Food Processing

Food processing and agro-processing are the activities that turn raw agricultural produce into finished goods for consumption. The textbook mentions that agro-processing includes canning, producing cream, fruit processing, and confectionery. These are all methods of preserving or transforming farm products into more stable, marketable, or edible forms.

Some preserving techniques — such as drying, fermenting, and pickling — have been known since ancient times. However, before the Industrial Revolution, these methods had only limited applications. They could not handle large volumes or meet the demands of a growing, urbanising population. It was only with industrialisation that food processing expanded into a large-scale, mechanised sector.

The textbook then introduces the concept of agri-business. This is commercial farming carried out on an industrial scale. What makes agri-business different from traditional farming is that it is often financed by businesses whose main interests lie outside agriculture. For example, large corporations may run tea plantation businesses even though their core business might be in banking, trading, or manufacturing.

Agri-business farms are:

• Mechanised
• Large in size
• Highly structured (organised like a factory)
• Heavily reliant on chemicals (fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides) …