[…] are effectively in the hands of our state inspector.ย The incentive among producers is to win the race toward the bottom, where you can most cheaply and easily meet the minimum standard.ย Imagine for a moment what the food world would look like if we made food safety a competitive advantage.ย What if I […]
A carefully researched and well-organized discussion of the early fur trade in the very northern reaches of North America as well as a fascinating use of basic economic theory.
[…] the continued provision of wildlife habitat andย clean water. She even explains that the consumers of the environmental goods should be the ones who pay! Advocates of Free Market Environmentalism (FME) should be pleased. Thereโs no call for expansive regulation, zoning, or federal subsidies to solve this environmental โproblem.โ Instead, concepts likeย โeconomic incentivesโ […]
[…] Lisa Jackson calls โthe biggest chunk of unfinished business when you think of the environmental landscape.โ As the WaPo writes, the EPA has โforced emitters, including container-glass plants, cement plants and oil refineries, to install pollution controls in poor areas struggling with bad air quality.โ But will such measures achieve their ends of improving […]
[…] href=”http://www.doublecheckranch.com/about.html”>small producer who sells beef locally, I am suspicious of the S. 510 Food Safety Modernization Act — the governmentโs latest power grab to curtail economic freedom and competition in the food market.ย If this bill successfully becomes law, consumers will continue to see a decline in the diversity of foods that they […]
[…] compete for the same forage needed to raise cattle. And the number of wolves in the region now exceeds a โsustainableโ population according to the original reintroduction plan. While wolves help keep the elk numbers in check, they occasionally feed on the cattle that ranchers depend on to make ends meet. Just the presence […]
[…] notion of fair chase hunting. And theyโre right. As a recent Wall Street Journal article notes, the practice is offensive to many hunters who prefer to hunt free-ranging wildlife that have every opportunity to escape. However, as the opposition to the ballot measure explains, the constitutional rights of private landowners trump the preferences of […]
[…] traditional markets are absent, ecosystem services are taken for grantedโuntil they stop providing benefits. Then the cost of remediation or building infrastructure, such as a water treatment plant, makes their value obvious. For decades the solution to environmental protection has been government action. Today, knowledge about environmental processes combined with increased environmental sensitivity provides […]
Ecosystem services such as clean water from forests are free, but now their value is being recognized. Entrepreneurs are developing markets for these services and providing incentives for conservation.
[…] is ranchersโ fear of brucellosis, a bacterial disease that causes spontaneous abortions in cows-although there are no documented cases of domestic cattle contracting the disease from wild, free-roaming bison. Some suggest, however, that the risk of cows contracting brucellosis is low. “Theoretically there is a risk, but itโs so low that it doesnโt justify […]