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The agroecological opium of the masses

By Jim Chen at al.

More than a dozen years after its original publication, this artifact of my rhetorically flamboyant youth has finally made its way to my SSRN page:

The Agroecological Opium of the Masses, 10:4 Choices 16 (Winter 1995)

A specter is haunting agriculture, the specter of agroecological ideology. Extreme agroecological rhetoric transparently disguises a willingness to sacrifice environmental objectives whenever they conflict with the pecuniary interests of incumbent farmers. Agroecological ideology conceals an ugly truth about agriculture: farming is not an environmentally benign activity. In particular, the legal controversy over recombinant bovine somatotropin demonstrates how an agroecological response to new biotechnology can favor producer incomes over consumer welfare and environmental integrity. O brave moo world, that has such creatures in it!

Full post as published by Agricultural Law on November 19, 2008 (boomark / email).