The challenge is to identify a DSC system and tools that will have some acceptability and success in a different context. The more pressing parallel with WWII is the recognition of widespread price failure (on current externalities and price failures, see Pretty et al., 2000; Tegtmeier and Duffy, 2004; Skolrud et al. 2020) and resource allocation failures.
A central failure can be seen in luxus consumption. Smil (2004, p. 22) observes from a population-level perspective on biological calorie requirements vs. current consumption that "weighted means for entire populations are rarely above 2,000 kcal/person. This means that per capita gaps between average availability and actual consumption are now greater than 1,000 kcal/day in every high-income country, with maxima approaching, or even surpassing, 1500 kcal/day. In order to account for inevitable food losses and to provide an adequate safety margin the average per capita food supply should be 30% above the needed mean of 2,000 kcal/capita, averaging no more than about 2,600 kcal/capita." In his view, proper allocation of calories would feed an additional 350 million people. Luxus consumption is in part a pricing problem. See Table 4 for additional failures.
Table 4: Examples of current resource allocation failures in the food system
| Example | Description | References |
| Over fertilization with P | 75% of Ontario cropland has excessive P levels but farmers continue to apply in excess; much of it goes directly to watercourses | Carter (2015) |
| Difficulties finding conventional farmers to convert to organic | Despite farmgate prices often 2-3x higher and significantly better environmental performance; the market does not account for socio-cultural barriers to transition nor value resource conservation | MacRae et al (2016); MacRae et al. (2014) |
| Animal production | Continues to increase despite mounting evidence of GHG and nutritional problems associated with production and consumption | MacRae et al. 2010a |
| Problems coordinating rail transport of grains and oilseeds | Privatization of rail infrastructure means grain and oilseed shipping competes with other priorities. Significant backlogs and lost sales. | See Goal 5, sustainable transportation |
| Location of supermarkets | Despite higher aggregate demand in high-density low income neighbourhoods, supermarkets often fail to site there | TFPC, 1996 |
| Investment in SME processing | Despite ample evidence of profitable market niches, investors unwilling to put money into SME processing; claim the inconvenience of more administration for the same sums of money; consequence is loss of infrastructure. | Christianson and Morgan, 2007 |
| Redundant trade | Goods of the same price, quality and characteristic are traded across borders because of convenient or coercive relationships | HCA, 2005 |
| Resources devoted to producing products that help create disease or reduce area devoted to health promoting crops | Corn for sweetener, soda, and animal products, accounts for about 2/3 of US corn crop; scarce irrigation water in Southern Alberta used to irrigate genetically engineered sugar beets; policy incentives for biofuels result in reduced area for pulse crops | National Corn Growers Association, 2013; Pratt, 2022 |
| Failure to invest in food as health promotion | Billions spend on health care for conditions that are preventable | Health Canada [1] |
| High levels of food waste | Estimated that 44% of food available for consumption is wasted across all dimensions of food supply chains (revised to 58% in 2019) | MacRae et al. (2016) |
The obvious advantage for WWII decision makers was how the war assured the population would buy into the need for extraordinary interventions. The Wartime Information Board continually reinforced this commitment with ongoing communication with the population. The case is admittedly much harder to make today, but the presumption here is that problems will continue to increase, making the population more amenable to significant changes. The number of people interested in buying organic, non-GMO, pesticide-free, animal-friendly, and local food is, in part, an expression of current dissatisfactions with the dominant approach and all indications are that these consumer segments will continue to grow.
The other advantage of WWII was that many business people worked for free for the government during the war, seconded by their firms. They brought information and expertise that the civil service did not necessarily have. Equally significant, the federal and provincial governments cooperated on many issues in ways that have not necessarily occurred post-war. A more pluralistic approach to governance and implementation has been called for (cf. MacRae and Abergel, 2012) and the design of new structures, as in WWII, should take account of collaborative expertise.
Endnotes:
[1] Health Canada conservatively estimated that the total economic burden of diet-related disease using data from the 90s on the economic burden of disease for coronary heart disease/stroke/diabetes/cancer was $6.3 billion annually, including $1.8 billion in direct costs, and $4.4 billion indirect costs. See: "Health Canada announces new mandatory nutrition labelling to help Canadians make informed choices for healthy eating" [news release] (Ottawa: Health Canada, January 2, 2003).
