Reality Cheques

1. Reality Cheques Jules Pretty Jeremy Nelson

2. Real cost of food • We pay for food 3 times… • At the store • In taxes for agsusidies • To clean up environmental/health effects • Food is kept artificially cheap • Cost-shifting: environmental/health costs are transferred away from food producers and onto consumers

3. Multifunctionality • More than a system of food production; impacts economies and ecosystems • Makes people healthier • Promotes just societies • Preserves the earth and life on it • 5 assets that ag both relies upon and affects • Natural capital: nature’s resources • Social capital: relations through mutually beneficial action • Human capital: total capability of individuals (knowledge, skills, health) • Physical capital: store of human made material resources • Financial capital: facilitating role rather than a source of productivity • Issue lies in increasing food production while improving positive side-effects and eliminating negative ones

4. externalities • Agriculture, as an multifunctional activity, has impacts beyond the market; externalities • Thus, costs of externalities not included in food prices • Types of externalities: • Atmosphere – polluting gas emissions from fertilizers, fossil fuel use, release of carbon trapped in the soil • Water – polluting agrochemicals infiltrate ground and surface water • Soil – increased erosion and loss of fertility • Biodiversity – monocultures replace diverse ecology • Humans – agrochemicals poison workers, consumers

5. conclusion • We pay to clean up the environment and ourselves, negating economic benefits of increased productivity • Take-home message • Our responsibility is to assess all the aspects of farming, not focusing on one to the exclusion of the rest