An old joke about efficiency: An olive oil vendor returns from the marketplace and complains to a friend, “I can’t make money selling olive oil! I feed the donkey that carries my oil to the market, most of my profit is gone.” His friend suggests he feed the donkey a little less. Six weeks later they meet again at the marketplace. The oil seller is in poor shape, with neither money or donkey. When his friend asks what happened, the vendor replies, “Well, I did as you said. I fed him even less, and I did even better. But just at the point where I was becoming really successful, he died!”

-William McDonough & Michael Braungart
excerpt from Cradle to Cradle

This little joke/ antic illustrates a concept known in Ecological Economics as the “Maximum Sustainable Yield, often referred to in managing fisheries,” and is at the core of sustainable production.

donkey photo credit: pmarkham