Last year, one Utah rancher sold off his cattle and spent the summer watching the grass grow. At summer’s end, he harvested the grass for seed and made more money selling the seed than he could have made selling his cattle. Throughout the West, farmers and ranchers who are struggling to stay afloat as theyContinue reading “Going to Seed”
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Let It Shine
Ranching along the Musselshell River in central Montana has never been an easy way to make a living, but rising power prices, tougher environmental laws, and dropping surface water supplies have made a tough job even tougher. Fortunately, the sun has not stopped shining on this remote western valley, giving rise to hopes for aContinue reading “Let It Shine”
Free Market Environmentalism
PERC has created a syllabus to aid the inclusion of free market environmental ideas in to traditional environmental economics and policy curricula.
Lessons of the Springs
Much of human history reflects choices between whether to organize activities privately or through government. When I travel, I often come across the visible remnants of such choices. That happened recently at Thermopolis, Wyoming, a small resort community built around the “World’s Largest Hot Spring.” Water from the nearby Owl Creek Mountains filters throughContinue reading “Lessons of the Springs”
Block 12: Practical Applications of Free Market Environmentalism
Objective: Explore incremental ways of bringing current institutions closer to free market institutions. Survey pragmatic uses of free market environmentalism that do not require massive institutional changes.
The National Forests: For Whom and for What?
"The nation finds itself struggling with forest management systems that do not work," says Roger Sedjo, a Senior Fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based research organization Resources for the Future. "The future management of the national forests is unlikely to be smooth, because no political consensus exists."
All Purpose Coconuts
A Thai farmer from a rural province south of Bangkok has found yet another use for the versatile coconut. Not only does its flesh provide food, its trunk supply wood, and its juice make a delicious drink, but now Kitti Maneesrikul is using its oil to fuel the family truck. High fuel costs andContinue reading “All Purpose Coconuts”
Slippery Slopes
More than 200 million impoverished people worldwide make their homes on hillsides. These hillsides are the source of some 20 percent of the world’s freshwater, and yet agricultural activities have resulted in vast deforestation and topsoil erosion. Since 1993, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Cali, Colombia, has been working with farmersContinue reading “Slippery Slopes”
Waste Not Want Not
Two companies that appear to have little in common have joined forces to build processing plants that will convert biomass to energy and create organic fertilizer at the same time. The plants will burn the waste to produce steam that can power electric generators. The leftover residue can be sold as fertilizer. The partners areContinue reading “Waste Not Want Not”
The Caribou Question
As politicians debate oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), public attention has turned to the caribou. Due to their large numbers, lengthy migrations, and importance to traditional Alaskan cultures, these ruminants are probably the most prominent animal species on the North Slope of Alaska. Opponents of oil exploration often evoke theContinue reading “The Caribou Question”