Why would Libertarians attack Michael Pollan?

There are things I like and things I don't like about Michael Pollan's influential books. On balance, I think there is more to like about them than not. But I certainly don't see Michael Pollan as anti-Libertarian. In fact, I find his writing sympathetic toward Libertarian views. He advocates individuals to make better food choices. And he sees government regulation as a key problem with our food system, not a solution.

Anyway, it just surprised me to see the title "Libertarians Attack Michael Pollan." After reading the article, which is good, I wondered if its title may be a little misleading. It's not so hard to see why a hyperbolic farmer might be a little unhappy with Pollan's writings. While I'm no Libertarian, I also kind of wonder whether most would identify with today's American Enterprise Institute.

Comments

  1. Pete AbbateAugust 4, 2009 at 2:26 PM

    This is a nice example of how difficult it is to define "libertarianism". On first glance, Hurst's desire to be left alone to farm as he pleases seems very libertarian. Upon further review, however, a sentence from his conclusion gives away his true motives:

    "But farmers have reasons for their actions, and society should listen to them as we embark upon this reappraisal of our agricultural system." (emphasis added)

    This is more than a desire to be left alone - in fact, I read this as a call to suppress my liberty to speak about farming. Certainly the rest of Hurst's rant sounds that way. Joe Banker and all his city-friends don't know jack about agriculture just because they read Michael Pollan, and they shouldn't be talking to others about what they've read or farmers in general. (Look at the final two sentences of the introduction)

    True libertarianism seeks to expand everyone's liberty, not the liberty of one individual or group at the expense of another. Many people who are associated with modern libertarianism have strayed from these goals, and this is one of the main reasons I try to resist the label despite its strong correlation with my beliefs.

    Found this blog recently and I very much enjoy it - keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nonlinear Temperature Effects Indicate Severe Damages to U.S. Crop Yields Under Climate Change

Image
It's been a long haul, but my coauthor Wolfram Schlenker and I have finally published our article with the title of this blog post in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . We've been told that it would show up on the early-edition website this week. It hasn't shown up there yet so I guess it will come out tomorrow [Friday 8/28], probably late afternoon EST. UPDATE: You can find the article here . We set out to develop a better statistical model linking weather and U.S. crop yields for corn, soybeans and cotton, the largest three crops in the U.S. in production value. Our major new finding is that (by far) the best predictor of yield is a measure of extreme heat: how much temperatures exceed about 29C (84F) during the growing season. The threshold varies somewhat by crop--29C is the threshold for corn. Below this threshold, warmer temperatures are more beneficial for yields, but the damaging effects of temperatures much above 29C are staggeringly large. A
Read more

Renewable energy not as costly as some think

Image
The other day Marshall and Sol took on Bjorn Lomborg for ignoring the benefits of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.  Indeed.  But Bjorn, among others, is also notorious for exaggerating costs.  That fact is that most serious estimates of reducing emissions are fairly low, and there is good reason to believe cost estimates are too high for the simple fact that analysts cannot measure or imagine all ways we might curb emissions.  Anything analysts cannot model translates into cost exaggeration. Hawai`i is a good case in point.  Since moving to Hawai`i I've started digging into energy, in large part because the situation in Hawai`i is so interesting.  Here we make electricity mainly from oil, which is super expensive.  We are also rich in sun and wind.  Add these facts to Federal and state subsidies and it spells a remarkable energy revolution.  Actually, renewables are now cost effective even without subsidies. In the video below Matthias Fripp, who I'm lucky to be working w
Read more