Commodity chain

Dolan, C., Humphry, J. and Harris-Pascal, C. (1999). Horticulture Commodity Chains The Impact of the UK Market on African Fresh Vegetable Industry, IDS Working Paper 96, University of Sussex, UK. 

As with most consumer products circulating through the economy today, the chemicals that people use in lawn care travel through many hands prior to their final fate. This vast commodity chain is international in scope, diverse in players, and intricate in connections. Figure 5.1 maps out the multiple parties who... 

To summarize, an increasingly constricted industry is an engine for the expansion of chemical commodity markets and the invention of new arenas for the consumption of chemicals. It is in part the supply of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers that sets the conditions for chemical demand. Internalizing the costs associated with chemical risks, especially under these constrictive economic conditions, is essentially unthinkable. As such, the risks and hazards associated with the industry are largely shunted downwards along the commodity chain to other players, including applicator service providers. 

Similarly, crime networks can be disrupted by identifying the weak links in a criminal commodity chain, or by targeting those actors whose skills are in relatively short supply. For example, in 2000/2001, Australian law enforcement was able to significantly disrupt local heroin trafficking networks by focusing on the relatively small number of brokers who brought together suppliers, financiers, skilled traffickers, and street distributors. This tack would be less successful where the skills needed to conduct the criminal activity, as well as the incentives to do so, are widespread. 

Buck, D., Getz, C. and Guthman, J. 1997. From farm to table the organic vegetable commodity chain of Northern California. Sociologia Ruralis 37 (1) 3-20. 

Commodity Chain-Growth Polymers. Two of the largest commodity wafer-soluble polymers are poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and polyacrylamide (PAM). They are prepared by the free-radical initiation of vinyl monomers, a chain-growth polymerization technique. 

Furthermore, REACH includes new or increased demands on the bidirectional flow of data and information in the supply chain (Tide IV) and places demands on downstream users (Tide V). For instance, REACH includes provisions on safety data sheets for substances on the candidate list (Article 31 and Annex II) and forces suppliers of articles to actively provide information for the safe use of the articles (Article 33). In addition, REACH entities consumers to, without charge, request information within 45 days on the safe use of articles containing SVHCs in concentrations above 0.1 wt% (Article 33). It remains to be seen to what extent the increased flows of information will impact on the management of chemicals. However, companies that work with environmental management systems and companies located closer to consumers in commodity chains will probably seek more actively to decrease chemical-related risks. 

Hassler, M., 2003. The global clothing production system commodity chains and business networks. Global Netw. 3, 513—531. 

The issue of power has also been raised in the context of international commodity chains. Several authors have developed the concept of global commodity chains (Gereffi, 1994 Daviron and... 

Daviron, B. and P. Gibbon, 2002. Global Commodity Chains and African Export Agriculture. Journal of Agrarian Change, 2(2) 137-161. 

Gereffi, G., 1994. The Organization of Buyer-Driven Commodity Chains How US Retailers Shape Overseas Production Networks. In G. Gereffi and M. Korzeniewicz (eds.), Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism, Westport Preager, pp. 95-122. 

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