On markets and government: property rights to promote sustainability with market forces

There are many different images of the livestock industry and many persons are unhappy with the outcome of the market process. Instead of explaining why the market leads to the current outcomes, it is wise to be prepared that politics will rearrange the property rights in order to produce different outcomes of the market mechanism. In this essay, I show that there are market processes that contribute to a more sustainable way of farming, and that these processes can be reinforced. There are also unsustainable public policies that can be liberalized. And where the market fails, the government should intervene, but may choose market-oriented instruments. (C) 2013 Royal Netherlands Society for Agricultural Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.