Food and Farming Economic Dimensions

Tim Jackson Food and Farming Summer School

18th July 2013

Source: Druckman and Jackson (2010)

Recreation & Leisure

28%

Food & Catering24%

Space Heating13%

Household11%

Clothing & Footwear

8%

Commuting 5%

Health & Hygiene9%

Education2%

Communications1%

Total: 26tCO2e Discrepancies are due to rounding

Food in the Carbon Footprint

Food in the Macro-Economy

• Growth is unsustainable

• De-growth is unstable

The Dilemma of Growth

Innovation

focused on labour

productivity

insufficient economic growth

unemployment

up

L = GDP/PL

consumption down

tax revenues down

government deficits up

public expenditures down

loan defaults up

investment down

lower economic growth

The dilemma

of growth

Incomes

Labour

& capital

Spending

Goods &

services

Firms People labour

productivity

prices novelty

Consumer

credit

Commercial

credit

creative destruction

status competition

Investment Saving

Speculation

The Engine of Growth

The Engine of Growth

‘The value of company assets that come

mainly from products of limited

nutritional value – ‘empty calories’ – is

huge.’

Forum for the Future 2013

Obesity represents 20% of health care

costs in the US.

Spending on diabetes projected to reach

17% of NHS spend by 2035.

Social costs of obesity projected to

reach £50 in the UK by 2050

Stranded Assets

Where is the green economy?

Enterprise

as service

Sustainable

investment

Ecological macro-

economics

• resource light economic

activities that provide the

capabilities for people to

flourish:

– treading lightly on the earth

– delivering quality of life

– integrated into the community

– providing decent, satisfying

employment

Enterprise for a finite planet

• green technologies – renewables

– energy efficiency

– resource productivity

• infrastructure – public transport

– low-carbon buildings

– community spaces

• ecological protection – forests

– soils and crops

– wetlands and habitats

• services – health and education

– care, craft and culture

Investment for a finite planet

The Savory Institute

Holistic livestock management….

Grasslands

“It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our

banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be

a revolution before tomorrow morning."

Henry Ford

• small-scale – peer-to-peer

– community bonds

– community banking

• institutional investors – governance

– negative screening

– investment for good

– impact investment

• macro-economy – financial regulation

– fiduciary duties

– hypothecated transactions tax

– green quantitative easing

– sovereign spending

– the chicago plan

Money for a finite planet

Peer to Peer Lending

Incomes

Participation

Spending

services

Firms People

Economics for a finite planet

resource

productivity

novelty

Affordable

housing Investment

loans

participation prosperity

Investment Saving

Speculation

Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human

beings…

….within the ecological limits of a finite planet