In all agricultural countries there are two different types of farming, there are those that grow only feed crops intended to feed their livestock and there is cash crop farming. Farming to sell what is grown was at one time only a small portion of each farmer's crops, they sold only what they had to in order to meet with their needs and pay their bills. Today the story you will hear from most farmers is one that centers far more on what they can sell than trying to feed their livestock.

The fruits of cash crop farming are sold through both the national and international commodities markets and may end up being shipped across the country or across the globe. While this may play a large role in helping the smaller countries boost the market values and the commodity spot prices of their particular crops, if they are not careful it can have the opposite effect as it can leave the farmers unable to grow a diverse enough crop to allow them to be able to eat.

The bulk of the issue at hand here is the industrialized farming as it is today, has created an environment that has all but forced farmers to concentrate on only those crops that bring in the highest possible profits. Many of these crops are then sold on the commodities markets and shipped to out of country locations for maximum profits. This type of cash crop farming makes it very hard for a developing country to compete for prices on the open commodities market, where crop dumping by the bigger countries can keep the prices artificially low.

While this practice is considered illegal in many countries, the use of heavy subsidies leads to dumping by many countries even though it is not supposed to happen. Another well-known issue with this type of farming is that by selling the bulk of their produce on the commodities market for maximum profits and export, it can leave the country where it is grown with a major shortage of the particular product and drive the domestic prices drastically higher than they should be. This can leave the locals unable to afford the foods they grow on their own farms.

Cash crop farming might be advantageous for a select number of the largest industrialized farms, but the records show that overall it has created far more damage to the markets and to the communities that farm this way. Not only can they no longer afford to eat what they are growing in many cases, but the land is slowly being depleted of their natural resources resulting in heavy use of artificial fertilizers and food that lacks in nutritional value. There needs to be a mid-point between cash crop and sustainable farming that can still satisfy the global market and allow small scale farmers to earn enough to survive.