“What the new fertilizer technology has accomplished for the farmer is clear: more crop can be produced on less acreage than before. Since the cost of fertilizer, relative to the resultant gain in crop sales, is lower than that of any other economic input, and since the Land Bank pays the farmer for acreage not in crops, the new technology pays him well. The cost-in environmental degradation-is borne by his neighbors in town who find their water polluted. The new technology is an economic success-but only because it is an ecological failure.” WellsWaterPayTechnologyClearEconomicLandCostGainsTownsEnvironmentalNeighborAccomplishedFarmersRelativeCropsDegradationEcologicalNew TechnologyInputFertilizerEnvironmental DegradationEconomic Success Author:Barry Commoner
“The farmer and the farm, like "the environment," are looked upon, for example, as means to offset trade deficits. The farm is a place where we can externalize costs. The cost of pesticides to the farmer and the cost of the pesticides to the soil and groundwater are regarded similarly by the public: "a serious problem that something ought to be done about." But the problem is more fundamental than this glib statement would indicate, for soil pollution is an expense of production. So are pesticides and nitrates in our farm wells. So is the loss of farmers from the land.” WellsMeanDoneProblemLossEnvironmentLandExampleSeriousOughtCostFundamentalsTradeProductionsStatementsSoilExpensesFarmsFarmersPollutionDeficitPesticidesGroundwater Author:Wes Jackson
“To build enormous palaces, to conquer or to mimic nature, to ransack the world in order to gratify the passions of a man, is not thought of, but to add a few yards of land to your field, to plant an orchard, or enlarge a dwelling, to always be making life more comfortable and convenient, to avoid trouble, and to satisfy the smallest wants without effort and almost without cost. These are small objects, but the soul clings to them; it dwells upon them closely and day by day, till they at last shut out the rest of the world and sometimes intervene between itself and heaven.” MenWorldWantSoulSometimesLastsOrderPassionHeavenEffortTroubleLandFieldsObjectsCostComfortableAddPlantEnvironmentalEnormousConquerSustainabilitySmallestYardsPalacesConvenientDwellingOrchardSmall Objects Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
“Make in India! By this, we mean we want to give low cost manufacturing, ease of business, skilled manpower. India is a land of huge possibilities & scope.” WantGivingMeanLandPossibilityHugeCostLowsIndiaInnovationEaseScopeManufacturingManpowerMake In India Author:Narendra Modi
“Assuming that a tax increase is necessary, it is clearly preferable to impose the additional cost on land by increasing the land tax, rather than to increase the wage tax - the two alternatives open to the City (of Pittsburgh). It is the use and occupancy of property that creates the need for the municipal services that appear as the largest item in the budget - fire and police protection, waste removal, and public works. The average increase in tax bills of city residents will be about twice as great with wage tax increase than with a land tax increase.” NeedsTwoUseCitiesFireLandCostTaxesWasteIncreasePoliceBillsAssumingPropertyAverageProtectionAlternativesBudgetsItemsResidentsRemovalPittsburghTax IncreasesPolice Protection Author:Herbert Simon
“Extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different - and perhaps barren - outcome.” HumansHas BeensStillsDifferentWarPoliticalGoneLandCostIraqOutcomesOccupationRoutesHostileInvasionBarrenExtending Author:George H. W. Bush
“In the history of thought and culture the dark nights have perhaps in some ways cost mankind less grief than the false dawns, the prison houses in which hope persists less grief than the promised lands where hope expires.” WayNightCultureHouseDarkGriefLandMankindCostPrisonDawnPersistDark NightPromised Land Book:A Mania for Magnificence Source: A Mania for Magnificence
“The most interesting biofuel efforts avoid using land that's expensive and has high opportunity costs. They do this by getting onto other types of land, or taking advantage of byproducts that aren't used in the food chain today, or by intercropping.” TodayUsedOpportunityInterestingEffortLandTypeCostAdvantageChainsExpensiveMost InterestingTaking AdvantageFood ChainBiofuelsOpportunity Cost Author:Bill Gates
“People sometimes are under the impression that finding their property corners should cost as much as changing their oil or blowing out their sprinklers. What they don't realize is that land surveyors are required to stand behind their work for the rest of their lives.” PeopleShouldSometimesRealizingBehindsLandCostFindingsPropertyCornersOilImpressionSurveyorsLand Surveyor Author:Mark Mason
“In the forests of central India and in many, many rural areas, a huge battle is being waged. Millions of people are being driven off their lands by mining companies, by dams, by infrastructure companies, and a huge battle is being waged. These are not people who have been co-opted into consumer culture, into the western notions of civilisation and progress. They are fighting for their lands and their livelihoods, refusing to be looted so that someone somewhere far away may "progress" at their cost.” PeopleMayHas BeensCultureFightingCompanyMillionsProgressLandHugeBattleCostAreasIndiaWesternNotionDrivenForestsConsumersFar AwayInfrastructureCivilisationLivelihoodMiningDamsRural AreasConsumer Culture Author:Arundhati Roy
“A potato can grow quite easily on a very small plot of land. With molecular manufacturing, we'll be able to have distributed manufacturing, which will permit manufacturing at the site using technologies that are low-cost and easily available.” AbleGrowsTechnologyLandCostLowsAvailablePlotPermitSitePotatoesManufacturing Author:Ralph Merkle
“False riches, consisting of money, houses and lands, acquired by selfish means at cost to others and thereafter used selfishly, are almost always used for the oppression of other persons.” MeanPersonsUsedHouseLandCostRichesSelfishOppression Author:Joseph Franklin Rutherford