Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Sustainability: a Wicked Problem
H.C. Peterson*
Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics,
Michigan State University, Michigan, USA
Introduction
code word for environmental concerns being
the chief criterion in natural resource decision
making, in supposed contrast to corporate
resource users' concern for profit to the exclusion
of any other criteria.
The purpose of this chapter is to frame sus-
tainability as one type of 'wicked problem' that
cannot be solved, only managed. The framing is
useful for several reasons. First, it helps explain
why there are so many varying definitions of
sustainability and what useful working defini-
tion can be adopted. Second, the passionate
discord among relevant stakeholders is to be
expected with such problems and cannot be dis-
missed but rather must be managed. Third, new
knowledge is especially critical to managing
wicked problems and thus scientists and other
knowledge workers are critical to altering the
trajectory of food and agriculture systems to be
more sustainable. But the role of scientists is
dramatically different in the world of wicked
problems than in the world of tame ones. Finally,
active engagement of all stakeholders in co-
creating system innovation is one of the few
(if only) ways forward toward sustainability.
This engagement demands transdisciplinary
scholarship on the part of university scientists
if they are to be effective contributors to manag-
ing wicked problems.
Sustainability is a product attribute that many
consumers appear to want today, even if it is a
distinctly different characteristic from more tra-
ditional product attributes such as freshness and
taste. Many large global food corporations as well
as many smaller ones have appointed sustain-
ability officers to their senior management in
recent years. Among the 50 largest global food
and beverages companies, 23 have created or
joined various types of multi-stakeholder engage-
ments in pursuit of enhanced sustainability. For
all of this activity and interest, sustainability
remains an elusive term. It is also not clear how
it is achieved or even whether it can be achieved.
Yet certain stakeholders have passionate posi-
tions on the issue and are willing to exercise veto
power over traditional market transactions in its
name. For the dairy industry in particular, one
need only mention such examples as the demise
of rBST, the rise of animal welfare initiatives and
opposition to concentrated animal feeding opera-
tions (CAFOs). Producers in commercial-scale,
conventional agriculture often take offence at so-
called 'sustainable agriculture' that has come to
include organic and local but seems to exclude
them as 'non-sustainable', at least by implica-
tion. Sustainability is further used by many as a
