An Analysis of the Livestock Marketing Problems of the Southern Appalachian Region

The problem of marketing and distributing the products of the farm have been given much attention in recent years. Various laws have been enacted having for their ultimate object the facilitation of the movement of farm products into consumptive channels and the bringing to the producer of a greater portion of the consumer's dollar. Numerous investigations have been made by various commissions and government and quasi-government organizations. Research studies have been carried on by the nation's economists and marketing specialists. Books and articles by the score have been written on the subject and much time, energy and money have been expended to educate both producers and consumers as to how greater efficiency and greater economies can be effected.The question arises, why this great interest in the marketing of farm products, especially in recent years? The answer lies in the fact that economic conditions have changed. Standards of living have advanced. The public demands and receives new services. Each new invention tends to create further specialization in industry and makes marketing a more complicated problem. In the early colonial and pioneer days the family circle comprised both producer and consumer, and consequently there were neither marketing nor marketing problems. Specialization in production resulted in surpluses which had to be disposed of outside of the family circle. Then marketing began with all its attending difficulties and problems.It is with the object of studying the marketing methods, practices and problems of an old established agricultural region as they relate to the major products of that region, and analyzing than with a view to ascertaining what and where economies and improvements might be effected that this thesis has been prepared. It is based largely on information and data which the author has collected over a period of more than five years in connection with market research studies and investigations he has conducted and supervised while employed in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the former Bureau of Markets of the United States Department of Agriculture.