Degrowth, environment, consumerism, transition, world food system

Abstract: It is increasingly apparant that growth has its limits. While a lot of the popular analyses focus on the ecological limits to economic growth, this paper goes even further and intends to illustrate that there are also social and even economic limits to growth. An analysis of the problematic aspects of unlimited growth that merely describes its limits is incomplete though, for one must also enquire what the motors behind economic growth are. This includes a dissection of consumer society. Furthermore various post growth strategies will be examined. Although merely an overview of the numerous post growth strategies will be given in this paper, this is indicative of the notion that there is no silver bullet that will enable a smooth transition to a post growth society, but rather a combination of many solutions is needed. There will be a slightly more detailed focus on agriculture though, for this is an area which is in particularly bad need of post growth strategies.
Keywords: Degrowth, environment, consumerism, transition, world food system

There is no paper for this media entry. This was a contribution to a scientific session at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014, which doesn't exist in written format or is not published under open access.