9/6/2010
Salina Journal

By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

As a biology major, Josh Farley was familiar with the scientific method; observe, come up with an explanation, and test it.

And he understood there are some basic assumptions behind the scientific method -- such as that the universe operates with consistent rules, and those rules can be figured out.

But when he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in economics, Farley found its description as the "dismal science" was half-apt; it did indeed start with some dismal -- and, he thought, questionable -- assumptions, but it barely seemed like science.

First, the dismal: "When I started taking economics, the first thing they said was that people are rational, selfish and insatiable," Farley said. "The math doesn't work if people care about each other."

As for the science, he found that even though economics is supposed to describe the real world, it too often seemed to forget the basics.

"It lacked the objective reality of ecology and physics -- you can't get something for nothing," said Farley, now a professor and fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. "Economists have come to believe that our economy can grow forever."

He's one of the guest speakers at The Land Institute's annual Prairie Festival, which is set for Sept. 24 to 26.

A special year

Ken Warren, managing director of The Land Institute, said this year's event will be special for several reasons.

The institute's new $2 million research building is nearing completion, Warren said, and will be in use by the time the festival begins.

A dedication ceremony is scheduled for 9 a.m. the Saturday of the Prairie Festival.

"It's very functional and very open," Warren said. "We'll be able to traipse through and see it."

Guest speakers Saturday and Sunday include:

n Writer and farmer Wendell Berry;

n Artist Matilda Essig

n Writer Scott Russell Sanders

n Ecologist and writer Sandra Steingraber

n Kent Whealy, co-founder of the Seed Savers Exchange

n Land Institute founder and president Wes Jackson

In all, Warren said, there will be nine authors at the Prairie Festival, including Land Institute scientist Stan Cox, whose book "Losing our Cool" was published earlier this year, and Land Institute board chairman Angus Wright.

To allow festival-goers an opportunity to get their books signed by the authors, a special "signing opportunity" has been scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday, Warren said.

Saturday evening will end with a performance by "Wild Blessings and "Wilderness Plots," an Indiana folk band that has taken some of the writings of Berry, Sanders and Charles Darwin, and set them to music.

During his talk, scheduled for the Saturday afternoon of the Prairie Festival. Farley said he'll disuss how to create an economy that focuses on quality of life, rather than eternal growth.

Traditional economics, and the models it creates, Farley said, tend to focus on the best way to allocate resources -- is the best use of a tree to become part of a boat, a house, a chair, or firewood?

And those sort of models worked for a while, Farley said, but aren't keeping up with new realities.

"A couple of hundred years ago, trees weren't scarce, fish in the ocean weren't scarce, our impact on the global ecosystem was pretty minimal," he said. "The real supply problem was consumer goods -- not resources themselves."

But today, "market goods are really abundant; what we don't have is enough healthy forests, and climate stability."

Ignoring the importance of the environment is another flaw many economists make, Farley said.

"Too many see the economy as a whole, and the environment as a useful subsystem -- or ignore it altogether, and only focus on capital and labor," Farley said.

There's also a tendency to see things with equal monetary value as truly equal; Farley tells of an economist who said that a 30 percent drop in agricultural production would be a mere blip in the overall world economy, and made up for by other sectors.

"It's like 'If we don't have food, we'll just go see more movies,' " he said.

Traditional economics also assumes that competition will sort out the best way to use resources, but humans need to move to a model that values cooperation.

"There's no competitive way to sold problems such as climate change," Farley said.

And, he stresses "I'm not anti-markets -- there are some things free markets do extremely well -- but it can't get us out of this."

For example, he said, "The fossil fuel economy of coal, and oil, fits well into a market economy; there's only so much, and if I use it, you can't."

Resources such as solar and wind are different: "No matter how much we use in the U.S., there's not less for China and India."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.

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