Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
How a crop is raised influences the amount of soil lost to
erosion, whether lakes are polluted, emissions of greenhouse
gases, and the ability of future generations to feed them-
selves. Livestock are sentient creatures, and consumers want
to know their food is humanely raised. Because how you eat
affects other humans and animals, your fellow citizens are
keen to make sure you are eating what
they
consider to be
ethical foods. Farmers want to produce ethical food as well.
The problem is that there is considerable disagreement about
what “ethical” food is. What you eat used to be your business;
now it is everyone's business—little surprise that agriculture
has become such a controversial subject!
These food fights can get nasty, like when Jon Stossel
called New York state representative Felix Ortiz a “cancer”
for wanting to tax junk food (by the way, Ortiz responded
that he is a “good cancer”), or when Robert F. Kennedy called
hog farmers a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden. As the
outlandish insults fly, so does the money, as each side seeks
to lobby harder than the other. We wrote this topic because
we felt there was too much name-calling, and too many
topics and documentaries representing only one side of the
debate. Our research in agricultural economics has given us
the unique opportunity to interact with industry and interest
groups, and we have learned that both sides consist of smart,
kind people wishing to produce healthy, affordable food in
an ethical manner.
Controversial subjects can be explored while paying respect
to the character and intellect of both sides, and we seek to do
so in this topic. As we tour the gallery of agricultural contro-
versies, we will try to illustrate why equally smart and kind
people can form vastly different opinions about food, and then
provide our perspectives on what the economic and scientific
literature says about the issues. The idea is not to convince
readers to adopt our perspectives, or to declare one side of a
food debate as champion, but to help readers reach informed
opinions, whatever those opinions may be.
