Social sustainability Flashcards
How is production theory in economics applied to ag?
Considers input factors and output factors to determine how much can be produced.
What are the input factors of production theory?
- Finance: income, credit, savings
- Labour: human: skills, health, and education
- Land: natural: soil, water, plants, animals
also infrastructure, equipment.
(remember back to year 12 economics)
What is the output factor of production theory?
- The amount of the commodity produced (e.g. livestock, grain, seed).
What are properties of socially sustainable communities?
Socially sustainable communities are…
- Equitable
- Diverse
- Socially cohesive (sense belonging, culture)
- have good quality of life
- show maturity (of vision, plans for future)
- demonstrate good governance
- Fair + just
….. all of these to actively support the capacity of current and future generations to create healthy + livable communities.
how to measure social sustainability?
- Community engagement
- socioeconomic assessment
- employment
- education
- health
What are some stats (2016) about Australian ag workforce? (Good for discussing social sustainability)
- 82% lived in rural areas
- 37% were owner-manager of an enterprise
- 32% female
- 11% from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- 1% Indigenous
What’s the demographic shift in Aus ag?
- Average age increasing
- Fewer farmers
- More large farms which tend to be more profitable, farm sizes increasing 30% on average.
- Fewer young people entering the industry.
- Integrated and innovative food chains
- Labour constraints
- Pressure on land resources
- Education (increasing levels of higher education)
- Losing sense of place
What are the social implications of demographic change? (of increasing land size, corporatization etc)
- Succession planning and governance issues in small holdings
- Fewer ppl on land: more separation from society
- Farming becoming more inaccessible
- Large farms hire more ppl, maybe more stable jobs
- Loss of land and ownership by community
How does vanclay farming in family vs corporate sense?
Main difference: drivers
- Farming as a… sociocultural practise VS business
- Profit is… NOT the main driving force VS IS the driver
- The right thing… means a lot VS profit means more
- Sustainability means… staying on farm VS staying profitable
- Ownership: try to pass to kids VS variety of structures
What are some of the main social sustainability issues in farming in general?
- Health: v. high injury + mortality rates by workplace (mainly by tractors and animals) also AIDS killing workers in Africa: who is left to grow food?
- increasing education levels in ag workers
What are the roles of government?
- Laws + legislation
- Trade agreements
- Managing risk (OHS)
- Dev., investment, support of innovation (e.g. rural research, AUS wool innovation)
What are the green and white papers?
um
What are the three types of risk management?
- Normal risk (farmers manage)
- Marketable risk (handle through market tools like insurance)
- Catastrophic risk (gov manage) e.g. prolonged drought, flood
how does trade barriers and subsidies affect ag?
- prop up non-viable industries
- subsidies distort the market and reduce incentives for growers to use best and most efficient strategies: not sustainable.
What is the role of ag innovation?
- increases quality of economic activity, may give equity of access, not necessarily high tech
