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https://youtu.be/1cYMW5d_bn4
The final video I have chosen is a video of an instructor's experiment with his class. The experiment involves sixteen students and six chairs. The hope of the experiment is to come up with a way to deal with the scarcity cause by the lack of chairs. Some of the methods that the students came up with and enacted were, "first come, first served", seniority, merit (highest grades), a lottery system, and an auction. I like how this activity forces the students to come up with a solution in order to deal with a scarcity dilemma. The experiment teaches real world solutions to problems that economist may face everyday.

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https://sustainablesociety.com/environment/farmland-loss
Scarcity of resources isn't usually something a Canadian citizen really has to think about; Canada being the second largest country and all. Although it is kind of true, Canada has one major flaw that is often overlooked because of the shear mass of the country. And that flaw is the lack of suitable farm land. The website I have chosen highlights just how much suitable farm land us Canadians have to work with. As we are now, Canada is losing thousands of hectare of farmland each year. The growth of Canada's population lead to urbanization and therefore the lack of suitable farmland. Canada is forced to rely on other countries more for resources. In addition, the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine can also be devastating for Canadians, because of both Russia and Ukraine are some of the world lead producers and exporter of wheat. This will undoubtedly create a scarcity of wheat products for Canadians, most likely cause an influx of pricing across the country.

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Besides climate, soil is agriculture's major limitation. All societies are ultimately built on the productivity of the land as neatly summarized in the saying "No soil, no civilization."

Canada has a large area and a few facts are useful to differentiate the concepts of size and productive area.

* Only 3.2% of our land area can be used to grow crops
* 4.2% can be used as pastureland
* Soil degeneration and urbanization are responsible for much of the 65% loss of farmland we have suffered in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario since 1920
* Each year we lose 20,000 to 25,000 hectares of prime farmland to urban expansion
* For every million people we add to Canada's population, we lose 530 square kilometers of prime farmland near our large urban areas

Over the past century, artificial fertilizer has been used to boost crop outputs enormously. In effect, worldwide, the food we eat is 75% oil-based. This highlights the need to protect our agricultural lands far more than we have been to prepare for the time when oil will not be nearly as plentiful and cheap as it is today.

When soil loses its fertility and becomes barren, the process is known as desertification. It is happening all over the world and it is important to recognize this trend is occurring in Canada as well. Desertification speeds climate change and climate change speeds desertification. Urbanization, of course, is the ultimate form of desertification.

Whether acting as a reserve to protect food self-sufficiency in a more complex and unstable world or to produce exports to feed countries which cannot feed themselves, our agricultural lands are one of our most vital resources. Agricultural land should not be destroyed simply to make way for subdivisions and shopping malls.

Images of the oil sands provide some of the ugliest illustrations of environmental damage in the world. Contrarily, images of endless forests of new homes built on the best farmland in the world are hailed in the commercial media as evidence of progress and a healthy economy. This is despite the fact that the long term effects of increasing the number of houses, especially on prime farmland, in a northern environment is more damage on a per hectare basis than the mining of the oil sands.

Once the oil sands are processed, (and cleaned) they are benign, neither producing energy or requiring it. Housing developments require energy and material inputs for as long as they exist. They are an environmental sink and beyond the energy to produce the tons of concrete, asphalt, lumber, copper and plastic required in their construction, they need energy every day of the year, for as long as they continue to exist. So when you look at housing developments, particularly on the prime farmland that surrounds most of Canada's major cities, look beyond the gleaming architecture to the resources, the many equivalent hectares of oil sands that went into them and will be needed in the future.

By adopting a policy of endless population growth and targeting an exceptionally high annual level of immigration equal to or greater than 1% of the Canadian population, the government has essentially committed to building an additional 25 million homes and their supporting roads and commercial buildings on Canada's best agricultural land.

The commercial media is telling the story through the lens of profit for their advertizers which is growth dependent rather than the lens of public welfare and environmental balance. The endless paving over of farmland is unsustainable as is the energy and material demand these huge cities will place on the earth's resource base.

Learn more about the Canadian environment & sustainability:

Canada's agricultural land conservation strategy in one picture.

From 1996 to 2006 Ontario lost 242,820 hectares of agricultural land

The subjects of environmental history, societal collapse and fisheries history are relatively new fields of study. In the past 20 years, huge strides have been made in these fields and they now provide us with a fairly clear window on events of the past.

Unlike those relatively new sciences, agriculture has been studied in depth for millennia and records of crops raised, yields and areas farmed are extensive. There is no mystery as to what contributes to agricultural productivity or to the decline of farmland and the societies which are based on them.

The 1937 study by American researcher Dr. Lowdermilk (USDA Soil Conservation Service) is a classic study of soil and civilization decline in many parts of the world. "Conquest of the Land Through Seven Thousand Years" provides a wonderful overview on soil and civilization for anyone interested in either agriculture, land use or the basic drivers of history.

As Canada paves its way north, it will eventually meet the northern limits of its prime farmland and that will be the end of our ability to both feed ourselves and feed people in other countries.

A growth-forever society places no value on farmland other than the revenue it can generate from year to year. A sustainable society regards farmland as a central pillar of its existence and preserves both the size and the health of this vital resource.

Overview of Agricultural Land Loss Trends

More than 52 percent of Canada's best farmland-specifically, the land classified as Class 1 by the Canada Land Inventory -is located in Ontario. Class 1 land is the only class of land with no significant constraints on crop production. Most of this land is in southern Ontario where population growth is highest. Thus, one of the results of urbanization in Ontario has been the loss of a substantial portion of the province's Class 1 farmland. In 1996, over 18 percent of Ontario's Class 1 farmland was being used for urban purposes. This land is, for all intents and purposes, permanently lost to agriculture.

From Statistics Canada, Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 1 (January 2005), Catalogue no. 21-006-XIE:

by 2001, Canadian cities and towns had taken over 7400 square km of land traditionally used for farming, more than doubling its incursion into rural areas

in 2001, there were about 14,300 square km of urban land that had formerly been used for agriculture

development took over 3% of "dependable agricultural land" and 7% of Canada's Class 1 agricultural land, considered "the best and most productive" (dependable agricultural land includes Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 land as defined in the Canada Land Inventory)

the fruit belts in the Niagara peninsula and Okanagan Valley in British Columbia have lost farmland that was used to grow crops that cannot be grown anywhere else in Canada

as the amount of prime agricultural land has diminished, the demand for arable territory has increased, forcing farmers to cultivate poorer quality soil

in 1971, urban areas occupied slightly less than 6% of Class 1land in Ontario; by 2001, they occupied 11% of such land

in 1971, less than 2% of Class 1 land in Alberta was urbanized; that figure is now more than 6%

these trends are worrisome because they are essentially permanent

the federal government should develop a national vision on water and take leadership on the issue

Dependable Agricultural Land
Source: Environment Canada 1982,
Lands Directorate, CGIS Database
Statistics Canada 1999, Environment Accounts
and Statistics Division, Environmental
Information System (EIS) Database
"Comprehensive regional planning with soils maps is essential to allocate soil resources for the future. Urban sprawl not only occupies the best soils, but also creates pressures on other soils that have severe limitations. Thus...comprehensive community planning, with detailed soils maps of large areas, will help to prevent some of the land abuse of the past. The future must be given higher priority than it has been given in the past, if peace, progress and prosperity is to be achieved."

(2) From Statistics Canada, Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin Vol. 3, No. 2 (September 2001), Catalogue no. 21-006-XIE

Urban consumption of Agricultural Land

Urban uses have consumed 12 thousand square kilometres of land since 1971. One-half of this-equivalent to the size of Prince Edward Island-was "dependable" farmland (i.e. Class 1-2-3 land as classified in the Canada Land Inventory).

The urban consumption of agricultural land is partly due to the growing urban population and partly due to new urban households consuming more land per dwelling.

In Ontario, over 18 percent of Class 1 farmland is now being used for urban purposes.

The agricultural land base

In Canada, approximately 673 thousand square kilometres of land is used for agriculture. Although this figure seems large, it represents only 7 percent of Canada's overall landmass. ....However, not all of the land used for agriculture in Canada is on high-quality agricultural land. That is, some agricultural activities occur on marginal or poorer quality land-land which may not be dependable for long-term agricultural activity.

Dependable agricultural land

Despite Canada's size, dependable agricultural land is a scarce resource in this country. Limitations such as climate and soil quality reduce the amount of land that is dependable for agricultural activities. We define "dependable" agricultural land as land designated as Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 by the Canada Land Inventory (McCuaig and Manning, 1982). These classes include all land areas that are not hampered by severe constraints for crop production. It is, in other words, our endowment of good farmland. [Reference: McCuaig, JD and EW Manning. 1982. Agricultural land use change in Canada: Process and consequences. (Ottawa: Environment Canada, Lands Directorate, Catalogue 73-1/21E)]

Only about 5 percent of our land is free from sever constraints on crop production. ....

The fact that 90 percent of Canadians live in a narrow band along the southern border means that the effects of urbanisation in Canada are concentrated in this relatively small area. Since this is the same strip of land where much of the dependable agricultural land is located, one of the major effects of urbanisation is the loss of agricultural land.

Urban land use

Canada's cities and towns expanded steadily between 1971 and 1996, consuming more than 12 thousand square kilometres in this 25-year period. This expansion is equivalent to more than twice the land area of Prince Edward Island and represents an increase of 77 percent in urban land over the 25-year period. ...In terms of sheer size, Ontario and Quebec contain over 55 percent of Canada's urban land, and not surprisingly between 1971 and 1996, these two provinces also grew the most in terms of the absolute increase in land used for urban purposes. In fact, Ontario's urban area grew by 3,472 square kilometres-this amount is larger than the total urban area found in any province outside Quebec.

There are various reasons for the expansion of urban areas. Two main factors impacting urban land use are:

1. a growing population; and

2. changes in the urban form (i.e. more land per urban dwelling).

Between 1971 and 1996, urban dwellers grew from 16.4 to 22.5 million persons, an increase of 37 percent. This increase in population, combined with the arrival of the baby-boomers on the housing market, increased the demand for housing. The preference in location and type of home also changed and accelerated the expansion of urban areas.....

Of the total amount of land converted to urban uses between 1971 and 1996, about half, or 5.9 thousand square kilometres, was dependable agricultural land. this loss of dependable agricultural land over 25 years is equivalent to the total land area of Prince Edward Island. By 1996, urban land in Canada occupied 3.2 percent of the dependable land in the country, as indicated by the Canada Land Inventory Class 1-2-3 land area.2

(2 This figure does not include the amount of dependable land occupied by large urban areas prior to the development of the Canada Land Inventory in 1966. Neither does it include areas occupied for non-agricultural purposes outside cities, such as road and utility networks.)

More than 52 percent of Canada's best farmland-specifically, the land classified as Class 1 by the Canada Land Inventory -is located in Ontario. Class 1 land is the only class of land with no significant constraints on crop production. Most of this land is in southern Ontario where population growth is highest. Thus, one of the results of urbanisation in Ontario has been the loss of a substantial portion of the province's Class 1 farmland. In 1996, over 18 percent of Ontario's Class 1 farmland was being used for urban purposes. This land is, for all intents and purposes, permanently lost to agriculture....

Although in some regions, the loss of agricultural land to urban uses appears to be small, this measure does not take into account two important issues (Environment Canada, 1996):

1. In some regions, urbanisation of agricultural land affects specialty crops that have a limited ability to flourish in Canada. In addition, these products often represent an important resource to the local economy (e.g. the fruit belts in the Niagara and Okanagan regions). In these cases, the loss of each square kilometre is significant.

2. Cities also impact the use of surrounding land in indirect ways. For instance, golf courses, gravel pits and recreational areas are often located on agricultural land in areas adjacent to urban areas.

Thus, the effects of urban areas extend beyond their physical boundaries.

(3) From Statistics Canada, Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 1 (January 2005), Catalogue no. 21-006-XIE

In 2001, about one-half of Canada's urbanized land was located on dependable agricultural land.

Between 1951 and 2001, the supply of dependable agricultural land declined by 4 percent, while the demand for cultivated land increased by 20 percent. (Cultivated land includes cropland, summer fallow, and tame or seeded pasture).

In 2001, urban uses covered 14,300 square kilometres of dependable agricultural land. This was more than double the 1971 level of approximately 6,900 square kilometres. When urban land is combined with that used for small rural settlements (those with populations under 1,000), farmsteads and rural housing lots, over 23,200 square kilometres of dependable agricultural land had been lost to possible agricultural use by 2001. Transportation and utilities consumed another 11,700 square kilometres. Losses to urban and rural build-up and transportation and utilities can be considered permanent. In addition to those losses, 5,500 square kilometres of land were lost to protected areas, campgrounds and other uses from which it could be reclaimed (i.e., not permanent). [See Table 2 on page 9 of Rural and Small Town Analysis Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 1]

As of 2001, urban land in Canada occupied approximately 3 percent of all dependable agricultural land.* More importantly, it occupied 7.5 percent of our very best agricultural land that was classified as Class 1 in the Canada Land Inventory.** (*This figure does not include the amount of dependable agricultural land occupied by large urban areas prior to the development of the Canada Land Inventory. **Class 1 land is Canada's only land with no significant constraints to crop production.)

The provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are home to 99 percent of Canada's Class 1 agricultural land. More than 56 percent of this land is concentrated in Ontario alone and most of this is in the heavily urbanized southern part of the province. One of the results of urbanization in Ontario has, therefore, been the loss of a substantial part of Ontario's Class 1 agricultural land.

As of 2001, over 11 percent of Ontario's best agricultural land was being used for urban purposes (that is, permanently lost to agriculture). By 2001, Alberta had lost over 6 percent of its agricultural land.

The table below is from Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 1, pg. 9
Table 2

Estimated area (in square kilometres) of non-agricultural uses of dependable agricultural land, Canada, 1951-2001

Notes: Figures are rounded to the nearest 100. ¹Includes inventoried human settlements with populations above 1000, settlements with a population under 1000, and rural farmsteads/housing lots. ²Includes roads, railways, airports and utility transmission lines. ³Includes lumberyards, sewage treatment facilities, dumps, Fedral Real Property, cemeteries, pits, quarries, autowreckers, and golf courses.
Source: Statistics Canada, Environment Accounts and Statistics Division

Table 1. Regional Population Trends and Forecasts for Ontario.

Source: Modified table. Ontario Ministry of Finance. (2005, February). Ontario Population Projections 2004-2031. Ontario: Queen's Printer.

As documented in background papers prepared for Places to Grow, much of the growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe will occur on the fringes of existing urban centres on greenfield sites. The Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal estimates that over the next 25 years, the GTA and Hamilton will grow by 2.7 million people, and that the population of the outer ring of the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) will increase by 900,000. The GGH will also need to accommodated about 1.5 million new jobs, 370,000 of which will be located beyond the Niagara Escarpment, the Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine. ⁵ ( ⁵ Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure and Renewal. (2006) Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. )

2.2. Rapid population growth in Southern Ontario is driven by immigration
The principal source of population growth in Ontario is immigration. The impacts have largely been felt in Canada's three major metropolitan urban areas, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, which have served as the catchment areas for virtually all immigration over the past 30 years. The GTA and Hamilton attract the highest level of immigration of all, more than 50 percent of the total. Assuming that current rates continue, it is forecast that the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area will be home to at least one million new immigrants by 2031. [end of excerpt]

*******************************
http://ontariofarmlandtrust.ca/about/whysavefarmland/
Ontario Farmland Trust
Saving Farmland
________________________________________

Ontario's Agricultural Land is at Risk

Ontario is blessed with some of the best farmland in Canada. Only 0.5 percent of all of Canada's land is considered class 1 farmland (according to the Canada Land Inventory), which means it has no significant limitations for farming and has the highest productivity for a variety of crops. More than half of this land is found in Ontario.

Despite its obvious importance, Ontario is losing its agricultural land base at a rapid rate as many farms go out of production every year. Urban sprawl and rural non-farm development are contributing to the annual loss of thousands of acres of farmland. Flat, cleared, agricultural land is not only easily developed, it is also very affordable to developers who are seeking to meet the demand for land to accommodate urban growth. It is often far more financially profitable in the long term for a farmer to sell his or her land knowing that it may be converted to some non-agricultural land use, than to continue farming.

In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) alone, more than 2,000 farms and 150,000 acres of farmland were lost to production in the two decades between 1976 and 1996. This represented approximately 18% of Ontario's Class 1 farmland. Although farmland loss is not tracked as extensively today as it was in previous decades, we know that the amount of farmland in the GTA decreased by at least 50,000 acres between 1996 and 2001 and that Ontario lost at least 600,000 acres of farmland between 1996 and 2006. It can take thousands of years to produce one centimeter of the topsoil needed for agricultural production. For this reason, Ontario's farmland should be seen as a limited natural resource, to be managed and protected.

Why Save Farmland?
Protecting farmland helps to preserve a productive land base for the agricultural economy, preserve the amenity values of open space and rural character, slow suburban sprawl, provide wildlife habitat, and provide an opportunity for groundwater recharge in areas where suburban development is occurring.

Food Security and Local Food Supply

Preserving farmland helps ensure a continued supply of locally grown produce as a growing number of consumers are revealing their preference for and supporting the provision of local sources of farm products. People are choosing local in order to obtain fresher products, avoid lengthy transportation, and support the local agricultural economy. Direct-to-consumer markets include pick-your-own operations, roadside stands, farmer's markets, direct farm markets and community supported agriculture.

If Ontario should ever need or choose to be self-sufficient in the production of its food it is critical that we take action now to protect our remaining productive soils. Oil shortages and rising prices may put a premium on local production rather than global marketing.

Economic Benefits

The Ontario farm and food processing sector generates over $30 billion in sales - more than 35 percent of Canada's Agri-Food sector gross domestic product - and employs 700,000 people.

Saving farmland also provides fiscal stability for local governments. New development requires services such as schools, roads and fire/police protection, whereas privately owned and managed agricultural land requires very few services. Cost of Community Services studies in both the U.S. and Canada show that farmlands more than pay for the municipal services they require, while taxes on residential use, on average, fail to cover costs.

Protection of the Environment

Well-managed agricultural land supplies important non-market goods and services for our environment. Farmlands provide food and habitat for wildlife, help control flooding, protect wetlands and watersheds and maintain air quality. They can absorb and filter wastewater and provide groundwater recharge.

Learn more about the Canadian environment & sustainability:

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Besides climate, soil is agriculture's major limitation. All societies are ultimately built on the productivity of the land as neatly summarized in the saying "No soil, no civilization." Canada has a large area and a few facts are useful to differentiate the concepts of size and productive area.

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https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/586/markets/scarcity-in-economics/
What qualifies as a scarce resource? It mat be easy to confuse and conflate what a scarce resource is. Scarcity refers to resources that are limited and finite. The website I have chosen gets straight to the point of what "is" and "isn't" a scarce resource. Some of the examples they provide of a scarce resource include...
Land: an untapped body of land that contain minerals, oils and ores.
Water: Usually fresh running water.
Labour/Labourers: People who are willing to put in the time to see to a project getting done or something being made.
These are three of the main scarce resources, but others include healthcare, seasonal caused shortages, and transportation infrastructure.

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Definition: Scarcity refers to resources being finite and limited. Scarcity means we have to decide how and what to produce from these limited resources. It means there is a constant opportunity cost involved in making economic decisions. Scarcity is one of the fundamental issues in economics.

Examples of scarcity

Land - a shortage of fertile land for populations to grow food. For example, the desertification of the Sahara is causing a decline in land useful for farming in Sub-Saharan African countries.

Water scarcity - Global warming and changing weather, has caused some parts of the world to become drier and rivers to dry up. This has led to a shortage of drinking water for both humans and animals.

Labour shortages. In the post-war period, the UK experienced labour shortages - insufficient workers to fill jobs, such as bus drivers. In more recent years, shortages have been focused on particular skilled areas, such as nursing, doctors and engineers

Health care shortages. In any health care system, there are limits on the available supply of doctors and hospital beds. This causes waiting lists for certain operations.

Seasonal shortages. If there is a surge in demand for a popular Christmas present, it can cause temporary shortages as demand as greater than supply and it takes time to provide.

Fixed supply of roads. Many city centres experience congestion - there is a shortage of road space compared to number of road users. There is a scarcity of available land to build new roads or railways.

How does the free market solve the problem of scarcity?

If we take a good like oil. The reserves of oil are limited; there is a scarcity of the raw material. As we use up oil reserves, the supply of oil will start to fall.
Diagram of fall in supply of oil

If there is a scarcity of a good the supply will be falling, and this causes the price to rise. In a free market, this rising price acts as a signal and therefore demand for the good falls (movement along the demand curve). Also, the higher price of the good provides incentives for firms to:

Look for alternative sources of the good e.g. new supplies of oil from the Antarctic.

Look for alternatives to oil, e.g. solar panel cars.

If we were unable to find alternatives to oil, then we would have to respond by using less transport. People would cut back on transatlantic flights and make fewer trips.

Demand over time

In the short-term, demand is price inelastic. People with petrol cars, need to keep buying petrol. However, over time, people may buy electric cars or bicycles, therefore, the demand for petrol falls. Demand is more price elastic over time.

Therefore, in a free market, there are incentives for the market mechanisms to deal with the issue of scarcity.

Causes of scarcity

Scarcity can be due to both

1. Demand-induced scarcity

2. Supply-induced scarcity

and a combination of the two. See more at: Causes of scarcity.

Scarcity and potential market failure

With scarcity, there is a potential for market failure. For example, firms may not think about the future until it is too late. Therefore, when the good becomes scarce, there might not be any practical alternative that has been developed.

Another problem with the free market is that since goods are rationed by price, there may be a danger that some people cannot afford to buy certain goods; they have limited income. Therefore, economics is also concerned with the redistribution of income to help everyone be able to afford necessities.

Another potential market failure is a scarcity of environmental resources. Decisions we take in this present generation may affect the future availability of resources for future generations. For example, the production of CO2 emissions lead to global warming, rising sea levels, and therefore, future generations will face less available land and a shortage of drinking water.

The problem is that the free market is not factoring in this impact on future resource availability. Production of CO2 has negative externalities, which worsen future scarcity.

Tragedy of the commons

The tragedy of the commons occurs when there is over-grazing of a particular land/field. It can occur in areas such as deep-sea fishing which cause loss of fish stocks. Again the free-market may fail to adequately deal with this scarce resource.

Further reading on Tragedy of the Commons

Quotas and scarcity

One solution to dealing with scarcity is to implement quotas on how much people can buy. An example of this is the rationing system that occurred in the Second World War. Because there was a scarcity of food, the government had strict limits on how much people could get. This was to ensure that even people with low incomes had access to food - a basic necessity.

A problem of quotas is that it can lead to a black market; for some goods, people are willing to pay high amounts to get extra food. Therefore, it can be difficult to police a rationing system. But, it was a necessary policy for the second world war.
Related pages

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Definition: Scarcity refers to resources being finite and limited. Scarcity means we have to decide how and what to produce from these limited resources. It means there is a constant opportunity cost involved in making economic decisions. Scarcity is one of the fundamental issues in economics.

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The topic I have chosen is Scarcity as it relates to economics. Scarcity is key concept in economics; where there is a larger demand for goods and/or services than that is available. What you can expect to learn from the topic of scarcity as in relation to economics? Hopefully, this Padlet will inform the reader about how scarcity affects the economy, how it affects Canadians, what is considered a scarce product and/or service, and what can be done to help resolve any issues.

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https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/scarcity/
The first website I've chosen is the national geographic post about scarcity. The article talks about how the economy is made up of individuals and companies that both buy and sell goods and services. The article highlights the importance and understanding of scarcity in today's economy, noting that with scarcity, as well as the production rate of these goods and services.
I chose this website because it does a good job explaining the basic affects that scarcity has on the economy. I believe this article is a good starting off point for the discussion of scarcity as it relates to economics

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One of the defining features of economics is scarcity, which deals with how people satisfy unlimited wants and needs with limited resources. Scarcity affects the monetary value people place on goods and services and how governments and private firms decide to distribute resources.

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https://youtu.be/Wz8yGL388SI
Scarcity isn't always caused by the lack of natural resources. The video I have chosen is a Canadian news report of the lack of Canadian employment. Canada had faced a sizable amount of unemployment before, but with the Covid-19 pandemic that number has only increased. The Canadian government has issued check to those who are unemployed, but this also potentially leads to more issues. This as well as health concerns only add to the list of reasons for people not seeking employment. With this shortage of labour in Canada, companies have resorted to outsourcing work to other countries in order to stay afloat. As you are probably aware this can potentially affect the economy and possibly the scarcity of Canadian made products as well.

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Canadian employers struggle to find workers amid labour shortage

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http://www.ideasunpacked.com/en/sustainability/learn-these-7-steps-to-help-address-resource-scarcity-in-your-supply-chain.htm
This website provides a list of potential methods of preventing or fixing scarcity. The website tackles the issue of growing global demand amongst a diminishing amount of natural resources. The website provide seven way to help manage the levels if potential scarcity out economy may face. Some of the methods include surveying the potential risks that may change the state of availability of these natural resources, working with the suppliers to workout possible flaws in the supply chain, and to educate the stakeholders that may have a say on the amount of resource used to lessen the impact on the resource.

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Today's business leaders face a familiar supply chain balancing act of meeting growing global demand amid dwindling natural resources.

To help you stay ahead of the curve, consider these seven steps from John E. Bell, assistant professor of supply chain management at the University of Tennessee. He believes companies that follow these guidelines can successfully balance their supply chain management, maintain bottom lines and most importantly - continue growing:

1. Identify. Scan the environment for natural resource scarcity risks that will move a specific resource from a state of availability to one of scarcity.

2. Recognize. Identify scarcity impacts on natural resource management, including where and in what quantities scarce resources appear in product supply chains.

3. Mitigate. Create strategies that avoid the use of scarce resources in product designs while increasing the focus on recovery and reclamation.

4. Collaborate. Work with suppliers to locate resource scarcity threats that may be multiple layers forward or backwards in a supply chain.

5. Integrate. Design and build closed-loop supply chains that are based on increased levels of recovery and wise use and allocation of scarce resources.

6. Control. Create an internal policy to mandate when and how to use scarce resources in product and service supply chains.

7. Promote. Educate stakeholders and advocate with industry and government for policies that control and mitigate the impact of natural resource scarcity.

For more insights about this issue, click here to read our white paper, "What is renewability in packaging, and why should we care."

AUTHOR
ELISABETH COMERE
Elisabeth Comere is director of environment and government affairs for Tetra Pak U.S. & Canada. She is charged with advancing the company's commitment to sustainability, and overseeing numerous industry and customer packaging sustainability initiatives.

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7 steps to help address resource scarcity in your supply chain

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Today's business leaders face a familiar supply chain balancing act of meeting growing global demand amid dwindling natural resources. To help you stay ahead of the curve, consider these seven steps from John E. Bell, assistant professor of supply chain management at the University of Tennessee.

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The first image i have chosen is a diagram of how scarcity works. Scarcity is caused by societies unlimited wants mixed with the worlds limited resources. This dilemma causes actions to be taken to make the smartest decision. What to produce that will sell well, how to produce the product or service efficiently and the quality, and whom to produce it for, whether its a large companies or small investors. The idea of scarcity can affect the outcome of all the choices.

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https://youtu.be/VVcTxxT3IJU
The first video I have chosen is about the scarcity of resources, The video is an easy to understand lesson of scarcity. The video highlights three major components that are needed for production; resources, labourers, and capital. Resources such as land, energy, minerals, metals, water etc. Labourers such a worker, and the hours of work needed to perform and finish tasks. And finally, Capitol is an ownership of things that make other things, as explained in the video. Some examples may include facilities, machinery, and power lines etc.
I ultimately chose this video because it shows in brief details how production would work if you had all the necessary components needed. Where scarcity comes in is when you are lacking one or more of these necessary components to make production work.

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I chose this image because it is an example of what it may look like if there is a scarce amount of a product. Whether the scarcity is caused by high demand or low production is unknown, but it shows just what it may look like. This image is scarily similar to what we saw at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and when everyone began panic buying.

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The embedded video does a great job of showing the view scarcity and how companies market with artificial scarcity. In the video, the narrator encapsulates why and how companies get away with pushing artificial scarcity. The fear of missing out is a method used by companies to push sales that ordinary people wouldn't normally take purchase in. For example, a product that you have a small interest in goes on sale for 20% off for a limited time and a limited stock. The time it takes for you to think about if you really need the product is cut out and replaced by an arbitrary time limit. Most often than not people fall for the trap that is limited time and limited stock in fear of "if I don't get this now, then I never will."

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1. The thing that surprised me the most about researching scarcity is the methods and lengths that most companies use to increase sales of their products. As highlighted in post 9, companies use the fear of missing out tactics to increase their sales number by a large margin. I'm also shocked about how much it works. Thinking back, the amount of people who are willing to buy without a second thought is astonishing, as we've most likely all seen during Black Friday Sale for instance.

2. The real life example that comes to mind for scarcity is the Russia and Ukraine conflict. As mentioned before, Russia and Ukraine are leading exporters of wheat, and this war will impede on the production of it. Not only is this going to affect North America, but it's going to hit countries that don't have nearly as much economic wealth as Canada or the United States. This will undoubtedly cause scarcity of food to countries that don't have much food alternative as we do. This can lead to increases starvation of third world countries.

3.   If I were to pass the knowledge of scarcity to a friend or family member, I would tell them to invest into precious metals. This may sound like a weird answer, but with resources increasingly becoming scarcer, precious metals will most likely hold there value or even go up. Metals like gold and silver continues to go up. In addition, technology advancing like it is now gold and silver will be increasingly needed to produce circuit boards and computer chips causing an increase in demand.