A Clean Environment Requires Freedom, Prosperity, and Ethics By Alan Hahn
AS EVERY FARMER KNOWS, PROTECTING AND PRESERVING OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IS AN ESSENTIAL ASPECT OF FARMING, AS IT IS FOR HUMANITY FLOURISHING, NOW AND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. NO ONE CAN RATIONALLY ARGUE AGAINST THIS.
The larger question is, What can be done to facilitate a healthy environment? This is a complicated question, but if we carefully examine the relatively short environmental protection history of mankind, I believe the blueprint for success involves freedom, prosperity, and ethics. Just as we need to acknowledge there is no perfect solution to environmental protection, we also need to acknowledge that only if a nation and its businesses (including agriculture) are prosperous can there be hope of environmental protection. Protection of the environment costs money (in some cases, a lot of money), so the necessary capital is critical.
“
Our laws and regulations with respect to environmental protection are of little value if there is not a sense of right, wrong, and overall ethic.
9
Spring 2020 — Partners
”