Curriculum Agriculture & Commodity Markets
Agriculture & Commodity Markets
How the economics of food, energy and raw materials actually works - from farm subsidies to futures contracts to why commodity prices swing so much.
- Why Commodity Prices Swing So Much Why wheat, oil and copper prices lurch up and down far more sharply than the price of a t-shirt. 📄 Read-aloud
- Futures Contracts: Locking In a Price Before the Harvest How farmers and buyers agree today on a price for grain that won't exist until months from now. 📄 Read-aloud
- Farm Subsidies: Why Governments Pay Farmers The economic reasoning behind government payments to farmers, and the tradeoffs those payments create. 📄 Read-aloud
- Supply Chains From Farm to Table Everything that happens - and every price that gets added - between a crop leaving a field and reaching a plate. 📄 Read-aloud
- Agriculture & Commodity Markets: Checkpoint 1 Covers why commodity prices swing so much, futures contracts, farm subsidies, and farm-to-table supply chains. 5 questions
- Oil Prices and the Global Economy Why a barrel of oil moves interest rates, airfares and grocery prices all at once. 📄 Read-aloud
- Speculation vs. Hedging in Commodity Markets Why traders who never touch a bushel of wheat play a real and useful role in commodity markets. 📄 Read-aloud
- Food Security and Price Volatility Why a global price spike can be a minor inconvenience in one country and a crisis in another. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Scarcity: Water and Rare Resources Why some essential resources are cheap and abundant while others are scarce, and what economics does with that gap. 📄 Read-aloud
- Agriculture & Commodity Markets: Checkpoint 2 Covers oil and the global economy, speculation versus hedging, food security, and the economics of scarcity. 5 questions
- Commodity Index Funds and the Financialization of Commodities How ordinary investors buy exposure to wheat or oil without ever touching a bushel or a barrel, and what that means for prices. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Food Deserts Why some neighborhoods have no full grocery store nearby, and how that changes the real price of eating well. 📄 Read-aloud
- Global Supply Chains for Coffee, Cocoa and Cotton Why the farmers who grow the world's coffee, cocoa and cotton often capture the smallest share of what it eventually sells for. 📄 Read-aloud
- Climate Risk and Crop Insurance How farmers insure themselves against weather they can't control, and why that insurance is getting more expensive. 📄 Read-aloud
- Who Owns the Farm? The Economics of Farmland Why farmland is both a place to grow food and a financial asset, and what happens when investors start buying it. 📄 Read-aloud
- GMOs and the Economics of Agricultural Innovation How genetically modified seeds changed farm economics, and why the debate over them is as much about money as science. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Agricultural Labor and Migrant Workers Why farm labor markets work so differently from most other jobs, and what that means for food prices and workers. 📄 Read-aloud
- Vertical Farming and the Future of Food Production Why growing food indoors on stacked shelves is expensive today, and what would need to change for it to compete with open fields. 📄 Read-aloud
- Minimum Support Prices and Government Procurement How India's minimum support prices guarantee farmers a floor price for certain crops, how procurement works, and the debate over its effects. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Fertiliser Subsidies Why governments subsidise fertiliser, how India's urea subsidy distorts nutrient use, and what reforms have been tried. 📄 Read-aloud
- Precision Agriculture and Farm Technology How sensors, satellites, drones and data help farmers use inputs more efficiently, and the barriers to adoption for small farmers. 📄 Read-aloud
- Farmer Producer Organisations How small farmers in India band together into producer companies to buy inputs cheaply, sell at better prices and gain bargaining power. 📄 Read-aloud