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Economic Institutions for Sustainable, Just and Efficient Food System Joshua Farley Community Development and Applied Economics Gund Institute for Ecological Economics University of Vermont
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Sustainability Dependence on non- renewables Need to feed growing population
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Irreconcilable Tradeoffs
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Justice Current distribution of wealth and income in historical perspective 2007 food crisis and access to food Impacts of climate change on food production Just deserts, procedural justice, just outcomes
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Efficiency What is efficiency? – Food per acre? – Food per unit labor? – Monetary value per acre? – How do we maximize monetary value – Where does time come into this? Thermodynamic efficiency What is the goal of a food system?
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Solutions 1: New ag. technologies New agricultural technologies – Eliminate use of non-renewables – Protect and restore ecosystem services – Maintain or increase food production – Increase resilience against climate shocks
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New ag tech. Will markets promote and disseminate? – Treat non-renewable resources as property of this generation prices do not reflect demand of future generations How much would Mona Lisa sell for if auctioned off in Waco, Texas? – Fail to value, produce or protect resources (goods and bads) that can’t be privately owned Most ecosystem services, including biodiversity loss, nitrogen pollution, GHG emissions – Use price mechanism to ration access to technologies. More environmentally friendly technologies would therefore be underutilized Value of information maximized at price of zero.
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Solutions 2: Economic Institutions Production and dissemination of new technologies Allocation of Food
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R&D R&D should be publicly funded, open access. Universal consortium – Markets do not fund R&D that benefit the poor, that are easy to copy, or that protect and restore non- marketed goods and services – Higher returns on public sector investments Small scale – Require more direct knowledge of land and ecosystem; won’t have cheap energy for large scale systems R&D should be done in collaboration with farmer
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Extension and Adoption Extension should be publicly funded – Must facilitate the transfer and adoption of knowledge. Pilot farms, tec. Low risk credit – Farmers cannot be expected to make necessary investments on their own, or risk having to repay loans if projects fail Revenue should be provided by beneficiaries of ecosystem services – ES are public goods, this means in general public sector provision – In some cases, cost savings can be invested, e.g. lower municipal water costs, flood damages, public health costs, etc.
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Allocation Price rationing/markets requires much greater equality Alternative forms of rationing? – Easier at national than at global level – Tiered pricing: basic needs cheap – Brazil-California example May apply to all essential, non-substitutable resources
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