Paul Smith and his associates perform research, analysis, and communication in the fields of Sustainable Agriculture, Environment, and Public Policy. Thoughtful, nuanced analysis of issues and data. Recommendations and conclusions that reflect perspectives beyond the conventional.
Ensuring our farms and agri-food system are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable is important to all of us, whether farmer, consumer, retailer or advocate. Achieving sustainability depends on defining and evaluating what we mean by sustainability. Our research, strategies and analysis from previous work illustrate ways of assessing agri-environmental sustainability and the use of policy tools for that purpose.
Government policies, programs, legislation, regulations, and incentives and how these are created and implemented affect us all. Collectively. this public policy shapes the context for sustainability, agriculture and environment. All public policy needs evaluation to ensure the policy is effective, efficient and does not have perverse effects. Stakeholder engagement and collaboration in policy development and evaluation is critical for success. Our work supports many aspects of public policy development and evaluation in sustainable agriculture and environment.