In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in food production, including farming and contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesale and distribution, processing, marketing, and retail sales. The term has two distinctly different connotations depending on context.
Within the agriculture industry, agribusiness is widely used simply as a convenient portmanteau of agriculture and business, referring to the range of activities and disciplines encompassed by modern food production. There are academic degrees in and departments of agribusiness, agribusiness trade associations, agribusiness publications, and so forth, worldwide. Here, the term is only descriptive, and is synonymous in the broadest sense with food industry.
Among critics of large-scale, industrialized, vertically integrated food production, the term agribusiness is used as a negative, synonymous with corporate farming. As such, it is often contrasted with family farm. Some negative connotation is also derived from the negative associations of "business" and "corporation" from critics of capitalism or corporate excess.
An example of an agribusiness was the Old North State Winegrowers Cooperative in North Carolina. Wine grape farmers came together to not only sell their grapes but to share a winery, winemaker and marketing brand together. The cooperative failed in 2006, three years after opening its winery.
Many progressive agribusinesses are now operating online businesses. Rising fuel costs are increasingly adding financial burdens on the day to day running of agricultural companies. An example of an online agribusiness is FarmingPages.com.
