Ecosystems as Models for Restoring our Economies

by John H. Giordanengo

Humanity could not begin resolving our most serious health concerns until we understood the true nature of disease. We lack an equivalent understanding of the nature of our economy, putting not only ourselves in jeopardy, but the ecosystems upon which we rely. Atop three decades of work and research in ecology, economics, and business, Giordanengo describes the true nature of our economy, shedding a new light on the universal rules of ecosystems and economies. From our collective knowledge of ecological restoration, this book informs not only how a sustainable economy is structured, but how we may restore our economies to a highly functional and sustainable state. If you believe ecosystems cannot possibly hold the clues to economic restoration, may this book inspire you to think again.

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2021

Reviews

[Jason Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ecosystems/ecology and respect for the authors work are what hooked me into reading this book, as I've never been particularly interested in studying economics. However, like it or not it is an important and relevant subject. And like all good teachers, Giordanengo has a knack for making things more easily understandable with some good concepts derived from ecosystems and ecological restoration. I like the apolitical style and could tell by his synopsis and solutions that he has put a lot of constructive thoughts into these subjects he writes about. He includes some clear positive solutions and a path to work toward, although I remain highly skeptical based on humans past and current failures, particularly when it comes to the environment. As mentioned by one of the critical praise writers on the back cover, I agree that this should be required as part of any economics curriculum since it will be up to the future economists, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and consumers to incorporate these solutions and attempt to fix what mine and previous generations have royally messed up.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dense reading but quite worthwhile. Really good on agricultural economics and comparing a lot of ecological models to economics. I enjoyed reading it.

It would be hard to cover everything in 281 pages, and there are two notable deficiencies. First, there is very little on population models beyond one page hoping the demographic transition continues. Our current capitalist system is based on continuous growth. Ecology with populations likes stability. He constantly states local resource production and manufacturing would be stable. History is full of local populations that overshot their local carrying capacity. Big cities like New York are not going to be self sufficient for resources. Imports started to make up the imbalance where local resources do not keep up. A very small local population might be able to use these models.

Second, niches are known to be for one species to win out, "complete competitors cannot coexist". The author seems to think economics would be better if many small producers all did the same thing. Diversity in nature springs from multiplying niches and not having species in the same niches. This may not be an idea that is supported by ecology. A diverse economy may be better supported by increasing the types of businesses versus many replicas.