In our current industrial economy people are paying for the fair cost of goods. RIGHT!?
What if that’s not the case. What if what we’re really paying is a falsified notion of the cost? A number that doesn’t reflect the real price of production. Let me explain:
When a commodity is priced for the market, let’s say a cow, both the cost of production and the value of the product are taken into consideration. To price a cow we would look at its production: $100 for cultivation of hay, $5 on medicine, $200 in labor for the ranch hands, and $45 dollars on butchering. So in this case a cow, which (priced by the pound) costs about $350. That seems reasonable.
But it isn’t. This fails to consider that factory farm conditions form giant cesspools of fecal material that release enormous amounts of toxic gas, and render the land in their vicinity unusable. That the over farming of cattle is depleting the nutrient rich topsoil little by little until it will be rendered unusable to grow anything. That the overuse of antibiotics are developing resistant strains of bacteria that increase medical expenses for cows and humans alike. These costs are ludicrous! The thing is, we just haven’t had to pay them yet. These effects don’t really become a problem until they reach a critical mass, at which point it will be too late to deal with them effectively.
Organic grass-fed cows, or cows that are raised in the manner to which they are adapted by nature (as oppose to corn fed, antibiotic laden factory cows), have much healthier lives, are healthier to eat, and taste better. The problem for consumers is that the meat is prohibitively expensive. The grass fed cows are mostly raised in a sustainable way; one that supports the ecosystem, and encourages health and biodiversity. The cost of the organic grass fed beef, while higher represents the true cost of production. The other beef saves you a few dollars at the cost of the future of our nation.
A parallel can be drawn to most other good and commodities. Some are sustainable, and reflect the true cost of production, like organic grass-fed beef. Others save you a few pennies, and fail to inform their true cost is decay to the very ecosystem, or social system upon which you depend
Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman recently wrote an article about the changes that need to be made. It was published in the NY Times:
How much potential does geothermal energy, a cheap and renewable energy source, have to meet America’s clean energy needs?
People are amazing these days. Last December, a 70-year old Indian woman gave birth to her first child. And now, just this past week, although not as physically impressive, a 70-year man from Colorado invented a line of solar-powered lawn equipment. So much for moving to that lakefront property in northern Florida.
Oil spills, soda cans, and food wrappers constantly pollute our waters. So much so, that it makes me wonder if all those “No Dumping” signs have surreptitiously been changed to “Water: Your New Landfill.”
Iraq may have obligations that are more pressing than green building — but that has not stopped 19 of the country’s academics from touring Oregon for two weeks of seminars on the subject.
