Woolly Mammoths: Libertarian Poster Boys

I've been thinking about science and public funding more, lately, thanks to an excellent article I stumbled on through a Catholic midwife's blog. The article, The unholy lust of scientists, chronicles the problems inherent with the public funding of science. It was a refreshing change from the constant calls for robbing tax payers in the name of science and progress. The truth was a breath of fresh air. Speaking of disturbing science, the NIH dudes are going to get together to scientifically justify rising cesarean rates and maternal cesarean on demand. Trust me, I'll have more to say on this in the near future.

But I digress. I really wanted to chat about woolly mammoths. As I have previously alluded to, the Nebraska winters make me a bit loony. During a particularly loony moment, I decided to pack up my three kids, including a baby and a toddler, and take an eight hour road trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota while my husband was away on business. Surprisingly, South Dakota is not thought of as a desirable winter destination , so most of the tourist attractions were closed. We did get to see Mount Rushmore and the world's largest mammoth research facility. Ah, finally the transition to the libertarian poster boys.

It seems that in 1974 an evil capitalist land developer was going forward with his nefarious plan to build houses for people and he stumbled upon some bones. After discovering that he was sitting on a paleontological treasure, shockingly, without any government coercion whatsoever, he turned around and sold the land, at cost, to a non-profit group who would go on to excavate and preserve the site. 26,000 years ago, a bunch of male Columbian and Woolly Mammoths fell into a sink hole and died. Being a maternalistic society, the mammoths didn't let their young females wander off and do stupid things, so apparently it was only the males who made the ultimate sacrifice for science. Hence, I can christen these mammoths as the Libertarian Poster Boys. The Mammoth Site is "the world's largest Columbian mammoth exhibit and research center for Pleistocene studies" and it is privately funded. It was really a phenomenally interesting place and the boys enjoyed themselves. My three year old most enjoyed seeing the size of the "mammoth poo" in relation to other animal dung. My oldest son, my budding scientist, has asked to go back in June for his birthday and participate in the "junior paleo dig".

One can value things such as scientific discovery, environmentalism, and helping the poor without wanting the government to do it. And these things can be done without the government. Yes, some free people will be greedy bastards, but most of us will go on to accomplish things, both great and small, for the betterment of our families and society. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, who sits atop Mount Rushmore, "Liberty... is the great parent of science and virtue; and... a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free."

Liberty and Midwifery

This entry will be short and sweet! Nebraska Friends of Midwives has just launched a new website. This was yet another project I drafted my talented husband for. Thank you honey!

While we're on the subject of midwifery, it is interesting to note that the Libertarian Party is the only major party to take a stand on home birth in their official party platform:

"We hold that individual rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis of sex. It is the right and obligation of the pregnant woman, not the state, to decide the desirability or appropriateness of prenatal testing, Caesarean births, fetal surgery, voluntary surrogacy arrangements and/or home births. "

(Section I, #20 of the National Platform of the Libertarian Party)

Ethanol Blows

When I get really frustrated with what I see going on around me I start thinking about running for office. Nah. It's not happening anytime in the near future. Not with three kids, a home and attempting to write something worth publishing. For sure I'll never be able to run for office after I write this blog entry. I live in Nebraska. For those of you not in Nebraska, do you know what we call ourselves? Cornhuskers.

When I say corn, what comes to mind? Summer time? Barbecues? Picnics? Well, lately in our fine state as well as in other midwestern states, if you say corn, ethanol is immediately what comes to mind. I never thought I would be interested in agricultural economics. But here I am, interested in it and attempting to write something about it. If your eyes just glazed over after I told you that this entry is going to be about agricultural economics, please just stick with me a few minutes longer. Especially you moms. We are suckers for preserving the earth for future generations and if you've seen any of the ethanol commercials appealing to our greener natures, you might be ready to buy into the ethanol myth. The only thing that ethanol is going to make greener is the wallets of corn farmers. Which is why, living in a state where corn is our biggest crop, I really outta keep my mouth shut. I sure hope there isn't a corn mafia.

I guess this is where I should admit that the title of my entry, "Ethanol Blows", isn't original. I thought it was when I was kicking this topic around in my mind, but then when I googled the phrase, I found an entry with the same title on another blog. (They say nobody has an original thought.) It was a short and sweet entry (unlike those of yours truly) letting us know that the jury is out on ethanol. You can find evidence that the net "energy balance" of ethanol is negative and you can find evidence that disputes that. I personally think the markets can work that question out. But the pandering politicians aren't going to let that happen. They have figured out that they can make big corporate donors happy AND some of the Earth Day crowd happy by subsidizing ethanol production. Subsidies have a tendency to change the supply and demand equation. Some people think that's a good thing, but most economists (other than the academic elitists) will tell you that free markets work out the best solution and will self correct without government meddling.

Last summer I thought it would be a fun and spontaneous adventure to take the boys and accompany my husband on a business trip to neighboring Iowa. I thought there might be some quirky, interesting little sights to see in rural Iowa. We didn't make hotel reservations because I couldn't fathom that the lodging would be full in a hole in the wall Iowa town. (I can say that because I'll never run for office in Iowa.) Well, sitting in a hotel lobby one night in the middle of the summer and receiving the news from my husband that the only room left in town was one with a broken air conditioner in a nasty old motel, was the moment in time I decided that spontaneity was over-rated. There was an ethanol convention in town and the rooms had been booked up for months. Who'd have thunk? That's when I became curious enough about ethanol to do a little research. I had driven five hours through nothing but cornfields only to arrive at a destination overrun by corn minions. This wasn't what I had in mind when I was thinking about quirky, interesting little sights. I was thinking more along the lines of seeing the largest tractor museum in the country or a covered bridge where Clint Eastwood kissed Meryl Streep in the Bridges of Madison County.

Another one of my interests that has led me to consider the impact of ethanol subsidies is sustainable agriculture. My family's eating habits have changed in the last year to emphasize fresh, locally grown produce, dairy products and meats. I like to buy as much of my food directly from farmers as possible. If I could get my butt in gear and plan properly I could probably bypass grocery stores all together. I have a network of farmers and a food co-op from whom I could conceivably buy everything we need. My husband calls them "my people". I have learned that growing the same crop year after year on the same land eventually depletes the land of the very elements that made the land so fertile in the first place. Massive fields of homogeneous crops require huge amounts of fertilizers and pesticides that run off into the streams and rivers and perhaps into neighboring farms that may be seeking to naturally or organically farm. One farmer I purchase milk from was telling me how hard it can be to get organic certification because of the impact of these neighboring farms. I think more people would like to buy fresh, local food. Unfortunately, there are politically introduced forces working against the natural market mechanisms that could make that possible for more people. Ethanol is a perfect example.

Another irony of the ethanol subsidies is that they are encouraging a practice that another government entity is paying people NOT to do. Our farming practices in Nebraska have destroyed animal habitats and native grasslands. So, the government has a program that is paying farmers to stop farming and to return the land to its native state through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. So, to summarize, in Nebraska and other agricultural states, farmers are being paid to both farm and not farm. Does that make sense to you?

I must admit that I rather enjoy the government wildlife refuges that I have found in Nebraska and Iowa. My oldest son is our little scientist and would like to become a marine biologist one day. (I haven't told him that the prospects in the field of marine biology are not very good in land locked Nebraska.) But I love sharing the wonder of nature with him. Many of these government protected and funded lands have provided educational and enjoyable afternoons for our family. I do have a heart for conservation and a love of natural beauty. As much as we have enjoyed our nature excursions, I still believe that if government would get out of the way, private markets would do a better job of conservation. The knee jerk reaction of most environmentalists is that if the government didn't step in, big business would destroy the planet. The fact that governments have historically been the biggest polluters is an entire subject for another blog entry.

If you continue reading my blog for long enough, you'll get a good sense of my love hate relationship with the Midwest. Either that or a sense of my manic depressive tendencies. There are some days when I think that if I have to look at another corn field I will truly go off the deep end. But it is that desperation that has caused me to look a little harder for the hidden beauty. Part of that hidden beauty can be found in the interesting history of this fertile land. Learning about cultures of native tribes from the past, seeing pictures of how this land must have once looked, and knowing that the pioneers from days gone by had the same longing for freedom that stirs in my heart (ratcheting up the melodrama now), makes me want to stick around here just a little bit longer.