Greener Pastures (U of T Centre for Public Management Series) - Hardcover

Brubaker, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0772786216 ISBN 13: 9780772786210

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2007

Synopsis

As farms increase in size and become increasingly industrialized, the problem of agricultural pollution is gaining urgency across Canada. The response from most environmentalists and provincial governments is to push for more centralized regulation. In Greener Pastures, Elizabeth Brubaker exposes the detrimental effects of such regulatory changes, which tend to exacerbate, rather than curb, pollution.

For centuries, Brubaker explains, conflicts about farming were resolved by the parties directly involved, aided by common-law courts. The rule, 'use your own property so as not to harm another's,' fairly and effectively resolved disputes between farmers and their neighbours and curbed environmental damage. Beginning in the 1970s, however, concerns about restraints on agriculture's growth prompted governments to replace the common law with more permissive provincial statutes.

Greener Pastures chronicles the centralization of agricultural regulation and the resulting environmental harm. Brubaker focuses, specifically, on the right-to-farm laws (passed by every province in recent decades) that have freed farmers from common-law liability for the nuisances they create. She shows how these laws have made possible an unsustainable intensification of agriculture, and argues for a decentralized, rights-based decision-making regime. This thoroughly researched and impressively thought-out study challenges many common assumptions about environmental regulation, and proposes fresh answers to grave environmental and political questions.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'"Greener Pastures" will undoubtedly enliven and enrich the debate about the concentration of power over agricultural regulations, a difficult and divisive issue. Elizabeth Brubaker's study presents a point of view almost never seen in print. It provides thought-provoking material which ought to be required reading for legislators and others genuinely looking for appropriate solutions to some very complex problems. It is a very great pleasure to read.'-Valerie M'Garry, Valerie M'Garry Law Office

About the Author:

Elizabeth Brubaker is the executive director of Environment Probe.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0772786216
• ISBN 13: 9780772786210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152