In the second part of his interview, Robert McGarvey moves onto Tangible and Intangible assets (dirt vs. soil). As a gardener or farmer, you know that soil has attributes that are intangible compared to dirt until you try growing a crop. Soil has assets that support biological activity. Dirt is a mixture of fine mineral particles and sometimes organic matter.
Robert McGarvey makes the case that we have to bring the same perspective to economics of urban agriculture and local food. Our current economic valuation system measures the tangibles (price, profit, loss) and doesn't measure the intangibles. Robert describes what those intangibles are in an economic model.
Robert McGarvey is an Edmonton economist, a cofounder of Genuine Wealth Inc. and an Executive Committee Member of the Economic Research Council, London, England. He writes on and studies assets and the asset revolution that is informing the trends on monetary reform and pricing reform.
Robert McGarvey was interviewed by the Alberta Land-use Knowledge Network as part of their online course and discussion of Urban Agriculture and Local Food in the autumn of 2013. The course, Growing Insights can be viewed at http://growinginsights.ca/
