IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/srlewp/46003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring the Sustainability of the UK Food Chain

Author

Listed:
  • Barnes, Andrew Peter
  • McVittie, Alistair

Abstract

Recent policy interest has been directed at the sustainability of food industries, in particular the post-farm gate food chain. This comprises of manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing and catering. In order to measure sustainability Byerlee and Murgai (2001) have argued that productivity measures, alongside key indicators of resource quality trends, should be used to indicate sustainable growth. This paper adopts this approach by presenting Fisher indexes of both Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index and for prominent externalities emerging from the food chain over the period 1998 to 2002. TFP shows an average annual growth rate of –0.52% per annum. Input growth, in particular intermediate purchases, has outstripped output growth over the entirety of this period. In addition, major externalities of environmental and social costs have increased over this period. Consequently, both sets of indicators give a somewhat bleak assessment of the sustainability of the UK food chain.

Suggested Citation

  • Barnes, Andrew Peter & McVittie, Alistair, 2006. "Measuring the Sustainability of the UK Food Chain," Working Papers 46003, Scotland's Rural College (formerly Scottish Agricultural College), Land Economy & Environment Research Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:srlewp:46003
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.46003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/46003/files/Work18Barnes.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.46003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lynam, John K. & Herdt, Robert W., 1989. "Sense and sustainability: Sustainability as an objective in international agricultural research," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 3(4), pages 381-398, December.
    2. Oulton, Nicholas, 2007. "Investment-specific technological change and growth accounting," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1290-1299, May.
    3. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    4. John K. Lynam & Robert W. Herdt, 1989. "Sense and Sustainability: Sustainability as an Objective in International Agricultural Research," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 3(4), pages 381-398, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kumar, Praduman & Mittal, Surabhi, 2006. "Agricultural Productivity Trends in India: Sustainability Issues," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 19(Conferenc).
    2. Ehui, Simeon K. & Spencer, Dunstan S.C., 1992. "A General Approach for Evaluating the Economic Viability of Sustainability of Tropical Cropping Systems," 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 197740, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Ali, Mubarik & Byerlee, Derek, 2000. "Productivity growth and resource degradation in Pakistan's Punjab - a decomposition analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2480, The World Bank.
    4. Ramani, Shyama V. & Thutupalli, Ajay, 2015. "Emergence of controversy in technology transitions: Green Revolution and Bt cotton in India," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 198-212.
    5. Jianxu Liu & Mengjiao Wang & Li Yang & Sanzidur Rahman & Songsak Sriboonchitta, 2020. "Agricultural Productivity Growth and Its Determinants in South and Southeast Asian Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-21, June.
    6. Chandel, B.S., 2007. "How Sustainable is the Total Factor Productivity of Oilseeds in India?," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 1-15.
    7. Franco, Juan Agustín & Gaspar, Paula & Mesias, Francisco Javier, 2012. "Economic analysis of scenarios for the sustainability of extensive livestock farming in Spain under the CAP," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 120-129.
    8. Massimo Del Gatto & Adriana Di Liberto & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Measuring Productivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 952-1008, December.
    9. Byerlee, Derek & Murgai, Rinku, 2001. "Sense and sustainability revisited: the limits of total factor productivity measures of sustainable agricultural systems," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 227-236, December.
    10. Vitória Toffolo Luiz & Rafael Araújo Nacimento & Vanessa Theodoro Rezende & Taynara Freitas Avelar de Almeida & Juliana Vieira Paz & Biagio Fernando Giannetti & Augusto Hauber Gameiro, 2023. "Sustainability Assessment of Intensification Levels of Brazilian Smallholder Integrated Dairy-Crop Production Systems: An Emergy and Economic-Based Decision Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-20, March.
    11. Tiongco, Marites & Dawe, David, 2002. "Long-term Evolution of Productivity in a Sample of Philippine Rice Farms: Implications for Sustainability and Future Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 891-898, May.
    12. Hansen, J. W. & Jones, J. W., 1996. "A systems framework for characterizing farm sustainability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 185-201, June.
    13. Kotu, Bekele Hundie & Oyinbo, Oyakhilomen & Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard & Nurudeen, Abdul Rahman & Kizito, Fred & Boyubie, Benedict, 2022. "Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Paolo Cupo & Rinalda Alberta Di Cerbo, 2016. "The determinants of ranking in sustainable efficiency of Italian farms," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 141-159.
    15. Duernecker, Georg & Herrendorf, Berthold & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2021. "The productivity growth slowdown and Kaldor’s growth facts," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Pandey, Sushil & Hardaker, J. Brian, 1995. "The role of modelling in the quest for sustainable farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 439-450.
    17. Cassman, K. G. & Harwood, R. R., 1995. "The nature of agricultural systems: food security and environmental balance," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 439-454, October.
    18. Rejesus, Roderick M. & Heisey, Paul W. & Smale, Melinda, 1999. "Sources of Productivity Growth in Wheat: A Review of Recent Performance and Medium- to Long-Term Prospects," Economics Working Papers 7693, CIMMYT: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
    19. Komarek, Adam M. & Kwon, Hoyoung & Haile, Beliyou & Thierfelder, Christian & Mutenje, Munyaradzi J. & Azzarri, Carlo, 2019. "From plot to scale: ex-ante assessment of conservation agriculture in Zambia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 504-518.
    20. Gaitán-Cremaschi, Daniel & Kamali, Farahnaz Pashaei & van Evert, Frits K. & Meuwissen, Miranda P.M. & Oude Lansink, Alfons G.J.M., 2015. "Benchmarking the sustainability performance of the Brazilian non-GM and GM soybean meal chains: An indicator-based approach," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 22-32.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:srlewp:46003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lesacuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.