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economic systems??



	There has been some discussion of capitalism and some questions 
raised as to the connection to sustainable agriculture. I would argue 
that such issues are very important. 	The question of 
capitalism is an important one for those concerned with sustainable 
agriculture. First, for those of us who feel that all people in this 
country as well as world should be able to have access to nutritious food 
in adequate quantities - the unfettered workings of capitalism seems to 
insure that there are "haves" and "have notsÓ" Second, the natural 
workings of the market and powerful banks, processors, transportation 
organizations, and input suppliers lead us down a certain road of fewer 
and larger farms. Farmers are on a treadmill with perpetually low prices 
for commodities (except for short periods of undersupply). This is one of 
the major obstacles to a sustainable food system! As important as niche 
markets, value added efforts, and CSAs are locally - they are not the 
answer for the mass of  farmers. If we want to maintain (to say nothing 
of increasing) the number of farms, new controls or interventions like 
supply management may be necessary.

	I know that THE MARKET is currently "in" and intervention and 
subsidies are "out". However, the reality is that THE MARKET is a 
powerful force for constantly depressing prices of mass produced items 
and for decreasing the number of producers (i.e., weeding out the 
"unfit"). It is also a powerful force for allocating resources in such a 
way as to create and maintain a wide gap between the wealthy and poor. 

	A myth has developed that government programs don't work. And 
certainly there are many examples of programs that are failures. But, 
numerous government programs have carried out their intended purposes 
quite well. And there are plenty of instances of private (for-profit 
as well as non-profit organizations) messing up programs or carrying them 
out very inefficiently. 

	There is certainly much that can be done to lessen the most 
detrimental effects of capitalism (social security, unemployment 
insurance, medicare, various anti-poverty programs, etc.). However, there 
have been economic systems before capitalism and I am confident that 
there will be other systems after capitalism, designed specifically to 
meet peoples needs and aspirations while enhancing our natural 
resources and truly providing equal opportunity. 

	Best wishes to all SANET folks for the new year - and keep on 
discussing issues techncical and philosophical.

FRED


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