From producer to consumer

Who made these cereals, really? What are they made of? And how did they get to the store? Most breakfast cereal is corn. And that's grown here, by a farmer.

The farmer has borrowed money from a bank, to buy machinery and seeds. To pay back the loan the farmer must sell the corn she's growing. So, she harvests and ships the corn to the factory that wants to buy it. The truck belongs to a transportation company, that's being paid to transport the corn. So far the corn is raw material, that needs processing before it's something Michael might want for breakfast.

The raw material needs to be refined into breakfast cereal. When the corn is refined, it's also worth more than the raw material, and can be sold at a higher price. The farmer grows, or produces, corn. And the factory produces cereals. So they are both producers.

But what about the truck driver? Is he producing something? Yes he is, but not something you can put in a box and sell. Transport is not goods, it's a service. To be able to make cereal, both goods and services are needed, like corn, and transport.

In the factory there are machines and employees, working to refine the corn into cereal. It costs money to buy the machines and pay the salaries, but since the cereal is sold at a higher price than corn, the factory can get paid for its effort, and those working there can get paid too. In the factory, they put the cereal in the box. Hmmm, so, somewhere else there must be a factory making cereal boxes, from paper. And paper is made from...

pulp, that is made from... trees. So, somewhere, someone has cut down a tree, and transported it to a pulp factory, and... The package has to look good, for Michael to want to buy this specific cereal, and not some other... So, there has to be someone working with designing the cereal box, and a print shop, printing the text and images on it.

And the cereal is ready to be shipped off to the shop. But wait a minute. Cereals contain more things; salt, and sugar! Where do they come from? Someone must grow the sugar, and transport it, and then the salt... ?

Well anyway, now the cereal is in the shop. When Michael pays for the cereal, he also pays part of the salary of: everyone on the farm, in the truck, in the factory, and in the shop. ... and in the print shop... and the design agency... and the sugar farmer...

and... whoever it was arranging that salt. Just imagine, a box of cereal being so complicated to produce. How can anyone then produce something really tricky, like a... toaster?

Who keeps track of this entire, super complex web of different producers, making sure they all get their share of the money that Michael is paying? In fact, that's nobody. Really. Nobody keeps track of the whole process. Every participant, every company, keeps track of the bit closest to themselves.

But there's no one responsible for keeping track of the entire cereal production process, from corn, timber and sugar field, to the complete box of cereals. Michael buys and eats the cereals -- he consumes them. Michael, and all the other cereal eaters, are consumers. Whenever we consume something, we influence a whole range of interconnected producers of goods and services. You can be almost certain that some of them are in other countries, and that none of them is aware of all the others.

Bon appétit, says the farmer, the truck driver... and all the others!