Producers and Consumers: Following the Bread

Lucy is twelve years old. She lives in Riverton with her parents and her brothers, Jack and Max. This week, her teacher gives the class a project with one question: Who made my lunch?

On Saturday, Lucy brings her lunch to Riverton Market. In her bag, there is a sandwich with bread, cheese and tomato slices, and a bottle of apple juice. She finds Uncle Tom at his stall, and she holds up her notebook.

Lucy says, "Uncle Tom, I need your help. Who made my sandwich?"

Uncle Tom smiles. He says, "I grew the tomatoes at Green Hill Farm. But that is only one part. Let's trace it."

They start with the bread. Grandma Rose baked it at Rose's Bakery. She bought flour from the mill, and the mill bought wheat from a farmer. A delivery driver brought the flour to the bakery, and Uncle Tom's own tomatoes came to the market on his blue farm truck.

Lucy writes it all down. Uncle Tom adds one more helper, the person who made the tractor and the tools. Her list gets longer and longer.

Producers, Consumers, Goods and Services

A producer makes goods or services for other people. A consumer buys or uses them. Goods are things you can touch, like bread and tomatoes. A service is work that one person does for another, like driving a delivery truck.

Lucy sees something interesting in her table. Almost everyone is both a producer and a consumer. The miller produces flour, but also consumes wheat. Grandma produces bread, but also consumes flour. And Lucy, who is eating the sandwich, is a consumer at the end of the chain.

Lucy also sees that one person can sit in different places in the chain. When Grandma buys flour, she is the customer. When she sells bread to Lucy's family, she is the seller.

The chain also shows how people depend on each other. Uncle Tom says, "Last year, heavy rain destroyed part of the wheat crop. The mill had less wheat, so it made less flour, and the bakery had less to bake with."

Back to the Project

Lucy looks at her lunch again. A sandwich seems simple, but she counts at least five different producers behind it.

On Monday, Lucy shows her table to the class, with a drawing of arrows from the farm to her lunch box. The teacher asks, "What did you learn?"

Lucy says, "A sandwich is the work of many people. And every one of them is also a consumer."