FW: Meyer input to ECON CDSC Drafts
Jennifer Trucks
From: Lee Meyer <lmey...@gmail.com<mailto:lmey...@gmail.com>>
Date: Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 5:20 PM
Subject: Meyer input
To: scs001econo...@googlegroups.com<mailto:scs001econo...@googlegroups.com>.
To: Don Hodge and the Economics subcommittee:
From: Lee Meyer - new guy on the block
I've added a modest number of comments and edits on the four Econ Criteria files - mine end with "Meyer". You may have already discussed all of my points in the hard work clearly evident in the proposed indicators. But, my new perspective may raise some questions and add ideas that didn't emerge earlier. Please take my ideas as suggestions and (for most of them), my feelings won't be hurt if they are rejected.
Here are my suggestions and recommendations -
Has the subcommittee considered adding an indicator which is a measure of debt (perhaps use a debt/asset ratio?)
Are there certifications that can be incorporated? For example, I'm suggesting that the "Good Agricultural Practices" GAP certification should be included under the food safety indicator - 6.13.1
Will there be a statement to farmers that there are tradeoffs between some of our indicators, and that sustainability can be improved by one or the other, but not both in some cases (example - increasing land ownership by increasing deb. I think it is also important to note that some indicators should not be maximized (i.e. if growing 8 crops is good (diversity), growing 88 different crops is not necessarily better.
I added a 6.3.1.4 - shared marketing (an experienced farmer can include products from a beginning farmer in a farmers market stall, CSA, etc., as well as actually being a market vender).
6.6.1 - "crop type diversity" - Diversity should be optimized, not maximized. The farm should assess the risk mediation benefits of diversity, compared to the complications in production and marketing systems, and then increase its diversity to that optimum level. I like that the "indicator" is the broad category, but think that the statement "we use the term "type" to refer to "species."
And, the terminology ("crop type") is causing me problems and may confuse others. I think in terms of three levels - crop type would be the broadest level (row crops, vegetables, fruits); products might be the next level (eg. greens, squashes, grains) and then species would be raspberries, durum wheat, broccoli. Might be solved with some good editing. Is a vegetable producer who grows 40 different vegetables marketed through a CSA diverse?
Ecosystem services - are there examples in addition to CRP? Does this capture some of the positive externalities? (e.g. cleaner water?)
Do we have a place for ancillary businesses, such as agri-tourism? This can be a market channel (selling pumpkins on the farm) and well as a diversification (the corn maze); could also expand into eco-tourism and hunting/fishing.
The section on "ecological risk management" made me think of irrigation. From an economic perspective, it's a risk management tool. From the environmental side, it could be resource depleting, but also adoption of new technologies which are resource saving (e.g. drip irrigation). Do we have a home for this in economics?