Economics, business, and trade | TableDebates

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Decoupling Desire: How can the advertising sector promote better, or less, consumption?

What is the role of food advertising in the context of net zero? In this blog post, Trish Fisher summarises a recent TABLE debate and reflects on the issue of greenwashing, alternative economic models such as B-corporations, government regulation of sustainability claims, and the challenges for the advertising industry of redefining a “good life” that is compatible with sustainability goals. This blog post is written by Trish Fisher, an intern at TABLE working on multiple projects. Currently, she is a graduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing dual master’s degrees in public policy and public health. Trish’s research interests lie at the intersection of climate, food, and health policy.

Image: blende12, Bee pollination apple blossom, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Journal articles

Pollinator declines threaten global food trade

Developed economies such as the UK, Germany and Japan could suffer the greatest economic losses from sudden declines in pollinator populations, due to their dependence on imported crops, according to this modelling study. The paper estimates the changes in production levels and market prices that would occur for 74 animal-pollinated crops following sudden pollinator loss due to three causes: high use of pesticides; natural disasters such as drought; or countries being unable to pursue sustainable agricultural policies due to high levels of debt.

Jenn Clapp

Podcast episode

Jennifer Clapp on Commodifying Food (rebroadcast)

Has the increasing commodification of food and financialization of the food system left us more vulnerable to food crises?

Brewing Sustainability in the Coffee and Tea Industries

Brewing Sustainability in the Coffee and Tea Industries

This book uses case studies to show how tea and coffee producers are moving towards production models with environmental and social benefits, in contrast with the previous model of colonial plantations.

Sustain

News and resources

Tackling the UK’s cost of living crisis

In this blog post, Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive of UK NGO Sustain, argues that the cost of living crisis in the UK should be tackled using windfall taxes on large corporations that are reporting record profits; Real Living Wages that are linked to the cost of living; strong safety nets such as free school meals for all children; extending the principle of “public money for public goods” to cover more state spending on food; joined-up local responses to food crises, e.g. through local food poverty alliances; and strong accountability in government for action on food poverty.

Image: Tom Fisk, Top-view Photography of Cargo Ship With Intermodal Containers, Pexels, Pexels Licence

Journal articles

Imperialist appropriation in the world economy

This paper quantifies the resources (raw materials, land, energy and labour) exchanged between the global North and South. It argues that despite the popular perception that imperialist extraction of resources ended when colonial powers withdrew from the global South, rich countries and large corporations exert power to depress the price of resources and labour in the global South. The result is “unequal exchange”: for each unit (defined below) of resources the South imports from the North, the South must export many more units to pay for it.

Food Ethics Council

News and resources

Recording: In the dock - shaking up dairy regulations

The UK’s Food Ethics Council has released a write-up and recording of its latest “Food Policy on Trial” event, which was held at the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022. Four speakers, including dairy farmers and a commercial cheese buyer, discussed the fairness of rules governing the dairy sector and milk contracts. One farmer explained that the short shelf-life of milk puts farmers at a disadvantage when negotiating contracts.

Image: ccipeggy, Grocery store market, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

News and resources

Inflation’s disproportionate impact on budget food items

UK anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe has drawn attention to the disproportionate impact that inflation has on the prices of the cheapest product lines, on which many lower income households rely. Monroe is working to establish a new inflation measure that will track the rising costs of the cheapest supermarket items in the UK.

Brexit and Agriculture

Brexit and Agriculture

This book looks at how food and agriculture policies have changed across the United Kingdom since its departure from the European Union. It argues that the UK’s four nations could go even further in their departure from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, proposing a “resilient agriculture” paradigm based on net zero and agroecology.