without having to starve.

So important is the role of agriculture that new concepts keep 'cropping up' to give the traditional activity a modern turn. One such new concept the world is raving about these days is - the importance of 'organic farming'. There is evidence that, apart from their numerous other benefits, organic farms are more sustainable and environmentally sound, giving agriculture a new dimension.

The importance of agricultural practices was further established when 'Organic food' began as a small movement decades ago, with gardeners and farmers rejecting the use of conventional non-organic practices. With the growth of the Organic food market now outpacing much of the food industry, many big companies have ventured into it. With the emergence of multi-national companies, and with the creation of a legal certification framework such as the Soil Association, there is every doubt that the very definition of organic food will change, making it more of a commercial activity than ever before!

In fact, modern agriculture has already undergone a sea-change from the ancient times. Today, the importance of agriculture lies in the fact that it is practiced both for subsistence as well as commercial reasons!

Christopher Schwebius is an entrepreneur who seeks out sharply defined, specifically focused topics to research. Upon finishing his research he provides relevant, un-biased information to his readers based on his discoveries and/or personal experiences. One of his latest ongoing projects can be viewed at http://www.whyisagricultureimportant.com

Organic Agriculture - The Way to Progress

Seeing our society from the past centuries up to the present, it is very much evident that there are several developments that took place. Due to these developments, life has become complicated. As a result of complication, people have overlooked the problems brought about by developments because of the glittering gold and silver that supposed developments offer.

Among the problems that have been overlooked for the past decades are the environmental problems which are becoming worse as the years passed by. Several environmental problems which we are facing right now are the results of agricultural malpractices due to lack of education.

Among the environmental problems is the continuous destruction of the soil because of excessive use of inorganic fertilizers which has resulted to soil infertility. An evidence to justify this fact is the gradual extinction of wild plants which were in the past, just sprout from the soil without human interventions. Another problem is the contamination of the water source and air because of excessive use of pesticides and other chemicals which are being used to spray the plants. As a result, clean water are becoming lesser which also contribute to the spread of communicable diseases. One thing more, is the increasing number of pests and diseases to both plants and animals and even humans. Because of all these problems, some people from the agricultural industry propose organic agriculture believing that this would at least lessen these problems.

Organic agriculture is a holistic production management that discourages the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified organisms. Purposively, it would contribute to the lessening of air soil and water pollutions, and maximizes the health of the interdependent communities of plants animals and humans. This means that there should be a balance in the environment whereby none of these living organisms would out number the other. This is because through organic agriculture, the lives of the beneficial micro-organisms are preserved to avoid the flourishing of pests and diseases that destroy the said interdependent communities. They are called interdependent communities because as the word "interdependent" imply, plants, animals and humans rely on each other in order to survive. Plants give off oxygen and food to humans and animals. On the other hand, animals and humans give off carbon dioxide and waste products for the plants to use in food processing or photosynthesis. Another thing to be given attention is the balance number of preys and predators in the environment. In other words the food chain cycle should not be disturbed because if that will happen there'll be a dominance of one population which results to food scarcity for the other population. For instance, if the farmers continuously use synthetic pesticides, small organisms will be killed which results to growing number of pests because no other organisms that would eat them. Because of this, plants that serve as the food for humans and animals will be destroyed by these pests. That is why organic agriculture is said to be the solution for food scarcity in the future to come.

For organic agriculture to come in reality, farmers should be educated about the proper practices in agriculture. In fact, in the Philippines, there are certain radio programs and television programs allotted for the promotion of organic agriculture. Other than that, seminars are also conducted by experts in agriculture. There are also cooperatives that are being established to cater to the needs and address the problems of the farmers. Other than that are the various government programs that are implemented to different regions of the country. But most importantly is the cooperative effort among the sectors in the society in promoting and supporting the implementation of organic agriculture practices. Among the sectors in the society that should exert more effort is the education sector with the facilitation of educational institutions especially with State universities or any university that offers agricultural courses.