Sustainable Agrifood Systems
Sustainable Agrifood Systems
Three Emphases
This chapter analyzes the three main emphases used in defining sustainable agriculture—economic, environmental, and social. These are compared in terms of natural resources, human nature, internalization of externalities, and risk management, emphasizing differences in value-based and empirically based assumptions. The production function is analyzed in detail, especially its assumptions, because it is the icon of mainstream economics and the economic emphasis in sustainable agriculture. The mainstream perspective on sustainable agrifood systems usually has a strong economic emphasis, while alternative perspectives have different combinations of social and environmental perspectives. Mainstream and alternative perspectives are illustrated by returning to an analysis of the world food crisis.
Keywords: economic emphasis, environmental emphasis, social emphasis, natural resources, human nature, internalization, externalities, risk management, assumptions, production function
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