Both case studies I examined come from the Colby database. The first is located here and concerns aquaculture. That is, it concerns the farming and fishing of salmon to create a long-run equilibrium between fishermen and ranchers supply of fish as it relates to the price of fish. The goal of farm-raising salmon is to create a population surplus that both fishermen and rancher may draw from with the end use of regulation of the price of fish. What I found ingenious is ranchers using the natural instinct of salmon to their advantage. The salmon that are farm-raised spend little of their lives in control of the rancher. They are released and then return to spawn, leaving the rancher with exponential salmon population growth and the possibility for surplus. This development and regulation of salmon population is an environmental and economic good.
The second case study can be found here and examines the actions taken by the state of California in response to the 1987-1992 California Drought. A ‘shortage’ of water in this case means less water per capita than average, so everyone still has access to it, but because there is less, the price of water goes up. The action of the state was to create emergency water institutions (reserves) and a committee that would prioritize water use in a drought. The environmental good in this revolves around an anthropocentric perspective, allowing for human water consumption to be top priority should the need arise. In the past three years (2012-2015) California has experienced a similar, even more dire drought, with most of their freshwater reserves, some of which were established in the case study, drying up gradually from year to year.
There are three main sources for freshwater for any geographic region: rainfall/snowmelt, surface water, and ground water. In Southern California (where I used to live) especially, the climate and geography differs from central Pennsylvania (where I currently live) in that the mountain range does not receive enough snowfall to provide a refresher to the water supply each year. In Central Pennsylvania there is little concern for the amount of water being enough to sustain both the environment and humanity within the region. Also, I tend to avoid eating fish far from the coast because I am unsure of the means by which the eatery acquired the fish and moreso if the condition of the fish farm that fish was raised in. Of course there are rivers in central PA that breed fish, but with aquacultured fish farms, the quality of fish would improve and lower the price in restaurants, I believe.
Hi Cody,
Thanks for your response to my post! Your post is well written, and you provided some good insight about cost of fisheries. It’s a delicate process when it comes to fisheries. I know in Juneau, Alaska, their main food supply is salmon from nearby fisheries. I like that you touched on the major drought situation in CA — they’ve engineered some interesting techniques to conserve water. Nice job!
Hopefully not your health? http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/09/farmed-salmon-dangers.aspx It seems that all farm raised fish are not what the “farm raised feedlot” profiteers of the industry would have you believe. Fish is not regulated by the FDA. Many of the farm raised species are also imported and with even less supervision and testing and straight to the consumer. This is in the name of profit not development. This practice should probably be further studied and determined to be what is seemingly is and the practice banned. When water becomes scarce and more costly yes the amount we pay goes up. It is both an issue resourcing innovatively as well as what companies and municipalities charge for wastewater processing about 3x the cost of the water itself. Is this fair development or more profiteering?
Brian
https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bAK
Hey, my name is Shelby and I am from Doylestown, PA! My entry was about how Ethiopia is on the verge of losing the food aid if nobody steps in to help. https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bz0
I think your post is very interesting considering both of your articles connect. I find it very cool how your second article relates exactly to your hometown. You give really good information based off of the article and how it relates to our readings! Fish and water are a top priority and we need to understand how to control our use of them.
Hi,
My name is Humna, and I wrote about a deforestation case study in Brazil and clean water supply case in Pakistan. Similar to Brazil, PA, my hometown, suffers from deforestation, but has plenty of water supply unlike Pakistan.
I was interested in your post because of the connection I found between yours and mine when you said that everyone had access to water but there was not enough supply. In Karachi, although everyone did not have fresh water from municipals, they could usually find private businesses to provide it, but the prices were much higher because there is a huge gap between the supply and demand of water in the country.