Geographic boundaries and seasonal consumption of fresh produce

Global Markets

The two meals that will be analyzed in this paper are breakfast and lunch meals. The breakfast comprised of hot coffee with milk and sugar alongside hotcakes. The lunch meal has chicken pie, French fries and a cold coca-cola. The origin of the coffee beans that was used to make the coffee is Latin America, the milk is from the farms in Texas, the sugar used originated from Colombia and the flour from which the hotcakes were made originated from Japan. For the lunch, the chicken came from the local poultry farmers in Texas, the French fries were also from the Texas farms and the coca-cola is bottled locally.

The products were purchased from various outlets with the breakfast having made it from coffee sourced at Wal-Mart alongside the hotcakes and the lunch I bought the entire package from the McDonald fast food.

The chain that led to the delivery of the food that land on our tables is quite long and complex. The end consumer may not appreciate the entire process due to he lack of keen attention that leads to the final lunch or breakfast that they have. For instance in my case, considering the breakfast the Coffee that draws its origin from Latin America could have been from a farm that is more that 15 years old. The coffee farms are usually expansive and free of any forest cover for good growth; hence there is a possibility that some large forest was cleared to give way for the coffee plantation hence negatively affecting the ecosystem. The environment and the water sources must have also been affected since the pesticides and fertilizers used in the farm always find their way to other parts of the environment and into water sources when it rains. During the harvesting period, there must have been enlisting of child labor against the laws of justice and the laws of International Labor Organization. This is a presumption from the fact that there are expansive coffee plantations in Latin America and the region forms the fourth largest employer of child labor in the entire world after Asia and the Pacific region, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as noted by International Labor Organization (2012).

There was also the issue of transport that is involved to transport the coffee via the sea to the U.S.A. And the sugarcane to the factories to be processed as well as the wheat that was harvested in the farms and had to be transported to the factories to be processed and be ready to be used for baking the hotcakes. The transport system in this case and even the harvesting mechanisms of the wheat by the combined harvesters used a lot of fuel that was emitted to the atmosphere and polluted the environment a lot.

When it comes to the lunch, there were also a lot of variables that led to the lunch reaching on my table at the McDonald fast food. The chicken pie that was for lunch must have been made from hens that were not free range bred since they are usually bred for commercial purposes hence being confined to an enclosure in large numbers. The soft drink that was part of the lunch must have undergone a lot of chemical process in the laboratory which created employment to some people in the processing line. The drink was then dispatched towards the consumption centers one of them being McDonald where I had lunch. This meant environmental degradation through noise pollution as well as emission of gasses that are dangerous to the ozone layer. The effluence of the chemical processing firms must have also ended up in the rivers hence being a hazard to the aquatic life. The French fries origin which is the expansive farms that specialize in growing them for commercial purposes. This must have denied other members of the ecosystem like the cows grazing zones, consequently leading to them being confined to small paddocks where they are subjected to zero grazing. The growing of the potatoes must have been accompanied by use of inorganic fertilizers which highly compromises the quality of the soil that remains behind after the several harvests. Transportation of the potatoes to the areas of consumption also calls for use of fossil fuel which down the supply chain led to the degradation of the fuel sources and since it is nonrenewable source, this puts a lot of pressure on the energy source apart from releasing harmful hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

Benefits of global market

According to Economy Watch (2010) the global market has a lot of benefits which include the eventual opening up of the industrial sector and the economy in general hence the availability of cheaper labor, availability of capital as well spread out technology and technological know-how. The larger customer base that has been presented by the global market also enables the small businesses to grow at a much faster rate that could have been expected. There has also been evidence that the global market and the interconnection of markets among countries has led to the international cooperation in order to enhance trade as well as the promotion of peace to create atmosphere conducive for business.

Impacts of global markets

The impacts of the global market and global trade trends is a long-term effect that will enable countries to continue trading with each other and trade blocks to continue engaging other blocks in terms of trade and economic beneficence and strategies. In as much as the global trade ties may be immediate, they are also long-term in ensuring that regions are empowered to access goods that they do not produce in sufficient quantities as well as dispatching goods that they produce in excess to other regions of the globe.

One of the negative impacts of the global market is that it has led to monopoly and control of some of the market sectors by some superior producers taking advantage of the free flow of goods that has been perpetuated by the global economy and market structure. The second problem with the global economy is that the increase in the interaction of technology has perpetually pushed the prices down. The increased biotechnology has also seen the increase in production of farm products and produce. This then leads to the depression of the commodity prices across the board (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2008).