We now return to your regularly schedule program.

Okay I didn't get back to those Gibson's Critera as quickly as I could have. Because I got kind of bored thinking about companies where the only product is an information transaction. But, I feel it's important to keep exploring these criteria, and I'd like to do so using the topic of Ecological Economics paper, which I'm avoiding starting right now, which is about...

Agriculture, and Agricultural Subsidies

So let's examine how this criteria can be applied to agriculture and US Ag Policy, because why not?

3. Ensure that sufficiency and effective choices for all are pursued in ways that reduce dangerous gaps in sufficiency and opportunity (and health, security, social recognition, political influence, etc.) between the rich and the poor.

Here in the US we have a Cheap Food Policy. Our tax dollars subsidize the growing of grains for human consumption and feed for animals. The theory behind this is that it will become cheaper for poor people to afford groceries. The reality is that it unnaturally lowers the cost to produce corn, wheat and soy which are used to make high-fructose corn syrup, breads and soy-based fake meats. These products are now super cheap, and readily available to the poor. The result has been record rates of Type 2 Diabetes, ADHD and Obesity among poor Americans. Globally, our cheap exports are harming the agricultural economies of developing nations. In the ironic twist that history is so good at, these subsidies were crafted in part to help poor Americans, poor farmer's specifically, during the Great Depression.

So how could we craft a food policy in this country to reduce the gaps in sufficiency and opportunity between the rich and poor?

End All Agriculture Subsidies: This would raise the price of cheap sugars and carbohydrates and reduce the incentives to grow products that are less healthy than fruits and vegetables, which don't receive any subsidies. I am not an economist so I don't know if this re-balancing would cause bell peppers to be more affordable than their comparable weight in Cool Ranch Doritos. So if necessary, the minimum wage should be raised, and the WIC program expanded to cover a greater variety of produce. This balancing of costs and greater buying power would certainly expand 'Effective Choices' for the American working poor.

How to level Political Influence between the haves and have nots with the farm bill? I don't really know. Here's an Idea: let's change the presidential primary system so that Iowa is not always the first caucus state to decide who gets to be president. Their 'Pole Position' has lead politicians to pander to Iowa's local corn industry at the expense of the rest of the industry.

I feel there is an opportunity in here somewhere to expand labor opportunities. Oh that's right, Immigration! Another reason our food is so cheap is because we don't pay an honest wage to the folks who harvest it. We exploit workers from Mexico and further south. So let's reform our Immigration and Enforcement policies to ensure that the people who harvest the crops that feed us are American citizens, afforded the full protection of American labor laws. Mmmm, that's good equality!

Okay, we've gone off on some tangents here tonight. But I think we might have learned something. We'll return next time with Criteria #4 Inter-generational Equity!!

Apply as Nessecary to the Effected Area

The question is: How can the criteria in Gibson's Sustainability Assessment be applied to the work we are doing for Sabre Holdings? The book is mostly about sustainability criteria at the level of government and national businesses, how can it be applied to a company that's all website traffic, offices and electronic plane tickets?

Let's explore the criteria:

1. Build human-ecological relations to establish and maintain the long-term integrity of socio-biophysical systems and protect the irreplaceable life support functions upon which human as well as ecological well-being depends.

This seems like a tall order to expect out of Travelocity. However I'm quickly thinking of their Travel for Good and Change Ambassador V0luntourism travel products. The experience of travel can be very effective at "building human-ecological relations." However, when the trip is over, in many ways the relationship ends. There is no longer an incentive to maintain the ecological system unless there is an eco-tourism infrastructure in place year round catering to a steady stream of travelers who's vacation dollars support the "irreplaceable life support functions." Care must be taken to insure that the travel infrastructure really does support the eco-system, and greenwashing must be weeded out of the system. And all the eco-tourism options are useless if the travelers don't care about the environment and just want some beaches to drink margaritas on. So Vegas is kind of out.

2. Ensure that everyone and every community has enough for a decent life and that everyone has opportunities to seek improvements in ways that do not compromise future generations' possibilities for sufficiency and opportunity.

Operational Control is really the sticky wicket here. Sabre is merely a broker, if you want to buy a ticket to the developing world and pour money into the human trafficking sex prisoner industry there's not a lot they can do about it. So we might need to narrow the scope of 'everyone' and consider the employees and the communities that Sabre can affect. Paying a living wage, and hiring vendors that pay a living wage, is the primary way Sabre could meet this criteria. Beyond that, a company culture that promotes the opportunity for a decent life, 40 hour work weeks, maternity leave, can build this chance for opportunity. Beyond the company opportunities could be expanded in traveled-to communities through charitable donations and more voluntourism options to bring first world dollars to create opportunity to the developing world. How to ensure these opportunities can continue beyond the current generation? Human's have had a way of passing information and techniques for survival from generation to generation, it's called culture. And changing a culture is something that takes leadership.

3. Ensure that sufficiency and effective choices for all are pursued in ways that reduce dangerous gaps in sufficiency and opportunity (and health, security, social recognition, political influence, etc.) between the rich and the poor.

Again this is an issue bigger than one company, I could be flip and say "Vote Democrat" but I don't really believe that is a great strategy anymore. Marxist Revolutionary Vacations, anyone? Alright it's late I'll address this with more seriousness in the next post.