The discipline of agribusiness has grown and evolved remarkably in only two generations.
Agribusiness began as a distinct area of study in 1955, when John Davis
defined it in terms of a fenced pasture; agribusiness centered on farms and commodities
produced on them (Moore, 1959). This definition was appropriate when most
agribusiness actions and employment focused on maximizing food and fiber
production. With fresh insights from Ray Goldberg, the pasture-farm definition grew
to: “The sum total of all operations involved in the manufacture and distribution of
farm supplies; production operations on the farm; and the storage, processing, and
distribution of the resulting farm commodities and items” (Davis and Goldberg,
1956). Similar definitions have been offered by others, such as Downey and
Erickson (1987, p. 6): “Agribusiness includes all those business and management
activities performed by firms that provide inputs to the farm sector, produce farm
products, and/or process, transport, finance, handle or market farm products.”