Commodities and Downstream Integration Policies: the Challenges of a Complex Strategy

Since the German government’s Nexus conference in Bonn in 2012, interest in holistic approaches to water, food and energy has exploded under the catchy label of ‘The Nexus’. The core tenet of the ‘Nexus’ approach is that water, energy and food are intrinsically linked at both the bio-physical level and the policy-making level – that decisions and actions on water, food and energy are linked and affect each other. This may be true, but it is not unique to the relationship between wat ...

The financial and economic crisis that unfolded across the globe after the 2008 sub-prime meltdown was not just another cyclical bump in the conquering advance of modern capitalism. It was — and still is — a symptom of the exhausted 20th-century way of envisioning the best path to economic growth, consumer satisfaction, and efficient production of goods. Environmental limits to our race to prosperity are just part of the story. The other, and crucial, part is the ongoing technologic ...