Economics
Economics, Old and New
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Sustainability in Farming
When I talk about sustainability in farming, which I do a lot, I don’t just mean looking after the environment and reducing global warming. I mean making sure farming communities see sustainability in farming.
They need to earn a decent living whilst caring for our precious countryside.
And currently, in the UK, farming patently isn’t sustainable at all. The average age of a farmer has been rising steadily for years and is now about 65. That tells you something is wrong.
I met this tree alone in a field in Dentdale in July 2023. It is vast. A Sycamore, the girth 4 metres plus, putting it at about 450 years old. It is grazed to the base yet one or two epiphytes cling to its upper branches. It should be the centre-piece of a rehabilitated woodland, surrounded by Sessile Oak, Hazel and Birch. I registered it with the Woodland Trust that night. They were unaware of its existence.
The exact definition of sustainability bears some consideration;
“The property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources”. {OED}
That process or enterprise includes the farm, the farmer and the farming system.
In time our Shepherds of the Trees project aims to provide exactly what we are talking about – “Sustainability in Farming“
We also have a website dedicated specifically to the project at “www.shepherdsofthetrees.org”
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Why we Farm Cows and not Goats
The reason why we farm cows and not goats for dairy products is quite simple. Cows are easy to control and can live on just grass, they are grazers. Goats are browsers and are very difficult to fence in.
However that does not mean that it should stay that way.
Modern dairy cows live an average of just under three lactations, about 6 years. Yet these animals can easily have a stress free lifespan of 12 to 15 or more years.
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Time for Another Agricultural Revolution
It is Time for Another Agricultural Revolution
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Taking Account of Hidden Costs Results in Sustainable Food Production
Taking account of hidden costs in food production will result in sustainable food production. These hidden costs are called Externalities in traditional economics. That sounds really complicated. It isn’t.
True cost accounting is another way of looking at and evaluating these hidden costs.
This video was produced by Friends of the Earth
Economics is not taking account of externalities. In the science of economics the term externalities is used to lump together the external costs of an economic action or policy. Historically these have been difficult to measure.
These costs have to paid for eventually. This is usually by public health systems, the environment and ultimately by every single one of us. Global warming is an externality. Dealing with pollution is an externality. Another relevant example is the use of farm subsidies to make farming profitable. These subsidies are not reflected in food prices, but we pay instead through taxation.
Taking Account of Hidden Costs
Firstly this means that we will have to move to a new form of economics. The present system no longer works. Secondly we need governments to recognise this. This issue has very recently been highlighted by the United Nations. A great start! Here is a relevant article on True Cost Accounting which involves taking account of hidden costs:
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Improve Sustainability Using Economics
We need a New Economic System. We need to take account of externalities. What are externalities?
We need to look at new ways of measuring economic performance.
Externalities are causing our planetary woes. This isn’t a political issue in any way shape or form, we deal here only in fact and science.
So a little bit of history ……….
A free market economy mean that consumers buy stuff at a price fixed by the market. Competition forces prices down. Except, it isn’t that simple. For example a litre of water that comes through a water meter at your address has a fixed cost per litre. However some of the costs of supply of that litre of water are not included in the price you, the consumer, pays. One such cost is cleaning up pollution.
The water company charges you per litre. They make a profit and pay their shareholders. That’s fine, that’s how the world works.
The UK is a worldwide absolute rarity in that water companies are private companies. There are lots of them as well, but the customer cannot choose which company to buy from. That is not free market economics. That is a geographical problem. That issue was solved in the electricity market by separating the wiring out into a single national grid.
Externalities are hidden costs. They are social costs, environmental costs and financial costs that are not included in the true price of a “good or service”.
Pollution is a great example.
A quick example of true cost accounting puts the “real” cost of food at three times the actual cost.
GDP is not set in stone. As a measurement it is a social construction. It needs to be flexible so that it can change with the times. TCA is that change. TCA is True Cost Accounting. Externalities will become Internalities. Pollution costs will be included in the price of food.
The FAO is starting to take TCA seriously. Watch this space!
New Scientist, 2 December 2023, The Hidden Cost of Everything, Graham Lawton.
Have a look at the Earth and Leaf Feature “A New Economics”
