Re: Re: Re: Ideology and the Environment

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

At 11:28 AM 11/5/01 -0600, you wrote:
> My position is not that farming
> practices can not and do not cause desertification, but rather that
> this has nothing to do with the distribution of  property rights or the
> size of farm (although I would argue that large farms and
> monoculture is more condusive to desertification than small,
> diversified farms.)

some people blame the raising of goats and/or poorly-defined property
rights for desertification.[*]  For example, the expansion of the Sahara is
blamed on a combination of these. Goats eat the roots of almost every
plant, but with poorly-defined property rights, people don't see or can't
act on  the negative effects on the environment or the welfare of future
generations.

does this make sense?

[*] NOTE: By "well-defined property rights," I don't necessarily mean
individual property rights in land (as _laissez-faire_ economists would).
In fact, individual property rights in land might be the wrong solution.
Well-defined property rights might involve collective property rights where
the community runs collective lands intelligently and democratically.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




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