Fixing the Right Price

When a farmer fertilizes his corps with a high nitrogen fertilizer he pays for the chemicals, the tools to apply them, and the fuel for his tractor to pull the rig. But are there any other expenses that should be assigned to the farm to cover the costs of his process?

What about the run off that occurs when it rains, or the irrigation process kicks in? The fertilizer saturates the soil, and some of it becomes water born and runs off of the land and into the stream...flows down through the descending bed and ends up in the lake or river. This increased nitrate promotes algae blooms, kills fish, over burdens the next stream or river it runs to. The county or state then reacts to the algae, tries to save the fish by reducing the quantity of algae in the water...taking hours in labor, and money for equipment and preparations.

That is just one example of an economic Externality experienced by one typical event that occurs in America today.

And what about herbicides and pesticides? They promote general destruction of plants and animals while being promoted to address only limited infestations of specific plants and insects...and often these chemical tools just don't work. Again, an Externality... collateral damage coming from the production side of agriculture, and not answering the important questions of who should be held accountable for these pollution events and the issues that they raise.

There are just as many...no, there are more situations that need tending when it comes to Externalities. Water, Air, Desertification, CO2 release, Methane production from cattle and Dairy Herds...the list truly does go on. Most of this external impact is not covered by the producers (industry or agriculture) as it is difficult to equate these costs...so instead they are coming out of our taxes for cleanup...and never paid for by those who are generating the pollution.

We need to act on this...find a way to Tax or assign accurate charges on these events and attach them to the right organizations so that they will either pay for the cleanup or change their processes so that there is less pollution, and they save money due to their paying less in penalty charges.

It is time that we begin crafting policy in the United States that will allow us to properly fix the right price on these environmental externalities. The industries causing this pollution, and profiting from their manufacturing... profiting even more so because they are not being held accountable for the damage they are doing to air, water and land that they impact, need to be held accountable. Yes, their prices will go up, but that is appropriate as they are causing this pollution and should be the ones who act to correct these problems.

Fix the Right Price and the economy will properly align with the tennants of Sustainability.