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Re: economics or politics?



Governmental bodies make economic policies, hopefully in view of the
public good involved.  At whatever point either public health issues or
environmental costs are taken into account by govermental policies, then
proven unhealthy practices will be either illegal or no longer
economically expedient.

Mike Goodman wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 1 May 1997, Bob MacGregor wrote:
> 
> > Ann said:
> > What will convince
> > people, I believe, is not the holism or ecological soundness of
> > alternative approaches, but rather, their cost-effectiveness.
> > >>
> >
> > I say "Amen" to that comment!   Under the current structure of production
> > and marketing, whoever supplies the marketplace with the cheapest
> > product of acceptable quality wins.
> 
> > My bet is that the strawberry
> > growers will find some other way to fill the supermarket shelves with
> > berries after methyl bromide is finally scrapped.  The point is that there is
> > a myriad of alternatives -- including a lot of cost-saving ones -- out there
> > waiting to be found and put into use.
> 
> But wouldn't the scrapping of mythl bromide be more of a political
> decision and less to do with economics? Some how leaving too much to the
> economic imperative is just too risky to me. . .there seems to be other
> complementary and equally powerful paths to chucking the chemical habit. .
> 
> Mike Goodman
> University of Oregon
> Geography Department

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Douglas M. Hinds, Director General
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