Marketing of a farm product is the goal of agriculture and involves many restrictions, laws, international agreements and so on. Many factors influence the price of agricultural products. These include national and international factors. Some examples are world-wide agricultural production, international trade polices such as GATT, wars and environmental situations. Farmers make decisions about how much product to market, when, and how.
Marketing has a big impact on the decisions about what to produce and how to produce it.
These kinds of circumstances are largely beyond the control of an individual farmer yet farmers must bear the effects of dropping prices and low production. In recent years, farmers in Canada have needed support payments and drought assistance in order to meet basic living needs. These have been made for from tax dollars therefore the farm crisis affects everyone. Explain to the students that they are the owner operators of a farm. Their assignment is to manage the farm in a way that is both profitable and efficient.