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For more information about the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and about training and career opportunities, please contact:

Undergraduate:
ugarec@ag.arizona.edu
Phone: (520) 621-6244

Graduate:
garec@ag.arizona.edu
Phone: (520) 621-2421

Related Links:

@grass-roots.org

Group Action
Cooperating to Help the Environment

Depending on our environmental or business leanings, we are often quick to call for more government rules to regulate agriculture, or to deplore that very regulation. In Arizona, those with environmental interests want regulations to limit grazing, and especially grazing near streams. Ranchers, having long faced low calf prices and the hard and costly work of running a good operation, have little sympathy for more rules. This often combative scenario is repeated in other parts of the country, and for all manner of crop and livestock operations.

An alternative approach to resolving agro-environmental disputes is gaining ground. Grassroots groups of farmers and ranchers, sometimes joined by environmental interests, have formed to take action. Instead of farmers and ranchers responding individually to regulation or financial incentives, they are working together to reduce environmental risks. Ranchers in southern Arizona have formed a grassroots group to work collectively to preserve the natural beauty of valleys, woodlands, and riparian areas treasured by all who visit this pristine area.

Group action does not always work. Economists have shown that success depends on the expected benefits to individuals working in the group, as well as communication between group members. Other important factors include group size and heterogeneity, how the group is organized, how rules are enforced, and the start up and operating costs for the group.

Faculty Involvement
Harry Ayer has begun research on the economics of grassroots collective action to address agro-environmental problems.

Bonnie Colby has studied water issues throughout her career, including controversies over instream flow, and ways to better provide public goods associated especially with surface water.

Additional Readings
Ayer, H.W. "Grass Roots Collective Action: Agricultural Opportunities." Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 22(July 1997):1-11.

Olson, M. The Logic of Collective Action. Harvard Press, 1965.

Sandler, T. Collective Action, Theory and Application. University of Michigan Press, 1992.

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