From an economist’s perspective, social costs and benefits are a comprehensive measure of the willingness to pay and to accept compensation and they may or may not be expressed in current market prices.  In analyzing social costs and benefits, impacts to natural life support systems are evaluated along with the more typical production and consumption considerations.  These impacts include extraction of resources such as feed stocks or minerals and assimilation of residuals.  Social costs and benefits are taken into account for longer periods of time and over larger geographic areas compared to private production costs and returns. Another factor that is important in evaluating social costs and benfits is the concept of property rights.  These rights include simple ownership, state and open access rights and all have value, as individuals are willing to pay for them and to accept compensation for them.

The social costs of livestock production can be minimized through technical options that control pollution, such as recycling residuals or treating wastes.  Alternatives to managing waste include regulations that allow or disallow specific practices as well as economic incentives and choices.  An economist’s goal is not a pristine environment, but an equilibrium where marginal pollution abatement costs equal marginal pollution abatement benefits.  Current work indicates that the social costs of livestock production increase as the density and proximity of the non-farm population increases and as the density of livestock production increases. There is a need better determine the magnitude of these costs, then decide which regulations and/or incentives will achieve the best results.