John Ikerd
Farm Policies for Sustainability
The essentials of sustainability may seem too philosophical or abstract to be of any real value until they are applied to real world...
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John Ikerd
- Oct 18
- 4 min
Economic Principles of Sustainability
Everyone wants to be treated with dignity and respect and accepted for who they are. This is a fundamental law of nature, specifically,...
John Ikerd
- Oct 12
- 4 min
Social Principles of Sustainability
We humans are social beings and we need social relationships within families, friendships, and communities to meet our mental and...
John Ikerd
- Oct 4
- 4 min
Ecological Principles of Sustainability
Sustainable economies must be guided by the fundamental principles or laws of nature. Since economies are subsets of societies and...
John Ikerd
- Sep 7
- 5 min
Hierarchy of Sustainable Values
In a previous post I explained the basic differences among economic, social, and ethical values. Economic values meet individual,...
John Ikerd
- Aug 13
- 4 min
Beloved Economies -- A Review
Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work By Jess Rimington and Joanna L. Cea If you work for a for-profit or nonprofit organization...
John Ikerd
- Aug 2
- 4 min
Systems within Systems
Distinctions among levels are based on distinctive characteristics of the particular levels. Economies obviously reflect some of the...
John Ikerd
- Jul 18
- 4 min
Sustainable Farm Management
The basic principles of managing sustainable organizations are perhaps most clearly apparent in farm management. The selective boundaries...
John Ikerd
- Jul 14
- 4 min
Managing Sustainable Organizations
Industrial organizations are managed to maximize productivity and profits—through specialization and standardization—which facilitate...
John Ikerd
- Jul 5
- 4 min
Worldview of Sustainable Agriculture
The hierarchical worldview of sustainability also characterizes the individual entities or smaller wholes that make up the larger whole...
John Ikerd
- Jun 15
- 4 min
The Hierarchy of Authentic Sustainability
I ended my previous post by explaining that the worldview of authentic sustainability reflects an understanding that economies are a part...
John Ikerd
- Jun 8
- 4 min
Typical Worldview of Sustainability
In my previous post, I related the “five stages of grief” to the stages of transition from an unsustainable to sustainable society. They...
John Ikerd
- May 17
- 4 min
Stages of Change to Sustainability
The “five stages of grief” are widely used to describe the process people go through in facing, and eventually accepting, the reality of...
John Ikerd
- Jan 10
- 4 min
WHY?
I spent much of the first thirty years of my early life preparing to be a scientist, a social scientist but nonetheless a scientist. I...
John Ikerd
- Nov 10, 2021
- 6 min
Successful Small Family Farms: Myth or Reality?
Someone recently forwarded me a link to an opinion piece by freelance writer Sarah Mock that begins: “I tried to prove that small family...
John Ikerd
- Nov 1, 2021
- 4 min
The Values of Sustainability
Everything eventually boils down to economics! How many times have we heard this assertion—as if it were settled truth? Farmers need an...
John Ikerd
- Oct 12, 2021
- 5 min
Sustainability and the Laws of Nature
We humans are subject to the same laws of nature that govern the rest of the universe. If this were not true, there would be no concern...
John Ikerd
- Sep 29, 2021
- 54 min
Essentials of Economic Sustainability - Collection
Ten years ago, I wrote a book titled The Essentials of Economic Sustainability. It was written initially for short courses I taught in...
John Ikerd
- Sep 13, 2021
- 5 min
The National Debt Deception
"Government spending is out of control! We can’t afford new government programs to rebuild infrastructure, mitigate climate change, or...
John Ikerd
- Aug 14, 2021
- 5 min
The Economic Realities of CAFOs
I don’t like watching videos of my own presentations, but I force myself to do it from time to time. I know how I feel about...