Nacimento, R.A.; Canever, M.D.; Almeida, C.; Agostinho, F.; Gameiro, A.H.; Giannetti, B.F. Hidden Costs Associated with Smallholder Family-Based Broiler Production: Accounting for the Intangibles. Sustainability2023, 15, 15780.
Nacimento, R.A.; Canever, M.D.; Almeida, C.; Agostinho, F.; Gameiro, A.H.; Giannetti, B.F. Hidden Costs Associated with Smallholder Family-Based Broiler Production: Accounting for the Intangibles. Sustainability 2023, 15, 15780.
Nacimento, R.A.; Canever, M.D.; Almeida, C.; Agostinho, F.; Gameiro, A.H.; Giannetti, B.F. Hidden Costs Associated with Smallholder Family-Based Broiler Production: Accounting for the Intangibles. Sustainability2023, 15, 15780.
Nacimento, R.A.; Canever, M.D.; Almeida, C.; Agostinho, F.; Gameiro, A.H.; Giannetti, B.F. Hidden Costs Associated with Smallholder Family-Based Broiler Production: Accounting for the Intangibles. Sustainability 2023, 15, 15780.
Abstract
The contractual relationship between the processing firm and the broiler smallholder presents incessant conflicts of interest and inequality due to technical and economic discrepancies, leading to an undervaluation of the producers' remuneration. This study aims to deepen the discussions in searching for a more balanced monetary exchange between processing firms and broiler smallholders based on scientific aspects. For this, the Emergy theory and its concepts were used in considering a representative broiler production system at Concórdia, Santa Catarina, Brazil. This study suggests the inclusion of cultural information in the Emergy-based model calculation. For the broiler smallholder, cultural information showed the highest Emergy contribution (62.95%; transformity = 1.73 ×10^8). However, only considering cultural information was not sufficient to increase the sustainability of the broiler production system. The results highlight an imbalance of the monetary exchange between agroindustry and broiler smallholder payment for both the economic and Emergy-based payment. Both estimated payments were higher than the practiced payment value (0.24 USD/broiler as well as 0.32 USD/broiler and 1.62 EmUSD/broiler, respectively). Thus, evaluating the “(eco)cost” in Emergy-based accounting recognizes that production depends not only on tangible physical resources but also on knowledge, skills and information (“iceberg of value” thinking). Policy and decision makers must, therefore consider the promotion of public policies that subside initiatives, including social and environmental welfare programmes.
Keywords
Broiler production systems; Broiler producer; Emergy; Environmental assessment
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Sustainable Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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