Following up on last week's discussion of the virtues and limitations of local food, I want to talk about supply, demand, policy, and the role of social democracy.
#fafdlstorm
#fafdlstorm
1. 'Supporting' local food more or less comes in 3 forms:
A. Deliberate and organized consumer preference
B. Public sector support: Subsidy and regulation
C. Not-for-Profit institutional support
A. Deliberate and organized consumer preference
B. Public sector support: Subsidy and regulation
C. Not-for-Profit institutional support
2. A. only works over the long term if local products are superior in value to 'imports'. In that case, it's less about local demand than happening to live somewhere with great local supply, which is probably being 'exported' as well at which point, it's no longer local.
3. A lot of public sector support relies on supply-side subsidy and regulation to address demand-side issues (it's remarkable how many left-of-center thinkers become supply-siders when the subject is food and farm policy).
4. So you end up with a lot of policy that is inefficient –– pushing string, so to speak. Or expands the scope of government is not particularly principled ways: Everything I'm in favor of should subsidized and everything I dislike should be banned or taxed.
5. NGOs represent the most efficient, defensible ways of supporting local and craft food with intention. But they could be integrated into the larger system better.
6. On that count, I'd point people to the social and industrial democracy of the Third Italy industrial district system of small and medium firm craft production organized through ...
6a. ... interlocking government-owned infrastructure, small firms, service-based (not lobby-based) trade associations.
That's not to say that specific model can be wholly recreated elsewhere, but internalizing the model and lessons expands the imagination here in the USA.
That's not to say that specific model can be wholly recreated elsewhere, but internalizing the model and lessons expands the imagination here in the USA.
7. @JamesFallows has been detailing similar forms of Public-Private engagement in the Atlantic where deindustrialized and depopulated communities rebuild.
theatlantic.com/author/james-f…
theatlantic.com/author/james-f…
7a. Public-Private engagements that are location specific and based on legitimate civic engagement and place-making economics, rather than the crony-capitalist Public-Private partnerships that were all the neo-liberal rage in the 80s and 90s.
8. But on the public subsidy side, especially at the federal level, I'm pretty dubious about tax-payer support for local food. Especially what I see as a lot of resources spent to push very little string.
fafdl.org/blog/2014/09/2…
fafdl.org/blog/2014/09/2…
9. I say, (and as a social democratic hammer, everything looks like a social democratic nail to me) that more often than not, instead of a Rube Goldberg system of overly prescriptive mandates and nickel and dime programs ...
10. ... most of what we'd all like to see in terms of overcoming the soul-crushing homogeneity of industrial and fast food, the public health consequences of ultra-processed food and the collapse of home cooking, of making our communities more vibrant and specific ...
11. ... Of wanting more thriving small and craft businesses in our communities, of better stewardship of the land and on and on. Name a problem and more often than not, the solution is in the basic toolbox of the social democrat.
12. Much less poverty and more secure middle class, with more home time and less work time. Cooking lessons? How about a raise, a stable, manageable work schedule? How about making union organizing legal again? How about a decent minimum wage?
13. Sustainable farming? Don't tell us what kind of farming we should be doing, set clean air and water standards, pay for public goods on private lands (or buy the vulnerable land for the public), invest in land grantR&D and extension.
14. You want small and medium firms to thrive? Don't throw crony capitalist subsidies at them (even cuddly ones), ensure open, dynamic markets with lower barriers to entry through antitrust, dialing down incumbent-slanted IP, zoning, and professional licensing regs.
15. I could go on, but you get the point. On most (not all) issues where I think foodies are either getting supply and demand confused as to where the real leverage is, or are proposing inefficient, overly prescriptive policies ...
16. ... I think the real answers lie within the social democratic toolbox.
17.
• Less poverty
• Broadly shared prosperity and a stable middle class
• Identification and provision of public goods
• Goal-oriented, universalist modest, but well-enforced regulation
• Open, dynamic markets
• More democracy
• Less poverty
• Broadly shared prosperity and a stable middle class
• Identification and provision of public goods
• Goal-oriented, universalist modest, but well-enforced regulation
• Open, dynamic markets
• More democracy
