Builders: Do No Harm

By Howard Ernst | October 27, 2011 |

(Posted by Howard Ernst)

Before Henry David Thoreau borrowed an axe and withdrew to the woods at Walden Pond, he spent a great deal of time daydreaming of owning a proper farm. He writes that “at a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house.” Toward this end, he had “surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession.” He imaged how he would transform the land “into orchard, wood-lot, and pasture” and decided “what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door.”

It seems that no one, not even the sage of Walden Pond, can escape from the pull of home ownership. In many ways it is the American Dream—white picket fence, grassy lawn, dog rolling in autumn leaves, every home a castle and every homeowner the king or queen of their castle. Entire television programs—no entire television networks—are based on the premise of buying, building or rebuilding the perfecting home (e.g., “House Hunters,” “Property Virgins,” “Curb Appeal,” and my favorite, “Flipping Out”—who can resist Zoila?).

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The Anacostia River Plunge

By Howard Ernst | June 23, 2011

(Posted by Howard Ernst.)

For the last decade I have written, talked, and sometimes even done things to promote clean water in the Chesapeake Bay region and beyond. But one thing I have always refused to do was to participate in that unique Chesapeake Bay tradition known as “the wade-in.”

The practice was made popular by my good friend and trusted ally, former Maryland State Sen. Bernie Fowler, who has conducted his wade-in for more than two decades. As regular as the fish that return to the Bay each spring, on the second Sunday in June, Sen. Fowler and his followers return to the banks of the Patuxent to see how far they can walk in the water before their shoes become obscured by the thick flow of agricultural pollution, mud, and sewage that plague that troubled river. Politicians make speeches, friends are acknowledged for their hard work, and Bernie loses sight of his feet at about 30 inches (never much different than the year before).

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Pollution and the Chesapeake Bay

By Howard Ernst | June 15, 2011

Howard Ernst, political science professor, scholar and author of Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay, recently sat down with local photographer David Joyner to discuss chicken farms as major polluters, why Pennsylvania is such a political nightmare and what is really killing the Chesapeake Bay.

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“No Farms No Food”: No Regs?

By Howard Ernst | April 26, 2011 |

(Posted by Howard Ernst.)

The truck ahead of me had a constellation of conservative bumper stickers. The kind of stuff you would never see on a Prius. Most of them were familiar conservative messaging, the obligatory National Rifle Association sticker in the rear window, a slogan against taxation (even with representation), but there was one sticker in particular that glared at me from the vehicle’s rear end. It simply stated, “No Farms, No Food.”

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Regulating Agriculture: Taking the Profit Out of Pollution

By Howard Ernst | March 1, 2011 |

(Posted by Howard Ernst.)

Agricultural practices in the Bay region today remain grossly under-regulated, giving a tremendous economic advantage to those who pollute our waterways with environmentally irresponsible farming practices. Industrial agricultural production is the single biggest source of pollution to the Bay because the current rules (or lack of them) make this form of food production the most profitable. Sensible agricultural regulations level the playing field, take the profit out of pollution, and are absolutely essential to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

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