Sustainable agricultural and food systems meet the needs of today's generation without compromising the ability of tomorrow's generations to do the same.
Economic viability is a necessary condition for sustainable agricultural and food systems. Profitability is a good place to begin. Evaluating the likely profitability of potentially more sustainable practices can start with budgeting.
But economic viability is about more than profitability. Economics is the study of how people attempt to meet unlimited wants with limited means. But economic viability is about more than profitability. Economics is the study of how people attempt to meet unlimited wants with limited means. Among the things that people care about are many that cannot be bought and sold in markets. Not least of these are health and environmental quality that we value for ourselves and our communities. Within limiting assumptions, economics offers ways to measure these more hard-to-quantify values.
