释义 |
agribusiness orig. U.S.|ˈægrɪbɪznɪs| [f. agriculture + business.] 1. a. The group of industries concerned with the processing and distribution of agricultural produce or with farm machinery and services. b. Agriculture conducted as a modern business, esp. making use of advanced technology; a farm run in this way.
1955Harvard Business School Bull. Autumn 41 ‘Agri⁓business’—a term coined to define the many diverse enterprises which produce, process, and distribute farm products or which provide supporting services. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 29 Mar. 78/2 The broiler industry..had to go in for ‘vertical integration’... It is not farming, it is agri⁓business. 1961Economist 30 Dec. 1269/2 If, in the next decade, agriculture in Europe is to become ‘agribusiness’, employing the scale and methods of industry. 1962Times 3 Dec. Agric. Suppl. i/5 So long as agriculture is carried on by farmers and not by so-called ‘agribusiness’. 1968M. Pyke Food & Society ix. 122 Science will inevitably bring agriculture, as it has so far been understood, to an end, and cause ‘agribusiness’ to take its place. 1973Times 8 Aug. 7/2 Farmers under economic policies are squeezed into agribusinesses. 1976Sci. Amer. Sept. 118/3 The development of American agriculture has fostered the growth of an entire agricultural industry—‘agribusiness’—of which farming is only a small part. 1977Time 28 Feb. 34/2 Small farms, located near cities,..could provide food more cheaply than agribusiness can in the face of the enduring, expensive energy shortage. 1978S. Brill Teamsters x. 387 Gibbons was sent to California as a representative of the major force—other than the farm owners and agribusinesses themselves—that was holding Chavez back. 1983Sci. Amer. May 78/2 In modern agribusiness the pig is attractive because of its efficiency in converting feed into food. 2. attrib.
1969Times 14 Apr. 7/1 Pastures of the agribusiness Midlands. 1971Nature 23 July 217/3 The interests of the consumer are no match for the powerful agribusiness lobby on Capitol Hill. 1977Time 21 Feb. 19/2 Mexico is shipping tomatoes in quantity to the U.S. from vast agribusiness farms below the border. Hence ˈagri(-)ˌbusinessman, a man who engages in agribusiness.
1961New Statesman 22 Dec. 956/3 If I were a real agri-businessman I would no doubt know the answer. 1963G. Sykes Poultry p. xxiii, We must watch closely how the American agribusinessmen work in the West European and the South American countries. 1966Economist 26 Feb. 819/2 The farmer who has the ability to become an ‘agri-businessman’ may not be able to command the capital to finance the growth of his business. 1984Nat. Geographic Feb. 233/2 Agribusinessman Bill Ramsey oversees fields of cotton and barley. |