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In this course we analyze the economic forces that make the U.S. food and agricultural marketing system work. This system assembles, transports, stores, and transforms a wide range of food and agricultural products and delivers them to U.S. consumers and many others around the world on a consistent basis.

If you understand the economics of the food system, you can understand how just about any other sector of the U.S. (or world) economy works.

In completing AG BM 102 students gain a solid understanding of how the U.S. food system functions and the economic forces that drive it. In particular, they understand:

1. how the difference parts of the system work together to deliver food and agricultural products to consumers at home and abroad.
2. how prices are formed.
3. how food markets deal with time, place, product form and risk.
4. how basic economic tools and concepts, such as supply and demand curves and price elasticities and flexibilities, can be used to examine market characteristics and behavior.
5. how public policies in such areas as agricultural prices, international trade, and competition affect the food system.