Hassan_Noorul_HW4

This is a tomato. A tomato is technically a fruit, although people classify it as a vegetable, and this is a well known factoid. I am not sure what more to add about "what kind of food it is." Almost all Florida tomatoes are grown in Immokalee, Florida. I have personally met the workers of Immokalee, and this is how I know this. Immokalee tomatoes are sold all over Florida, and even much of the USA.

The demand for tomatoes is generally high. Tomatoes are used in so many food items, and bought raw so often, that we would say that tomatoes are in high demand, because it is wanted so much. In Florida, a large portion of tomatoes are grown in the city of Immokalee. It is a small worker's town, and the workers are severely abused by their employers, as is seen with most large companies, especially agricultural ones. Thanks, capitalism! Depending on the variety of tomato--of which I am unaware of--it takes anywhere from 50-100 days to harvest, from flower to ripened fruit. Then we must consider it takes a few days to pick, process, package, and ship them to Publix stores all around Florida. It takes another couple of days to sell the tomatoes. If not, they waste perfectly good tomatoes for the sake of "keeping them pretty." Their time horizon then, is the amount of time it takes to grow the tomatoes, plus about a week. Stuff that could change the demand for tomatoes could include the labor protest against the employers and sellers of the tomatoes, as they demand one cent more per pound of tomatoes. Demand decreases as people boycott these locations (such as Wendy's) that refuse to pay the employees of Immokalee one cent more per pound of tomatoes. Equally outrageous would be the fact that some companies copyright the genes in their products, which would cause people to boycott these companies who do such. This is the only logical reason to boycott GMOs. Demand for a product could increase if it is discovered the workers have seized the means of production, and they're the ones that make the money that is made from the product, as is ethical. This is not only reasonable, it is inevitable as more and more people are realizing that capitalism is a pile of $#!^ and is abusive to blue-collar workers.


Supply is the Immokalee tomato company's ability to produce tomatoes--hopefully enough to fit demand. Oftentimes artificial scarcity is employed in order to falsely cause a shortage to make it seem like there are less tomatoes than there actually are.


1. Do research on the seed to find out what gives it the strongest traits.
2. Genetically modify the tomato. Fun fact: Tomatoes are the oldest GMOs.
3. Copyright the genes of the tomato.
4. Planting the GMO seed.
5. Hire workers at very low wages to do hard labor cough cough gulag cough cough
6. Ensure these workers are treated terribly in the Immokalee tomato cropfields, by making them pick the tomatoes in the blazing sun while they are being sexually abused.

For the rest of the assignment I'm not going to be cynical because due to the end of my favorite spacecraft mission (of which I'm very emotionally attached to), I'm far too depressed to try and be snarky. Don't worry--that'll be back next assignment.

7. Check soil pH and such to determine the quantity of fertilizer needed.
8.  Ensure the tomatoes are properly fertilized.
9. Check the hurricane forecast to be better prepared for a supply shortage in order to better prepare and have prices prepared.
10. Invest in pest control to ensure that crops aren't damaged.
11. Properly irrigate the field.
12. If pollination is bad, they might want to partner with a honey producer in order to get more bees to help pollinate the tomato blooms.
13. Analyze the risk of using pesticides when you need pollinators, and vice versa.
14. Where they need to store the tomatoes through colder winter months, when the growing season isn't as good. Also where to store them until they're ready to hit the market.
15. The time horizon of the growing season is important to consider. Tomatoes have a long growing season but they don't grow as well during the winter here in Florida, which brings in the necessity of 14.
16. For higher latitudes, there needs to be a cost analysis of whether one should bring in greenhouses or not to grow their tomatoes.
17. Frost protection. Even in Florida we get frost, but it's especially important to consider winter for the fall months.
18. How are they distributing it? Are they selling it via a generic market (i.e. Publix)? A farmer's market? Online?
19. To whom are they distributing it to? Raw and whole to the public? Via a burger (like Wendy's)? As an ingredient in a whole product?
20. Current average market price for tomatoes. Can a farm demand more for their tomatoes for one reason or another?
21. The type of tomato grown will also affect all of the above.
22. Is it a large farm or small farm selling? Larger farms can afford to take higher risks than smaller farms.
23. Means of production other than labor, such as equipment must be taken into consideration.
24. Fuel costs for the equipment.
25. Does the farm qualify for government subsidy?
26. Analysis of whether it's even worth pursuing government subsidies.
27. Who is the farm's competition, and what are they competing with?
28. Do they have the supply to meet the demand for their particular tomatoes?
29. Are people boycotting your product for one reason or another, such as over a labor dispute?
30. What happened in the past that we can use to predict the future of tomato stocks, sales, crops, and other tomato parameters?


http://homeguides.sfgate.com/long-tomato-plant-produce-56664.html [for time horizon]

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I had lost the final paragraph so I have to retype it. Forgive me if this is a bit off--I've forgotten a fair bit of the content.

Generically, if the price in tomatoes were to increase, there would be a drop in price, due to the price elasticity of demand. In this case, with a product that is being boycotted because a *higher* price is wanted, to an extent, a small increase in price would actually cause a higher demand, as those who were boycotting the product stop boycotting them. Depending on how expensive the tomatoes are, only people with a certain income can buy it. Since fresh food is expensive, due to income elasticity, only those who aren't in poverty can afford to buy tomatoes. Such is due to the income elasticity of demand.