I think you should include other natural resources in your function. By convention "K" refers only to physical capital that is manmade--buildings, oilrigs, tools, trucks, etc.

In addition to natural resources, such as water and land and sunshine, I think one should also add in kinds of capital other than physical capital. In particular, both social capital (primarily education) and moral capital (values such as the work ethic or honesty) should be included.

Also, production includes wastes, and it is costly to recycle or dispose of these wastes; I think a production function should take account of these wastes and costs related to them.

I know it is wise to keep your number of variables down, but the availability of financial capital is also a binding constraint on production.

There is also the question of how to measure inputs: Do you measure them by dollar value or in some other way. One problem with using money as a measuring stick is that the value of money changes over time--so how do you measure capital that may have been built twenty years ago? Also, using only money means that one tends to neglect external costs and benefits--though one can put dollar values on these, it is a dubious process.

Natural resources (such as oil) are rent, not capital, and not generated by the difference between user and exchange value.
There is no owning of the means of production.
Or am I getting Ricardo wrong? I know I'm not getting Marx wrong.

In variable terms, perhaps separating out E is incorrect. Where would horsepower have gone originally, as capital (slaves and horses)? Or as part of labor? That would be interesting to research but not something I can do for today or tomorrow. If it's labor, by using price we vastly underestimate the amount of labor; we miss the 50 or so energy slaves every American has at their disposal. I wonder if Odum has a specific production function like that in emergy terms; it is more or less the concept of transformity.

Natural resources and low entropy. That price problem again.

cfm in Gray, ME