Agribusiness in France

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Agribusiness in France

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Economic importance globally and nationally

• France is the third-leading agricultural power
• France is the second-largest exporter of
  agricultural goods and services
• The number 1 exporter of processed foods
• Second-largest employer in France
• Part of Frances traditions, part of its identity

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Top Food Exports

• 1. Wines and spirits
• 2. Cheese (1000 different kinds)
• 3. Fresh fruits and vegetables
• 4. Milk, powdered milk and yoghurt (Dannon)
• 5. Baked goods and biscuits
• 6. Oils and fats
• 7. Beef
• 8. Chocolate
• 9. Poultry
• 10. Pork

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Appellation dorigine contrôlée (AOC)

• Institut National des Appellations d'Origine
  regulates the production of products
• Regulates the exact geographic area
• Regulates the food is grown and processed

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Terroir

• Difficult to define
• Includes
• Soil
• Climate
• Variety of plants/animals
• Means of producing the food
• History
• Roquefort site

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International Trade Problems 1980s to the
present

• European Union (EU) forbids the use of growth
  hormones in the production of beef and in
  imported beef
• The EU stops imports of beef from the US and
  Canada
• World Trade Organization (WTO) decides in favor
  of the US and Canada.
• The EU continue the embargo of hormone-produced
  beef and the US is allowed by WTO to impose high
  tariffs on a number of agricultural products
  including Roquefort cheese

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Roquefort producers strike back

• 100 taxation by the US on the importation of
  Roquefort cheese
• 1999 Confédération paysanne de l'Aveyron calls on
  French farmers to partially dismantle a
  MacDonalds in Millau, France
• José Bové, a farmer and activist in the region,
  becomes a leader both locally and internationally

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José Bové
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Larger questions

• Symbolic of the role of large international
  (mostly US-based) corporations in the production
  of food
• Genetically-modified food
• The impact of globalization on local producers
• How much control can local producers have?
• Competition from lower-cost imitation forms of
  food (blue cheese)
• What is the role of AOC foods? Of the terroir?

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Beaujolais nouveau

• Made from grapes harvested in August or September
• Wine made to be consumed immediately not a wine
  that can age
• Third Thursday in November at the stroke of
  midnight. Nov. 19.