In this article, I review - and to an extent further develop - a normative theory that offers a unified language for both sustainability and policy analyses. The theory shows that by economic growth we should mean growth in wealth, which is the social worth of an economy’s entire stock of...

There are two broad criteria by which one can judge humanity's success in feeding itself: (i) the proportion of people whose access to basic nutritional requirements is secure; and (ii) the extent to which global food production is sustainable. Even though the two are related, they have usually...

This paper investigates institutions for the creation and transmission of knowledge as efficient resource allocation mechanisms. By looking at Science and Technology it develops a two-way classification. Science is a non-market allocation mechanism, where knowledge is treated as a pure public...

The extent of genetic diversity in food crops is important as it affects the risk of attack by pathogens. A drop in diversity increases this risk. Farmers may not take this into account when making crop choices, leading to what from a social perspective is an inadequate level of diversity