Food and Agriculture Archives – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

A Dry Reckoning for Finney County

November 13, 2025/1 Comment/in Dave Rollo, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Limits to Growth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Water /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Finney County lies in the southwest quadrant of Kansas and above the massive Ogallala Aquifer. Running mid-continent from the Dakotas to Texas, the Ogallala is the largest aquifer in North America. Once holding the volume equivalent of Lake Huron, the aquifer was first tapped for high-volume irrigation in 1909. This fundamentally transformed the landscape from ecologically diverse tallgrass prairie to energy- and water-intensive monoculture crops on an immense scale.

Hitting Freshwater Rock Bottom

October 23, 2025/6 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Climate Change, Consumption, Economic Growth, Food and Agriculture, GDP, Limits to Growth, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Water /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood and Marwa Ebrahem

Freshwater is arguably the single most essential resource for human life. Yet, its use seems more abstract than that of solid materials. Freshwater sources exist everywhere that humans do, but they are often hidden from view, buried underground or frozen in glaciers. It’s hard to fathom the scope and the impact of the 3.95 trillion cubic meters of freshwater the human economy extracted in 2021.

Introducing the Sustainable Trade Act

October 17, 2025/6 Comments/in David Shreve, Economic Policy, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Jobs and Employment, Politics, Steady State Economy Act, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by David Shreve

What are supposed to be the advantages of the free-trade consensus that has emerged in the last century? Yes, innovative technologies and techniques have made their way around the globe. The diffusion of digital communications, managerial technology, advanced materials engineering, and efficient shipping techniques are but a few prominent examples. The openness and complexity of the global trading system have facilitated this diffusion.

Additionally, trade based on “comparative advantage” has modestly increased global economic efficiency.

Has the Hunger-GDP Relationship Crossed a Threshold?

September 25, 2025/6 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Climate Change, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Food and Agriculture, GDP, Inequality, Limits to Growth, Poverty, Steady State Herald, Trophic Theory of Money, Wellbeing /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

The world looked poised to end hunger in the mid-2010s, after decades of decline in the percentage of the population that is undernourished. People often attribute progress in the late 20th century to the technological advances of the “Green Revolution.” However, the revolution’s costs and benefits, and their distribution, are hotly contested. Many experts instead point simply to economic growth as the primary factor responsible for poverty reduction and,

Challenging Land Use and Abuse in Allamakee County

October 31, 2024/0 Comments/in Conservation, Dave Rollo, Food and Agriculture, Fossil Fuels, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Pollution, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Water /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Allamakee County lies in the northeast corner of Iowa, bordering Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is part of a three-state region that, unlike most of the upper United States and Canada, escaped glaciation during past ice ages. This geological oddity is immediately obvious to visitors by the dramatic terrain of bluffs, hills, and valleys. Expansive plains characterize most of the rest of Iowa, where miles-thick glaciers moved over the land like a bulldozer,

Steady-State Origins in Sauk County

August 29, 2024/4 Comments/in Conservation, Dave Rollo, Food and Agriculture, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Limits to Growth, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

By Dave Rollo

As the setting for Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, Sauk County, Wisconsin, holds a special place within the pantheon of environmental literature. Leopold’s writings on ecology and forestry brought an understanding of land repair and remediation to academic and general audiences. It is difficult to imagine the fields of wildlife biology, soil conservation, or restoration ecology without Leopold’s contribution.

Likewise, the moral basis for the environmental movement in later decades owes its origins in part to Leopold’s land ethic.

A Trophic Perspective on Fossil Fuels

August 1, 2024/8 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Consumption, Food and Agriculture, Fossil Fuels, Limits to Growth, Pollution, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Trophic Theory of Money /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

Like the economy of nature, the human economy has a “trophic” structure. In nature, nutrition and energy flow from plants to herbivores to carnivores, with each of these comprising a trophic level of the ecosystem. In the human economy, materials and energy flow from agriculture and other extractive activities to heavy manufacturing to light manufacturing. Both economies include service providers, such as pollinators in nature and the transportation sector in the human economy.

Okeechobee County: Kept Great with Conservation

July 25, 2024/2 Comments/in Conservation, Dave Rollo, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Pollution, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Okeechobee County is located in Florida’s Heartland Region, within the 3000-square mile Kissimmee River Basin. The Heartland stretches from Orlando in the north to the intertidal coast of mangrove forests to the south, forming an area commonly referred to as the “River of Grass.” Water flowed hundreds of miles through this enormous network of marshlands, helping to shape an ecosystem of unrivalled subtropical biodiversity.

Today,

Rooted in the Earth: The Economy Needs Agriculture

July 11, 2024/6 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Economic Growth, Food and Agriculture, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Trophic Theory of Money /by Gary Gardner

by Alix Underwood

Though it’s easy to lose sight of, with our language and culture and smartphones, Homo sapiens is an animal species that exists within natural ecosystems. All our activities, including our economic activities, take place within and depend upon these ecosystems. This is the starting point for the trophic theory of money (TTOM).

“Trophic” refers to the flow of nutrition and energy. In the economy of nature,

Rendering the Economic Fat for a Steady State Economy

June 27, 2024/8 Comments/in Economic Policy, Food and Agriculture, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Wellbeing /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Mention the steady state economy at a gathering of friends and a predictable concern is sure to arise. “I couldn’t possibly manage on a flat income, much less a reduced one. I can barely make ends meet now!” Heads will nod all around. The idea of a nongrowing economy—not to mention degrowth—quickly sours the party mood.

The objection is understandable from people long accustomed to ever-greater levels of consumption.