Ecological Economics Conference
H. William Batt
[Reprinted from
GroundSwell, July-August 2007]
The US Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) is a small
dissenting organization founded about two decades ago to bring land
and nature back into the calculus of economics. It has no use for
neoclassical economic treatment of natural resources and the
environment. There is a natural affinity between its orientation and
that of Georgist economics. The 250 attendees at June 23 through 27,
2007 biennial conference at Pace University in downtown Manhattan
were treated to a wide range of presentations on natural resource
protection (and exploitation), global climate change, energy use,
sustainable development, and other related subjects. Eight
presentations, in three panels, offered to them the Georgist
perspective, after which one observer even suggested that our two
movements ought to consider merging!
The ecological economics paradigm is one of three approaches to
economic treatment of environmental matters. Natural resource
economists, the first of these, typically focus on how environmental
resources are employed in our society and economy, and are typically
comfortable working within the neoclassical framework. So also with
a second sub-discipline, environmental economists, who usually
concern themselves with matters of negative externalities like
pollution, waste, and resource use. Only the third, ecological
economics, appreciates that the environment is not and should not be
treated as a subset of the economy, but rather that economic systems
exist as a component of larger social systems that in turn finally
exist within environmental (ecological) systems. That is, we need to
appreciate our natural environment first, for everything else rests
on its health. Mistreatment of the environment threatens every other
system that is contained within it. It seems a no-brainer, but only
the ecological economists build their orientation on this premise.
They recognize that what Georgists refer to as land is primary, and
that everything else depends upon a regard for its value.
And so some eight Georgists, some of whom have more credentials
in the Ecol Econ discipline than in our fold, offered to the
assembled attendees at this fourth biennial conference a collection
of illustrations on how Georgists see matters. I think we should
follow this with an invitation to ecological economists to present
at a Georgist conference so that we get a better sense of their
framework. The links are already somewhat forged. Jeff Smith, who
Schalkenbach consigned to represent the Schalkenbach foundation at
an exhibit table, has attended the USSEE conferences since its
inception. He was involved at the establishment of the network years
ago, and has attended its conferences in Minneapolis, Saratoga
Springs, and Tacoma previously. I presented a paper at the Saratoga
Springs conference in 2003 comparing Georgist and ecological
economics which has been on the Schalkenbach website ever since.
Furthermore, Josh Farley, a board member of the USSEE also sits on
the Schalkenbach foundation board, and Gary Flomenhoft, a fellow at
the ecol-econ oriented Gund Institute at University of Vermont, has
received project funding from Schalkenbach. So, I got a willing
reception when I proposed and organized three panels titled
Ecological Economics with a Georgist Flavor.
Panel presenters were Josh Farley, John Tepper Marlin, Amos
Baehr, Gary Flomenhoft, Polly Cleveland, and Josh Vincent and I. A
last paper, by Brian Czech was presented by Josh Farley in Brian's
absence. Each presentation, done largely by powerpoint, offered
various ways by which to link Georgist and Ecol Econ ideas. By the
end of three days, a fair number of the 250 attendees had come to
one or another of the sessions, and the presentations fared well in
view of the fact that there were always about seven competing
concurrent venues. Josh Farley's original "Three Birds with one
Shot" -- photo shot that is; one can't be an environmentalist
talking about killing birds -- was further modified to be "Hatching
Three Birds from one Egg." He argued that Georgist approaches
achieved standards of efficiency, equity, and sustainability that no
other approach can. Given that Josh is well known to this audience,
it helped that he was "lead-off batter" and shared the
task of moderating all three Georgist sessions. John Tepper Marlin,
our newest Schalkenbach board member, having now retired as Chief
Economist for the City of New York, offered three illustrations of
how voluntary certification programs are evolving to curtail the
exploitative rent-seeking practices historically found in
diamond-and-metal mining and in the growing of tropical fruits,
because of the lack of clout relative to multi-national corporations
of governments in developing countries. He showed how such programs
are also encouraging the design of "green buildings" for
corporate offices and industrial facilities. He said that the key to
the future of such programs is in consumer recognition of companies
that comply. The unexpected development in Europe is that the
largest supermarkets are demanding progress toward sustainability
certification from their suppliers - against environmental standards
like those of the Forest Stewardship Council and workplace standards
like SA8000.
Gary Flomenhoft continued later in the day with a discussion of
the differences and similarities between Georgist and Ecol Econ. He
pointed out that Georgism emphasizes efficiency and equity, but has
little to say about scale. On the other hand, one of the greatest
concerns of the ecol econs is the amount of "throughput"
of resources on which our economies depend, and how Georgist ideas
tend to reduce resource consumption and foster greater parsimony. He
suggested that the two frameworks together really offer an
attractive "unified field theory." Polly Cleveland
followed with thoughts on how Georgist ideas tend to reduce the
burden on labor and all the ways in which quality of life can be
maintained with greater efficiencies in this area. Josh Vincent then
followed with his polished presentation on the two-rate LVT
approach. These concrete real-world cases naturally drew a number of
questions and responses for more information.
The following day, Wednesday, I explained how the landlord gets
the "free lunch" despite Milton Friedman having written
that "There is No Free Lunch." (Yes, he wrote a book with
that title in 1975, the year before he won the Nobel Prize.) I
pointed out that the landlord gets the free lunch, and that J.S.
Mill saw this a century and a half ago! Josh Farley presented Brian
Czech's paper, which was a quick run through of some economic
history, with especial emphasis on Mason Gaffney's Corruption of
Economics. Amos Baehr, a UVM graduate student of Josh Farley's,
focused on protection and preservation of "the Commons,"
and how Georgist economics fosters this. It is fair to say that the
collection of all these presentations strengthened the perspective
of Georgist ideas in an evolving ecol-econ framework still defining
itself. It is fair to assume that when Josh Farley and Herman Daly's
textbook, Ecological Economics, comes out in a second edition soon,
it will be able to strengthen still further the natural
complementarity between Georgist ideas and ecol econ ideas.
A small event of the conference is worth further note. Following
the association's presidential address, an informal auction was held
to raise extra pin money for the organization. Schalkenbach
contributed a few of our publications to this effort, and they sold
for well above the prices they list for on the Schalkenbach site!
Mason Gaffney's Corruption of Economics went for $28, and I think
Fred Harrison's Boom Bust 2010 went for over $20. That too might be
an indicator of the interest in the Georgist approach. We made sure
that the attendees knew that there are possible avenues of
collaboration on various studies and other projects that would
strengthen the relationship beyond the one project already funded
for Gary Flomenhoft. I count this venture as very successful. One
university teacher later told me that he will reorient his economics
course to include Georgist approaches henceforth after hearing our
presentations. Another high level state official attending the
conference indicated that he would support passage of permissive
legislation for localities desirous of instituting land value
taxation. Several others walked away with as much literature as we'd
brought along.