Editing Food distribution (section)

== Food distribution in the 20th and 21st centuries ==

=== US food distribution from 1900 to 1960 ===
The United States' food distribution system has experienced major changes in the past hundred years.<ref name=":7" /> Food distribution primarily relied on small, local farms in the 1940s, but quickly grew to become a large business in the 1960s.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9">{{Cite news|url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/MagazinesDetailsPage/MagazinesDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=&displayGroupName=Magazines&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CA352603575&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&source=Bookmark&u=temple_main&jsid=6f206dadcd18b21868a424846f374a10|title=Meal deal; American food distribution|date=2013|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2016-10-20|via=Gale}}</ref> Three economic advances that allowed for the growth in food distribution between 1910 and 1960 were the establishment of [[chain store]]s, [[Retailers' cooperative|retail cooperatives]], and [[supermarket]]s.<ref name=":7" />

==== Chain stores ====
Chain stores did not become popular in the United States until the end of [[World War I]]. It was reported in 1929 that chain stores accounted for 39% of all grocery sales in the United States. Chain stores' success is related to their ability to undersell smaller distributors. An anti-chain movement arose in response to the success of the [[chain store]]s during the [[Great Depression]], but caused little detriment to the success and profitability of the chains.<ref name=":7" />

==== Retail cooperatives ====
Another response to the success of the chain stores was the development of [[Retailers' cooperative|retail cooperatives]]. These organizations were founded by groups of individual food distributors who saw the benefits of using chain-style pricing. [[Retailers' cooperative|Retail cooperatives]] accounted for 7% to 8% of the food market in 1930, and an increase in their popularity with independent food distributors rose retail cooperative's market share to 13% by 1958.<ref name=":7" />

==== Supermarkets ====
The third and final change to US food distribution in the first half of the 20th century involved the establishment of supermarkets. The [[Ford Motor Company]] performed the first experiment regarding the [[Profit (economics)|profitability]] of large-scale supermarkets after the end of World War I. Supermarkets officially began gaining prominence in the 1930s and steadily continued their growth into the post-WWII era.<ref name=":7" />

=== Modern US food distribution ===
[[File:Food_and_Drug_Administration_logo.svg|thumb|Logo of the Food and Drug Administration]]
Modern food distribution in the United States is a result of continued growth since the 1960s. In an increasingly connected world, food distribution efforts in the US reach from coast to coast. A network of [[infrastructure]], warehouses, factories, and commercial retailers comprise the bulk of US food distribution. It is estimated that food served in the United States may travel close to 1,500 miles between growers and consumers. While many products, specifically meat and grain, are distributed in different fashions, there are common trends to the distribution of most modern foods. An increase in the use of technology for farming has transformed the small local farm of the 1940s in to large production facilities.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /> Several federal agencies, such as the [[United States Department of Agriculture|US Department of Agriculture]] and the [[Food and Drug Administration]], manage and sustain the productivity of the US food distribution system.<ref name=":7" />

=== Food distribution in Latin America ===
Food distribution in Latin America is mainly dominated by large distributors and chains. Efforts have been made to compete with the [[Industrialisation|industrialization]] of the food distribution system through the establishment of four types of organizations: consumer purchasing organizations, [[Consumers' co-operative|consumer cooperatives]], voluntary chains, and retailer purchasing associations. Consumer purchasing organizations are groups of families who buy food together. The benefits of joining one of these organizations are the reduced [[cost]] and improved variety in diet that comes from purchasing food with other families. Consumer cooperatives differ from consumer purchasing organizations in that they are constituted by groups of individuals who work together to secure high quality food for low prices. The cooperatives are analogous to a food [[Trade union|union]] that actively works to secure the rights of its consumers. Voluntary chains are organizations of privately owned retailers and [[food]] [[Wholesaling|wholesalers]] who operate as one economic body. These groups form contracts to work under, but are economically independent of one another. Retailer purchasing organizations are groups of retailers who purchase products as though they were a single buyer. Members within these organizations are all involved in the purchasing of goods, but do not form contracts.<ref name=":8" />

=== Global food distribution ===
Along with [[ADM (company)|Archer Daniels Midland]], [[Bunge Limited|Bunge]], and [[Cargill]], the [[Louis Dreyfus Company]] is one of the four "ABCD" companies that dominate world agricultural commodity trading.<ref>{{cite news|title=Commodity trader Louis Dreyfus posts higher 2014 profit|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/louisdreyfus-results-idUSL6N0WK3JZ20150326|website=Reuters|date=26 March 2015 |access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Experts say Ukraine war shows we need a new way to feed the world |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/expert-ukraine-war-need-new-way-feed-world/ |work=Politico |date=20 May 2022}}</ref>