Tim Jackson gave a lecture at the Organic Research Centre in Elm Farm, debating solutions to the economic challenges facing farming

1. Food and Farming
Economic Dimensions
Tim Jackson
Food and Farming Summer School
18th July 2013

2. Source: Druckman and Jackson (2010)
Recreation &
Leisure
28%
Food & Catering
24%
Space Heating
13%
Household
11%
Clothing &
Footwear
8%
Commuting
5%
Health & Hygiene
9%
Education
2%
Communications
1%
Total: 26tCO2e
Discrepancies are due to rounding
Food in the Carbon Footprint

3. Food in the Macro-Economy

4. • Growth is unsustainable
• De-growth is unstable
The Dilemma of Growth

5. 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

6. Incomes
Labour
& capital
Spending
Goods &
services
Firms Peoplelabour
productivity
prices novelty
Consumer
credit
Commercial
credit
creative destruction status competition
Investment Saving
Speculation
The Engine of Growth

7. The Engine of Growth

8. ‘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

9. Where is the green economy?
Enterprise
as service
Sustainable
investment
Ecological macro-
economics

10. • 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

11. • 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

13. The Savory Institute
Holistic livestock management….

14. Grasslands

16. “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

17. • 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

18. Peer to Peer Lending

23. Incomes
Participation
Spending
services
Firms People
Economics for a finite planet
resource
productivity
novelty
Affordable
housingInvestment
loans
participation
prosperity
Investment Saving
Speculation

25. Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human
beings…
….within the ecological limits of a finite planet